Success Stories

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About forto

forto is a company that specializes in digital supply chains. The technologies of the forto platform cover the entire process flow, from quotation, booking, document management, tracking and tracing to proactive exception handling and analysis. Headquartered in Berlin, the company currently has employees in 17 locations in Europe and Asia, with offices in Milan, Ho Chi Minh City, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. forto has around 800 employees worldwide with 62 nationalities. German, Chinese and Indian are the most common.

Since Corona, the company has offered its employees the opportunity to work flexibly from different locations - even temporarily abroad.

forto’s „Remote Work“ Policy:
forto emphasizes that remote work and vacation are separate concepts, which is why forto uses "remote work" or even - to match the tool -"workflexing" instead of the term workations.

forto currently allows"workflexing" for 20 working days per calendar year in countries that have a maximum time difference of plus or minus four hours from Berlin, so that people are still reasonably present during regular working hours. If the home country is a little further away than these four hours, there are also exceptions in consultation with the manager. All employees who are employed in European countries can use WorkFlex - including interns and working students.

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🔥 Challenge

Since the pandemic, forto has offered mobile working abroad, so that its employees can work safely from their home countries - but only within the European Union. Employees from other countries rightly felt unfairly treated, which prompted forto to look for an external solution. Because it was clear that this benefit was indispensable. Firstly, forto saw how high the demand was. Employees actively requested this from HR and also initiated it from time to time. Secondly, forto has seen how important it is. Employees actively thanked them for the opportunity to work away from their families. And thirdly, because it simply works. The employees did a good job from there and felt comfortable.

However, in order to offer remote work outside the European Union and to keep an eye on compliance and legal aspects, forto had to rely on external help. Before introducing WorkFlex, they struggled to find clear answers to questions such as taxes, insurance and labor regulations related to remote work outside the EU.

• Who pays tax where?
• What about insurance?
• Does the labor law now apply from Germany or from another country?
• Who is liable if something should go wrong?

All these questions could be answered by the WorkFlex software and the "no-risk" concept.

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💡Solution

In June 2023, forto implemented WorkFlex to enable employees outside the EU to work from their home country. WorkFlex enabled the company to set clear guidelines for remote work, ensure compliance and offer employees a structured process for short-term work stays abroad. The implementation followed a thorough evaluation of various providers, with WorkFlex being the only one that stood out for its complete package:

In addition to clear assessments of the compliance risks for each individual application, WorkFlex offered

1. Liability: In the unlikely event of complications, WorkFlex assumed financial liability, as well as professional support during administrative procedures. This gave forto the peace of mind of being able to send employees around the world without worrying about legal stumbling blocks.

2. Automatic issuance of A1 certificates: WorkFlex took care of all the complex compliance tasks such as issuing A1 certificates.

3. International health insurance: WorkFlex automatically secures travel health insurance for each employee from "Hallesche Krankenversicherung", which provides unlimited medical cover, including Covid-19 cover and repatriation from all countries. The team takes care of the application, communication and management of the insurance during the entire travel period.

4. 24/7 hotline at WorkFlex: WorkFlex offers a hotline available around the clock for all concerns, such as accidents, questions, compliance issues, which Forto has seen as a huge benefit.

5. User-friendly software: Before WorkFlex, forto had no overview of where all employees were, which could have disastrous (legal) consequences. Now they can see where each employee is, how many days they have worked abroad and much more through a simple click of a button.

6. Best support: forto's dedicated Customer Success Manager responded incredibly quickly and did a great job of familiarizing forto with the tool. At the townhall, the Customer Success Manager also showed the platform, which was very helpful for all employees as well as HR.

7. Assessments for all countries - and nationalities: The WorkFlex compliance engine is able to assess all possible countries and nationalities combinations. forto was therefore able to implement WorkFlex, for example, in its entities inSpain without any problems and also enable their many Latinos to work from their home countries.

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📈 Success measurement

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The success of the implementation of WorkFlex at forto was demonstrated by

• ‍Time and resource savings: Using WorkFlex proved to be easy and efficient for both employees and the HR team. The compliance-related challenges were successfully overcome by working with WorkFlex.‍
• Less administrative burden for HR: Before, there wasn't even really time to issue A1 certificates. Now it takes the People Ops team no more than a minute per request as all the work has been outsourced to WorkFlex.‍
• Increased employee retention and satisfaction: The introduction of WorkFlex has been well received by employees. With clear guidelines and the ability to work abroad for up to 20 working days per calendar year, forto was able to better meet the needs of its global workforce. Employees appreciated the flexibility and the combination of work and travel, especially when it came to visiting their families in their home country.‍
• Recruitment success: forto experienced a positive response both within the company and during the recruitment process, with remote work - abroad - being highlighted as a decisive criterion for potential employees.

