The advantages of working remotely in the sports business

While modern companies implemented remote work – even just for a day  per week – even years ago, the location-unbound working model is now becoming a big part of the every day work culture in the sports industry. 

One company in the sports business showing exactly how it is done is komoot. While located in Potsdam, the team is actually working from all over the world – remotely.

Right at this very moment, they look for a Brand Manager to expand their team.

This way, they’re actually developing a full functioning and effective team which takes responsibility and therefore, really pushes the company to the next level while being more satisfied in their job.

How so? That’s what we discovered in this blog. Find out what advantages working remotely brings and what it needs to make it work. 

The advantages of working remotely

Better work-life-balance

While most companies which offer remote work as a benefit do expect you to be available for a specific time frame matching the office hours, there’s still plenty which allow a flexible time schedule. Taking time off for necessary appointments and continuing work afterwards, starting earlier to have more time in the afternoon, or whichever model it is you prefer – you’ll be able to use your time more effectively and actually, coordinate your job around your life and not the other way round. A very exciting experience. 

And even if you need to work fixed hours, after all it allows you to spend more time outside of work. Taking into consideration the time employees are saving by not having to commute to work and back home, as well as the option to actually use your break for something else than having lunch in the canteen, it seems to enable a better use of time.

A focus on productivity instead of time

What happens when your daily task are done and your project is on hold? Well, let’s face it: A lot of office time is spent with browsing the web, socializing, figuring out where to go for holidays, you get the point. The reason is simply that we have to be there until a specific time when our shift ends, no matter the work load. While being idle in between tasks can push motivation, it can also be wasted time that you could put to much better use. 

That’s where remote work comes in handy. The advantage of working at home is that 

1. you can actually concentrate on your work without having colleagues from your office interrupting 
2. when your work is done, you can actually do something else because
3. your boss can hardly stumble into the office noticing you’re procrastinating

We’re not implying that you should skip on your work for a layday at home and fool your team or boss. But if you’re doing your job quickly and still maintain good quality, there’s nothing wrong about using remaining working hours for other activities – as long as you’re available when needed.  This leads to more productive and effective work – so both sides, employee and employer, benefit from it. 

Creativity & innovation

In general, working from home might give you the needed distance from your work and team to be creative or innovative. Especially, when having the option to „work from wherever you want, be it a beach, the mountains, your house or anywhere else“ as komoot puts it in their job ad, the remote work gives you the freedom to explore new places, new cultures or even just the neighborhood in your daily life, to gain new experiences and impressions. Which – as we know – is fueling creativity. 

Cost savings 

Shifting to the employer’s point of view who does benefit from all mentioned points, they have furthermore the advantage of actually being able to save money. With more people working remotely, there’s less working space needed, which cuts the cost for rent, interior and maintainance. 

Happiness and passion

Taking all these things into account, it’s no surprise that surveys say that remote employees are all in all happier than regular office staff. It benefits their health, mental and physical, as well as giving them much needed freedom to fulfill dreams and goals. 

Disadvantages and how to avoid them

With our own Sportyjob team working remotely from everywhere between Germany to France and even to the Canary Islands, we know exactly that not working together takes a lot of effort to actually create a functioning team. While benefits for employees and employers are obvious, there are still disadvantages luring around the corner. Talking about miscommunication, feeling disconnected, projects lying dormant, unhappy team members – you name it.

But, like mentioned above, those issues can be easily handled with some effort and measurements that the whole team needs to take.

Communication

When being in the same office or building, it’s easy just to give a short update in between. But even in regular working environments, there’s a need for individual weekly jour-fixes and team meetings to keep the team updated. Even with some distance between the team, it’s absolutely necessary to maintain this. Giving updates on what you’re working on, project status, etc., even some personal information every now and then (planned holidays, how everyone is doing, etc.).

The most important part though is remembering that there’s is no digital, but actually a human team existing. For this, video calls are the easiest way to continuing talking face to face over any distance. With plenty of tools which allow split screens and group calls, there’s no problem to keep up with the communication.

komoot even took it a step further: 4 times a year, the whole team meets up at one destination around the world for one week, to work together, socialize, get to know each other in case there are new team members aboard. A perfect way of combining a team building measurement with an activity which resembles perfectly to company spirit and mission. 

Trust 

A very big factor. Remote jobs only work when both sides trust each other. If there’s colleagues or your employer mistrusting your work ethics, this is not going to work out. There might always be someone who thinks that remote workers only relax, play games or chat or watch tv instead of working, but in our experience, this is far away from the truth. Whether you prefer working regular office hours or like to use your mornings for sports or other activities and therefore, work late – that’s fine. It should be accepted and most of all, trusted, by your team that you still keep up with your work. 

Also, on the other side of the medal, trust in being seen. Don’t worry about being available all day long in case your boss actually sends an e-mail when you have just finished your day. There’s the possibility that you might feel the urge to always check your e-mails, always be online, so no one gets the idea of you being lazy. There’s absolutely no need to. Trust is needed on both sides. So is free time to stay productive and passionate about your job. 

---

If you’re interesting in knowing more about the realization of komoots working model, check out the free Whitepaper from our partner ISPO: Digital talents in the sports industry – Whitepaper.

By looking at komoot, they derive concrete recommendations for winning digital talents for the sports industry.