For a business that has international expansion as part of their business plan, the process can be made much simpler with a global Employer of Record (EOR). An EOR provides companies with an efficient process for the onboarding of new employees in new global markets, without the need for establishing a separate entity in a different country. In a world where outsourcing is becoming much more popular, an outsourced staffing agency is yet another avenue to explore. The following article will dive into the employer of record and provide everything you need to know, along with how it can benefit your business if overseas expansion is on the cards.
Understanding an employer of record
In the world of outsourcing, a global employer of record provider is another avenue to help simplify the complex hiring process for a business owner. The laborious work of creating a new overseas entity for your business can be difficult, so why not make it easier with some local experts? You need to account for banking, insurance, tax, compliance and more, ensuring the local infrastructure is set-up and sufficient to employ workers. This can often turn people off from expanding overseas, but it shouldn’t. The employer of record service provides an infrastructure that negates the needs to worry about most of these tasks. They provide a business with the opportunity to hire an employee in global markets compliantly, without the need for an entity or local employee onboarding process. An EOR provider will hire workers on behalf of the client company while also taking on the legal responsibility for them. This includes compliance, with all payroll processing and employment, as well as the employment process, including:
- Onboarding of local employees
- No need for work visas
- Payment of wages, taxes and benefits
- Background checks
- Long term presence in the field
- All other human resource functions
The EOR will take care of human resources and payroll processing for the new employees, while your management team are responsible for managing their day-to-day work, just as you would be any other staff member. This means you receive the benefit of an extended workforce, minus the risk.
When would you use an employer of record?
If global expansion is part of your business plan, an EOR can significantly minimise the required tasks and risks, making it a more straightforward process. Often not a quick process, it can be difficult to organise these new pathways abroad when you have a lack of local expertise. Outsourcing to an employer of record changes this, giving you an on-the-ground staffing agency and presence that will make your global growth objectives easier to achieve. There are plenty of tasks involved in global expansion, and an EOR can be of benefit from even the very first step — your research phase, where you look to explore new markets. An EOR makes it easier to evaluate an international market by hiring local workers and providing an easier and quicker way to begin your operations to test the waters. All while not having to commit too much time and money in the setup phase. An EOR can also protect you from independent contractor non compliance, lessening your risk of employment and tax violations. The employer of record service will hire contractors on your behalf, ensuring that all local requirements are met. An EOR also provides another way to compliantly pay new staff without the need for localised legal business entities. You can save yourself the hassle of setting up your own in-country entity, expediting the process and minimising your project timelines.
The benefits of an EOR
Companies are always looking for ways to simplify their onboarding process. Along with managing the risk of legal, payroll, tax and immigration issues, the biggest benefit of an EOR is the speed of which you can begin operations in a new country. This convenient and cost-effective process is particularly handy for smaller companies who do not have the corporate infrastructure to manage local staff requirements. The following are just some of the benefits of an EOR:
Time-saving
An established EOR is the quickest way to grow the global workforce of the client company, making it easier to find the perfect international employees for your team. A process that can often take months at the very least can be performed in a fraction of time, thanks to the EOR’s pre-established entity and on-call network.
Dollar saving
By removing the regulatory need for a local subsidiary, your business can save thousands of dollars. There is no need to spend money on human resources, finance, or legal functions as it is all included in the set EOR template.
Satisfying compliance needs
Rather than dedicating internal time to satisfying compliant international labour laws and risking the severe consequences if they are not accounted for, an EOR takes this task off your hands and gives you the peace of mind in knowing it is being handled correctly. The EOR provides a compliant solution for international employment regulations and removes your risk of fines, penalties, and business sanctions for non-compliance of international labour laws and practices.
Shifting the risk
Continuing on from the last point, a range of other risk factors that come with hiring international employees, and are often made more difficult when working in a sector that you have no experience in, are shouldered by the employer of record. Above all, an employer of record frees up your time and energy to focus on core business functions while achieving global expansion in a much quicker timeframe. Just like the acquisition of HR software to simplify tasks, this process makes your operations leaner. An employer of record will likely supply entities in a variety of countries, meaning you can easily test a few markets. From the international employees’ point of view, they benefit by having the assurance that they’ll be taken care of by a local staffing agency, with the correct taxes being withheld.
What is the difference between an EOR and PEO?
While some of the core elements are similar, an employer of record is slightly different from a professional employment organisation, or PEO. PEOs are co-employment arrangements, which is essentially the outsourcing of a businesses human resources and payroll administration. This allows the company to focus their energy on daily employee management without having to worry about admin tasks like payroll. In this situation, both the PEO and the business are required to be registered as an entity in the country of employment. They both also share legal responsibility for the employees. A “global PEO” is a name given to the outsourcing of similar services minus the need for the local entity, which is essentially an employer of record, and this is why the two terms are often conflated. The key difference is the entity requirement and legal responsibility which falls solely on the employer of record in an employer of record arrangement.