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“On a scale of one to five. I would definitely rate remote work abroad as a five, the most important benefit, because employees really did ask about it and it is also actively asked about in the interview process and apparently the decision is even made based on whether or not remote work abroad is offered. I really believe that this has changed since the pandemic and since the times of Corona and the demand for it is simply so great and it will continue to be so in the future.“
Carolin Braband, Team Lead People Operations
Remote Work at Forto:
‍Since September, in less than 3 months, forto employees from several different origin countries requested to work 3669 days (= more than 10 years) from 45 different destination countries abroad. More than every fifth request was for Indians to go back and work from India.

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Overall, the introduction of WorkFlex at forto has led to improved employee satisfaction, less administrative work and increased attractiveness for potential employees. The introduction of WorkFlex has led to a hybrid working culture at forto, where employees have the flexibility to choose between working from home or in the office. This hybrid model has been well received and will be further developed in the coming year to meet the needs of employees.

forto is convinced that hybrid working models and the option of remote working will shape the future of work.

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About AutoScout24

AutoScout24 is known as an online platform for buying and selling new and used cars. Although the platform was originally focused on the German market, AutoScout24 has expanded its presence internationally. This global focus is also reflected in the diversity of its workforce, who were keen to work from home. For this reason, AutoScout24 has enabled its employees to work worldwide since the pandemic - so-called "Working from Anywhere". However, AutoScout24 has encountered many challenges, particularly with regard to compliance.

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🔥 Challenge

Before the introduction of WorkFlex in September, working from anywhere was handled informally internally during the pandemic. The challenge was to find a structured solution that met the needs of employees worldwide while maintaining compliance. Because AutoScout24 was still struggling:

• Unstructured approach: AutoScout24 wanted to make working from anywhere more structured, especially after informal working from anywhere was the norm during the pandemic. WorkFlex provided a solution to enable this flexibility in an organized way.
• Lack of internal know-how: AutoScout24 initially tried to organize flexible working from anywhere internally. However, the company realized that it was a significant effort and that internal employees did not have the necessary expertise. The decision to use WorkFlex was made in order to overcome these challenges and obtain external support.
• Diverse employee needs: AutoScout24 has employees of 55 different nationalities. Many employees had the desire to return to their home countries and work from there. WorkFlex made it possible to meet these diverse needs.streamline the process

In September, AutoScout24 introduced WorkFlex to make global remote working more efficient. Previously, they had tried to manage the program internally, but quickly realized that this was very time consuming and complex.

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💡Solution

After a careful selection of providers, the company chose WorkFlex for the following reasons:

• Advanced status: AutoScout24 emphasized that although WorkFlex was still considered a start-up, it was significantly more advanced compared to other providers in the field. The platform was able to offer comprehensive services that met AutoScout24's global requirements.
• Global coverage: WorkFlex provided AutoScout24 with the ability to offer not just European but worldwide workations - for all nationalities and different branches. This was particularly important to AutoScout24 due to their diverse workforce. The integration of the Netherlands was just as successful as the inclusion of employees with 55 different nationalities.
• Eliminating compliance risks: AutoScout24 recognized that there were significant risks involved in handling international workations with legal aspects such as payroll tax and social security law. The decision to use WorkFlex was made in order to minimize these risks and to make use of external expertise. AutoScout24 was particularly impressed by the no-risk concept that WorkFlex assumes liability for. The included travel health insurance was another major deciding factor in favor of WorkFlex.
• Good communication and support: AutoScout24 praised the good cooperation with WorkFlex, the quick response to questions and the continuous support, even for problems that rarely occur.
• ‍Easy integration and user-friendliness:The cooperation with WorkFlex was described as uncomplicated and user-friendly. Both the preparation and the ongoing support were positively emphasized.
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📈 Positive Impacts and Benefits gained:

AutoScout24 has developed its "Working from Anywhere" company policy, which states that employees can work anywhere in the world for up to 10 working days.

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The success of the implementation of WorkFlex at AutoScout24 was demonstrated by:

1. Global destination countries: The introduction of WorkFlex allows employees to work globally. This allows employees to return to and work from their home countries. The challenge of legal complexity was overcome by WorkFlex.
Since September, AutoScout24 employees have already worked from 20 different countries worldwide. 57% of the trips were to non-EU countries. The top destinations were not the typical vacation countries, but - in line with the diverse workforce - India, USA, Turkey, Greece and South Africa.

2. Structured framework: Before the introduction of WorkFlex, working from anywhere was handled rather informally due to the pandemic. Once it was decided to take a more structured approach, WorkFlex was introduced as a solution.

3. More flexibility for employees: WorkFlex enables employees to work abroad for up to ten working days. This is particularly relevant for employees with 55 different nationalities at AutoScout24, who often want to return to their home countries.

4. Employee well-being and work-life balance: The Workations policy positively impacted employee well-being and work-life balance, especially for non-German employees who could extend their stays abroad without depleting their vacation budget. The flexibility offered by Workations contributed to a healthier work-life balance.

5. Relief for the HR department: WorkFlex's expertise and support have reduced the internal workload immensely, especially in connection with forms, approvals and requests for non-European assignments abroad. WorkFlex automates many of these processes or takes over the issuing of all relevant documents such as A1 certificates, CoC, travel insurance

6. Cost savings: AutoScout24 saves costs in several areas by using WorkFlex:

• External consulting costs: before implementing WorkFlex,AutoScout24 often hired external expensive consulting firms for issues related to payroll tax, social security law and other legal aspects. By working withWorkFlex, these costs can be reduced as the platform offers specialized expertise.
• Administrative costs: Using WorkFlex eliminates the need to manually create and manage elaborate forms for international assignments.This not only saves paper and printing costs, but also the time it takes employees to complete these documents.
• Time and cost savings for HR & employees: AutoScout24 employees need less time to obtain approvals for international assignments as the process is streamlined by WorkFlex. This leads to an overall more efficient use of working time.

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“The collaboration with WorkFlex is extremely positive. The preparation, support, and usability of the tool are outstanding. The flexibility of WorkFlex to include all countries and the continuous support contributed significantly to the success. The automation of processes, such as the application process and communication with employees, resulted insignificant time and cost savings for AutoScout24 ”

Katrin Paetzold – Senior HRBP at AutoScout24
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The case study illustrates the success of AutoScout24 through the integration of WorkFlex. Overall, WorkFlex has helped to streamline internal processes, increase employee flexibility, and reduce the cost of remote work abroad per trip.

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About idealo

idealo, a leading online platform for price comparison, faced the challenge of managing and optimizing its remote work policy, known as "Workations" or temporary work from abroad. Prior to August 2022, idealo allowed its 1050 employees from 60 different nations to work remotely from any location but lacked a structured tool to manage requests, leading to administrative challenges and potential compliance risks.

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🔥 Challenge

As the demand for remote work abroad increased more and more, idealo needed a comprehensive solution to

• get an overview where everyone is working
• streamline the process
• develop a proper, official framework for work from anywhere
• manage compliance risks
• get necessary documentation (PWD; A1; CoC, etc.)
• enhance the overall employee experience

The company sought a tool that could facilitate transparent communication, assess risks effectively, and provide legal and financial coverage for remote work. Further, idealo faced challenges related to IT support for remote employees, equipment issues, and managing pushback from denied requests, especially from employees in Ukraine and Russia. WorkFlex played a crucial role in addressing these challenges and establishing clear boundaries for remote work.

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💡Solution

In August 2022, idealo partnered with WorkFlex to implement a robust solution for managing remote work, offering employees the flexibility to work from any location worldwide. WorkFlex provided a transparent risk assessment process, quick application processing, and comprehensive liability.

Reasons for Choosing WorkFlex:

idealo chose WorkFlex for

• its transparency in risk assessment and speedy application processing
• the platform's modern easy-to-use interface and efficient workflow
• the unique no-risk workation concept that no competitor offered
• the travel health insurance that is automatically issued for every employee working abroad

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Policy Framework

idealo has one of the most progressive policies that exist on the market as it its up-to-183-days policy mirrors the legal limit. idealo allows remote work from any country. Up to 30 days per year within a European country is automatically approved. Then between 31 and 90 days per year from any country if the WorkFlex approval is yellow or green. And then from 91 until 182 days, the approval from WorkFlex has to be green that we allow it, but it's also from any country in the world.

