Traveling abroad while teleworking is possible with Holiworking!

Question 2: Incredible journey and questioning of the relationship between (tele)workers and travel. How was the start for Holiworking?

“In 2019, we did a market study, and also worked a lot on the legal aspect because there were obviously key elements, an economic model so that all this could work. Finally, we created the company in August 2020.

We started to market Holiworking at the start of 2021, and today we are open in around ten countries. The concept is to offer employees the opportunity to have a strong, rich experience internationally, between 3 and 12 months, while continuing their work, teleworking abroad.. 

Il y a 2 sujets principaux dans notre offre : 

1.    Structuring the organization between Holiworker and the Holicompany

With our innovative HR model, reassure the company AND the employee, align the organization with health insurance, welfare, etc. We want it to be straightforward, fun to set up and at no additional cost to the company offering it within its structure.

2.    The experiential aspect which is extremely important

It consists of accompanying the employee to their destination, helping them look for accommodation, supporting them upon their arrival, ensuring their welcome in coworking so that there is a real working environment available on site with the electricity and the network because this is not necessarily guaranteed in all countries. THE Holiworker is followed by a Holicoach, a caring person who will watch over the employee, promote the immersion of the Holiworker dans la vie culturelle d’accueil, donc au contact de la culture locale par plein de moyens, des expériences hors des sentiers battus, participer à des associations locales, soit pour faire partie d’une équipe de sport locale par exemple ou alors donner de son temps auprès d’associations caritatives, humanitaires ou pour l’environnement. 

Each Holiworker échange avec son coach à propos de ce qu’il aime, de ce qu'il voudrait faire ou voir, comment il voit son séjour, etc. En fonction de ce que chacun a envie de faire, nos coachs proposent des activités différentes comme la boxe thaï, du yoga, des randonnées, des cérémonies culturelles, voir le coucher de soleil sur un bateau et pleins d’autres événements. 

Our goal for this year 2023 is to send 100 Holiworkers, ouvrir d’autres pays, et ajouter des destinations supplémentaires. 

So here in a few words is everything we do with it Holiworking ! »

" Today, Holiworking It is :

• around ten destinations around the world

• 8 employees in France

• a dozen coaches around the world

• therefore around twenty employees everywhere

• une trentaine de sociétés qui diffusent notre modèle en interne à leurs collaborateurs. 

Our ambition is to remove many Holiworkers, all over the world, and allow them to live incredible experiences for a few months! »

Question 4: What do you think of the flex model?

“We are used to practicing flex office at home, in offices and in coworking spaces. For me, “flex office” is the key word for work in the general sense.

It's flex in terms of geography, flex in terms of function, because Generation Z wants to be able to move quickly.

And it is also “flex” in the mentalities of the younger generations who today are somewhere and can work at any time. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage because they are much less attached to the company as such and able to change jobs, functions, companies quite quickly, etc.

So we must take this into account because it is a reality! And retaining talent requires this understanding of these new mechanisms and tools capable of adapting to this new flex mode of working, tools which are perhaps platforms like BeeMyFlex or tools like Holiworking, qui ont une offre de services qui complète finalement une politique RH, une politique marque employeur au sens large. » 

Question 5 : vous parliez de chiffres sur le nombre d’entreprises, est-ce que ce sont les entreprises qui viennent à vous ou vous a elles aujourd’hui ? Comment se passe la première prise de contact ? 

“We have 2 approaches at Holiworking : 

• A B to B approach : we will contact companies and present our model to them so that they can integrate it into their HR policy and offer it to their employees. Once the model is presented to employees, some of them ask us to carry out the project with them.

• A B to C approach : employees discover Holiworking, realize that it totally corresponds to what they would like to do, then wonder how it works. In this case, they are the ones who call us to build the project. Then we turn to their HR department and managers to present our solution.

Our way of proceeding in B to C:

• Employees contact us first

• We qualify their project with them (where do they want to go, for how long, etc.).

• Once it is clear to them, we ask them to present the project to their manager or N+1 to at least have agreement in principle without talking about the solution format.

• And once the manager is OK (because it is a key element: the manager must be on board), we will present the project to the CEO and HR department to present and secure the model, reassure on the terms, etc. etc.

Today, we have almost 500 incoming forms completed per month, for 70% from B to C and 30% from B to B.”

Question 6 : Comment les projets sont-ils financés ? 

“There are 2 sources of income on the model Holiworking : 

• The Holiworker remains in employee status, therefore his contract remains active, there is nothing that changes at this level. When he is abroad, we will frame his experience with an employment contract amendment and the small difference is that he will leave the Social Security system: we will pay him his pay at destination and will withhold a percentage from his salary at that time. We guarantee 85% of the net, or even in general we are on 90%.

• And sometimes we can even guarantee 100% of the salary!

At our destination, there are charges that we must pay: local charges such as retirement, Social Security, local…etc. To comply, all these formalities are ensured by Holiworking and as we are leaving the Social Security system, there are fewer charges that we compensate for with insurance: these differences in charges thus finance our model and it remains transparent both for the company and for the Holiworker ! »

Question 7: What is the added value of Holiworking for Holiworkers and businesses?

