Case study: How workations help GOhiring to embrace a remote culture
The Berlin startup GOhiring digitalizes and automates workflows in recruiting. Its mission is to increase productivity and improve collaboration in the recruiting market. GOhiring has been serving as an infrastructure provider for the recruiting market since 2012.
The company proudly describes itself as a 100% remote company. Of course, that doesn’t mean that everyone works from a different place every day - it means that every employee can choose where to work from, according to own or family needs. A large part of the team regularly works from Berlin, while others are based in France, Portugal or Ukraine, and some are true digital nomads, changing locations around the globe throughout the year.
How do you run a remote company? Uta, co-founder of GOhiring explains: “What's important for a remote team is first the tech set up. That everybody has a nice work infrastructure in their location and information is transparent in the team, so everybody knows what the others are doing and can document everything well. Additionally, the team needs sync points to get on the same page about where we are heading and what we're working on.”
“The team needs sync points to get on the same page about where you are heading and what you're working on.”
Uta, Co-founder GOhiring
Communicating effectively online is not the only ingredient for success. Uta continues: “We use a lot of tools to stay connected and informed as team members. For example, we use Slack, Trello, Google hangouts. And then it’s really nice and important as well to meet from time to time in one place - for example go on a workation together.”
GOhiring regularly organizes workations for the whole team. They are planned well in advance, so that all of the team members can attend. About a year ago, GOhiring discovered Out of Office Workations. So far, Out of Office Workations has supported GOhiring in organizing two team workations, and has already started to brainstorm for the next one.
In Uta’s words: “It's really nice to work with Out of Office Workations because as a company you have a lot of things on your schedule and it’s great to have an expert who does all the location scouting, all the preparation of the workation, as well as being there during the workation and helping us in the execution of the event. That's so helpful, because when you go on workation you would like to be with the team and work together and have a good time. So it’s good to have somebody that helps you in organizing and setting up those events, because it frees your mind and you gain time to really be there with the team.”
“It’s great to have an expert who does all the location scouting, all the preparation of the workation, as well as being there during the workation and helping us in the execution of the event.”
Uta, Co-founder GOhiring
So what is it that makes a workation such a special experience? And what effect does it have on the team? Uta summarizes: “The 3 main benefits of doing a workation are that you can bond as a team, you can use the space for atmosphere and culture and you can basically collaborate in another place which gives you a nice drive for the future.”
The workation is always a mix of work and leisure. There are fixed time slots for working - either on joint projects or individually on own tasks in a shared work space. There are strategy meetings, planning sessions, learning and best practice exchange workshops - and pure coworking time. Around those work time slots the team has time to connect, for example playing games or making music together.
Jesko, a GOhiring team member states enthusiastically: “What I like most about the offsite is especially the time we can spend together in the evening, playing games, getting to know each other better and just have fun together.” Uta confirms: “We already developed team traditions, like playing Mario Kart or playing Dixit. We also like to do at least one local activity to connect with the region we are working from. This last time the workation was in winter so we went for a scavenger hunt which was really nice. In the last location in summer we rented canoes and bikes, so it’s really about what the location provides.”
“Sustainable travel is really important for us when organizing workations.”
Anne-Marie, Co-founder Out of Office Workations
Being conscious about the location is an important design principle for Out of Office Workations. Anne-Marie, the co-founder elaborates: “Sustainable travel is really important for us when organizing workations.
First of all we make sure the workation location is not too far from where the team is located or where most of the team members are located, because you can really find nice places not far from home and it also helps to support the local economy. We source local food, local activities. We really like to work with houses that are built in a sustainable manner and that share the same values.”
What else is important when organizing a workation? Anne-Marie explains how Out of Office Workations work: “Every workation we organize is customized for the team. We have different locations on offer but then we really look what does the team want to achieve. Is it teambuilding? Learning something new? Onboarding new employees? Exchange across different company sites or teams? So there are many different reasons for taking some time out of the office and connecting as a team there. If none of our portfolio locations fit for the team, we also scout new ones. And then we look that there is good internet and that the atmosphere is nice and there are good activities available for the team to achieve their goals.”