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📈 Positive Impacts and Benefits gained:

The implementation of WorkFlex brought several positive impacts to idealo:

1. Efficiency and Time Savings: WorkFlex significantly reduced administrative costs and efforts. The platform's automated features, such as issuing certificates of coverage, eliminated manual paperwork, and streamlined the entire process. Now, HR needs less than 3minutes per request whereas before they needed hours.

2. Transparency and Employee Satisfaction: The transparency in the risk assessment process and the ease of tracking application status through the WorkFlex portal improved communication and reduced the need for employees to inquire about the status of their applications.  

3. Legal and Financial Protection: WorkFlex provided legal and financial liability coverage, offering peace of mind to both employees and the employer during remote work, ultimately contributing to the success of Workations. Also, the employee is automatically health insured via WorkFlex’s travel health insurance, which neither of the few existing competitors offered.

4. Employee Well-being and Work-Life Balance: The Workations policy positively impacted employee well-being and work-life balance, especially for non-German employees who could extend their stays abroad without depleting their vacation budget. The flexibility offered by Workations contributed to a healthier work-life balance.

5. Attractiveness as an Employer:Workations became a crucial component of idealo's external marketing strategy, enhancing the company's reputation as an employee-friendly organization that supports individual lifestyles. The positive feedback from applicants highlighted the attractiveness of idealo as an employer.

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Workations in Numbers at idealo:

Since August 2022, idealos requested 577 workations to 64 destination countries. 72% were approved. In 1 year and 3 months, idealos worked 11077working days abroad  - which is over 30years of workations in total.

idealo confirms that this benefit has one of the highest usage rates in their benefit portfolio due to the diverse, international workforce. Most employees use this perk to work from their family’s home abroad – a use case that is dominated in a workforce of 60+ nationalities.
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For idealo, it is clear that WorkFlex is the best solution out there. The collaboration with WorkFlex transformed the management of remote work for idealo, turning it into a streamlined, efficient, and employee-friendly process. By addressing challenges, enhancing transparency, and providing legal and financial coverage, WorkFlex played a pivotal role in making Workations a successful and sustainable model for idealo.

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About Flix
For Flix, a leader in the mobility sector, the concept of 'work from anywhere' is more than just a policy; it's an integral part of their corporate identity. It would be contradictory for a company that connects people globally with their FlixBuses and FlixTrains to restrict its own employees to a fixed location.

Recognizing the shifting paradigms in the post-pandemic world, the company introduced the “work from manywhere” program. Since July 1st, 2022, Flix' employees have the opportunity to work from almost any location in the world – may it be from their grandma's garden or a sandy beach.

🔥 Challenge

At the end of the pandemic, Flix asked its employees if they would like to work from anywhere. This preliminary survey indicated a very high demand. Given the changes the pandemic brought in our ways of working, combined with the diversity in their team, Flix saw a great opportunity to introduce this program.
This, however, brought up new challenges for Flix:  

·     Accompany rapidly changing employee' needs: The rapid shift to remote work during the pandemic has created a crave for more flexibility among employees. This change in mentality – being able to work from anywhere - left Flix trying to balance complex compliance requirements that have not adjusted to the new working environment with their employees’ increasing desire to work from anywhere. They knew they needed an external solution, to make sure they act 100% compliant.

Forbidding workations was not in the interest of Flix as their international workforce demanded having also the right for an international homeoffice and might have done so - also without permission.

·     Ever-changing compliance & legislations: Ensuring adherence to diverse labor laws, tax regulations, and social security mandates was a monumental challenge. Although Flix had a lot of in-house expertise, such as a legal department, tax department, HR - this was a new topic where nobody had already acquired expertise.

·     Complex international workforce: With employees coming from over 90 different countries, the legal intricacies of tax laws, labor regulations, and visa requirements got even more complex. This diversity, especially concerning non-EU nationalities, highlighted Flix's need for an external compliance partner.

💡 Solution
WorkFlex provided the needed solution for these challenges:

·     Individual risk assessment: WorkFlex's tool matched exactly what Flix needed, balancing freedom and compliance. WorkFlex’ compliance logic and automised approach check each work-from-anywhere request individually, making sure Flix is compliant no matter where an employee wants to work or which country they are on payroll on. This careful checking is crucial as Flix has employees from many countries, each with its own set of rules.

