Jean Bays, Chief People Officer at Neat, shares the importance of a positive candidate experience when building a positive and inclusive work environment. She also dives into the challenges of international work teams, the evolution of workplace dynamics, and the potential Neat’s video conferencing software provides for future teams.
Jean Bays, Chief People Officer at Neat, shares the importance of a positive candidate experience when building a positive and inclusive work environment. She also dives into the challenges of international work teams, the evolution of workplace dynamics, and the potential Neat’s video conferencing software provides for future teams.
Neat designs simple video devices to make virtual meetings feel more real for a better hybrid working and learning environment.
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00:23 - Quick hits
04:10 - About Neat
06:28 - Jean’s role
10:00 - Onboarding and retention
15:18 - Understanding your employees
25:15 - Respecting cultural differences
42:29 - Where to find Jean
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Find Claude on LinkedIn
More about Office Libations
[00:00:00] Claude: Hello and welcome to Office Libations Unwrapped. I'm your host, Claude Burns. And today I'm here with Gene Bays, the Chief People Officer at NEAT. Jean, welcome. Really excited for our conversation today.
[00:00:10] Jean: Thank you for having me. I'm really excited
[00:00:13] Claude: So if you're familiar with sort of how we start off these shows, we do sort of a segment of quick hits just to get to know you a little bit better and get us talking. So you ready?
[00:00:22] Jean: Yes, I'm ready.
[00:00:23] Claude: All right. Coffee or tea?
[00:00:25] Jean: Coffee.
[00:00:26] Claude: Do you have like a favorite brand of coffee?
[00:00:29] Jean: Well, you know, I'm German by nature and we have really good coffee. Much, much better than Starbucks, I have to say. But my favorite, favorite coffee is actually Turkish coffee. So, and as well, the way how they make it. So, it's a very special way how they make it, not with a machine. Can be over an open stove or in hot stand and I love the taste. It's a bit sweet. It needs a bit of sugar in normal coffee. I don't drink sugar. So yeah, Turkish coffee.
[00:00:59] Claude: That's a not super popular in the States, but I would highly recommend it if you've never had it. It is very good. What's your go to work snack or drink? What do you sort of eat or drink while you're at work?
[00:01:09] Jean: I'm a big fan of eating little nuts or little raisins or stuff like that. So that's giving a good, a good sugar kick, and it's not too hard to digest. And I'm a big fan of iced tea, but again, a little bit different than in the U. S. So iced tea for me means a little bit of peppermint and Raspberry tea and I let it cool down and then I drink it, during the day.
[00:01:39] Claude: You're retired. Money is no object. Where do you live?
[00:01:42] Jean: Venice, Italy.
[00:01:44] Claude: Great answer. what's your go to fun fact?
[00:01:48] Jean: My go to fun fact. Everyone who, and you can't see it at the moment and today I don't wear it, but my fun fact is I'm a big fan of quirky trousers. I'm traveling the world and I buy them everywhere. I have some really crazy trousers. I love them. It just makes me happy. So you will rarely see me in normal black trousers or jeans or stuff like that. So it's always a bit quirky. There's always something to it.
[00:02:17] Claude: That's awesome. What's, what's the last book that you've read?
[00:02:21] Jean: I read books in my mother tongue. I think a lot of bilingual people out there will understand what I mean, but English book, to make reference, that everyone knows, it's actually Boy George, his autobiography, it's called Karma. Very interesting book. I learned some new language in there, which I shared with my English colleagues, and they made me aware to not use this language, please.
[00:02:48] And I was very proud for all these new words. It's a very, very insightful book into pop culture. And I love his music. I love him. He's a London boy and love
[00:03:01] Claude: That's awesome. Okay. last one. What's your favorite historical figure can be dead or alive?
[00:03:09] Jean: That is actually Dr. Angela Merkel, which is our former chancellor in Germany, and I absolutely adore her leadership style, the way how she's approaching things, her superpower intelligence. She's a scientist by heart and we do really miss her. Yes. So she's my favorite hero. Forever.
[00:03:37] Claude: Definitely a lot of people in the EU would probably agree with that and, uh, definitely around the world.
