About This EpisodeÂ
This episode of The Future of Work® Podcast brings together three leading voices shaping distributed work and global workforce strategy. Nadia Vatalidis, Head of People at Doist, shares how organizations can scale remote-first teams across dozens of countries while maintaining strong culture and operational efficiency. Tony Jamous, founder of Oyster, expands the conversation to the global economy, explaining how distributed hiring can unlock talent at scale and increase economic opportunity worldwide. Sophie Wade, workforce innovator and founder of Flexcel Network, grounds the discussion in the practical reality of work design, emphasizing the need to rethink workflows to effectively integrate AI.Â
Together, their insights provide a forward-looking perspective on how organizations can compete globally, design better systems of work, and connect talent, technology, and opportunity across borders.Â
About Nadia VatalidisÂ
Nadia Vatalidis is a senior human resources executive and Head of People at Doist, where she leads people strategy for a fully distributed team across 35+ countries. With experience scaling organizations like GitLab and Remote.com from dozens to thousands of employees, she specializes in remote-first organizational design, global hiring, and building strong distributed cultures.Â
About Tony JamousÂ
Tony Jamous is the founder of Oyster, a global employment platform designed to remove barriers to distributed hiring. Former CEO of Nexmo (now Vonage), he launched Oyster to help companies hire talent anywhere and expand access to global work opportunities.Â
About Sophie WadeÂ
Sophie Wade is a workforce innovator, futurist, and founder of Flexcel Network. She advises leaders on adapting to distributed work and technological change, with a focus on human-centric leadership and integrating AI into modern work environments.Â
What You’ll LearnÂ
- Why companies can hire globally for even the most senior roles Â
- How distributed hiring creates long-term strategic cost advantages Â
- The role of social platforms in attracting global talent Â
- How distributed work impacts the global economy and talent access Â
- Why emerging markets are key to solving talent shortages Â
- The connection between distributed work and economic growth Â
- How AI is increasing demand for global knowledge workers Â
- Why organizations must redesign workflows before adopting AIÂ Â
- How to break down knowledge work into structured tasks Â
- What it takes to build scalable, human-centered distributed teams Â
Transcript
Host AI
[ 00:00:00,670 ]Welcome to the Future of Work podcast, where we explore what’s next in work, workplace, and the human experience. I’m Nova. Your AI host. Today, you’re listening to a Future of Work Expert Insights, a special format where we bring together the most thought-provoking insights from our top guests around a single topic shaping the future of work.
Host AI
[ 00:00:23,370 ] This episode of the Future of Work podcast explores one of the most transformative forces shaping the modern workforce, the global distribution of talent.
Host AI
[ 00:00:34,490 ] From borderless hiring strategies to human-centered leadership and AI-enabled workflows, today’s conversation brings together three leaders who are redefining how organizations build, scale, and empower teams across geographies.
Host AI
[ 00:00:49,740 ] Together, they reveal how distributed work is not just a flexibility strategy. It’s a structural shift impacting economics, leadership, and the very design of work itself. Let’s begin.
Host AI
[ 00:01:02,330 ] As companies compete globally for talent, some are rethinking not just who they hire, but where they hire from entirely.
Host AI
[ 00:01:10,550 ] Nadia Vatoulidis is head of people at Doist, where she leads global people strategy for a fully distributed team spanning 35 plus countries. She has scaled remote-first organizations like GitLab and Remote. com from dozens to thousands of employees. Specializing in global hiring, distributed culture, and organizational design.
Host AI
[ 00:01:31,440 ] What’s one misconception companies have about hiring globally? Especially for senior or critical roles.
Nadia Vatalidis
[ 00:01:37,990 ] Strategically, I have the unpopular opinion that you could still hire someone anywhere in the world, even for your CFO function.
Nadia Vatalidis
[ 00:01:47,030 ] Experience this firsthand at companies like Remote. com. There’s now more than 2,000 people in nearly 100 countries, right? And places like GitLab, which didn’t ever select the location in the beginning. So when they started out, it was like. This position is remote first. We don’t care where you’re based. And I think that is a strategic decision. I think that comes down to: If you’re competing against the local market, you can pay very competitively, right? Um, even in all these other locations, without having to pay someone potentially a San Francisco, California, New York, or even London-based salary. And so it does give you that strategic opportunity to think about long-term as you scale the company. What is your average cost per employee going to be? And if you start hiring everyone in one location, that’s going to be your benchmark, right? That’s going to be your strategic cost that you will struggle to change.
Nadia Vatalidis
[ 00:02:48,100 ] If you only hire in one location. So I think that yeah. I if I have to imagine a company that’s not currently remote first and that just wants to start. So imagine a company that does have a few people in the same region or has a bunch of offices, but really want to explore this external. Remote first space. I think I think the friction to start is actually a lot lower than what people imagine, right? So one. when you make that role available before you’ve even. You know, thought about how you’re going to hire this person. The attraction is going to be gigantic. I think, if a company just believes they can just put a position on their careers page and hope for the best, I think nothing’s going to happen. They are going to get— two percent or less than what they even expect to get. And I think having a network, having um, a company LinkedIn profile or people at the company that can advocate for the role, whether that is a talent acquisition or recruiter, right, or whether that’s one of the leadership team members that has a relatively large following or building a following, right—
Nadia Vatalidis
[ 00:04:00,630 ] absolutely vital to get that out there on places like LinkedIn. We even advertise positions on places like Instagram, YouTube, wherever we have the opportunity.
