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Thomas Bertels

President at Purpose Works Consulting LLC

New York, United States

Thomas Bertels is the president and founder of Purpose Works Consulting, a management consulting firm on a mission to make work more productive, valuable, meaningful, and impactful. He has twenty-five years of experience working with companies ranging from Fortune 10 firms to start-ups to improve organizational effectiveness and transform how work gets done.

Available For: Advising, Authoring, Consulting, Speaking
Travels From: New York
Speaking Topics: Future of Work, Business Transformation, Work Design

Speaking Fee $5,000 (In-Person), $1,000 (Virtual)

Thomas Bertels Points
Academic 0
Author 177
Influencer 28
Speaker 6
Entrepreneur 0
Total 211

Points based upon Thinkers360 patent-pending algorithm.

Thought Leader Profile

Portfolio Mix

Featured Videos

Thomas Bertels interview on RVN-TV's 'The Advocates'
September 18, 2023
JIT Cafe Webinar on Work Design
September 18, 2023
Thomas Bertels interview on RVN-TV's 'Behind the Numbers'
September 18, 2023

Featured Topics

Company Information

Company Type: Company
Minimum Project Size: $10,000+
Average Hourly Rate: $300+
Number of Employees: 11-50
Company Founded Date: 2023
Media Experience: 15 years
Last Media Interview: 06/29/2023

Areas of Expertise

Agile
Change Management 32.21
Design Thinking 34.07
Digital Transformation
Future of Work 31.52
Innovation
Leadership 30.94
Lean Startup
Management 34.45
Supply Chain
Business Strategy 32.32
Customer Experience 30.09

Industry Experience

Automotive
Chemicals
Consumer Products
Financial Services & Banking
Healthcare
Insurance
Manufacturing
Media
Pharmaceuticals
Professional Services

Publications

8 Article/Blogs
AI is an opportunity to reimagine work. What's your strategy?
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June 16, 2023
AI will fundamentally change how we work - and smart leaders seize the opportunity to make work more productive, valuable, meaningful, and impactful. What do they need? A work design strategy.

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Tags: Design Thinking, Management, Future of Work

Return to Office Mandate: Crisis or Opportunity?
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March 15, 2023
More and more companies demand that employees return to the office. But what do we do with them when they return? Work has been broken for a while, so why not seize this opportunity to reimagine it?

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Tags: Design Thinking, Management, Future of Work

After the layoff: How smart managers lighten their team’s workload
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March 08, 2023
Nobody likes layoffs; however, they’re a fact of corporate life. Sometimes these reductions in force (RIF) are targeted and surgical. But often senior leadership jettisons jobs across the board: every department gets the same 'haircut.' Either way, if you're a manager, you must deal with the f

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Tags: Design Thinking, Future of Work, Management

Companies investing in making work better: Outliers or Trendsetters?
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March 01, 2023
Over the last few years, I’ve noticed something unusual: some of my clients are starting significant efforts to improve the work experience of their employees - and they don’t even ask for a business case documenting the return on investment. The first one was a global healthcare company

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Tags: Design Thinking, Future of Work, Management

The Secret Sauce of Corporate Entrepreneurship: Decentralization
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January 26, 2023
2022 was a very insightful year for me and my company, Purpose Works. As I reflect on my experiences and conversations, one question kept coming up again and again: why do so many organizations fail to embrace decentralization and entrepreneurship? Last November I was pleased to attend the 14th annu

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Tags: Design Thinking, Future of Work, Management

What can 'Office Space' teach us about Work Design?
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January 17, 2023
Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash The 1999 movie "Office Space" has been one of my favorites for a long time. It tells the story of Peter, a disenchanted office drone, who - after being hypnotized - stops worrying about his job. What I love most about the film is how well it captures what’

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Tags: Design Thinking, Future of Work, Management

Coming January 2023
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November 26, 2022
This is Designing Work, a newsletter about Insights on making work more productive, valuable, meaningful, and impactful.

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Tags: Design Thinking, Future of Work, Management

Job Design Critical to Sustainable Employee Engagement
Engagement Strategies Media
October 26, 2022
In this time of “The Great Resignation,” organizations and leaders need to create work that is intrinsically meaningful. But they often have no idea where to start. How do we create jobs that people genuinely want to do and help them become more effective and engaged in the process? Frederick Herzberg said it best: “If you want someone to do a good job, give them a good job to do.” Motivational Work Design offers a framework for creating a truly competitive work product.

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Tags: Future of Work, Management

1 Author Newsletter
Designing Work
Purpose Works Consulting
January 03, 2023
Designing Work is a newsletter about Insights on making work more productive, valuable, meaningful, and impactful.

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Tags: Design Thinking, Future of Work, Management

2 Books
Fixing Work: A Tale about Designing Jobs Employees Love
Greenleaf Book Group
September 12, 2023
In Fixing Work, authors David G. Henkin and Thomas Bertels uncover the root causes of employee disengagement and offer practical solutions for creating more meaningful, satisfying, and productive jobs. Through an allegorical tale of a typical office with typical employees, they allow us to see ourselves in the characters while learning strategies to create better work and perform at higher levels.
Drawing from decades of research, Henkin and Bertels show us how to design work that meets our fundamental human needs for meaningfulness, autonomy, and feedback. By empowering employees with these methods, managers can create a roadmap for fixing what’s broken at their own companies.

