Remote First You choose your
Work Location!

Part of New Work: what does “Remote First” mean?

In the past, working in a company was bound to a specific physical location (the office) across all industries. Nowadays, this is no longer necessarily the case. The term “remote work” means exactly the opposite: it doesn’t matter where you work from as work is decentralized. 🌍

The focus is on location independence: “remote” means something like “far away”. In companies that work remotely, employees are free to choose where they want to work - their work location can be in their home office, but they can also work on the road, for example on a train or plane, in a café or even on the beach.

Remote First at AGOLUTION

When discussing with other team members, we mainly use Microsoft Teams - this collaboration solution offers us many options to communicate face-to-face. In particular, we use our individual channels to structure topics or to address messages to specific groups of people in different situations. And the onboarding of new employees and the regular feedback meetings also run smoothly digitally.

To stay in contact with the team, all team members have the option of joining a weekly digital coffee break ☕.

We also regularly organize after-work get-togethers, which are planned and organized by different team members. For example, we meet for a pizza dinner 🍕, go to the Christmas market 🎄 or meet for brunch. (The latter is more of a pre-work event. 😉)

What you do is the Focus… not where you do it - why do we take a Remote First Approach?

Of course, everyone of us prioritizes different benefits. For some team members who live further away from the physical company location, the cost factor with regard to travel distances plays a decisive role. For another team member who has to take care of their children, it is important that the various tasks can be easily handled. Which of the following advantages is most important to you? Or do you see even more advantages? 😊

You are free to choose your Workplace - these are the Advantages

Flexibility due to Local Independence

Remote First offers you a very high degree of flexibility thanks to location independence: It is possible to live in a location that is in a completely different city or even a different country than the physical company location.

Less Commuting, more Free Time

By eliminating the commute, you can save a lot of time that would otherwise be spent commuting to and from the company location every day. This means you have more time for leisure activities - your work-life balance benefits here!

Better Work-life Balance and new innovative Opportunities

By saving time, you have more space to organize your free time and there are also new possibilities arising due to the independence of location. One of these is workation, which allows you to effectively integrate work and personal life.

Saving Costs by reducing your Commute

And it’s not just about time that you save, but also about your purse - fuel costs, costs for train tickets or car wear and tear are lower because your commute is reduced or eliminated.

Less Stress and a more relaxed Everyday Life

Working remote you can avoid the rush hour traffic which is often nerve-wracking and the exhausting commute with idle and waiting times - this can reduce your stress levels. You also have the opportunity to work in familiar surroundings, which also helps to reduce stress. Interruptions for example due to noise from the office kitchen or phone calls from colleagues won’t disrupt your workflow.

Autonomy and Personal Responsibility thanks to Asynchronous Structures

You can organize your daily routine more flexibly. You can organize your workflows according to your own preferences - apart from fixed appointments and tasks with deadlines that have to be coordinated with your colleagues (that goes without saying): Whenever it makes sense, we also work asynchronously. 🕐

Workplace Choice enables higher Productivity

You are free to choose your working environment and thus set up the perfect workspace for you - without having to take other people into account. For example, you can decorate your desk however you like - the AGOLUTION heart from your onboarding goodie bag is a natural choice here. 😉 You can also choose the room temperature and lighting exactly as you like, for example. Fewer distractions and a more comfortable environment allow you to focus even better and thus achieve better work results.

Easier Reconciliation of Work and Private Commitments

Taking care of children, family members and pets is much easier thanks to remote work. For example, you can take the dog out at lunchtime and during breaks. 🐕 Otherwise, you might even have to arrange expensive childcare.

Protecting the Environment

If you normally drive to work 🚗, you have the opportunity to do your bit for the environment with Remote First. By eliminating your commute, you can significantly reduce your carbon dioxide consumption. The exact amount you save each week depends on various factors - including the distance between your home and the company site and the carbon dioxide emissions of your car. And, of course, it also depends on how many days you work from home.

Nevertheless, our average values (as of the end of 2022) give you a rough idea of the potential of remote work in terms of time, costs and environmental impact. The following illustration shows what an “average” AGOLUTION employee gains or saves per year by working from home office:

And if you continue to calculate on the basis of these values up until retirement, Remote First results in the following savings potential (we assume that the retirement age is 67 and there are still 32 working years to go):

Remote First - but not necessarily 100% remote

As part of the AGOLUTION team, you have the option of working every day in our internal co-working space in Muenster as an alternative to working from home.

This gives all team members the freedom to decide for themselves whether they want to work 100% remotely or whether they want to work in the co-working space from time to time or regularly on fixed days. The decision as to where you work is entirely up to you - there is no need to discuss with the team leader or colleagues.

A Change from Working from Home: our Co-working Space in beautiful Muenster

You can easily reserve your workplace in the co-working space with just a few clicks using a digital booking tool that we have integrated into Microsoft Teams. You have free choice of seats: You can see which seats have already been reserved on which day using the seating plan: