Transforming Work with Sophie Wade 133: Henrik Jarleskog - From Building-Centric to People-Centric: Ongoing Workplace Evolution
Henrik Jarleskog, Head of Future of Work at Sodexo, shares his multinational perspective transforming workplace strategies, services, and experiences to enhance employee and business performance. Henrik explains the shift from building-centric to human-centric approaches. He describes facilitating implementation of wide-ranging future workplace strategies and systems, adapting for changing business, workforce, and cultural needs, for Sodexo’s more than 400,000 employees worldwide. Henrik recognizes the critical flexible, social, and strategic imperatives of modern, distributed work, and models essential experimentation with AI promoting adoption and integration.
TAKEAWAYS
[02:12] Henrik studies mechanical engineering for its creativity, design, and business focus.
[03:29] The benefits of creativity in business for transformation and solving complex challenges.
[04:00] Henrik’s early career focuses on data-driven decisions and performance improvement.
[05:26] 20 years ago, workplace strategies were building-centric.
[06:11] The integrated facilities management trend resulted in more strategic higher-level deals.
[08:04] Workplace solutions and experiences are tailored for cultural and regulatory differences.
[09:44] Outsourced facilities management contracts taught leadership and management running significant P&Ls.
[11:58] Henrik gains great experience becoming a consultant to learn the skillset and tool box.
[12:50] Vested partnerships focus on buying outcomes instead of transactions from a supplier.
[13:42] The collaborative benefits of a relational contract which is transparent.
[14:45] A Nordic airline achieves a vested transformation throughout the supply chain.
[17:00] Transformation requires vision clarity and aligned incentives, communication, and actions.
[18:12] In transparent strategic partnerships, agree critical business metrics together.
[20:45] Henrik works with Sodexo, then his new family encourages him to take their job offer.
[22:17] How management consulting roles involve substantial solutions selling.
[23:20] Henrik works hybrid, while holding three roles, transforming the Nordic businesses.
[24:29] When the pandemic strikes, Henrik builds a fully digital region of 16 countries.
[26:00] Providing sustainable food solutions with broader services as workplace experiences to corporations.
[28:05] Sodexo recognizes the pandemic’s disruption, choosing to emerge as a thought leader.
[30:22] In employee surveys, preferences showed a huge shift in people’s expectations.
[31:10] How Activity Based Working changed workplace dynamics in Europe 20 years ago.
[33:56] New work norms and generational preferences such as flexibility and choice.
[35:45] Henrik supports companies spanning models ranging full-time in office to fully flexible.
[36:35] Providing knowledge and data for Future of Work and workplace systems and strategies.
[38:15] Clients need ‘magnetic offices’ supporting recruitment with great office-based experiences.
[39:31] Considering manufacturing site working experiences and the effect of monitoring.
[41:20] Building relationships and connection with social hubs to support collaboration.
[42:46] Two major structural changes: doing more with less and distributed work is here to stay.
[45:45] How do Fortune 500 companies’ hybrid/flexible models affect their performance?
[46:55] Nostalgia rather than data mostly drive five-days-a-week RTO mandates.
[47:35] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: To move your company forward effectively. One, your honor, people-centric, flexible journey. So ask your teams what's working for us and not. Two, ensure your work model aligns with the corporate mission. Three, design flexible, fantastic workplace experiences. Four, ensure everything is as sustainable as possible.
[50:13] How Henrik views AI, experimentation and AI Agents.
[54:10] Being a leading role model in using AI.
[52:10] The future of work requires empathy and human-centric focus.
RESOURCES
QUOTES
“Distributed work is here to stay… it’s not being hybrid, it's distributed work. And that trend is so strong that everything else about two or three days a week, being flexible or not is just a big distraction compared to that.”
“Zero of these Fortune 500 companies in the U.S. are full time in office. If you look at the same in Europe for the top 10, they are 100% hybrid…Is there a correlation between how flexible you are as an operating model and your business performance? This is becoming more and more focused on now over the last quarter.”
“I haven't still met one company who has decided to bring their people back to the office five days a week that transparently can show me the data that is building that decision. Mostly, these type of decisions are based on nostalgia and not data.”
“Leaders of this world are in different degrees ready for leading hybrid, for leading remote, or in different versions of whatever it can be, because this is a difficult thing. But data indicates that we are on a flexible journey.”
“If you look at the performance of the best and largest companies of this world…they have a people centric approach. They are asking their teams, their organizations, “What is working for us? How do you think we should be formalizing our next generation operating model?”