The Power of Workations and Digital Nomad Visas for Team Engagement

Many modern organizations are adopting flexible workplace policies that go beyond the conventional 9-to-5 in-office model. Options such as remote work, hybrid, work from anywhere, and flex time have become increasingly popular due to the lowered overhead costs, greater talent attraction, and improved team engagement.

According to Gallup’s Hybrid Work Indicator, as of May 2024, exclusively remote employees experienced 37% engagement rates. This is followed by 36% for hybrid employees — while that’s only 28% for on-site employees.

With the proven advantage of the increase in team engagement due to remote work, it makes sense for modern companies to explore remote-first team engagement strategies that prioritize workers’ work-life balance.

One such strategy involves incentivizing employees and contractors with digital nomad or remote work visas. These visas allow workers to live and explore new countries while working remotely for your company. This strategy attracts talented workers worldwide and engages current talent by offering personal growth through cross-cultural exposure. The fresh perspectives they gain can enhance team dynamics and boost creativity in problem-solving.

Deel helps organizations implement ‘workations’ or ‘Work From Abroad’ policies as a competitive advantage by simplifying the procurement of digital nomad visas for your workforce.

Read on to learn how to make workations a viable team engagement strategy for your organization.

What is a digital nomad visa?

A digital nomad visa or remote work visa allows remote employees, digital nomads, or freelancers to temporarily live in a foreign country while working remotely for a foreign employer or client. It is a type of temporary residence work permit with a non-immigrant status allowing workers to legally live and work abroad without local employment.

How is a digital nomad visa different from a tourist visa?

Tourist visas are for leisure travel and short-term visits. Holders are typically prohibited from working or earning an income while in the host country.

In contrast, digital nomad visas are designed for remote workers who earn income from sources outside the country they’re visiting. It supports people who want to live in a foreign country for extended periods while working remotely.

Digital nomad visas often require applicants to provide proof of income and health insurance coverage—many countries, like Japan and Thailand, set a minimum income threshold to ensure applicants can support themselves while living abroad.

These visas generally permit multiple entries and may come with tax residency implications depending on the country. For example, some nations, like Brazil or Argentina, may impose local tax obligations, while countries like Croatia and the UAE are tax-free for digital nomads.

Why do nations offer digital nomad visas?

Countries offer digital nomad or remote work visas to attract digital nomads, who contribute significantly to the local economy by spending on housing, groceries, restaurants, and other services — all without competing for local jobs.

Additional benefits of a digital nomad visa for a host nation include:

• Increased tourism: Digital nomads share their experiences with their network and online communities
• Cross-cultural exchange: Promotes skill development not only for individual workers but also positively impacts the local communities they engage with
• Enhanced global reputation: Digital nomad visas indicate the ‘progressive’ nature of a country which attracts more investment and talent

Want to know which nations provide digital nomad visas? — explore our updated list of 41 countries offering Digital Nomad Visas for 2024

How do digital nomad visas help improve team engagement?

Digital nomad visas enable you to provide workations (work + vacation or Work From Abroad) as a default or earned worker benefit. Your organization helps obtain visa approval for your workers’ digital nomad visas and supports other administrative processes to help them experience a change of scenery beyond their usual remote work environment, which results in improved worker well-being and team engagement.

Here are some additional benefits:

Enhanced talent attraction:

The job market is competitive, which makes attracting a talented workforce with the desired skillset challenging. Of the 42% of professionals who either plan to or have already begun searching for a new job in 2024, 31% are motivated by a desire for greater flexibility in their work, according to Robert Half.

Also, 45.2% of US employees with advanced degrees work remotely. Therefore, offering a digital nomad visa serves as a competitive advantage to stand out as a desirable workplace to capture this crowd.

Improved talent retention:

Employees with flexible remote work options are 32% less likely to quit than those who work exclusively on-site. Additionally, 69% of employees expressed they were less likely to leave their jobs following a workation experience.

Improved productivity:

Some HR professionals might wonder, can workers stay productive while on a workation? According to research, 86% of employees reported increased productivity after a workation, while 83% felt it helped them combat burnout.

