My name is Martin Sørnes, I’m a norwegian audiologist with some visions for future audiology services. I am personally deaf on my right ear so I have first hand knowledge of some of the problems clients are facing. I’m also the future CEO of Hearoll, and Hearoll medical. 

I want to introduce this presentation with a quote from Victor Hugo «the only thing stronger than all the armies of the world, is an idea which time has come». 

I have been working on a couple of ideas of mine since 2006. In 2007 I was awarded a entrepeneurial-scolarship for my idea of mobile audiology, connecting the world’s of audiology and telemedicine. This is the same idea Hearoll is built on. 

In 2008 I described a new clinical test equipment for free field audiology in my bachelor thesis. I believe this system which is a speaker-hat have the potential to renew audiology. This will Hearoll medicals first product. A clinical speech in noise test equipment that gives accurate results. This will be a very quick way to evaluate hearing aid fittings or to recreate a noise-environment where the client expresses problems and fix them in-situ.

Today the rest of the world caught up with my ideas, they both stood the test of time, and so did I. I am deaf on my right ear after my ear said "bang" during an audiology exam in 2007, even though I made efforts to have this diagnosed I have not yet acomplished this. I suspect the "bang" was a perilymphatic fistula that bursted. Not getting the diagnosis has been tough in many ways, but first of all I have wanted closure, put a name on it and move on, I have plenty things to do.

This is about the disruption of the field of audiology. Innovation in audiology is pretty frequent when it comes to hearing aids, but when we look at the testing equipment the story is different. A hearing test is actually performed the same way today as in audiologys birth in the years after WW2, so the need for disruption is obvious. Hearoll medical is ready to do the work to make it a reality.

This is a picture of a state of the art hearing test in 2022 almost the exact same way as in 1947. I believe the reason for this is that traditionally only doctors have had the right to innovate audiology, however they never touch the test equipment, they only interpret the results.Only one person has dared to challenge this, the former Nobel prize winner George von Bekesy who invented Bekesy-audiometry. 

Hearoll will be different. Hearoll will be innovative in many ways, in fact in Hearoll all employees are potential innovators. Building audiology equipment, and new innovations in the fields of audiolgy and client care. The secret sauce is the employee influencers elected by the workforce and empowered by the HR department.

In a standard organization with various leaders through the company only about 4% of what happends in the organization reaches the executive level, in hearolls open system, executives will have full control of all relevant issues moving in the organization at any time. This makes us a dynamic organization, ready to act instantly. Of course this is combined with the data and analytics of a modern enterprise. 

Under management and HR, the organization is flat. There are no managers in Hearoll, they are replaced by the employee influencers, and wellness consultants visiting the remote workplaces.

The reason this will work is due to the unique Hearoll culture and company values. Which are introduced already at the first interview. There is zero tolerance for toxic behaviors, and a high focus on diversity and inclusion. The influencers also debate culture and values, and create an arena to discuss and improve.

Employee influencers may well be the best tool a HR department could ever want. And Hearoll will have the most innovative and careing HR department ever known, at least to me. I believe wellness combined with company culture is the new currency to attract and retain talent.This will build loyalty and increase the retention level. And make sure we all pull in the same direction.

Flexibility will be highly valueated from the start. As a high speed growth company we must be able to adapt fast.
Although Hearoll will be a innovative company in its form of delivering home services it won’t stop there, the organization is built for innovation. Using high accuracy AI otoscopy to single out the clients in need of furter examinations, and refering those to a ENT department or private clinic. In societies like the HIMSS organization there is a strong initiative to move health services from hospitals to more client-orientated home services. Audiology is ready to make that transformation. The technology is in place, and Hearoll is ready to take advantage of it.

Employee influencers, The more you think about it the more value it brings, its one of those things that is obvious when you think about it, yet I’ve been to multiple HR conferences and never heard it mentioned. You get to take the problems at the root, cultivate new ideas, stimulate to learning, and constantly discuss and improve our service level. The employee influencers do implement and maintain the special culture and values of Hearoll, they also interact with the workforce, securing that every single employee got a voice that can be heard all the way to the executive level. It also work as a funnel that will make Hearoll the mother of further innovations in the fields of audiology and client care. Employee influencers have 2 hours of airtime during working hours each week.  I strongly believe this is the future buisniess model not only in audiology, and remote workplaces but in general. As it monitors the human factor in the company. 

Hearoll invest in it’s employees, it s the best investment that can be made. I’ve noticed Harvard business review agree with me on this. Hearoll’s HR will also have a stunt team dedicated to untangle personal problems of course on a voulentary basis. As we believe the employer responsibility will grow in the coming years, Hearoll will be in front and aim to be the best remote workplace in the world.

Before we can move forward we need to take a step back, forget about how this world can hurt us, in hearoll we are all safe
Call me naive, but I really believe it is as simple as building a dynamic yet rock solid foundation, by building a inclusive and strong company culture all can unite in. I believe we all want a better world, and Hearoll is the tool to get us there. There is no room for toxicity in Hearoll, we support and build ourselves and our colleagues.

Step one build great workplaces where people can grow and develop themselves. Step two this will reflect in the services we offer. Step three it will reflect on the bottom line. Step four happy workers and clients in a constantly evolving industry-leading company.

I do know there's a lot of hard work in between, but the main thing is to know where you are going, and how to get there, and that’s my job. Guiding a united workforce, whose all pulling in the same direction.

Hearoll aims to be the best remote workplace in the industry, because of two things, first we are depriving our workers from their colleagues and have to make up for that in a way, second and this is the most important, happy workers is the foundation of a long term business. This will eventually return in a great service level through the organization.

There are much more to Hearoll than this. AI otoscopy, booking solutions, and platforms, endless possibilities of the test equipment, but this is what will gets us there!

However I will love it if you reach out to discuss this further there is so much more to this. 

Let me finish with our slogan.
Build People, not processes!