[00:03:42] Jean: Yes. Mhm.
[00:03:43] Claude: let's get into it. Start off by telling us a little bit about your company.
[00:03:48] Jean: The company, is called Neat. Um, we are headquartered in Norway, in Oslo. And what we do is, video technology devices. So we are pretty much doing the most amazing hardware, that we can run Zoom meetings, Teams meetings, all sorts of, platforms, you can run on our devices.
[00:04:12] Unfortunately, at the moment, everyone who can see me, I'm not on a Neat device because we are just in the process to, to get this technology onto our devices. So, our company was founded just before the pandemic, by some of the most well known and finest engineers from Norway, um, who all came with a wealth of experience in video tech. Our engineers always say our products are embarrassingly simple.
[00:04:44] So that is our mission to make video technology, um, big or small. So it can be a device for your home office or for meeting rooms, for larger meeting rooms, making it so simple that you actually really unbox it and then plug it in and it's up in there and running for you to use. It's very exciting.
[00:05:08] We are, um, the new kids on the block, but we are giving the whole industry a good shake. So no IT departments need to be called into meeting rooms to start a meeting. That's in summary what we are doing.
[00:05:22] Claude: One of my roles in the Navy was to set up like video teleconferences, for ships in the middle of the ocean, which you can imagine did not go well, pretty much ever, regardless of how much testing we did. So it sounds like we may need to talk about how we get those things, uh, so where we can get video to work, uh, in other environments.
[00:05:41] I'm really excited to chat with you about NEAT because of, of people I've talked to, you seem to be like very passionate about what the company does. So can you talk a little bit about like why you joined the company and what your role entails at, at the company?
[00:05:54] Jean: Yes. So I'm the Chief People Officer in NEAT. Of course, that's including all HR related matters. I have a team of HR business partners, , international, so they are based in Oslo in the UK and in the, in the US. Um, and we, so I came on board three years ago. Where there was no people department existing.
[00:06:21] So we build up the whole function within the last three years. Before NEAT, I worked in medical device. And it was an international role as well, but this role gave me really the global scope. so my role before I was international for all countries outside of the U. S. But this role really gave me the global approach and as well, I joined the company because I saw, I saw the products. I got really excited. I love working with engineers. I have to say that no disrespect to my sales. People, I love you. I love working with, with engineers and see their passion and see how they create things.
[00:07:04] And yeah, when, when I interviewed for the, for the position, I was, I was hooked, immediately coming out of the pandemic. I mean, three years ago, when I interviewed, we were just on the edge of coming back. And for myself, I felt for about two years, the pain of not being included in a meeting room because I could not travel to back to the headquarter in San Francisco, to be part of the meetings, to be sitting in that room and, and contributing and feeling included.
[00:07:40] So I came pretty much out of two years of painful, painful meetings where I could not read the audience, I could not see facial expressions. I felt the first time in my role, I felt very much excluded, in a way as well, when, , we all know big meetings with, with the chief executive officer, which is a big thing.
[00:08:07] And it was for the first time in my career that I felt a bit intimidated as well, because I was on the other side. Seeing just little heads at the end of the room could not pick up the chitchats or not seeing what, what's the dynamic in the room. So I felt very passionate when I came to the headquarters in Oslo, they showed me technology during my interview process.
[00:08:34] And I was like, Oh my God, you can zoom into face. You did, that feels like sitting next to someone. That gave me the kick and, and, and I joined, that was a very long, long answer to your, to your question.
[00:08:51] Claude: No, it was perfect. So when you think about sort of your role, like, how do you think about going through the hiring, onboarding, retention sort of, uh, processes, uh, do you sort of guys have any sort of unique, uh, things that you'd like to share about how you're recruiting those engineers and maybe the sales people too.
[00:09:09] Jean: It all starts with my wonderful, um, head of recruitment, in especially for engineering, very tricky and difficult. Um, it's a very small industry, so everyone knows everyone. candidate experience is for us that's on, on the top, top priority.
[00:09:30] So we have, a very professional approach, how we approach, these interviews. We train our hiring managers in conducting meaningful interviews, getting, into these interviews. Prepared, and not just reading the CV two seconds before getting on the call. So the first, the first, step in, the first, um, candidate experience is extremely important.
