Transparency Report 2024
A nation without a country
Transparency Report 2024
Diversity is our superpower and catalyst for growth
TRUMPeting Transparency
In a world where the DEI policies are being abolished and freedoms are under threat, WorkNomads is calling out louder its commitment to build a long-term sustainable community based upon respect and tolerance across cultures.
By championing equity and transparency in our practices and decisions, we aim to empower individuals and design a work culture in which diversity is our superpower and catalyst for growth.
At Worknomads, 2024 demonstrated that when the world is your oyster, the future is bright, it’s yours... it’s ours!
Yours truly,
A nation without a country
A
nation without a country
A nation without a country
WorkNomads was founded in 2021 with the belief that people should have the freedom to live and work anywhere and anytime it suits them best.
While current regulatory and professional frameworks are trying to catch-up with this new trending lifestyle, WorkNomads is meanwhile enabling such by providing remote project-based work and offering flexible coliving.
Today our workforce is over 150 people strong with 30 nationalities and working remotely from different continents. Our WN LAB Hotel serves as a creative safe haven for our nomads, our clients as well as people working and travelling to Sofia, looking for a community. To the best of our knowledge, there’s currently no other company with the same business model as ours.
A nation without a country
Brand Values
Curiosity
We possess a burning desire to challenge and improve ourselves, gather information and knowledge and get exposure to the unfamiliar.
Trust
Trust is the foundation on which we build every relationship. Through transparency and honesty, we create a safe space to thrive together.
Diversity
We want you to feel welcome and respected, there is more that unites us than divides us.
Social mobility
We believe that your background should not define your destination.
Freedom
Flexibility and autonomy to live life your way holding yourself accountable.
Walk the talk
While staying humble, we stand for what we believe in, take responsibility and make things happen.
A nation without a country
Our business model
In 2024, our third full business year, we took the decision to start focusing more on delivering remote engineering service-based solutions rather than staffing solutions. Through staffing, we have realized two key things: first, we are good and fast at finding some of the best experts in various fields worldwide; and second, with all the knowledge we are generating within the company, we are fully capable of providing enhanced services to our clients in Industrial and Infrastructural Engineering, ICT Engineering, and Business Development.
We want to add real value for both our nomads and clients by working across multidisciplinary projects. It will allow our nomads to enhance and leverage their expertise, while for our clients can rely upon a trusted all-in-one solution partner for Industrial, Infrastructure and ICT engineering, creating efficiencies and streamline communication.
In this respect we have initiated our TalentTrek Academy series for our engineers and specialists. During these bi-monthly sessions we discuss a specific client case to increase the awareness of the skillset present in the company and instigate multidisciplinary collaboration around projects.
An Olympic year
An Olympic year
2024 was an Olympic year, also at WorkNomads. There’s an interesting parallel between the philosophy of the Olympics and WorkNomads, both are uniting and celebrating talent around the globe. Most of the participating athletes throughout the year train and live wherever are the best circumstances for them, irrespective of their homeland. So just like nomads, they’re in pursuit of an environment and sometimes even a nationality that will increase their chances for success in life.
So, we seized the momentum to host our very own WN Olympic Games, gathering all our talented nomads throughout a weekend in our WN LAB Hotel in Sofia. We have crowned over 20 individual champions in math, limbo, strength, coordination, project management, and many more and of course the ultimate WorkNomads Olympic Team of the Year. The weekend allowed our employees to engage in person with colleagues they sometimes only know
from online meetings and mails. WorkNomads fiercely promotes remote work because it allows us to employ a diverse global workforce. However, we recognize the necessity of having f2f time with your colleagues and clients in order to build trust and understanding and facilitate efficient work relationships. Our WN LAB Hotel, fulfills exactly this function, serving as a community hub for our employees.
Ecovadis sustainability rating top 35%
In May 2024, WorkNomads was officially awarded a bronze medal by Ecovadis, placing us in the top 35% of companies addressing sustainability criteria.
It’s a great result and demonstration of our commitment and efforts, especially since it’s our first time participating in such an assessment.
Highlights, achievements and failures
163 employees
6.06% mean gender pay gap
141 SQM to live and work
17 countries worldwide where people work remotely
30 nationalities
66.81% remote work
40.12% staff turnover
11 successful relocations for 2024 (27 in total)
Our ESG efforts, progress & impact
ESG efforts: Environmental
We monitor, measure, and report on environmental impacts as we evolve. Proofreading this paragraph’s carbon emissions is roughly 0.2 to 4 grams of CO₂.