·     User-friendly platform: The WorkFlex platform simplifies the process for Flix. It consolidates all work-from-anywhere requests, prepares necessary documents, and ensures that employees are adequately insured, among other functionalities.

·     High and up-to-date compliance expertise: With WorkFlex's legal team, Flix doesn't have to constantly monitor changes in legislation.
 

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📈 Results

Flix created its “Working from Manywhere” policy, which stated that employees can work from anywhere - up to 60 days in low &medium risk countries and five days in high-risk countries.

The success of WorkFlex's implementation at Flix was evident through:

·     Progressive employer branding: By offering global workations, Flix bolstered its image as a forward-thinking employer, catering to the modern needs of its workforce.

·     Boosted employee satisfaction: The positive feedback from employees was a testament to the success of the initiative. The ability to work from diverse locations, be it their hometown or a beach, greatly improved their work-life balance and enhanced Flix's reputation as an employee-centric organization, emphasizing flexibility.

·     Easier Recruitment through competitive advantage: The work-from-anywhere benefit became a significant perk for potential employees, standing out to new applicants. Especially Gen Z and international talent show high interest in the working model during the recruitment process.

·     Reduction of manual effort: Thanks to WorkFlex, employees autonomously submit work-from-anywhere requests. HR is only needed for the final approval, which reduces their efforts to less than 5 minutes per request. No time needed to self-check compliance or to create whole frameworks for non-EU citizens.

·     Savings in costs and administrative efforts: Partnering with WorkFlex eliminated the need for extensive research and consultation with tax lawyers, resulting in substantial cost savings. Further, the streamlined processes reduced the administrative burden, allowing Flix to allocate resources to other pivotal projects instead of needing to check the ever-changing compliance regulations for their international workforce.

Recap: Working from Manywhere at Flix with WorkFlex
In total, since the beginning of Flix’ Work from Anywhere Policy, employees have worked temporarily from over 80 different countries all around the globe, as the map shows. Alone during this year, Flix' employees worked for 1452 days from 59 different countries.

Most trips were requested by Indian employees (13,40%), closely followed by the Germans (8,87%). Brazilian, US-American, and Egyptian employees were the subsequent frontrunners in making such requests.

The average workation days per annum per employee was 20-25 days. Thus, it is still less than Flix’ policy threshold of 60 days.

At its core, Flix's decision to embrace this model stems from a deep commitment to its employees. The company aims to foster an environment where employees feel valued, understood, and proud to be a part of the organization.

Flix firmly believes in the future of remote work. As the market sees more companies offering such flexibility, it not only sets a new standard but also creates a competitive edge, compelling others to follow suit.

Partnering with WorkFlex has enabled Flix to extend this flexibility even to regions like Asia, Latin America, and Africa, all while maintaining a stringent focus on compliance.

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In June of last year, IU was finally able to launch the WorkFlex benefit, opening up a whole new world of work for IU's employees. Gone are the endless, eternally pre-planned trip requests. Since then, the next workation can be planned with just a few clicks. Where have the trips gone so far? We have taken a snapshot of the situation.

Workation. What's behind it?‍

What exactly is WorkFlex all about? How can you imagine such an application? And isn't it always associated with tax hurdles?

If the past years  have shown us one thing, it is that good work can be done from anywhere! From one day to the next, our private rooms were converted into offices. With the realization that it can be done - and done very well.  If the kitchen suddenly becomes the office,  why shouldn't it also be the café in Valencia? Or the vacation apartment in Zeeland? Our WorkFlex benefit makes exactly that possible: work from  wherever you want - for up to six months a year. With the exception of a  few countries that are unfortunately excluded for security reasons, the big  wide world is open to you. We are firmly convinced that temporary working  from abroad (WFA) is a very attractive benefit that also fits in very well  with the current and future situation of mobile working.

Tax, labor, and social security pitfalls? Not with us!

Through the WorkFlex benefit, we offer our employees flexible options for temporary work from abroad. Combined with a very simple process. Because without worrying about compliances and compliance (like private taxes, visas, etc.) or other risks, you can plan your next workation. It's as simple as submitting a request through the platform with just a few clicks. WorkFlex then obtains approval from the supervisor(s) and performs a risk assessment of the current situation. Everything fits? Well, then you're ready to go. ✈️


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IU's recap: Over one thousand approved workations within the first year! 

