Becoming a parent is tough as well as it’s wonderful. It’s life-changing in so many ways, and maybe when it comes to your job too. In the past, you might have been the last person leaving your desk at the end of the workday, or the one going on business trips for several days during the month.  

Now, you have the responsibility of a child, and you might need a bit more flexibility to take care of your job and your child, at the same time. But is your workplace ready to give you this opportunity? And why is it even important to give working parents better opportunities to create the just right work-life balance?

Guest: Majken Juel Heskjær, Chief People Developer at Clever

Sound Clips: 
TEDx Talks

Stress can be caused by different factors, and your job is one of them. For quite some time, we have been talking about a global stress epidemic, and in 2020, statistics said that 43 % of employees increasingly felt pressure from stress.   

But what can you do to prevent yourself from burning out? And is it even your responsibility to make sure that stress is not part of your daily routine at your workplace? 

Guest: Dr. Cary Cherniss, Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University

Sound Clips: 
UHD NHS 

The metaverse seems futuristic and the opportunities even more dreamy. Maybe - we will be able to handle even more tasks with our very own AI-twin and work from a sunny island, but without getting the sand into our keyboards.  

But – is the metaverse for all kinds of employees? Do we need huge equipment to enter the metaverse? And isn’t there a potential risk of us getting lonelier, when we don’t get that special in-person touch – and, instead, just sit day-in and day out in front of our screens without any other inputs from the world around us?  

Guest: Karina Rothoff Brix, Country Manager at Firi, The Nordic region’s largest cryptocurrency exchange

Sound Clips: 
TEDx Talks

Globally, 80 % feel unengaged at work according to Gallup. And, if the leaders just lean back and do business, as usual, it’s quite probable that their unengaged employees will look around for new opportunities, where their leader actually takes their wellbeing seriously. So, what can leaders do to take better care of their employees? And what does it take to become the best leader possible in the future?  

Guest: Bruce Avolio, Professor of Management at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington

Sound Clips: 
How I met your mother (2005-2014) 
Horrible bosses (2011) 
Mad Men (2007-2015) 

Happiness. What comes to mind? Your family, your friends? Sunkissed memories from your last holiday with sand between your toes? Or what about your job?  

These days, elevating the employee wellbeing is on top of the agendas for most workplaces. This might be caused by the time we had to reflect during the pandemic about what truly made us happy in life and at work. And now we, the employees, crack the typical structures of what happiness at work truly means.  

So, how can we make sure that everyone is happy at work, and how does the happiest employees in the world look like?    

Guest: Liselotte Jensen, CEO at Great Place to Work, Denmark

Sound Clips:
Alex Iconn (YouTube) 

Tedx Talks (YouTube) 

The 4 Day Work Week is trending as never before. Now, it’s not only something that cool start-up companies take on, but larger corporations are also starting to look into this interesting way of framing our work. And what’s not to like? You get the same pay for working less. BUT – the thing is, you still have the same workload as before. This means, that if you don’t structure your way of working even better, time becomes an issue and it might end up stressing you out during your workday, while you snap at your insisting co-workers – who just like you – also need to get their tasks done in the timeframe of a 4 day work week.  

So, how can you ensure that the 4 day work week will become a success – both for you as an employee and your company too?   

Guest: Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, Speaker, Author, and Founder of Strategy and Rest - a consultancy devoted to helping companies and individuals harness the power of rest to shorten our workdays while staying focused and productive. 

Sound Clips: 
TedX & CBS News

Do you remember how you earned new skills before the pandemic? Maybe, you took out several days in your calendar to get new inputs in a course room, and met with other people from outside the usual office space? The two-year pandemic made this almost impossible, and the learnings we’ve got from learning new skills digitally will, now, definitely be something that we can fit into our new reality of work.  

However, the hybrid workplace is moving in on us, and more and more people work remotely part-time or all of the time, so how can we be sure that everyone gets the same opportunities to learn something new? Will this be the end of in-person training completely? And then, how can we be sure to incorporate the social aspect of learning with each other during our workdays?  

Guests: 
Christian Haahr Sigsgaard, Global Learning and Development Director at Valtech
Ann-Katrine Schepler Holmberg, VP of Customer Adoption at Learningbank

Sound Clips: 
Classroom Resource Queen 

Studies show that more women than men have asked for more flexibility to work remotely post-Covid-19. And if their managers are not fully up to speed to handle employees working remote, then the women working remote will easily be forgotten, if they are not as visible in the office spaces. They miss out on the reflections after the meeting at the coffee machine and the casual small talk at the working desks, and because of that, they can potentially also miss out on promotions and new career opportunities, that will be granted to the visible co-worker in the office instead.  

So, what can women and other people who want to work more remotely do to make themselves more visible? And is it even their responsibility, or rather their manager’s, to make sure that everyone gets the same opportunities – regardless of whether they are working in the office or at the remote home office?   

In this episode of WORK 3.0 our guests, Liam Martin & Emelie Fågelstedt, will discuss what the future workplace will look like to embrace all kinds of employees and whether the hybrid workplace is actually a good idea if we won't create new gender gaps. 

Guests: Liam Martin, founder of Time Doctor.com and Staff.com, and co-author of the book: Running Remote, and Emelie Fågelstedt, Digital Communications Specialist and Co-founder of Swedish Nomads. 

