Turning Remote Work into A Long-term Competitive Advantage - a podcast by Craig West

CEO of boutique productivity consultancy Building 20, Dr Luke Hurst joins this week’s instalment. Building 20 delivers custom training and culture change services, working with teams to accomplish difficult tasks faster and amplifying their attention. Luke initially got into productivity working on his PhD. He found that by gamifying the process using the Pomodoro Technique, his progress accelerated dramatically. This was the origin for Building 20, with Luke identifying a need for training dedicated to productivity in the workspace, particularly with SMEs.

In May, Building 20 surveyed 423 Australian office workers on how they adjusted to working remotely during the pandemic, as well as how the COVID-19 experience altered preferences and expectations about remote work going forward. Luke advocates that getting the hybrid model right between working at the office and working from home can be a real competitive advantage. This allows businesses to improve employee value proposition, as employees want an environment which is supportive of working not only time wise, but also location wise.

Luke identifies his career path as a random walk. He holds a PhD in Economics, was previously Director at strategy consulting firm Nous Group, and a Research Fellow at both Melbourne University and The Australian National University. He has published widely in leading business and academic publications, including the Australian Financial Review, Nikkei Asian Review and SMH/The Age. Building 20’s study on the effectiveness of working from home is available here.