When the pandemic started, everyone had to work from home. This resulted in major changes for both employers and employees, and “you’re on mute” has become one of the most used phrases in Norwegian workplaces.
What happens now that we’re going back to the office? Should everyone go back? How do we achieve collaboration and innovation? How do you build culture? And what is the rest of the world doing that we can learn from?
SINTEF researchers, together with Norwegian and international companies, have looked into this and are now sharing their experiences and findings from the research. On Tuesday, February 15, SINTEF, in collaboration with Storebrand, held a digital theme day on the hybrid work life, and you can watch the recording here:
About the speakers
Nils Brede Moe is a chief researcher at SINTEF Digital and researches virtual work, home offices, process improvement, autonomous teams, and global system development. He works closely with many global companies in the energy, telecom, transport, and finance industries. In addition, Moe works with several consulting firms, software houses, and the public sector in Norway. He also has a research position at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden.
Jarle Hildrum is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of People Analytics at Telenor Research. He has a PhD in innovation studies from the University of Oslo and works with statistics and machine learning on HR and customer data. Jarle has 10 years of research experience from the University of Oslo and Stanford, and has worked as a research leader at Telenor.
Caroline Horn is the organizational director at SpareBank 1 Utvikling, and her main task is to build a good, strong, and modern organization in a company that operates at the intersection of technology and finance. Caroline has a degree in business administration from Handelshögskolan vid Göteborgs Universitet and has many years of experience from both the finance and grocery industries.
Per Kristian Helland has a degree in data engineering from NTNU who found out that people are more interesting than bits & bytes. He has worked as a consultant, controller, HR partner, change manager, and line manager. What is common for all roles is that he has always hunted for better and less bureaucratic ways of doing things.
Anders Haugeto, Master of Technology / Software Engineering NTNU. Founder of Iterate, a venture builder that helps tomorrow’s innovators all the way from idea to success. Works with technology and organization and helps innovators, startups, and large companies that have ambitions to make big changes.
Darja Smite is a professor at Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, Sweden. She has extensive experience in research on distributed development, related to a wide range of topics such as team, agile development in a global context, and interdisciplinary topics such as return on investment in software development.
Thor Thorsrud Sporsem is a researcher at SINTEF Digital and has a master’s degree in project management from NTNU. He researches data-driven digital transformation and hybrid work forms.
Anastasiia Tkalich is a researcher at SINTEF Digital and has a master’s degree in work and organizational psychology. She researches internal startups, digital transformation, and psychological safety.
Rasmus Ulfsnes is a researcher on agile organizations and digital transformation at SINTEF Digital. He has previously worked both technically and strategically within technology and has deep and practical knowledge of infrastructure, application development, and cloud providers. He has had Enterprise Architect and CISO roles in both the private and public sectors.
Thomas Malt is CTO and Principal Engineer at Knowit Objectnet. He has extensive experience as a developer, Tech-Lead, solution architect, enterprise architect, agile coach, and advisor. He has previously worked as a technology and development manager at NRK Medieutvikling and as a technology director and chief architect for the learning platform Fronter.
Jørgen Hesselberg is the author of ‘Unlocking Agility’ and co-founder of ‘Comparative Agility’, a platform for assessment and continuous improvement. He has led agile transformation in companies such as Nokia, HERE, McAfee, and Intel. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, an MBA from Iowa State University, and a master’s degree in information technology from Northwestern University. He has completed a continuing education program in finance and disruptive innovation at Harvard Business School.
Tove Selnes is an experienced HR leader and lawyer who has worked with management and HR in the tech and finance industries. Selnes has held management positions at Opera Software, Eltel, and Avinor, before joining Storebrand as HR director in 2015. She has extensive board experience and is currently chairman of HR Norway.
Torbjørn Røe Isaksen is a former Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party with several ministerial posts behind him, most recently as Minister of Labor and Social Affairs from 2020 to 2021 in Solberg’s government. He has in-depth knowledge of the issues as a minister when the pandemic hit Norway and the labor market. He was responsible for the home office regulation that was sent out for consultation in the spring of 2021. He now joins E24 as a new social editor and commentator.
Beate Karlsen has a degree in organizational psychology and a doctorate in technology, innovation, and culture. She has 15 years of consulting experience and seven years of management experience from various roles at AFF. She has researched and taught at the university level.
Her core competence is designing and implementing leadership development programs in complex organizations. Beate primarily works with top-level leadership development in addition to integrated organizational and leadership development. She is a sought-after speaker and is currently Director of Development at AFF. Those who collaborate with Beate appreciate her high level of expertise and her listening and trust-building style. She is a skilled facilitator who challenges while maintaining the integrity of the individual.
Lene Eltvik Vindfeld has a degree in business administration from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) with additional education in equality, as well as organization and management from the University of Agder. She has been head of organization, leadership, and culture at Sbanken since October 2020. She came from the role of director at PwC with a specific responsibility for the consulting firm’s business in the People & Organization area. Before this, she worked for several years at Schibsted Norge and Bergens Tidende.
Ingrid Norrvall Vegdahl is relatively new to Telenor and has a master’s degree from the Norwegian School of Economics.
Truls Wickholm is a trained power line installer. He was employed by Viken Energinett/Hafslund from 1999 to 2005. He was a professional-political leader in the Oslo Labor Party from 2003 to 2013 and a member of AUF’s central board from 2002 to 2006. From 2005-2017, he met regularly at the Storting for Oslo. Wickholm has been a member of the Transport Committee, the Education Committee, and the Finance Committee in the Storting. In the finance committee, he was the tax policy spokesperson for the Labor Party. Wickholm became State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor and Inclusion on October 14, 2021.
Aksel Faanes Persson has worked at NRK for 11 years as a duty officer and journalist. Among other things, in nationwide programs on NRK P1 such as Norgesglasset and Brønsj. He is now a communications advisor at SINTEF and program leader for the technology podcast Smart forklart.
Viktoria Stray is an associate professor of software engineering (University of Oslo) and a researcher at SINTEF. She has a degree in computer engineering (NTNU and University of California, Santa Barbara) and a PhD in software engineering (University of Oslo and University of New South Wales). She has several years of industry experience as an IT consultant at Accenture. Viktoria researches agile teams and effective meetings.
Geir K. Hanssen is a research director at SINTEF Digital. He has a PhD in software engineering from NTNU with a special focus on software ecosystems. He has researched agile software development in collaboration with several Norwegian companies. He is the author of the book SafeScrum - Agile development of safety-critical software.