A well-structured ‘Work From Abroad’ or ‘Workation’ policy and an efficient process for obtaining digital nomad visas can significantly boost employee engagement and retention while improving productivity and worker wellbeing, creating a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Learn more — How Digital Nomads Can Contribute To Enterprise Growth

Examples of companies leading with workation as an employee benefit for engagement

Bosch

Bosch supports 54 days of working within defined countries in a year under its Smart Work Abroad Policy.

Here’s how Bosch’s Product Compliance Officer, Ahmet Oguz, describes their experience, which indicates a high level of employee satisfaction:

“Smart Work Abroad gives you more self-determination and freedom in your professional life. I had the unique opportunity to pursue my career, be there for my family members in Italy, and gain valuable experience at the same time.”

KPMG Canada

KPMG Canada allows their employees to work from defined foreign locations for up to 8 weeks in a year.

Louise Lutgens, KPMG’s managing director of talent innovation and strategic investments, describes to Benefits Canada how this employee benefit is a key tactic to attract talented employees:

“We need some of the best and brightest right here in Canada and to give them the opportunity to join and have the chance to work in a different location while expanding their experience and perspectives brings greater value to us and our clients. It’s definitely one of the attraction plays that we’re selling and pitching to candidates right now.”

Continental

Continental follows a ‘mobile working’ policy that allows its employees to work remotely from two different European countries for up to 20 days each year.

Here’s how their employee, Lea Strassheim, describes how she manages workation:

“Even though I had a similar work routine as at home, I tried to move my lunch break outside and finish work on time in the evening so I could still explore my surroundings.”

3 key considerations of adopting workation for employee engagement

Before jumping to procure digital nomad visas, consider the following aspects of designing a workation policy:

• Tax implications: Companies must navigate local employment and tax regulations and work with legal experts to iron out the legal details
• Data security: Allowing employees to work in foreign locations may expose your company to cybersecurity risks. You must take steps to protect sensitive information and invest in data security best practices
• Company culture: HR teams should develop strategies that help employees on workation feel connected and present with in-office workers. Time zone differences won’t be a burden if HR establishes clear communication guidelines

Need visas quickly? We have compiled a list of The Best Digital Nomad Visas for Fast Processing

How to implement a workation policy for team engagement?

Just like other HR policies, to successfully implement a ‘Workation’ or ‘Work From Abroad’ scheme, it’s important to ensure a smooth experience. Follow this 4-step process to get started with adopting workations with digital nomad visas:

Step 1: Design and document your workation policy

A good workation policy clearly communicates the process, benefits, and other terms and conditions to existing or potential workers. It must include:

• Duration and frequency of workations allowed in a year
• A list of countries supported by your company
• Eligibility criteria for availing the digital nomad visa like roles or performance achievements
• Expectations across working hours and quality assessment criteria for employees in the workation period
• Resources offered by the company for employees and contractors
• Compliance policies that workers must follow for data security and representation of their company in foreign lands
• Communication protocols to handle time zone differences. Includes core hours for meetings, expected response times, and escalation protocols for urgent matters

Set a strong foundation for your workation policy and communicate the same on your website and employee portals.

Start creating your workation policy with our handy and Free Digital Nomad Policy Template.

Step 2: Streamline the process to obtain digital nomad visas

Managing the logistics of obtaining a digital nomad visa is the trickiest part of implementing a successful workation policy. For a single country, your company has to invest resources in below tasks:

• Research visa requirements: Each country has unique processes for obtaining a digital nomad visa. Your company has to invest additional resources to research the eligibility criteria and application process of digital nomad visa-supporting countries. You need to navigate each one’s regulatory requirements independently
• Handle documentation: You need to research the list of required documents. Then, you have to coordinate with the employees to collect and submit on time. This includes proof of employment, financial records, identity documents, health or travel insurance, or special cases like background checks
• Navigate tax implications: Companies may need to sponsor or make sure workers cover extra taxes during their workation. This may include investing in tax consultants familiar with cross-border taxes
• Align with local workplace compliances: You need to research local labor laws and data security practices to align workflows. Many host countries like EU nations enforce strict data handling regulations (GDPR). This may often require workers to use secure networks or other setup adjustments by the IT team
• Track and manage renewals: Digital nomad visas have expiry limits. You must track renewals to avoid visa expiration, overstays, or legal issues. This includes setting up alerts, planning resources for visa application management, and aligning with any new legal changes

Since digital nomadism is a fairly new concept, the resources for obtaining digital nomad visas are limited, and the process requires deep research.