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Tags: Design Thinking, Management, Future of Work

Rath & Strong Six Sigma Leadership Handbook
Wiley
February 21, 2003
Achieve unparalleled customer satisfaction and greater profitability with this essential handbook! Six Sigma is a proven and highly effective business initiative for improving customer satisfaction and increasing the efficiency of processes. Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook highlights the critical factors that make or break implementation, offers key best practices for getting it right the first time, and offers real-life examples and case studies that light the path to success. With Rath & Strong, you'll get an overview of the tools, methods, approaches, benefits, and risks that are associated with each element of the methodology.

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Tags: Business Strategy, Change Management, Leadership

1 Media Interview
Fixing Work
RVN-TV: Behind the Numbers
March 08, 2023
Dave Bookbinder goes Behind The Numbers with Thomas Bertels, Founder and President of Purpose Works Consulting. Today’s guest is the author of the book, “Fixing Work.” He’s here today to tell us how to do that and why we should. In this episode we’re discussing process improvement with a human capital component and how that focus is benefitting organizations and employees by creating more meaningful work. Thomas also shares the ROI that companies capture in redesigning processes along with some tips to fix work.

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Tags: Future of Work, Management

16 Podcasts
Work Matters S4E3: Frank Gallo - Leading in China
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July 05, 2023

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Tags: Design Thinking, Management, Future of Work

Work Matters S4E2: Tonille Miller - Employee Experience Design
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June 20, 2023

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Tags: Design Thinking, Management, Future of Work

Work Matters S4E1: Tony O'Driscoll - AI and the Future of Work
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June 06, 2023

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Tags: Design Thinking, Management, Future of Work

Designing Work To Be Fit For Humans
Work for Humans Podcast / Dart Lindsley
December 30, 2022
Thomas Bertels spent the last two decades as a Business Architect  helping struggling businesses solve structural problems: employee disengagement, inefficient teams, and low productivity. Whether working with a small company or a big player like PepsiCo, Thomas realized these issues stemmed from the same source – poor work design.

This insight led Thomas to develop what he now calls motivational work design – a systems approach to designing work that is employee-centric, improves productivity, and improves customer experiences.

Thomas Bertels is the founder of the consulting firm Purpose Works. He has worked across industries from big pharma, insurance, and top Fortune 50 companies like Johnson & Johnson and PepsiCo, and others.

In this episode, Dart and Thomas discuss:
- How work came to be so poorly designed
- How to design work that balances employee needs and company needs
- The role of HR in work design
- The role of Senior Executives in work design
- Tops-down versus Bottom-Up approaches to work design
- The role of managers in well-designed workplaces
- The balance between employee oversight and autonomy

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Tags: Design Thinking, Future of Work, Management

Work Matters S3E10: Mike Moshier and David Yawman - Leadership Team Development
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December 14, 2022

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Work Matters S3E9: Solange Charas & Stela Lupushor: Humanizing Human Capital
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November 29, 2022

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Work Matters S3E8: Niels Pflaeging - The Beta Codex
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November 07, 2022

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Work Matters S3E7 Laurent Choain - Knowledge Worker Productivity
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October 26, 2022

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Work Matters S3E6: Al Cini - The Power of Alignment
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October 10, 2022

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Work Matters S3E5: Bjarte Bogsnes - Beyond Budgeting
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September 26, 2022

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Work Matters S3E4: Ralf Specht - Corporate Soul
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September 14, 2022

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Work Matters S3E3: Oliver Crocco - Global Leadership
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August 30, 2022

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Work Matters S3E2: Rachele Focardi - The Multi-Generational Workplace
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August 15, 2022

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Work Matters S3E1: Sergio Caredda - The Intentional Organization
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July 27, 2022

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Work Matters Season 2 Highlights (Spring/Summer 2022)
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July 14, 2022

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S2E10: Kevin Wheeler - The Future of HR
Import from youtube.com
April 12, 2022

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1 Speaking Engagement
Purpose of Work: Shift in the American HR Paradigm
HRM Asia
May 04, 2023
Thomas Bertels has become one of the most visible advocates in the USA to make work more productive, valuable, meaningful, and impactful. With deep experience in HR at companies like AON and ABB as well as extensive consulting experience, Thomas started a podcast called Work Matters to host global thought leaders of the new paradigm shift. He will share the story behind his own philosophy, provide a who’s who of leading lights on new ways of working, and explain today’s American culture war over work.

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Tags: Future of Work, Management

1 Webinar
Triple Win: Designing Work that Delivers for Everyone
JIT Cafe
August 24, 2023
Frederick Herzberg famously said: "You can only do a good job if there is a good job to be done". But what makes a good job, and why should leaders care? Thomas Bertels, the founder of Purpose Works and a well known expert on process redesign, explores the power of work design to create intrinsically motivating work, resulting in improved employee engagement, productivity, and customer experience. Participants will learn how different aspects of work design shape the employees’ experience and how to incorporate these factors into designing effective organizations. Using several case studies, we will discuss how to put these ideas into practice and how to structure an effective change strategy. Enjoy guest host and author Thomas Bertals for this 1-hour video, to learn about what makes a “good job” that satisfies customers, owners, and employees.

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Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Future of Work

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