Uta from GOhiring has some advice for teams who would like to organize a workation: “First of all get help for the whole scouting and planning process. You don’t have to do that alone, which we did before actually. I would recommend as well to go together as an entire team. Don’t be afraid that the whole team is “out of office” then, because you get a lot of things done during this week as well. For example, we onboarded three new team members - it was the best start they could get.”
“What I like most about working at GOhiring is the team. Even though we're a remote company we have a really strong team bond together.”
Jesko, Marketing Manager at GOhiring
Indeed, connecting the team and strengthening team culture are very central for GOhiring. When asking Jesko what he likes most about GOhiring, he answers without hesitation: “What I like most about working at GOhiring is the team. Even though we're a remote company we have a really strong team bond together, we are aligned on the same goals and passions and you can see that every one of us is working hard to achieve that.”
As Out of Office Workations, we thank GOhiring for their trust, the great collaboration and the inspiration we get from their team. Have a look at the video from GOhiring’s last team offsite at Lake Müritz in Germany to get an impression of what a team workation is all about!
This article was written by Anne-Marie Jentsch, co-founder of Out of Office Workations and owner of Out of Office Consulting.
"Our house is on fire" - How to make business travel more sustainable?
The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting is just around the corner. From January 21 to 24, 2020, Davos in Switzerland will host its famous conference again to “address the most pressing issues on the global agenda”.
Sustainability has already been a topic during our workation at WEF 2019. After a year of “Fridays for Future” this subject now has attracted more awareness than ever before. Here’s a throwback to last year’s meeting and a call for action.
“Our house is on fire” - that is what Greta Thunberg said last year at Davos. She was just named TIME’s person of the year 2019. Finally, largely thanks to her, climate change and sustainability are top of the news and there’s more pressure on our whole society to make changes in order to save our planet.
During our workation at Davos during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January 2019, we had the opportunity to meet and listen to Greta Thunberg. Her words back then: "I would like to see that people realize the emergency of the situation and realize what needs to be done. And that we speak clearly and not try to quiet it down. And then act from there."
Being asked the follow-up question, whether she thinks that business leaders have a specific responsibility, Greta Thunberg replied: "Yes, I mean everyone has a responsibility, more or less, but the bigger your platform is, the bigger your carbon footprint is, the bigger your power is, the more responsibility you have."
Our take on sustainability
Out of Office Workations enables teams to meet at unique locations to both be productive and connect as a team. So we of course care immensely about the question "How to make business travel more sustainable?". We do believe strongly that team workations add value. Team collaboration, company development, innovation and getting to know new places and people are only some of the benefits, where a different impact can be achieved by "getting out of the office".
At the same time, we advocate to really decide consciously, when a physical team meeting or team trip is the right solution, and when there are more environment-friendly ways of connecting as a team. Either by meeting at the office or by meeting virtually, online.
Whenever team travel is the best solution for the team to achieve a certain goal, Out of Office Workations helps to make the workation as sustainable as possible and reduce the carbon footprint. Co-founder Anne-Marie explains: "Sustainable travel is really important for us when organizing workations. First of all, we look that the workation location is not too far from where the team is located or where most of the team members are located, because you can really find nice places not far from home and it also helps to support the local economy."
She continues, elaborating on additional examples of how Out of Office Workations makes workations more sustainable: "We look that we collaborate with local businesses. We source local food, local activities. We really like to work with houses that are built in a sustainable manner and that really have the right values. We choose very special locations for the workations. So it's not your usual conference hotel, but it's really smaller houses, family hotels, whatever fits for your team and the size of your team."
What our clients think
The clients love and support that. Uta is the co-founder of GOhiring, a German startup company that has already booked two workations with Out of Office Workations. Here's what she told us about their recent workation: "We had looked at different options all over Europe where we could go with the team and we found this nice place which is just 2 hours from Berlin, which is not too far. You don't have to go there with an airplane but you can go with the train. It is really amazing, because that also means much less logistics and it is quite sustainable."