Fortunately, Deel Immigration centralizes and automates the above five tasks into a single platform to acquire digital nomad visas for your workforce.

To offer ‘Workation’ as a worker benefit, you need only log into your Deel dashboard to process the Digital Nomad Visa.

With Deel Immigration, your company overcomes any foreign language or regulatory barriers to seamlessly manage the application process from start to finish. This includes verifying work authorization documents, completing application tasks, managing communication with authorities, and renewing visas.

Here are the three key features that will help you successfully acquire digital nomad visas for your teams’ workations:

• Eligibility checker: Use Deel’s free visa assessment to check digital nomad visa eligibility. Deel Immigration provides document requirements with cost breakdown within 48 hours
• Application tracker: Get visibility into the digital nomad visa application process via a centralized dashboard. Deel Immigration tracks cases in real time and highlights pending tasks that require immediate attention
• Immigration wallet: helps manage documents and proactively track renewal status

Currently, Deel Immigration supports digital nomad visas in Portugal, Spain, Greece, Canada, Japan, Argentina, Colombia, Italy, and the UAE. We are actively working to expand our services to even more countries soon.

Learn more about how Deel Immigration streamlines visas and immigration — Deel Immigration for worldwide visas.

Step 3: Set up remote work infrastructure to support workations

With Deel Immigration taking care of the digital nomad visa application process, all that’s left to do is set up infrastructure to make it easy for workers to relocate and coordinate seamlessly with their teams. Here are the steps to take:

• Set up reliable communication tools and secure networks to share data with fellow team members without risking data breaches. For this, explore Deel HR to manage documentation, streamline PTO, report expenses, and much more
• Invest in HR tools that track OKRs and tasks, employee performance software, or dashboards to provide managers with visibility into employees’ work. For this, explore Deel Engage to centralize performance management for tracking OKRs, streamlining reviews, and managing feedback. Further, use the Learning Management System (LMS) to design custom upskilling courses to help employees achieve their goals regardless of their location
• Align company equipment with country-specific laws to prevent it from entering a sanctioned country and avoid cybersecurity risks. Deel IT ensures your company equipment aligns with local laws regarding customs, technology standards, and import regulations
• Create relocation packages by partnering with hotels, restaurants, co-working spaces, travel companies, etc, for logistics support. This reduces the administrative burden on employees so they can focus on enjoying their workation and delivering work. With Deel Immigration, workers receive discounts on services like pet relocation, housing, and transportation in their new country. This not only makes the transition smoother but also more cost-effective

Don’t forget to consider your worker’s families. If a worker is taking their wife or children with them, you may want to guide them to the best Digital Nomad Visas for families for a comfortable workation.

Or, if you’re supporting juniors, interns, or workers from lower-cost labor markets, you may want to direct them to the best Digital Nomad Visas for The Low-Income Requirement.

Step 4: Request employee feedback and iterate to create an effective workation policy

Lastly, do request employee feedback during and after the workation period. This will help you determine whether your workation policy was effective in engaging your team.

Use a simple pre and post-workation survey. Include questions on aspects like work-life balance, productivity, team coordination, or any challenges they encountered. This provides practical insights into the viability of ‘Workations’ as a team engagement strategy.

Boost remote team engagement with workations and digital nomad visas by Deel

If workations and digital nomad visas sound like an attractive engagement strategy for your team, Deel is here to help you implement them! Deel Immigration’s free visa assessment offers a risk-free start to the Digital Nomad Visa process. Based on the results, you can budget and plan your Digital Nomad policy. Then, execute them with Deel’s simple and customizable platform.

Deel provides more than just immigration services — we are a global people platform that offers end-to-end solutions for hiring, managing, and paying international teams. Our services include:

• Global Payroll: Manage payroll and contractors payments worldwide
• Employer of Record (EOR): Hire employees abroad without local entities
• Contractor Management: Hire contractors compliantly worldwide
• Entity Setup: Set up new legal entities abroad with ease
• Deel IT: Manage IT assets globally, including devices and software
• Deel Engage: Manage performance, career growth, and learning with HR tools

Take the first step toward making ‘Workations’ an effective employee engagement strategy with digital nomad visas by Deel—book a 30-minute call today.