The figures speak for themselves: A look at the workations applied for last year shows how simple and straight forward such an application is: In the period from June 2022 to June2023, we had a total of no less than 1,000 approved workations at the IU. Whether a long weekend in one of the neighbouring countries or a stay of several weeks or even several months further away. From Australia, Argentina, Trinidad&Tobago or Taiwan: In total, applications to 87 countries around the world were requested and approved last year. The approval rate here was over 95%.

WorkFlex's statistics also show that we are an absolute pioneer when it comes to workation: Various well-known companies were compared in terms of their annual quota of workation days per person. Here it becomes clear once again: With 182possible workation days per year per person, we are right at the top and make remote work what it should be: Self-determined work from anywhere.

For IU, this is a clear sign that they are on the right track and that the benefit is being used well and with pleasure. They are looking forward to the coming year, its destinations and the stories of their employees that go along with it.

Do you also want a job that adapts to your life? Then come aboard the IU and check in for your next workation very soon. ☀️


Check out the full article and IU here
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About TIMOCOM

TIMOCOM, a leading digital marketplace for transportation orders and live shipment tracking, is dedicated to streamlining its customers' logistics processes and helping them save time and money. But TIMOCOM faced a challenge: implementing workations to meet the growing desire for remote work while taking care of all the compliance topics.  

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🔥 Challenge

In introducing workations, TIMOCOM faced a number of challenges and obstacles that needed to be overcome:  ‍

• ‍Growing demand for remote work: following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees expressed a desire for flexible work options from home. This growing demand for remote work challenged TIMOCOM to provide appropriate solutions to meet employee needs. ‍
• Diverse international workforce: TIMOCOM had a diverse workforce with employees from more than 34 nations. This resulted in complex legal requirements, including tax laws, social security regulations, labor laws, and residence and visa requirements. Addressing these legal issues and ensuring compliance were major challenges for the company.  ‍
• Compliance concerns: Due to different regulations in different countries, it was difficult for TIMOCOM to offer workations without violating compliance guidelines. Complying with legal requirements and regulations related to labor law, taxes, and social security was a complex task to manage.  ‍
• Operational considerations: TIMOCOM also had to consider operational aspects of workation management. This included determining the number of days offered for workations, supporting employees with family members and second homes abroad, and ensuring smooth operations during employee absences.

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💡Solution

TIMOCOM made the decision to use WorkFlex as its workation management software:   ‍

• ‍Employer Branding: the introduction of global workations played a significant role in increasing TIMOCOM's employer brand. Through this innovative way of working, the company was able to strengthen its attractiveness and reputation as a modern and progressive employer.  ‍
• Employee retention and satisfaction: An internal survey showed that more than 50% of employees were very interested in using Workations. WorkFlex's solution exactly met the employees' needs for flexibility and work-life balance.  ‍
• Skills shortage: As an IT company, TIMOCOM was continuously looking for qualified IT professionals.The option of Workations positioned the company as a highly attractive employer in the market, which in turn helped attract highly qualified talent. ‍
• Compliance Support & Liability: WorkFlex provided clear assessments of compliance risks for each individual application & handled all complex compliance tasks such as the creation of A1 certificates and the provision of comprehensive travel insurance for all employees. In the event of complications, WorkFlex took care of the financial liability as well as professional support with official procedures. This gave TIMOCOM the confidence to easily send employees worldwide without having to worry about legal stumbling blocks.

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📈 Success measurement

The measurement of success of the introduction of WorkFlex at TIMOCOM was based on various indicators:  ‍

• ‍Improvement of employer branding: Workations played a significant role in increasing TIMOCOM's employer brand. WorkFlex's flexibility and support for work-life balance helped position the company as a modern and employee-oriented employer.  ‍
• Increase employee retention and satisfaction: employees were excited about the ability to use Workations to see their families more often and improve their work-life balance. Positive feedback from employees confirmed the success of the measure. Annual employee surveys showed a significant increase in employee satisfaction after implementing WorkFlex . The flexible work arrangements and the option of using workations contributed to employee retention and motivation.    ‍
• Recruiting success: As an IT company, TIMOCOM benefited from Workations as an attractive offering for potential skilled employees. The ability to work remotely and use Workations helped attract qualified IT talent faster and position the company as an attractive employer.   ‍
• Time and resource savings: By working with WorkFlex, TIMOCOM did not have to spend valuable resources on researching and handling the complex processes. Intensive research and the use of expensive (tax) lawyers were no longer necessary. This saved a great deal of costs. In addition, the automated processes and the support provided by WorkFlex significantly reduced the amount of work involved in processing and managing workations. There is now a clear process for each request for mobile working abroad. The intuitive and user-friendly WorkFlex platform made it effortless for any employee to go through the process and provide the required information. The time spent on the Timocom has been reduced to 10 minutes per week. This increase in efficiency allowed TIMOCOM to save both time and resources, which could be used for other important projects.

