Due to globalization and increasing network connectivity, companies have more scope to expand than ever before.
However, extending your employment strategy overseas is challenging. Branching out abroad creates additional financial burdens as a result of legal requirements, regulation management, complex hiring practices, and more. Consequently, many companies opt not to set up new legal entities in every country they operate or in which they employ workers.
What Are EORs?
Start-ups and growth companies looking to ramp up their overseas hiring at speed often utilize employers of record (EORs), also known as global professional employer organizations, to simplify global expansion. EORs are third parties that undertake the core responsibilities required when hiring someone overseas.
EORs offer various services, such as handling payroll processing, taxes, employee contracts, insurance, employee benefits, and legal regulations. Leveraging EORs provides a cost-effective, accessible and quick method for large scale up companies to hire overseas, avoiding the lengthy processes of opening local entities.
There are two EOR models – the aggregator model and the wholly-owned business model. Wholly-owned firms have premises in multiple countries that act as branches of the central office, which is located in a different country.
Conversely, aggregator-modelled EORs contract independent in-country partners (ICPs) in each region to undertake the employment process. The EOR works closely with both the ICP and the client to provide the best outcome.
On first look, the wholly-owned model may appear advantageous – a unified business seems likely to be consistent and reliable. However, wholly-owned EoRs often have conflicts of interest with their clients because they own branches that may not be the best fit for them. What’s more, they lack flexibility, struggle with global compliance, and can’t attain the thoroughnesses of native businesses. Conversely, aggregator-modeled companies oversee operations with their client’s needs front of mind, selecting EORs carefully to offer extra flexibility.
In this article, you’ll learn about the top five EORs that can help you employ workers abroad. We’ll outline their business models, features, technology, pricing, and more.
1. Papaya Global
Award-winning Papaya Global is a software as a service (SaaS) platform with EOR and payroll solutions in over one hundred and sixty countries.
Model: Papaya Global lets customers choose between highly rated EORs in each region through its flexible aggregator model. With a 99% customer retention rate and over seven hundred customers, Papaya Global is an experienced EOR solution that prioritizes clients. Papaya Global is the only EOR provider that supports all employment models – EOR, Payroll (opening a local entity) and contractors.
Legal Contracts: Hiring in a foreign country can be daunting, with many specific legal requirements. So Papaya Global employs a certified legal team to simplify contract creation and adjustment. Additionally, it uses both local and global experts to keep your business compliant with regional laws and regulations.
Pricing: Papaya Global prices its services clearly with a fixed pricing plan that’s consistent throughout every stage of business, removing the worry about unexpected costs. What’s more, Papaya Global authenticate, detail, and break down payroll data for maximum clarity.
Technology: Papaya Global contains all its features in one innovative dashboard. Its interface includes a “Human Resources and Payroll Analytics” suite to manage your employees efficiently. What’s more, payroll and employee management can be automated, saving on operating costs and reducing errors. Plus its unified platform lets you store all your worker’s data in a single system for maximum visibility. That data, alongside your intellectual property, is protected by its cloud-based system that encrypts and secures sensitive information.
2. Globalization Partners
Globalization Partners is a well-established EOR offering tax, legal, and human resources (HR) services. However, it provides only limited payroll options. It’s an extensive enterprise that can be leveraged to onboard talent in over one hundred and eighty countries.
Model: Globalization Partners uses the wholly-owned infrastructure approach. As a result, it has branches in most countries worldwide, removing the need for third parties. While this ensures Globalization Partners has end-to-end control, it also leaves you with fewer options for employing abroad.
Legal Contracts: Working closely with their clients to provide high-quality service, Globalization Partners supports you to ensure you’re always compliant with local law.
Pricing: Globalization Partners presents its fees upfront and offers comprehensive invoices.
Technology: With a flexible platform that functions on any device Globalization Partners’ integrated dashboard incorporates hiring, onboarding, and HR requirements. In addition, its interface simplifies the creation of employee contracts that comply with local law. Globalization Partners has also joined with the Professional Employer Organization, ADP TotalSource.
3. Multiplier
Multiplier is a leading all-in-one SaaS-based Employer of Record (EOR) platform that makes it easy to employ anyone, anywhere, in minutes. By partnering with Multiplier, businesses can expand globally and scale their business 90% faster. Businesses of all sizes can employ top global talent and take care of their multi-country payments on time by providing localised benefits and insurance, social contributions, and taxes with full compliance on one platform. Multiplier offers a dedicated Customer Success Manager for all customers within their timezone.
Model: Multiplier lets businesses opt for either EOR or PEO, the global HR outsourcing model that best suits their business. It seamlessly employs, pays, and manages international employees while companies focus on scaling their business.
Legal Contracts: Hiring in a global market can be challenging and full of legal hassle. To ensure that hiring and onboarding are hassle-free and seamless, Multiplier has local business entities in over 150 countries across APAC, Europe, and the Americas with an on-the-ground support team to ensure smooth operations. With us, employment in a new geography is reduced to a few clicks.
Pricing: Multiplier guarantees upfront, transparent pricing and a simple monthly plan. Employers can hire full-time employees or pay freelancers compliantly. For full-time employees, it starts from $300 per month per employee, and for freelancers, it starts from $40 per month per freelancer. Additional plans include payroll and insurance.
