Heroes of Modern Work by Skedda

I sat down with Kevin Smeltz, founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions. He’s a seasoned leader management consultant with an extensive career that spans leadership roles at HP, Wipro Technologies, Interdynamix, and PwC.

Kevin is very passionate about helping companies frustrated with the challenges of hybrid work and the modern workplace, including trying to balance the need for a healthy culture with a workforce that increasing...

Welcome to a groundbreaking episode of Heroes of Hybrid Work! Today, we embark on something that no one has done before. What once seemed like science fiction is here. In this exclusive AI Insider episode, I’m thrilled to welcome Ameca—the world’s most advanced humanoid robot.

Currently living at The National Robotarium in Edinburgh and crafted by Engineered Arts as a bridge between humans and technology, Ameca embodies the next fro...

I’m excited to kick off season 3 with Lorri Rowlandson, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at BGIS, to discuss the impact of AI on facilities management in hybrid work environments. In addition to being a strategic and operational real estate executive with global experience delivering integrated real estate services, Lorri is an authority on generative AI across all facets of real estate delivery. In this episode:

I sat down with Irene Thomas-Johnson, former Global Account Executive at JLL, where she was responsible for helping her clients with the development of staffing models, identifying detailed savings and improvements plans, technology solutions, service delivery processes, tools, financial analysis, and more. She is also Chair of the IFMA Foundation Board of Trustees. In this episode:

• Effective data collection: making sense of it...

I’m very excited to welcome George Alvarado, Director of Service Delivery Training for Maintenance and Janitorial at C&W Services. C&W Services is an integrated facility services provider that helps clients drive down facility operating costs, increase efficiency, make strategic decisions, and create a positive occupant experience. 

Alvarado previously served in the US Air Force for over 20 years in roles such as Maintenance...

I’m very excited to welcome Andre Jones, Corporate Real Estate Portfolio and Facilities Leader at Capital One. From Clark Construction to Lumen Technologies and now Capital One, Jones has a proven track record of overseeing millions of square footage across hundreds of buildings to create great workplace experiences for thousands of employees. He was recently named to Skedda’s Top 20 Facilities Leaders Shaping Hybrid Work in 2024. ...

Christa Dodoo, Chief of Facilities and Infrastructure at United Nations World Food Programme, joins Jenny Moebius in our latest Heroes of Hybrid Work episode to share how the role of facilities leaders has evolved post-pandemic.

From emphasizing building operations to prioritizing employee experience, Dodoo shares what facilities leaders need to focus on today in the modern workplace, including:

—Incorporating home and office comfort...

In episode 18, I’m very excited to welcome Bernie Mehl, CEO and Co-founder of Kisi, a technology company offering security as a service using a combination of sensors and mobile devices to manage facilities. Bernie is out to revolutionize the field of access control through the power of Internet of Things (IoT). In this episode:

• Leveraging access control data for granular occupancy insights

• Common RTO mistakes companies make ab...

 I’m very excited to welcome Sarah Barillaro, Chief People Officer at 3Play Media, a Boston-based company that provides closed captioning, transcription, localization, and more. Barillaro was previously the SVP of People at Brightcove and the U.S. Learning Partner for HR at John Hancock. She is passionate about “building something that attracts the right people for the right reasons and empowers them to learn, grow, and thrive,” an...

In episode 16, I’m very excited to welcome Tiffany Mosher Taylor—recently recognized on the Top 50 Women Leaders of Massachusetts for 2024! Tiffany is a people resources executive and the current Head of People at Canoe Intelligence, a company redefining the future of alternative investments with cloud-based machine learning technology. Tiffany shares lessons learned from her more than 25 years of experience in HR leadership, inclu...

In episode 15, I am joined by Elizabeth Knox, Founder of MatchPace, an organizational effectiveness consulting firm that helps leaders adopt hybrid work. She shared her valuable insights on the importance of leadership in navigating change in hybrid work environments, and:

• Hybrid as a vehicle for the conversation about healthy/sustainable workplaces

• Why hybrid work is like money

• Navigating conversations with mutuality to build ...

In episode 14, I'm very excited to welcome Katie Finlayson, Head of Workplace Strategy at MillerKnoll, a collective of dynamic furniture brands representing over a 100 years of design research, which they leverage to reshape the experience of work and to design a more sustainable world that improves people's lives.

Katie is passionate about helping customers solve problems to create an amazing experience for employees while meeting ...

Kaleem Clarkson, COO of Blend Me, has been featured in Harvard Business Review, named to LinkedIn’s top ten voices on remote work, a 2023 top remote work influencer by remote.com, and many more. He's passionate about work life integration and maximizing the remote employee experience, which is why he's joining us as a hero of hybrid work today.

Clarkson shares how orgs can build connected cultures in hybrid settings, including:

• ...

I’m excited to welcome Phil Kirschner to episode 12 of The Heroes of Hybrid Work. Phil Kirschner is Senior Expert and Associate Partner of Real Estate & People and Organizational Performance at McKinsey & Company, where he advises executive teams on the future of work, employee experience, organizational health, and post-pandemic workplace strategies. His passion for this area of research and consulting is evident through h...

In this episode, I sat down with Jose Maria Barrero, applied economist, co-founder of WFH Research, and assistant professor of finance at ITAM Business School. In May 2022, he and his WFH Research co-founder Nick Bloom realized there was no timely data on working from home. They knew they could get good information off the ground very quickly and started running a survey of a few thousand individuals in the U.S. Since July 2020, th...

We "kick off season 2 with our guest Christina Luconi, Chief People Officer at cybersecurity firm Rapid7. The Boston Globe calls her "a fixture on the Boston startup scene with two decades of experience advising CEOs, sitting on boards, and influencing the people side of corporate culture." For the past 13 years, Christina has been responsible for the entire employee life cycle of Rapid7 with a key focus on recruiting stellar talen...

Tara Vasdani, the legal mastermind behind Remote Law Canada, unravels the intricate legal web surrounding hybrid work. In this episode, we dissect:

• Top legal considerations for remote work dynamics.
• Building a solid foundation: The imperative of hybrid work policies.
• Litigation trends: The surge of constructive dismissal claims in the digital age.
• Decoding designations: Differentiating between independent contractors and employ...

Maja Paleka, the visionary behind Juggle Strategies, blends engineering prowess with hybrid work insights. In this episode, we delve into:

• Design meets hybrid: Leveraging engineering principles for workplace solutions.
• Tailored decisions: How a global insurance giant championed team-level hybrid choices.
• Onsite essentials: The underestimated value of unstructured time.
• The hybrid trifecta: Clarity, autonomy, and accountability ...