Whether remote, hybrid, or in the office (or some combination), we are getting the job done. Our series, The Way We Work Now, explores how innovative technologies and human ingenuity are making all types of work creative, collaborative, and meaningful.
We visited the home office of Benelux MD Koen Van Beneden in Putte, Belgium, which has both old world and modern touches with a sustainable twist: He takes calls from the garden of his 18th-century farmhouse and commutes several days a week in an electric vehicle to HP offices in Diegem, Belgium, and Amstelveen, Netherlands.
The Garage spoke to him about how he manages his team across three countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and Netherlands) and navigates his varied workday.
The Benelux team is distributed across three countries. How does hybrid work play into that?
Hybrid is key to making this Benelux setup work. In the past, it wouldn’t have been possible. I try to be with the employees one or two days per week in the Netherlands, one or two days in Belgium, and I try to visit some customers and partners. If I have time left over, I work at home.
With all that travel, how do you build sustainability into your hybrid work schedule?
Having a lot of meaningful virtual meetings is the key to doing it sustainably. And the Netherlands and Belgium were the first two countries in the world to implement electric vehicles at HP, in 2021.