What people at Davos think
What do other business leaders do to reduce their carbon footprint? Out of Office Workations organized a meetup during the World Economic Forum to discuss this question. Participants included CEOs and Tech investors as well as Sustainability Managers and Digital Nomads. First of all, it was stated that we still have a long way to go. The topic hasn't been enough on the agenda in the past. Only now, when awareness of the effects of climate change is rising, they start to feel empowered to push for more sustainability in their business travel.
One participant summarized: "At the end, the pressure comes bottom up. Companies now are paying attention". While the group thinks that there is benefit in meeting face-to-face, they agreed that business travel can be organized more effectively and can be enhanced by technology. Another participant added to the conversation: "Maybe it is more sustainable to meet once and get a lot done and then the technology should enhance; I also think we are lucky that we live in such a great environment right now, where we can do so much."
The conversation made us rethink how we can raise even more awareness for sustainable travel and reduce our ecological footprint. Here are some ideas:
1. Think twice which meetings to do face-to-face, and which can be done virtually
2. Plan ahead to bundle several business meetings in one trip
3. Give back or pay forward to the community at the destination
4. Share transportation as much as possible
5. Donate to compensate for your carbon footprint
6. Use environmentally-friendly transport - like the sledge!
What do you think and do?
What are your best practices for sustainable travel? Less face-to-face meetings? More environmentally-friendly transport? Getting the most out of every business trip? Giving back to society? We'd love to continue this conversation! Contact us at hello@workation.works.
Introduced: Anne-Marie Jentsch, HR specialist and co-founder of Out Of Office Workations
This is an interview with FIELFALT, a German blogazine and platform that focuses on the inspiration and encouragement of women. FIELFALT appeals to women who want to take a chance, who are looking for their passion or have perhaps already found it and are enthusiastic about something very special. FIELFALT wants to support women to approach and shape their best life self-confidently and to get into action.
Anne-Marie Jentsch is an HR colleague with so many ideas and energy that you can be directly infected by it. New work approaches are very important for her. She advises companies and has even founded her own company: Out Of Office Workations. In this portrait, she tells us what this is all about, why she sometimes leaves the house without her keys and what is "fielfältig [versatile / diverse]" about her life.
Dear Anne-Marie, what are the three items which you would never leave the house without?
Smartphone (my mobile office), rainproof backpack (you need it here in Holland), water bottle / thermos flask / reusable cup.
I would have liked to have named my keys, too, but unfortunately that would be a lie…
What would your best friends say about you if I asked them about you?
How would my best friends describe me? I suppose the terms "enterpreneurial", "ambitious" and "a little bit crazy" would be used. Funnily enough - and not surprisingly at all - these also apply to my friends. During our studies of cultural science in Passau, we found each other as a diverse group and still meet regularly until today, even though we are now scattered all over Germany and the world.
You started your own business about a year ago. Please tell us how did it come to this and what you do offer?
For this I have to go a bit more into detail. I've had the dream of becoming self-employed for a long time. I've always been interested in many diverse things. Now it fits again! It was clear to me relatively early that I would have to create the job, where I could live out all my interests, myself. A combination of "something with people", "something with data" and "something with mobility".
After seven very valuable years in strategic HR consulting, last year the time had come for me to try it out. In recent years, I had increasingly specialised in the topic of "the future of work". First, in 2015 I was given the opportunity to work intensively on the question of how new technologies affect our society in a World Economic Forum project. By the way, the project publication is still worth a look, if I may say so modestly. During my subsequent sabbatical, I explored New York, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Medellin and Rio de Janeiro, among others, to find out what is happening there in terms of innovation and new ways of working. Back in Europe, I moved to my employer's Amsterdam office and began researching and advising on new ways of working. Many organisations in the Netherlands and also in Germany have started great initiatives in recent years. More flexible working models, new technologies that support location-independent working, new team and organisational structures, more agile working methods, more focus on data analytics and and so on. Of course I wanted to try out how life is in this much-sung "gig economy" and what impact I can make with my skills. Out of Office Consulting was born.