[00:09:58] Followed by the onboarding, new hire classes, training up. These people, making them feel welcome. We all know that's not, that's not easy when people are remote. So that's, that is a challenge, in itself. Little things like respecting time zones, for example, not, not bringing in, new hires from Japan at 3 a. m. in the morning, for example, and that's the new hire class. This is where you have to attend. So being respectful for all the different cultures, Uh, being welcoming, having IT set up on, on the first day. I think that is a candidate experience, uh, itself. So yeah, I, I think, uh, doing this per excellence, the candidate experience and the onboarding, is actually already half, half of the bill we, we, we paid.
[00:10:57] Claude: So why do you think it's so important to provide kind of a great candidate experience? They don't even work for you yet, right? Why do you care if that experience is, is positive? Why invest resources in making that experience better?
[00:11:09] Jean: Because talent out there, is in some parts, rare. For example, an engineer or as well a salesperson who might not be right at this moment in time for us or for the position could be right in two years or could be right even in one year. So we want to talk to this person again.
[00:11:33] I'm a strong believer in, How people feel when they, when they walk away. I mean, that, that is even when the application or the whole process was not successful for this candidate, I want this person to go out and say, need is, oh my goodness, the products are amazing. The company is amazing.
[00:11:54] I mean, this is tapping right from candidate experience into like brand. How they feel about our, our products and they will tell friends and families and they will tell someone else. And I mean, this is as well a great marketing tool to leave every candidate with the best experience that they are going out there and being the future ambassador for your, for your company.
[00:12:23] I've learned that very early in my career where I worked, um, for consultancy, uh, group, and I'm not naming the brand here, but, there was a hiring manager who forgot that there's a candidate in the lobby. and that was like 7 PM in the evening and then the doors got locked. So this candidate was locked in a reception area, and we as the consultancy, we had to pick it up and, and have needed to have a conversation with this person.
[00:12:58] And it was, I can say that much, it was a drinks company. And he said, I will never, never have in my whole life, a drink from this company again. I mean, that shows in studies, he will tell this, this horrible story, at least 10 people, and they go out and tell another five people, and so on, so on. So it's extremely important, to leave everyone with a first class experience.
[00:13:29] Claude: For leaders that are coming into a new role, you know, maybe sometimes it's not always on the best of situations, right? Something didn't go right in the, in the previous sort of VP of people role, or they're building that function up and haven't invested the way that you guys are at NEAT and that employee experience and that, you know, candidate experience.
[00:13:48] What advice do you have for leaders on how to approach kind of that new role and, understand how the employees feel.
[00:13:55] Jean: I know there can be, I don't know, surveys out there and finding out everything that's broken and all of that. I'm a big believer in, first of all, finding out what is good, actually. So for me, it's a very simple approach coming into a business. Walk the shop floor and ask people, why are you here today? Why are you working here? So, to build up actually on something that is already there, existing, positive, motivates people. Building up on this with this really simple question. Why are you here? Why are you working here? Instead of already coming in, uh, everything's broken, give me a survey, tell me what do we need to change and stuff like that.
[00:14:47] Concentrate much more on what we need to keep in the, in the organization and the culture. And from there on building this, this relationship, a trustful relationship, then you will find out Much easier. Where are, where is room for improvement? So I truly believe that. Walk the shop floor. I know it's very old approach and, but we can do this as well over video.
[00:15:17] Walking the shop floor and talking to many, many people. Please don't go to your meeting room, close the door and try to solve everything with an employee survey. No, it's not going to work.
[00:15:30] Claude: I love this, this sort of approach of yours. Very simple, right? It's one question. It's also approaching the company from kind of a, a growth mindset or an asset based lens instead of like a deficit based lens where it's like, clearly we have people working here, the company is running, something must be going right.
[00:15:46] Let's identify that and like lean into our strengths. Do you have kind of any examples that people could kind of think about in terms of what may they hear from different people on the floor, like your past experience at different companies?