« Nous sommes là pour assurer la conformité au départ en France et à l'arrivée selon la destination choisie. Il y a un volet immigration pour les Visas, un volet charges sociales et après éventuellement un volet sur les impôts sur le revenu. C’est un sujet qu’il faut traiter à chaque fois dans chaque pays, et les volets vont dépendre du pays, de la durée de la mission à l’internationale… etc. » 

Question 8 : On imagine que les entreprises ne sont pas toujours ouvertes à l’idée. Est-ce qu’il y a eu une évolution de ressenti ? 

“Yes, there are companies that are more closed than others and there will always be some, it is certain that our model is not suitable for everyone: it depends a little on the DNA of the company and of the manager, also of the professions. It is certain that if 99% of the company's activity Holicompagny has professions linked to the field, our concept Holiworking is of less interest than for a company that is fully digital or fully teleworking. It also depends on the professions, if there are recruitment difficulties for example. Whether there is an employer branding objective or not.

Currently membership to Holiworking is often linked to 2 factors:

• The first criterion This is because the manager thinks that it is good for employees to go and see what is happening abroad because he himself has experienced it, he is convinced of it and wants to propose it to employees.

• The second criterion is at the level of the employer brand: there are cases where the company has lost talents because they left to travel, or because another company offered the opportunity to go and experience slightly different adventures, including internationally.

In this scenario, there is either:

• Either the “pro active” mode: that is to say “I want to be part of these companies that offer flex and booster experiences my employer brand »

• Either the “reactive” mode: i.e. “I have already lost 2 talents, they had barely been there a year and I was very happy with them but they decided to leave. »

It is an HR decision-making element that is currently changing operating methods

Moreover, there are clients that we contacted a year, even a year and a half ago, and who call me back today to say “There, I have lost talent, we really need to let us move forward together on this subject.”

So yes, things are slowly changing on the business side! »

Question 9: Do you keep in touch with certain companies and do you observe a real change?

“Yes, from the moment companies know us, employees and services remember us and we are aware that companies in 2022 have had many crises to manage between energy, inflation, renegotiations salaries and recently questions about pensions, etc. In short, companies have a whole bunch of topics, where the topic related to “flexible working” mode internally is not always at the top of the pile. So, we need moments of lull in corporate news to address subjects that are a little less essential to the core business of companies. »

Question 10: What are the most popular destinations?

« Le plus demandé est un pays que l’on n’a pas encore ouvert : Il s’agit des Etats-Unis. 

Pour le Top 3 il y a l’Indonésie, le Canada, puis la Thaïlande. 

Even if you leave for 3 months, you might as well go to dream destinations que l’on ne pourrait pas découvrir en 1 week-end, c’est pour cela que nous n’avons pas de pays européens dans notre catalogue. 

Personally, I am attracted to Africa and Namibia in particular, where I love wide open spaces, deserts and animals. I would really like to open a coworking in Cuba, there is also Zanzibar which is in the pipeline.

Il en faut pour tous et tous les goûts ! Il y a des gens qui seront plus attirés par les grandes métropoles et d’autres plutôt par une culture, des arts culinaires, des activités particulières, etc. 

The motivations of potential starters vary greatly. »

Question 11 : Est-ce que les départs des Holiworkers pourraient rentrer dans le cadre du télétravail ? 

“In France, teleworking is not yet completely well defined. We work a lot on this subject with lawyers to propose something square and clean and which is not questionable.

Ce qui est important c’est la conformité à destination et cadrer de la même manière le télétravail en France et à l’international sur les horaires ou le droit à la déconnexion par exemple. 

There are certain companies that are OK with the project only if the employee leaves less than 4 hours apart from the time zone, for example. It depends on how companies want to apply the model Holiworking within their structure. »

Question 12: How do you see the evolution of the Holiworking model and the maturity of companies in France?

« J’avoue que je ne me suis pas encore posé la question. Notre modèle est basé sur le principe que les collaborateurs reviennent dans l’entreprise au bout d’un moment, même s'ils souhaitent repartir l’année d'après. 

We offer a minimum stay of 3 months so that the immersion is sufficient and that there is a real cultural and experience contribution, and a maximum duration of 12 months for several reasons, but one of them is that beyond 12 months, attachment to the company may diminish.

C’est donc bien de récupérer son collaborateur au moins pour quelques mois, et rapprocher les équipes même dans des entreprises en télétravail à 100%. 

The physical link is important whatever the mode of work! »

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A big thank you to Gaël Brisson for this interview and this totally flexible sharing of experience and vision!

You would have understood it :

• If you are a partner and you dream of traveling the world and having local experiences, while maintaining your position and your missions within your company, it is time to set up your project with Holiworking and propose it to your HR department and manager.

• If you are a company and you want to offer international experiences to your employees to enrich the culture of your company, and boost your employer brand, all you have to do is ask the Holiworking team to organize this project for you and your collaborators.

Happy travels and teleworking to all with the concept Holiworking !

To become a Holicompany, go here www.holiworking.com