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The introduction of WorkFlex at TIMOCOM brought revolutionary changes for employees and the company as a whole. Workations allowed employees to be more flexible in their work environment and achieve a better work-life balance. WorkFlex's support for legal and compliance requirements enabled TIMOCOM to easily manage mobile working requests overseas for its international workforce while minimizing compliance risks. The positive impact of Workations on employee satisfaction, employer branding and talent acquisition was clear. TIMOCOM was able to save valuable resources and increase efficiency, while WorkFlex provided transparency, risk assessment and a user-friendly platform. Overall, the TIMOCOM and WorkFlex collaboration demonstrated how innovative workations can transform the world of work and provide real value to companies and their employees.

i2x is one of the leading German AI companies founded by the studyVZ ex-CEO Michael Brehm, which helps sales and customer support agents to excel at their job, by giving live guidance and suggestions during customer calls. As an agile company, i2x worked this past year on building up a safe, stable, and compliant flexible working environment. How? By taking the lead in allowing employees to work from abroad while being fully legally protected and using WorkFlex to manage that.

KPIs

• Win new employees in the competitive market
• Company-wide workation strategy allowed by WorkFlex
• Work from abroad accessible to 100% of employees
• Every employee can work from abroad safely:
• 90 days within the EU
• 30 days outside of the EU

Challenges

Looking at the workation policy it is safe to say that i2x is taking the lead in terms of flexible work for all employees. While seeing that working outside of the office was/is mandatory, its employees from 19 different nationalities – from Columbia to China – started wishing for more work location freedom: being able to stay where their families are while not having to take their full vacation at once. After the company saw the need and the possibility of working from abroad they decided to step out of the workation grey zone and embrace a safe company mobility policy.

Solution

The i2x team and Narmatha Ravinthiran, the head of people and organization, got ahead with it and introduced WorkFlex, a solution that enables temporary work from abroad, in three easy steps in their company.

How? While signing their work contract, new employees also sign an amendment agreement which sets the framework of their workations’ possibilities: How and when to use a VPN? What type of password should be used? How to be fully GDPR compliant?

All aspects in regards to social legislation that are key to i2x but also to their clients which have the right of security too. From day one, employees are ensured to work abroad, within and outside of Europe and i2x could ensure a new company mobile work strategy while stopping one-to-one on-demand requests.  In this process, WorkFlex takes care of all the compliance aspects of their workation requests.

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Benefits of introducing WorkFlex

For company

• Attractive mental health benefit: alongside other mental health benefits such as meditation or sports apps, workations strongly support employee wellbeing and mental health;
• Tremendous asset in job offers;
• A work-from-abroad policy with clearly set rules and frameworks: no more headaches due to case-by-case discussions.

For employees

• Freedom to work from everywhere compliantly and securely
• No need to use up all vacation days to visit family abroad or work from a dream destination: one can do it while continuing to work remotely
• A proof that your company indeed trusts you
• Extra motivation and engagement

“One of the greatest benefits I get from WorkFlex as a Head of HR is that I no longer have to read through an agreement of 270 pages on Brexit in order to say whether the person can go work in London or not. Using WorkFlex is a great relief in my responsibilities: the framework conditions of the workplaces are fully set out in a compliant way. We only have to follow the framework, no more case-by-case requests that take a lot of my time. HR pains are gone in this regard and it is great to see the satisfaction of our employees!”

Narmatha Ravinthiran, Head of People and Organization at i2x

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Enpal, is a B2C solar panels installation company group, headquartered in Berlin, that encounters multiple HR challenges, so they are quite interested in finding solutions to lighten their workload and processes while being ensured to stay fully compliant. In short: they need simplicity wherever they can get it!