[00:15:59] Jean: You hear different answers and don't, don't get frustrated when, when you hear from people, I'm here for the money. That's fine. I mean, we all have to put food on the table. The fact, when you walk the shop floor, the fact that they showed up, that's, that's actually, something that will show you something when you have, I don't know, a floor where you, where you see, several people, but, I think what people really underestimate and forget in some ways, it's, it's definitely the fact that a lot of people will tell you, I have great, I have great relationships at work.
[00:16:38] I have great colleagues. So they lift me up. We support each other. We can learn from each other in all of that. And that is as well, something, So we all had to learn how to deal with, in a pandemic, where you don't have this, human interaction, um, every day, where you can come together in an office.
[00:17:02] And these days, talking about that, I think it needs a good, a good mixture to give people the opportunity to come together in an office, and work with people they really like. It's a big element, the people they, they work with. And this is what I hear, actually most of the time.
[00:17:22] So why, why are you here? I love the people. I have good work friends. We have a great culture. We need to really cherish and, and, and build even more in, in our way of working. So, I'm not saying this is all, this all needs to be face to face. You can have, for example, I give people when they tell me, Oh, I feel a bit lonely in my home office and we don't have an office and all of that.
[00:17:51] My best advice is always like call, call every morning. If you feel down, call your colleague you like the most and just have a little chat over, over coffee that can be on the phone or on video or stuff like that. Give them just a quick call. Like you would just pass by their, their desk actually.
[00:18:11] Claude: I think that's a really good point that a lot of people, you know, the reason they like their jobs or they go to work is because of the people they work with, the people that are next to them, like working on the same problems or different problems. They just, like them and during the pandemic you kind of lost all those connections or they were kind of re rewired towards more remote video.
[00:18:30] And so you kind of saw a lot of disgruntledness around work, right? A lot more focus on, you know, how much is. The compensation, and people leaving jobs and bouncing around, and I think that's something that people are still trying to figure out. Companies are still trying to figure out, like, what's the right balance of, you know, remote, hybrid, in office work, because not everybody's the same.
[00:18:53] What, how do you guys think about kind of, Crafting like those employee experiences for, for those kind of three different subgroups, your remote teams, your people that are in sometimes a week, people who are in like every day. I imagine some of your engineers, just because of the nature of the work kind of have to be there every day and, and touching the hardware, where you may have salespeople that are fully remote in Japan or other places that don't get those same experiences.
[00:19:16] Really curious to hear your thoughts on how do you, how do you kind of craft That experience for them as a company that cares about their employees.
[00:19:23] Jean: Actually even our engineers do not have to come in every day. But guess what? They love to come in every day. So, if we would now, put in place any model to say, because of space or stuff like that, you're only allowed to come in two days or three days or stuff like that, they would be like, no, no, no, that's not working for me.
[00:19:46] So people who are fully remote, of course, there are company events. There are conferences where they have this human, interaction as well with their, with their colleagues, but we do, and I think, um, many, many companies do out there, we do. A lot more of, so called all hands, uh, event days over video, um, to get everyone in, um, give them updates on, on what we are working on, as well on our strategy, next steps for the company.
[00:20:21] So to really keep them, um, engaged in, video calls. As well. of course they're traveling and we have events, and all of that. Now the other group is, is a bit more tricky and, I can share as well. That's a very fresh experience for us as well. We just opened new office, in California in San Jose, um, and we encourage people who are living in a certain radius of this office, really to come in and have this experience. So we encourage people, we are a video tech company. Normally we could do everything in our home office, but how great is it to see our tech running from an office as well? So not all of our technology could be built into a home office. Yeah, you could, but then you would live in buckingham Palace. So you need really big,
[00:21:22] Claude: That doesn't sound bad.
[00:21:24] Jean: It doesn't sound,
[00:21:24] Claude: Think it's, I think it's taken. I don't think you're going to get the
[00:21:27] Jean: Yeah. But really to encourage them to, to feel the technology as well in an office. Giving them this experience and, and encourage them really, so hey guys, make your way to the office at least once per week, and have these face to face meetings.
[00:21:48] Keep your heads down work for, for your, for your home office. Use it in a very, uh, useful way of having face to face meetings, going out for a nice lunch with your team, be together, actually. So, this is how we do it, but, um, For again, so our Oslo office, they love to come in. I mean, that's that there's no question at all.
