Step 1A: Prepare your intranet - business travel, workations & legal compliance with WorkFlex
Make sure all the information your employees need is gathered in one place and easy for everyone to access. This should include the following:
Definitions
What is Workation?
Make sure to explain what WorkFlex/Workation is. Here’s a brief description:
WorkFlexing means working remotely from abroad for your employer, often referred to as a workation. It's important to note that this doesn’t apply when you’re on a business trip or permanently relocating to another country. During a workation, your trip is purely personal and not for business purposes.
While you're abroad, you'll still be working for your employer in your home country, also known as your country of employment. You should remain taxable and socially insured in your home country, and the labour laws of that country will continue to apply to your employment contract.
What is Business Travel?
Make sure to explain when a trip should be considered business travel. Here’s a brief description:
A business trip is defined as when you are sent by your employer to:
Visit a client
Perform work at another company location
Perform work for a client on-site
Attend a conference, fair, workshop, training, etc.
Participate in an offsite event organised by your company
If you’re travelling for any of these reasons outside of your country of employment, there could be compliance risks that need to be addressed. This is where WorkFlex can support us.
Why WorkFlex?
WorkFlex simplifies the process of managing temporary work from abroad or business travel. Our platform ensures compliance with key areas such as:
Permanent establishment risks
Employment tax obligations
Social security coverage
Labor law requirements
Work entitlement in the destination country
By using WorkFlex, employees can confidently embark on workations or business trips while employers mitigate compliance risks.
Why should you make WorkFlex a mandatory part of your process?
To protect employees and the company, WorkFlex should be mandatory to:
Avoid non-compliance with employment and company guidelines, which could lead to official warnings or dismissal.
Prevent financial liabilities for corporate or employment tax issues.
Eliminate penalties or fines for social security non-compliance, which could result in lengthy processes and loss of resources.
Safeguard against being banned from a country for illegal work, which could lead to multi-year bans or even detention.
PWD: no-risk coverage and lead times
This is relevant for all EU business trips and workations to Belgium.
Step 1B: Prepare your intranet - understanding the WorkFlex platform
Workation Approval Flow & Risk Assessment Explanations
To increase transparency regarding the workation request approval process, you may use this workflow diagram below.
Risk assessments are part of the workation approval workflow and serve the purpose of evaluation the compliance risk that is related to a particular workation request. The outcome of a risk assessment is influenced by different risk dimensions that we take into consideration when conducting these assessments. Please refer to the following article to learn more about risk assessments, their outcomes and implications:
Business Travel Approval Flow & Compliance Summary Explanations
To increase transparency regarding the business travel process, you may use this workflow diagram.
Business travel requests are processed by the WorkFlex engine upon submission. They then display different compliance statuses which may require attention or the submission of additional documents.
It is important to understand the implication of each status to ensure the timely processing of a request.
Please refer to the following article to learn more about the different statuses of your business travel request:
Useful click-guides and video tutorials
In our help center you can find valuable articles, as well as click- and video guides that you may include in your intranet. You will see that employees feel more enabled to use the platform and that you have to handle less repetitive questions.
This collection should get your employees up to speed with WorkFlex:
Data privacy and security - employer checklist
HR admins should review the Data Privacy and Security Checklist (attached at the end of this article) to ensure compliance when handling employee data.
Step 2: Preparing for WorkFlex launch
Notify managers before launch
If managers are approvers on the WorkFlex platform, inform them at least 3 days prior to launch. Use our email template to ensure managers understand their roles in the process.
Hold a Q&A meeting for managers (optional)
For managers heavily involved in approvals, consider hosting a Q&A meeting. Present the platform, explain the working-from-abroad policy, and address questions. Your dedicated WorkFlex Customer Success Manager can support this meeting.
Tease WorkFlex in an all-hands meeting
Use an all-hands meeting to briefly introduce WorkFlex. Prepare employees for upcoming invitations to the platform and an info session.
Announce WorkFlex in a company-wide meeting
Share the great news with the whole company in a dedicated meeting. Best practices include:
Top management introducing the benefit and policies.
A WorkFlex consultant presenting the platform live.
Allowing employees to ask questions in real-time.
Pro Tip: Record the session and upload it to your intranet for future reference. Use our presentation template and email template to prepare.
WorkFlex streamlines compliance, simplifies processes, and enables safe and flexible working-from-abroad opportunities for your employees. For further support, don’t hesitate to explore our Help Center or reach out to our team!