Context

Flexible work is a complex legal matter. Sure, from an employee perspective, working from abroad seems simple: a computer and the internet are enough to do the job! The other (HR)-side though, is more complex and does involve a lot of legal background to solve the new way of working. Companies across the globe are facing an iceberg when it comes to this topic, and so is Enpal. Most importantly, the group wanted to stay competitive in the employee benefits they provide but also not go wild and be later surprised by unpleasant tax revelations.

Challenge

Now with the pandemic happening, employees revealed their need to work from their home countries for a longer time or find the possibility to work elsewhere. In fact, a modern problem for a modern company policy. Once introducing their new mobile work policy and opening up the possibility to work some time from abroad, especially before Christmas time, Enpal received more and more requests from their employees. Without any previous legal knowledge on this matter, the HR department had to get in touch with tax and labor lawyers: they needed the legal and compliance knowledge to be able to provide the needed flexibility.

Process

Before using WorkFlex, Enpal consulted labor tax lawyers to get a general understanding on possibilities to temporarily work from abroad. Employees had to submit a request via a pdf form, which would then be reviewed manually: a quite complex and highly time-consuming process. Enpal has now the roots to set a strong work policy in place and employees can easily request to work from abroad. An automatic risk assessment and application for social security certificates ensures a limited exposure to compliance risks. The process is efficient, transparent and easy-to-use for all company stakeholders.

Benefits

• Time saving
• Cost efficient in comparison to heavy tax lawyers services’ costs
• Strong employee benefit
• Lever to set the first stone to create a company-wide WfA company policy

“Before the pandemic, we didn’t even think about this working from abroad, flexibility level. It was quite a challenge to handle all the sudden work-from-abroad requests. With WorkFlex we can now offer our employees the possibility to request work from abroad through easy-to-use software. Now I can confidently say that we are a well-positioned company when it comes to work from abroad.“

Sophie Kostka, Former Head of HR Operations & Culture at Enpal

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How do IU and Enpal enable their employees to work abroad in a legally compliant manner?

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Learn more about the impact of workations on employer branding and corporate culture, as well as how WorkFlex support these companies in managing workations.

Scout24 is one of the leading digital companies in Germany and home of ImmoScout24. With its 20 million users every month ImmoScout24 successfully brings together homeowners, real estate agents, tenants, and buyers.

Now, how did the company embrace the changing way of working for its employees?

• 850 employees globally
• 50 nationalities
• Main markets: Germany and Austria

The challenge

As was the case for millions of companies worldwide, working from somewhere else than the office, also from abroad, became a huge consideration for Scout24 when the pandemic did hit. Fast forward two years and, Scout24 is seeking to formalise flexible arrangements without running the risk of breaking international tax or labour regulations. Hence, implementing the opportunity to work from abroad. Since at Scout24 the opportunity to work from abroad is given, it was important to create very clear regulations which supported the overall strategy.

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The solution

Flexible or at least hybrid work was now in everybody’s mind and companies needed to align. So did Scout24. They made a point of giving their employees an additional benefit that allowed employees the flexibility to work from abroad, which had to be based on clear processes and regulations.

Under normal circumstances, if an employee is working more than 183 days abroad, taxes must be paid in this country, however this was relaxed by many countries during the pandemic. Arrangements for cross-border workers (Konsultationsvereinbarungen) that took place during the pandemic were temporarily limited.

Scout24 got in touch with WorkFlex because they were aware of the potential to allow “working from anywhere”. And with the help of WorkFlex, allowances could have automatic risk assessments, issuance of A1 certificates and more. Now, Scout 24 employees can request working from abroad up to three months each year within the European Economic Area and up to one month from outside of it.  

1. Positive feedback from the employees: work-from-abroad requests are increasing and the official request process enables full clarity for all parties.
2. Tax- and compliance-friendly: the legal and tax teams can count on a fully proficient documentation follow-up. The teams can also access the risk assessments easily making it a great decision-making tool.
3. Time savings thanks to an automatic risk assessment.
4. Professionalism and automation: requests are facilitated.

“At Scout24, we decided early on to embrace the new world of work through flexible working and to strengthen the work-life balance of our employees. With WorkFlex, we are providing the right tool to support our strategy. Requests for working abroad are automated and now part of our way of working. We improved tax and legal compliance respectively. Thanks to the first-class service, we can respond more quickly to the wishes of our employees, which means that they can start actively planning and designing stays abroad more quickly without having to think about it too much.”

Krzysztof Lysik – Head of Tax at Scout24

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