We strive to minimize the ecological footprint of WorkNomads to the best of our ability.
Our ESG efforts, progress & impact
UN SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities
Coliving enables modern-day nomads and remote workers to adopt a minimalist lifestyle. They are seeking to reduce excess possessions, reflecting sustainable practices and making room and time for meaningful connections. At WN LAB hotel, we understand the allure of coliving spaces as hubs for collaboration, community, and sustainable living. By creating environments where individuals can share resources, minimize their environmental footprint, and prioritize experiences over possessions, we support a lifestyle that promotes connectivity and personal fulfillment. Embracing the principles of the sharing economy, coliving spaces at WorkNomads not only offer practicality and affordability but also cultivate
a sense of belonging and cultural exchange among like-minded individuals from diverse backgrounds.
In 2024, more than 40% of our occupancy came from our employees, clients and digital nomads. The role the WN LAB Hotel serves as our corporate community hub has increased tremendously and it’s our ambition over time to have the WN LAB Hotel exclusively used by WN employees, clients and digital nomads. Among those digital nomad guests, we observed in 2024 a diverse range of stay durations:
17% stayed over 60 days, 22% stayed between 30 and 60 days, 16% stayed exactly 30 days, and 19% returned for repeat visits.
Our ESG efforts, progress & impact
ESG efforts: Environmental
UN SDG 12: Responsible production and consumption
We prioritize humble, modest and intentional resource use. Our philosophy of taking only what we need and not more, aligns with promoting efficient, responsible energy use. We are proud of our consistent reduction in electricity consumption, achieving an additional 8% decrease from last year. This is the first effect of making the decision halfway through the year from changing most of corridor lighting to motion sensor lighting. Where possible most of the places in the WN LAB Hotel have now sensor lighting.
electricity savings and rising demand suggests that while some efficiency improvements have worked, there is still room for improvement. Time to turn off the heaters and design WN’s thick sweater merch!
One of last year’s challenges was scaling without increasing our waste. Through busier periods of company growth and lower coliving occupancies, we have managed to keep waste increase to a minimum.
Our focus is on making recycling a natural habit for every employee or guest.
Along with electricity consumption, we closely track heating, hot and cold water usage. The gap between
ESG efforts: Social
Embedded within the WN core values is our dedication to social impact, ensuring an inclusive environment where equity is upheld, and our actions reflect our values.
Our ESG efforts, progress & impact
ESG efforts: Social
UN SDG 3: Good health and well-being
Our 2024 data highlight the positive connection between remote work, well-being, and a healthy work-life balance. We believe our remote flexible working hours and model enables our employees to more easily schedule their personal commitments and thus prioritize their well-being. Ultimately giving employees more freedom and autonomy to organize their work leads to increased productivity. We see a positive correlation trend in taking less sick leave this year compared to previous and a decline in in the unused paid leaves. The increase in paid leave usage suggests our team is taking the time they need to rest and recharge.
While our staff turnover rate remains high, we’ve made significant improvements compared to the previous year decreasing it with 30%. Certain business units within the company keep on struggling to keep staff like our Sales Operations or the Housing unit, from where most of the negative numbers are coming, but we are seeing stable and low numbers among engineers, IT and business development experts.
Our ESG efforts, progress & impact
ESG efforts: Social
During 2024, we have implemented several measures to improve wellbeing at work. One of the most important things was the introduction of Offline Thursday. Offline Thursday means that every Thursday our employees should refrain from internal meetings, sending any internal messages, mails or other form of communication unless business critical. It allows everyone to increase focus time and productivity and not having to be constantly available for instant information requests.
We streamlined our communication sending quarterly staff communication letters which included staff surveys. In true transparency style, we publish the results of our staff surveys online.
Throughout the past year we have invested in several online and onsite staff engagement events. We successfully introduced 3 online team-building
sessions during which all employees had to chance to meet their peers worldwide and discover the WN values. We held 4 TalentTreks events – both onsite and online, so to educate and collaborate between our engineers. We have organized a trip for our coliving nomads and our staff to Veliko Tarnovo, and a hike to Vitosha mountain’s top peak – Black peak. Our summer nights were filled with cinema events under the sky on our rooftop balcony. Our yoga classes have become more recognizable by our own staff members and the nomads who are staying in the hotel, and we have significantly increased the classes attendance. The event of the year was our Olympic games where we brought together more 80 people from all over the world in our WN Lab Hotel in Sofia.