[00:22:15] So there we have no, um, no hurdles to overcome and for our California office, yes, we are learning now as well, how this will work out. So maybe in half a year, I can tell you more how it turned out.
[00:22:31] Claude: I think that kind of brings us to something that I want to chat with you about. You've worked internationally for most of your career, at least internationally compared to the U S where we're based. Typically, you know, you think, 15, 20 years ago, like international, it's like enterprise companies, right?
[00:22:44] They're the people that are everywhere. But today, like even small businesses have teams that are located around the globe. What do you think leaders need to think about when sort of crafting employee experiences for people who, you know, may not be US based or may not be based in, a particular country and, how do we do a better job of meeting their cultural differences, time zones, like all of those things to make work better for them?
[00:23:08] Jean: So first of all, again, is, is, listen to, to your people and to the different needs of people. I give you a good example. So, especially when we talk about offices, hybrid work, remote work, and all of that. So there are studies, and I know it from our own teams out there as well. For example, in the likes of Hong Kong, Singapore, I don't know, Bangalore, even Japan. These people, when they are home office based or when, when they were pushed in their home offices because of the pandemic, that was really a big stress factor on most of them because the way how people live in Singapore, Hong Kong or whatever in Asia, space is limited. It's a normal family where both parents are working and you have to, you You have the kids around.
[00:24:08] Most of these families are much, much closer than we are in, in the US or even, even in the UK, so there could be more generations under one
[00:24:19] Claude: Mm hmm.
[00:24:21] Jean: Space for yourself to do your work. That's very, very cramped and difficult. So there, the ask in these countries to open up the offices, to give office space to these people, it was, it was kind of an outcry, actually, that people could actually come back to an office.
[00:24:44] That was an eye opener for, for, for me as well. So before the pandemic, I would never have thought about that. I always tell that my people and international as well, because it's very easy always to blame, the US people to say, oh, you are disrespectful of the time zone.
[00:25:03] No, it's a two way game. Okay, so we have to work together. I always tell my international people, hey, block your calendars. Block your calendars, show that you are, and there's even a feature I think on Microsoft, where, where this can be automatically set as unavailable. So it's not only always about, I remember early in my career when I worked with an American company, I was in a conference call at 11 p. m. in the night, and. Then the person asked me, Hey, how are you doing, Jean? And I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm okay. It was a long day. I'm a bit tired. And this person was like, Oh, why? What's the time? And I was like, well, it's 11 p. m. And this person didn't even realize, but not in a, not in a bad or disrespectful way.
[00:25:56] It was stupid of me. To even accept the invite, you know what I mean?I think being culturally aware of the different communication styles. Oh yeah, one pro tip I can give to everyone who is going international, for most English speaking people, UK, Australia, US, speak slow.
[00:26:21] So for international people in some, in, in meeting environments, sometimes it's very hard to pick up different accents or different slangs or anything like that. And that can silence people. So you can have on your calls, amazing talent from around the globe who will not say a beep because. They are intimidated.
[00:26:47] They only get half of the sentences you said, and it's not because their English is not good, it's because it's the speed of speaking sometimes is so, so fast, that people check out or not check out, but they, they will be silenced in that moment.
[00:27:06] Claude: That really makes sense. And I think anyone who's tried to, you know, learn a second language or a third language, when you're learning it, or even if you're pretty confident in it, when someone's, Speaking, you know, jargon and especially business, we use love, we love acronyms. We love, you know, technical speak.
[00:27:23] Right. And a lot of times that doesn't translate. That's not what you learn in kind of a classroom environment. So if you're speaking really quickly and using a lot of jargon, it can sound, you know, like a foreign language. So that's a great, great tip that I think is very actionable and sort of international meetings and something that should be pretty easy to implement.
[00:27:42] I think some cultures are very direct, some are very indirect. How do you make sure that they're kind of aligned on what the actual sort of goal or outcome would be?
[00:27:51] Jean: That is a very good question. I think there is only one magic source that after meetings where you agreed on certain things, on certain actions or stuff like that, really to summarize it and get agreement again in a, I don't know, via slack or via email or stuff like that. So that's my understanding.
