Welcome back to the Teammate Apart podcast. Todays special guest is Kaleem Clarkson. Kaleem is a husband, father, remote work advocate, people operations professional, and speaker. He is the Chief Operating Officer of Blend Me, Inc a remote employee experience consultancy that helps startups and small businesses onboard, engage and retain their remote teams. Further, he is the founder of Remotely One, a members-only community for remote work professionals which is fighting to end remote work isolation by connecting with other location-independent professionals.

With more than 20 years of people ops and event planning experience, Kaleem has become a well-known personality in the remote work space. In addition to his routine appearances on the pages of well-known publications — from Harvard Business Review to Forbes — his various podcast interviews, and keynotes, he hosts a popular weekly program, Remote Work Wednesdays, on the new Clubhouse App featuring some of the best and brightest in remote work discussing a topic of the day.

Here to chat about the importance of trust and how to foster it on remote teams, how to build meaningful and sustainable relationships when working virtually, and how to use both of those things to build a diverse and inclusive company culture, please join me in welcoming to the show, our guest, Kaleem Clarkson.

Kaleem Clarkson
#RemoteWork Advocate | Fractional #PeopleOperations | Speaker | #EmployeeExperience Professional | #FractionalHR Leadership | #Drupal Evangelist | #HR
https://www.blendmeinc.com/
https://www.remotelyone.com/
linkedin.com/in/kaleemclarkson

Resources:
Slack Community:
https://www.remotelyone.com/

04:30 - Intros and background 
08:40 - The “rush” back to work
11:32 - Workers want to be remote!
14:00 - Should employers force teams back to the office
17:20 - Is my organization (or am I as a leader) able to work remote?
18:27 - Building trust and empathy as a remote leader 
21:25 - Chris Dyer’s “Tsunami” meetings
26:20 - Other side of the coin, what if I don’t want to go remote? 
30:00 - Respecting what workers have been through
36:30 - Talk to your teams and understand their needs
43:30 - Paying for merit, not location
47:30 - Installing a culture of empathy now – it’s not too late!
51:00 - Active listening, take feedback, get to work!
55:00 - Setting intentions (Shots!)
1:00:30 - Where to find Kaleem online

About Kaleem Clarkson
Kaleem is a husband, father, remote work advocate, people operations professional, and speaker. He is the Chief Operating Officer of Blend Me, Inc a remote employee experience consultancy that helps startups and small businesses onboard, engage and retain their remote teams.

With nearly 20 years of strategic operations and event planning experience, he helps leadership implement people operations solutions that increase productivity and engagement for both internal and external stakeholders.

Kaleem was born and raised in Bangor, Maine, the home of Stephen King. He graduated from Worcester State University and was recently featured in Harvard Business Review and named one of the top 15 Remote Work Advocates and Leaders by All American Speakers Bureau.

Kaleem currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia with his family. When he is not working, you can find him mountain biking on the trails of Georgia with his headphones, blasting a little hard rock music.

About Blend Me, Inc.
Founded in 2013, Blend Me, Inc. helps startups and small businesses improve the remote employee experience through projects or fractional HR leadership. By taking a collaborative approach they assist clients with the remote employee life-cycle which represents the journey each remote employee takes while being a member of your organization.

SERVICES:

• Strategic Operations and Process Improvement
• Onboarding Strategy and Design
• Inclusion and Diversity
• Employee Research and Engagement
• Internal Marketing and Communications

TAKE OUR FREE REMOTE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE ASSESSMENT:

• Do you want to know how your organization's remote employee experience is going?
• By taking our Free TREE Assessment you will get a score sent directly to your inbox
• Visit www.blendmeinc.com and get your score today .

===
👉See our Website: https://www.teammateapart.com

🎙 Teammate Apart Podcast: https://www.teammateapart.com/podcast
✍️ Teammate Apart Articles: https://www.teammateapart.com/articles

—
Visit our website:
https://www.teammateapart.com

—
Host– Ryan Roghaar
Theme Music – “I Don’t O U” by OPM https://opmden.com/
Wardrobe – Nike & The Dudes (https://dudes-factory.com/)