In addition to your HR work, you also founded Out Of Office Workations. What exactly is behind it and what is your vision?
Indeed. I have already mentioned that I have multi-faceted interests. Besides the "future of work" I am also fascinated by the startup world, where new ideas and new technologies are tested "lean" on the market and continuously developed until they meet customer needs. I also wanted to try that out, with an idea that I developed together with a good friend. Marie runs a coworking space in Davos and I now know my way around the Amsterdam coworking scene quite well. The idea was to give corporate teams an insight into this world. During a coworking trip to the Swiss mountains or to hip Amsterdam, the groups can get inspired and work as a team on innovations. Work-life balance and team building also play an important role, because I am convinced that they are the cornerstones of this new work culture. Testing this idea, we found that many European clients, when they already go "out of office", would like to go to sunny places, especially in the winter months. So we started offering workations in Mallorca and Portugal. Since Out of Office Workations also pays great attention to sustainable travel, we have expanded our portfolio of workation houses in recent months, especially here in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. I'm convinced that you can also have an inspiring workation nearby. Organic farms, family-run hotels, Airbnbs - there are so many great places to work from elsewhere, while supporting the local economy and protecting the environment. The vision is very clear: to inspire teams and support them in their development - by working in a unique setting with a unique full service.
You are very strongly involved in the topic around new work processes. In your opinion, what are the biggest obstacles to integrate and live new models (among companies and employees)?
A very good question. The biggest obstacle, in my opinion, is that so many employees and managers see so many obstacles. Of course, the new methods and tools don't just bring benefits and it takes time for them to be introduced and learned so that they really allow for big leaps. New practices are often abandoned too early. Here it is important that the vision is shown to the employees: What will these new ways of working bring after a few months and how will this help each individual?
It is important to make the workforce part of the change process, let them contribute their own ideas, listen to feedback and implement improvements based on it and also give them responsibility for the change process. The innovations should not be dictated from above, but should be supported and driven by everyone, because everyone has realized that without these innovations the company may not exist anymore in only a few years.
Workation Weekend by Out Of Office Workations & Outbound Kitetravel @ HNW Alkmaar
Self-employment is often equated with "by yourself" and "constantly" (the two parts of the german term). How do you recognize your limits and what do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?
Another very good question. Because I have so many interests, I have always planned a lot - sometimes too much. Still wanting to learn this language, travelling that country, learning about this subject and oh - but the other subject is also so interesting. For a few years it works well but you will come to the point where the body says STOP: "It's nice and good that your dear brain is always looking for new input, but I'm also important". After some resistance I gave in. I have put my hobby of kitesurfing more into the centre of my life, I have regularly taken time for yoga and learned about mindfulness and meditation in an 8-week mindfulness course. Since then I try to integrate this into my daily life and take regular breaks. As you say: The flexibility of independence helps on the one hand, but on the other hand I also had to learn that I have to set my own limits and organize my agenda even more stringently than before. But I can reassure those who are afraid of it: You grow with your challenges. Once you've realized where you're stuck, there are many possibilities: apps, networks of freelancers, meetups, accountability buddies, for example.
You are living in Amsterdam. What do you miss there that exists in Germany and what would you miss from the Netherlands if you lived in Germany again?
I really don't miss much here. My family of course, which I don't visit often enough because of the distance and maybe the mountains. I always enjoy coming to the mountains - but I'm also happy when I get back to the beach in Holland.
What would I miss in Germany? Tony Chocolonely! Or is it now also available in every supermarket there? I am a fan of the fair chocolate startup and send all my guests to the Tony Chocolonely headquarters in Amsterdam (which coincidentally are within walking distance from the "Out of Office headquarters", my apartment).
The company has managed to introduce a product in a (literally) saturated market that is more than twice as expensive, but proven to be fair in production. And it's "do-good mission" is not sold as a sermon on morality, but captures people emotionally through innovation and wit. In addition, the employees seem to really like working there, so you can learn something about the corporate culture. And of course the chocolate tastes good too!
