COVID-19 was a catalyst for workplace transformation and the changing nature of how we work. It impacted employers and HR professionals across the world, creating new challenges and opportunities around innovative global workforce solutions. Almost overnight, the talent pool for skilled positions expanded across the globe as physical work sites closed and nearly everyone started working remotely.

Employers realized that a work from home (or anywhere, really) culture was not only successful, but also created new opportunities for growth, workplace flexibility, and accessing a larger pool of workers. Of course, managing change in the workplace isn’t easy, and many of these opportunities were constructed from a place of necessity in response to very real pain points. Travel restrictions halted visa processes, leaving high-talent individuals stuck in their home countries unable to work anywhere but remotely. The need to retain this top talent pushed companies to advance their technical solutions aiding remote work. And in the process, employers learned that a global workforce model was viable for their companies.

However, with this realization came the need for all-encompassing workforce solutions that could mitigate the potential pain points that come with managing the employment of a global workforce.

The Challenges of Managing a Global Workforce

Managing a remote team across the globe comes with unique obstacles. Handling employment contracts, international payroll, foreign currencies, value-added tax, vacation time, holidays observed in the local country, complex termination laws, tax forms, and more — all within the scope of relevant local laws — is difficult. A complete understanding of employment and labor laws is required to not only comply with each country’s mandates, but also to properly support a global staff.

With this, it is extremely important that these administrative tasks are entrusted to experienced professionals who can support your company’s efforts of growing a global workforce. Partnering with an employer of record, or EOR, can help you manage your talent internationally by removing administrative burdens, which helps you avoid fines, penalties, and employee frustrations.

Differing time zones can present additional challenges in managing a global workforce. Communicating with your global talent about vacation pay, time cards, tax issues, or reporting requests are all aspects that can be negatively impacted without the proper processes in place. When partnering with an EOR, you have a pool of resources around the globe available in each time zone. If you have a payment issue for an employee in Australia, for example, that worker can connect with a local team immediately to get it straightened out.

Rather than taking on the burden internally, many of these challenges of managing a global workforce can be overcome by partnering with a global employer of record.

The Many Benefits of Using a Global Employer of Record

Hiring a global EOR to manage employment compliance with your remote workforce can be a huge advantage. Global EOR services are effective, efficient, and can be extremely productive solutions to the challenges HR professionals often face when wrangling a global workforce. Consider these benefits of partnering with a global EOR:

— International compliance: Have ease of mind that contracts and workers are in compliance in each country.
— HR administration: Relieve the administrative burden for HR professionals in an organization.
— Payroll: Ensure workers are paid in accordance with the specific laws and requirements of each country.
— Global specialists: Understand local laws, manage taxes, and receive expertise regarding termination and disciplinary issues.
— Employment laws: Access professionals with knowledge of best practices for talent acquisition, employee rights, termination laws, minimum wage laws, and much more.
— Streamlined process: Have one point of contact for all international workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced employers who would never have considered remote workers to create effective support for a remote work model. A year later, those employers are now creating more efficient policies and processes to ensure their top (remote) talent sticks around — including leveraging global EORs to make employing a global workforce easier.

Managing change in the workplace is challenging, and more change is yet to come. Now that things are beginning to open back up in certain parts of the world, many employers are realizing they want to keep remote models in some form. Companies are strategizing on whether operating fully remote or developing a hybrid model is the best course of action moving forward. Regardless of which type of workforce model an employer chooses, the work-from-anywhere model has opened the gates to bigger candidate pools across the globe, decreased overhead costs, and happier workers.

One of the best global workforce solutions for a remote or hybrid model is using an EOR service. It can handle the administrative complexities of a global workforce so your top talent stays in place and your organization remains streamlined and compliant.

Jenna Meyerson is the global services manager at Innovative Employee Solutions (IES), specializing in international employment solutions and helping companies hire and onboard workers quickly and compliantly around the globe. Jenna manages workers all over the world, from Mexico to Germany to South Africa. With Jenna’s experience and IES’ extensive partner network, IES helps companies seamlessly onboard workers in more than 150 countries without having to set up business entities in each location.