Nadia Vatalidis
[ 00:04:11,850 ] I think one of the tips that’s actually served me very well is to create a Loom video or any video, any recording about the job. Get the hiring manager to create a recording about this job for two minutes. About why anyone should be interested and post that with the job on social media, whether that is LinkedIn, Instagram, wherever your socials, X, wherever your socials live, right? The attraction is just going to be so much larger than just leaving it on some careers page and hope for the best. And those tools are evolving, right? They’re also changing at the moment.
Host AI
[ 00:04:48,660 ] Nadia shows us that global hiring isn’t just possible. It’s a strategic advantage when done intentionally. Up next, we zoom out to the global impact of this shift.
Host AI
[ 00:04:59,700 ] As talent becomes more mobile, some leaders are asking a bigger question. What happens when the entire world becomes one labor market?
Host AI
[ 00:05:08,200 ] Our next guest is Tony Jameis, founder of Oyster. A global employment platform enabling companies to hire talent anywhere in the world. A former tech CEO, he focuses on breaking down barriers to distributed work and expanding access to economic opportunity on a global scale.
Host AI
[ 00:05:26,190 ] How does distributed work change the global economy when companies stop hiring within geographic limits?
Tony Jamous
[ 00:05:33,680 ] However, there’s something underneath AI. That is quietly happening.
Tony Jamous
[ 00:05:38,860 ] That is really important for humans on this planet and the planet itself, which is distribution of workers on the planet.
Tony Jamous
[ 00:05:48,140 ] And. That was unlocked by remote work, by the pandemic when the organization realized that they don’t have to hire people only in a 2020 miles radius from where they have offices. He argues in his book Open Borders that if you remove the concept of borders from talent mobility, you can triple the world GDP. So today we see a lot in the news. All the various ways we are trying to create economical growth utilizing over utilizing planet resources, but actually the solution is right there. It’s about distributing work on the planet and giving people, especially in emerging economies, the opportunity to grow their professional career, to grow their economical output.
Tony Jamous
[ 00:06:39,480 ] And um, that is the biggest underlying trend. That I see happening in the last few years and it’s a very good news for the planet and for the people.
Tony Jamous
[ 00:06:50,180 ] According to BCG, there’s over 100 million knowledge worker jobs in the West. That are going unfulfilled increasingly AI is creating even a bigger talent shortage in these high talent jobs in the West. And that has a huge impact on the growth of businesses that are located in the West. So just by fulfilling that gap— and going elsewhere to find that gap, specifically in emerging economies, where there is one billion knowledge workers coming into the workforce in the next 10 years— you’re going to have a massive economical contribution to Western world economies. So with this technology, you have the opportunity to elevate human talents in emerging economies to participate in the global economy and that’s what’s going to lead to the massive growth. I’m talking about. We’re going to have more goods, cheaper goods, available for humans on the planet and therefore, our needs will have to evolve as well into higher, higher-level needs, right?
Tony Jamous
[ 00:07:56,240 ] That’s what actually needs to happen. Like the other alternative, which is to continue on this infinite utilization of natural resources, degradation of our environment, and degradation of our health, is not going to be sustainable in the long term. This assumption that we need to have infinite growth is not something that is natural. It’s something we created. It’s actually an illusion. Today, when you go look at how indigenous populations are living, they don’t even know what capitalism is. And they’re living in harmony and connection with their natural environment. And they have much less mental health issues. They are happier. So, is the goal of humanity is to produce stuff and continue to grow the GDP, or the purpose of humanity is to be happy and healthy, and positive relationship with your environment?
Tony Jamous
[ 00:08:51,690 ] We are making planet Earth one employment market.
Host AI
[ 00:08:54,390 ] Tony expands the conversation beyond companies, showing how distributed work can reshape economies. Up next, we turn to how organizations can redesign work itself.
Host AI
[ 00:09:05,260 ] As technology accelerates, the challenge isn’t just adopting AI; it’s redesigning work itself to make it effective.
Host AI
[ 00:09:13,380 ] Sophie Wade is a workforce innovator and founder of FlexCell Network. She advises leaders on how to adapt to distributed work and technological change. She specializes in human-centric leadership and future of work strategies with a focus on integrating AI and evolving workforce expectations.
Host AI
[ 00:09:33,270 ] What needs to change in how we design work before AI can truly improve productivity?
Sophie Wade
[ 00:09:38,500 ] The key thing that we need in order to be able to utilize AI effectively for efficiencies or better effectiveness is we need to design work. So, knowledge work in particular has been vague. It has been evolving for years. What we need to do is understand what the different tasks are that we’re doing, and then we can slot AI in. Without that, it is very- difficult to be effective and sort of say, well, I’m going to augment what I’m doing in these specific ways because this is my workflow.
Sophie Wade
[ 00:10:16,560 ] And or because I can use this or that, I will change the workflow, I will change the process so that I can do X, Y, Z more. And so these are some of the steps we must take in order to be able to utilize AI effectively.
Host AI
[ 00:10:35,250 ] As today’s conversation revealed, distributed work isn’t just about hiring remotely. It’s about redesigning the entire system of work. Nadia showed how global hiring creates strategic advantage, Tony expanded that vision to a global economic scale, and Sophie grounded it in the practical need to redesign workflows for an AI-driven world. The future of work isn’t defined by location. It’s defined by how effectively we connect talent, technology, and opportunity across borders.
Host AI
[ 00:11:06,140 ] Thanks for listening to this Expert Insights episode of the Future of Work podcast. If you found it insightful, share it with a colleague, leave us a review, or check out our show notes for links to each guest’s full interview. Until next time, keep asking not just where we work, but how we work better together.