We used to think that our careers only went one way: Up. Up. And up again. Until we finally reached the top. But with a new focus on happiness at work and what is essential for our wellbeing, then we might not want to do this step up that often comes with more responsibility and more tasks to handle. Maybe we are content where we are if we just get rewarded with new challenging tasks? Or maybe there is another twisted path that works better for us than the usual one-way street only going up.

In this episode, Katrine Schelbli and Morten Esmer talk about what the modern career path looks like today and give great tips on what it could look like in the future. 

GUESTS: Morten Esmer, Head of Learning & Development at Dagrofa & Katrine Schelbli, COO at Learningbank

Sound clips from: 
TedX 
Simon Sinek (YouTube)

Working 9 to 5. So, the song goes. Or does it? New movements don’t want to live to work anymore, while others simply are getting tired of poor culture and stress at the workplaces. Someone also speaks about covid clarity and wants to do more meaningful work. Put in other words: The great resignation is upon us.  

But what can companies and organizations actually do to keep us, the employees, and prevent us from pursuing other, maybe even more rewarding possibilities?  

In this episode, Ben Zweig, CEO at Revelio Labs & Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern School of Business, goes into detail about attrition rates the last year across industries and shares his insights on why employees are leaving and how to keep them instead.

GUEST: Ben Zweig, CEO at Revelio Labs & Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern School of Business
Host: Sidsel Kaae Nørgaard

Sound Clips from: 
PBS NewsHour 
JahkaylaAYE
The Financial Diet 
23 ABC News 
News on 6/KOTV

Studies show that more than half of office workers post COVID-19 want to have 1-2 days working remotely. And this is, even though some of our good, old office space, once again has welcomed us with open arms. Obviously, the flexibility of working from home has taken a special place in our hearts, but how can we ensure that we keep performing instead of slacking? And what does the amazing hybrid workplace, actually, look like?   

In this episode, Jim Harter, Chief Scientist of Workplace Management and Wellbeing at Gallup, shares the latest research on the hybrid workplace and gives his best tips on what to do to create the best hybrid workplace - and what NOT to do. 

GUEST: Jim Harter, Chief Scientist of Workplace Management and Wellbeing at Gallup
HOST: Sidsel Kaae Nørgaard
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Green, flourishing, growing trees. Clean, bright air. Bicycles, electric cars, and windmills. Recycled plastic bottles and plant-based food. You MIGHT get where we are going, right? Sustainability is popping into almost every aspect of our daily lives. The way we transport ourselves, the way we eat and buy products, but what about the way we work? The sustainable workplace is trending. But what is it, really? Is it about getting upcycled office chairs and desks? Going more digital? Ditching the meat patty in the cafeteria? Or is it about increasing employee engagement to create a more sustainable workday and well-being? But is buying new lightning bulbs just another way for companies to greenwash and call themselves and their products sustainable? And can we, the employees, really benefit mentally from being at a more sustainable workplace?  

GUESTS: Majken Juel Danstrup, Chief People Developer at Clever & Christina Lyse Laursen, People Systems Owner at Clever 
HOST: Sidsel Kaae Nørgaard
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Sound clips from: Rainbow Plant Life (YouTube), pyrrhichos (YouTube)

Work can be tough, and work can be great, but work can also get dull and uninspiring if you never get the chance to experience and learn something new. At the same time, we see an everchanging world, where robots and automation replace human tasks and jobs completely. This screams for an upskilling revolution for us, the employees, and also reskilling some of us who need to move into another function. But how can we make time to learn in our over-booked calendars? And can the HR & L&D department even give us the learning we need to elevate ourselves and the companies we work at? 

In this episode, we also talk about the recently published Nordic Learning Trends 21/22. Download the full report right here: https://www.learningbank.io/nordic-learning-trends-2022 

GUESTS: Lisbeth Elholm Andersen, Strategic Learning Lead at Novo Nordisk & Katrine Schelbli, COO at Learningbank 
HOST: Sidsel Kaae Nørgaard
Powered by Learningbank 

Sound Clips from: CNN Business 

The time is up for the suited, grey-haired, white men. Clustering together in the board room, grinning at each other, while you instantly picture their sweaty lips sucking on a fat smoky cigar. Or ... is their time truly over? And does it have to be if we just include more diverse people on the board?  

For the last 60 years, our workplaces have undergone a tremendous transformation. And today, women, people of color, and the LGBT+ community have entered powerful positions in companies and organizations all over the world. But … still many from these groups fought harder to get to these positions because some work cultures still dictate norms from the 1950s. We saw with the global #MeToo-movement, that women will not accept and tolerate sexual harassment in the workplace anymore. But this movement has only just begun and has met major pushback from people saying: Why are you such a party-pooper? And why can’t we just go back to the way things used to be? Furthermore, racism and intolerance to minorities are hard to kill completely due to, for example, cultural biases and prejudices. So, are people truly stepping up to create more inclusive workplaces? And does the perfect workplace exist that can embrace each and every trait that makes us unique individuals?     

GUESTS: Helene Aagaard, CEO at Diversity Factor & Louise Hove Tang-Jensen, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at LEO Pharma      
Host: Sidsel Kaae Nørgaard 
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Sound Clips from: 
Mad Men (2007-2015)
TEDx Talks
CBS News: The National