Technology: Multiplier is a world-class global employment platform that makes talent onboarding a breeze. The various products include EOR, Global Payroll—where compliance is taken care of, PEO, ESOP Facilitation, and Solutions by Use Case, Business Size, and Role.
4. Remofirst
5. OysterHR
OysterHR is an EOR with branches in over thirty countries.
Model: Oyster is a wholly-owned company with its team distributed worldwide. However, Oyster is not very established and therefore only has entities in a relatively small number of countries.
Legal Contracts: Oyster’s team interprets local laws to provide legally compliant contracts that adhere to regulations, such as GDPR, and protect your intellectual property. In addition, its knowledge of global markets facilitates your company to offer country-specific benefits that appeal to potential employees.
Technology: Oyster provides a single interface for your company’s workflows and HR requirements, including documents, payroll, contracts, expenses, and onboarding. Additionally, its platform enables you to manage your employee’s requirements such as healthcare, multi-country payroll, and benefits in one place.
Pricing: Oyster provides a fast onboarding process, and its fees are clear, with no need to commit before payment. What’s more, it offers a cost calculator to determine your charges and its aggregated invoices are sent monthly with a simple system. You can also pay in local currency, with no additional costs.
6. Remote
Remote is an EOR that works with businesses of any size, providing payroll, benefits, and taxes. In addition, Remote offers a range of features for employee management, including onboarding, recruitment, HR, payroll, expenses, background checks, and more. It also provides salary calculations, data collection, tax analysis, and digital contracts to assist employees.
Model: Remote is a wholly-owned EoR.
Legal Contracts: Remote’s in-house HR and legal professionals keep up to date with local regulations on your behalf. And its Remote IP Guard is designed to protect your intellectual property. Its security team protects customer data and adheres to regulations, including GDPR, using isolated networks that are fully audited and protected by firewalls. Additionally, Remote provides templates and packages to help businesses avoid the extensive fines and penalties associated with branching abroad.
Technology: Businesses can manage payments and invoices with Remote’s platform. Its interface utilizes AWS and has 99.99% uptime. What’s more, it has processing speeds of up to 150ms. Remote also has an API to simplify integration between its platform and yours. The Global Employee API, native partner integrations. It also offers various payment methods in over one hundred currencies with no exchange fees.
Pricing: Remote offers various plans, with some free starting options that are startup-friendly. Pricing per employee is billed monthly and there are no additional onboarding fees.
7. FoxHire
FoxHire is an Employer of Record (EOR) Platform that has been helping recruiters, staffing firms, and corporate HR departments hire contract, temporary, and remote employees since 1992. FoxHire becomes the W2 Employer of Record for any employees that recruiters or HR leaders hire, handling all of the legal, financial, and administrative tasks associated with the new hire. Our technology eliminates the need for recruiters and HR leaders to do back-office tasks, so they can focus on recruiting. We specialize in healthcare, IT, and education, but can help clients hire in almost any industry, in all 50 states and 20+ countries around the world.
Model: FoxHire offers a full EOR outsourcing model. FoxHire can work directly with an employer or they can partner with a recruiting agency that wants to place candidates at one of their clients. FoxHire supports VMS and MSP programs as well.
Legal Contracts: FoxHire ensures full compliance of all legal contracts and handles all the contracting responsibilities for every new client and new hire employee. FoxHire’s SaaS based software enables e-signature of those contracts and an easy contract lifecycle management function to handle any redlining.
Pricing: FoxHire offers a flat percentage of payroll model in the USA. They simply charge a flat mark up on each employee’s pay rate. Their pricing is competitive and can be adjusted for volume. Internationally they support a flat monthly fee on top of payroll and statutory costs. This allows FoxHire to model the payroll frequency of the client and the local culture.
Technology: FoxHire delivers a top tier software experience through their proprietary EOR platform, which has been improved for over 30 years. Their software encompasses everything from onboarding, payroll, HR support, timesheets, and invoicing. Their platform also delivers a strong reporting function which makes it easy to visualize your contingent workforce.
8. Deel
Model: Deel is a wholly-owned EOR, and its customer support can be underwhelming. What’s more, some customers find responses from the support team to be slow.
Legal Contracts: Deel’s network is comprised of over two hundred legal and accounting experts working locally to support you with regulations, taxes, and contracts in over one hundred and fifty countries.
Technology: Deel’s tools integrate with several platforms to reduce manual tasks, assist with invoicing, and streamline HR workflows. Its interface allows you to sync invoices and payments and provides automated accountancy. What’s more, it helps you keep remote and domestic team members’ compensation details up to date.
Pricing: Deel offers new customers to start for free, and clients can cancel at any time. It charges monthly for contractor and employee management. In addition, its monthly billing doesn’t require a credit card.
Conclusion
Expanding and hiring abroad is a significant undertaking for companies looking to ramp up their overseas hiring. EORs provide the shortcut to assist you in your growth. Whether it’s cutting administrative costs, supporting you with legal issues, or managing employees and payroll, an EOR can reduce the financial risks of branching out abroad.
However, there are many factors to consider when choosing the right EOR. Details like the type of EOR, intellectual property defense, speed, and the legal and customer service support available can make a notable difference to your business.
Decide if you want an aggregator model or wholly-owned EOR as your guide to employing abroad. Making the right decision can boost your business and gain you a foothold in a new jurisdiction with great employees.