Compliment wall @WN LAB Coworking
Our ESG efforts, progress & impact
ESG efforts: Social
UN SDG 5:
Gender equality
Strike a pose...Vogue! Yes we did it, we have reduced our mean gender pay gap with 3% compared with last year to 6.06% . While we recognize this is far from fair, our Queen of Pop Madonna would be calling all of us Material Girls to celebrate this improvement. The percentage is well below the European average . We’re Hung Up on these numbers. In Q1, Q3, and Q4, women earn significantly higher salaries, yet in Q2, men earn 1% more. With Q2 carrying more weight due to a higher number of male employees, the final pay gap remains - proving there’s still work to do, before we can go on Holiday.
Papa Don’t Preach but in 2024 the total number of female employees dropped significantly to 26.72% of female employees which is half of the percentage from 2022. Because of the nature of our business, we are seeing the negative trend that more male employees are specializing in roles as engineers and software developers. We will need to develop a proper strategy and process to help us trying to close this gap.
ESG efforts: Governance
At WorkNomads, governance means transparency, inclusion, and integrity.
We are committed to creating decent work and economic growth by designing fair, inclusive HR policies and enabling people to shape their careers based on skills, not location.
Our ESG efforts, progress & impact
ESG efforts: Governance
UN SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
At WorkNomads we aim to operate with honesty, transparency, and integrity throughout our decision-making processes. We strongly focus on the effective management of human resources by designing inclusive processes, policies and creating equitable opportunities for employment and career development within our organization.
We give our employees the freedom to shape their futures, regardless of their background.
Diversity is our superpower and catalyst for growth.
Testimony of this in our 2024 figures, we have
grown our community to 163 worknomads from 30 nationalities. Successfully relocating 11 people from all around the world to work and live in Bulgaria.
• 163 worknomads
• 30 nationalities
• 11 successful relocations for 2024 (27 in total)
• remote work in 17 countries over 4 continents
Our ESG efforts, progress & impact
ESG efforts: Governance
With our remote work options, we break down geographical barriers that traditionally limit employment opportunities. This flexibility enables individuals from diverse backgrounds and regions to participate in our organization, contributing their skills and talents regardless of their physical location. This approach not only enhances access to employment but also supports career advancement based on meritocracy rather than proximity to a central office.
Over 66,81% of jobs within WorkNomads are fully remote and people have the freedom anywhere. However, we notice a tendency that of those fully remote workers many use the option of WN LAB Hotel as a touch and go community hub whenever they see fit. Over 66.81% of jobs within WorkNomads are fully remote and people have the freedom to work from anywhere. However, we notice a tendency that of those fully remote workers many use the option of WN LAB Hotel as a touch and go community hub whenever they see fit. This trend is evident in our 40.5% coliving occupancy rate over the past year, where a significant portion of visitors were our own employees and returning digital nomads who value our facilities.
This is exactly what we envisage for our employees, they have the freedom to work remotely but will always have a homebase whenever they feel like it or whenever required for the client’s project work.
Our ESG efforts, progress & impact
ESG efforts: Governance
UN SDG 10:
Reduced inequalities
We’re committed to breaking down barriers and empowering individuals from all walks of life. We believe in hiring people of all ages. While our nomad lifestyle naturally attracts a younger demographic right now, we’re dedicated to a truly skillfully balanced team where, age, race, gender or background are irrelevant.
We are seeing how the youngest generation is becoming a working power and compared with 2023 and 2022 in 2024 we have more Gen Z employees than the years before.
Closing the curtain for 2024
Closing the curtain for 2024
As we reflect on the highs and lows of 2024, it’s time to officially close this Olympic Year. We take pride in our strides to reduce the gender pay gap and expand the WorkNomads community with a multitude of nationalities. Our WN LAB Hotel which has taken center stage during these achievements and emerged as a vibrant community hub for our nomads, digital nomads, and clients alike.
While we celebrate these small victorious moments, we acknowledge challenges such as the concerning decrease in the percentage of women employed and ongoing staff turnover issues, which, although improved, remain embarrassing yet a pressing concern. Rather than deter us, these facts and figures illuminate our path forward.
Because #wetoo have an Olympic Dream...
... a future where every individual has the freedom to live and work anywhere, anytime. Creating a nation without a country in which diversity, integrity, equity and transparency are joining and catalyst for growth.
Generational split
Way
Health & well-being 2024 2023 2022
@beworknomads