[00:28:17] Would everyone agree? On this or stuff like that to be really, crystal clear because you are, you are correct. There are some nations or some cultures. The Dutch, the Germans, where you would get feedback straight away back, pretty much. But there are some cultures who need to digest, who have, a much more, not soft approach, but a different approach.
[00:28:43] So they might need as well a little bit of time to digest and then would like to come back with their thoughts again. So to be aligned, I would always recommend summarize. Meetings, get agreements, from everyone who was in the same room.
[00:29:00] Claude: Let's switch gears a little bit and kind of go back to sort of employee experience. How do you think like the workplace has changed over the, over your career in terms of companies caring about and providing different things to, to make employees, you know, happier at work?
[00:29:15] Jean: Well, my first job was at the headquarter of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. Where there was, was this something provided? No, there was beers on Fridays was provided. So, but that was back in 1997. So there were no laptops, there were no tech, it was really the way of, you had to be there at latest 8am in the morning.
[00:29:39] So very strict lunch breaks, and all of that. So everything that, that happened on a, um, on a level of working with your colleagues and all of that, that was after hours or, or even, um, on the weekends. I think what changed dramatically, over the last years, and I'm talking to you as well as a working mom.
[00:30:01] So I had, I had children, while I was working a full time job. The awareness of, because we always use this word to work life balance. So what, what is that even? So, I mean, for me, work life balance, some people say you have to shut down everything, not looking at your emails and not seeing anything that would drive me completely bonkers.
[00:30:27] So I would be more stressed out than checking in from time to time. So.
[00:30:34] Claude: Feel that, yep.
[00:30:35] Jean: Yeah, so I think what, what really changed is that employers realize and, uh, respect, that there is life outside of work and sometimes employers. You have to juggle one into the other and vice versa. That's amazing.
[00:30:57] That's, that's absolutely fantastic. Um, what happened over the last years? I mean, of course, over the, over the last, how, how many years are we in this now? Four years? Since the pandemic, I mean, that, that gave, Another huge shift, and in my eyes, this is the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution.
[00:31:19] Because now we can combine even other things. So all the social constructs, um, so you, you, you are more able to, that you're not in the tube here in London for two hours per day, you might be able to do voluntary work before work or after work, you might be able even to care, um, for a family member, because you can bake this in your, in your workday. The shift of how, um, how we see that, or you are only working when I see you at your desk, in front of your keyboard and all of that. No, it's, it's not like that. For me, the flexibility and the approach of creating Get your, get your work done, much more.
[00:32:14] I know in some jobs, that's absolutely, that's not an option. Um, but I think in, in office jobs or office based, um, jobs, it's an option to, Now, really talk about not work life balance, but, um, having a life, making a life, making money, but have a family life as well, volunteer, support other people, um, that is the biggest shift.
[00:32:45] And I tell you what, there, there are many, there were many negatives four years ago and all of that, but this is such a wonderful thing. It's, it's, it's really, it's wonderful. A wonderful thing. I think.
[00:32:57] Claude: Now I'm going to ask you to peer into your crystal ball and kind of tell us the future. What do you think, like the future of work kind of looks like, you know, from a, from an HRVP, you know, of people perspective, like what are the things that you think are going to be, you know, maybe being tried out now that, You know, in 20 years are going to be the way business is done.
[00:33:19] So first of all, I don't know. I'm not, I want to live in Venice. That's, that's a dream, but I'm not a big
[00:33:26] Claude: You're like, that's not my problem.
[00:33:28] Jean: yeah, what I would love to see, from a technology point of view. That you are truly, truly able to work from wherever you want, without interruptions, with good Wi Fi, wherever you would like, to be.
[00:33:51] And, and that's a big wish for me, as well. This will do, I think so good for the world as such. I mean, just think about the communities and all of that. Think about so many people, um, uh, out of their home countries or, um, 12 hours away from their families, from their communities. Just, uh, I mean, just crazy dreaming.
[00:34:20] Just think about all these wonderful students we have here in the UK or in Europe, or you have them in the U S and Canada, these students from, from countries, where the economy is, is not, um, booming to its fullest. Just think about all these people go. back and are able to work there, they pay their taxes in this country, they buy the products in this country, but still contributing to an international company who's based in Oslo or in New York or whatever.
[00:34:58] That would change the whole dynamic, that would, that would tackle poverty, that would tackle so, so many things. I mean, If I, yeah, can I make a wish with a crystal ball? So maybe I can put this as a, as a wish that this is the outcome of all of this.
[00:35:18] Claude: Yeah. I mean, I think when you are able to put a bunch of smart people in the same place and kind of limit, reduce the friction, right, of them working together, anything's kind of possible. Um, and I think there's been enough things in a recent history where you can kind of see, like, that's impossible to do.
[00:35:36] And all of a sudden, five, 10 years later. It's possible. Um, so I don't think you're far off.
[00:35:42] Jean like you kind of mentioned like this vision of working from anywhere, but I think there's some people that are, that are kind of tired of working from anywhere. They want to work from like one different stop, one, one particular spot. They don't want like the Zooms and the Google Hangouts and, and all the different video tech, you know, what do you say to those people?
[00:36:01] Jean: I think this is where the, the, the, the good mixture comes in, that we have people who either want to come to an office, so giving this opportunity, always staying open, listen to your people. So what are their needs? So what is their, is their preferred way, um, to work? But I think the tiredness as well, So that can be tackled as well with the right technology.
[00:36:30] So what, what you are experiencing on the receiving end, when you are working from anywhere, or when you are working in your home office, it's not only, About, um, then having a big luggage with all the tech you have to, uh, carry away, in order to be present in meetings, to, have a good presence in meetings.
[00:36:53] So, I think with the right technology and office buildings, where it's all starting, I would say. Giving this experience, I mean, when you, when you have technology, you have, for example, 15 people in a big boardroom and they're sitting all around a table and you, on your receiver end, you, you switch on your device, you have a very natural voice.
[00:37:18] So the voice technology is very, very natural. And you look at your screen and you look literally these 15 people in the eye. This is not so tiring then anymore. We all know that. So then it becomes already interesting. Another, another little one, but I think we all forgot how we all started with video tech and all of that.
[00:37:42] So even four years ago, it was still, you are on a video call. And when you would say, Claude, you would say, uh huh, it would cut me off. It will cut me off completely. So I will be like, one, two, until, so, okay, I start my sentence again. That doesn't feel very, um, yeah, that feels not good. I mean, that feels, very unnatural.
[00:38:07] So you are not being in that meeting, not being part. With the new technology, it's like, that can be absolutely a thing. You can say, aha, but without cutting me off. So even that makes this experience for people who are very tired of all these video meetings and all of that, it makes it all More natural and, and that's the trick, um, what I would tell these people.
[00:38:36] So first, yes, always, not always, but where it's possible, have an opportunity or an option for people to come in, meet their colleagues, give them a desk, let them work in an office. But for people who want to work from anywhere, um, give them the best experience and the best technology, to fight the tiredness, the loneliness, um, or was there, yeah, there was a word where they said Zoom fatigue. That was a word, wasn't it? Um, so fighting all of this with the right technology, I think. That's exciting. And that's already on the way. There is some amazing features out there.
[00:39:21] Claude: that's awesome. Well, Jean, I want to thank you so much for taking your time out of your day to chat with us. Um, if people want to, want to connect with you, what's the, what's the best way for them to get in touch?
[00:39:33] Jean: Best way is LinkedIn. It's just Jean Bays. yes, I promise to come back or if, if I can be of any help or, or if you want to chat or share knowledge or stuff like that, I'm here and I'm looking forward to hear from, from people.
[00:39:49] Claude: Again, thank you so much and looking forward to seeing neat products out in the, in the market and, uh, getting a little bit better, uh, video, video call technology out there. Um, so congrats and, uh, really looking forward to, to your guys continued success.
[00:40:05] Jean: Thank you.
[00:40:06] Claude: Thank you for joining us today on Office Libations Unwrapped. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast for future episodes filled with inspiration, ideas, and strategies to optimize your workplace culture. And remember, happy employees make happy customers. Until next time, I'm your host, Claude Burns.