Do you have a personal motto?
No. I am still searching. I come across great quotes every now and then, especially in biographies that I like to listen to or read. I am happy about inspiration in the comments - what are your personal mottos?
What did you last venture or try out and what private and/or professional challenge would you like to tackle next?
My last big adventure was definitely the kite marathon "Hoek tot Helder". Together with 300 other kiters we kitesurfed in one day from the south of the Netherlands (Hoek van Holland) along the coast almost to Den Helder in Noord-Holland. I gave up after 115km of 130 km because the wind was getting stronger and stronger and I didn't feel safe anymore. A small defeat, but I'm still proud of this decision, because it showed me that I don't always have to go beyond my own limits (anymore). And the 850 Euros, which I had collected from almost 30 friends and colleagues in advance, went nevertheless to the Dutch Hartstichting, so they were donated for a good cause.
The next challenge from a professional point of view is definitely to further develop Out of Office. I really want to do that. And the good feedback I have received from my customers so far motivates me all the more.
Last but not least: What would you like to say to the FIELFALT community?
I'm sure many of you will find some similarities to own challenges or topics in some of the points I've raised. No matter where you are on your personal journey, listen to yourself and trust your intuition. For me this has so far worked quite well.
And interview with Eva and Anne-Marie – the women behind the Alkmaar weekend workation (24 - 26 May 2019)
Eva and Anne-Marie, it’s the first time you two organize a weekend workation here in Alkmaar. How did you come up with the idea?
Anne-Marie: I am passionate about workations – combining work with fun, away from your usual work environment. It can give you so much – inspiration, a different way of working, new energy – plus time to enjoy, relax, and try something new. Eva and I share the love for kitesurfing. And she is great at organizing group events. So we thought: Let’s do something together!
Eva: When Anne-Marie and I first talked about organizing an event together it was immediately clear that it should combine all the things we love. We want to share the stoke! For example, I care for a healthy lifestyle and sustainability. For me it’s important to eat healthy and engage with the local community.
Anne-Marie: Eva showed me around her favourite places in Alkmaar, like SOEPP and Het Nieuwe Warenhuis and the idea was born! A mini-workation in Alkmaar to try out all the things we love and connect to like-minded people.
Sounds amazing. But I am still a bit confused. How does that all come together? What have you planned for the group for that weekend in May?
Eva: The weekend consists of three parts: “Work”, “Get the balance” and “Enjoy”. On Friday, we meet for coworking at Het Nieuwe Warenhuis and have dinner together at SOEPP to get to know each other. On Saturday, we spend the day together connecting with the group, exchanging experiences and helping each other. Of course, good food and fun activities are also part of that day.
Anne-Marie: And on Sunday we enjoy. Wrap up our learnings and try out some more of the fun activities we offer: Yoga, a city walk, SUP, wakeboarding or kitesurfing – whatever floats your boat. Or something you always wanted to try out. It will be fun with the encouragement and help of the group!
Who should join your weekend workation?
Eva: Anyone who wants to enjoy a weekend with a group of like-minded people, networking, having fun together, enjoying good food and Alkmaar! On Saturday, we’ll talk about how to make flexwork work. So if you’re a freelancer, part-timer or remote worker – or want to become one, this weekend might be especially interesting for you!
Anne-Marie: Agreed. It’s the combination of work and fun. Working on your own personal development, taking some time for yourself. Meeting inspiring people.
Where can I sign up? ☺
Eva: Just write an e-mail to hello@workation.works. The weekend pass is only 95 Euro. If you need accommodation in Alkmaar, we offer a great package with stay at SOEPP’s beautiful Bed & Breakfast, prices starting from 165 Euro per person for the weekend pass and 2 nights with breakfast.
Anne-Marie & Eva: We can’t wait to meet you in Alkmaar on 24th of May!
The interview was conducted and edited by Juliette Moulen, writer, UX designer and owner of rippel.nl.
