How a Global PEO Can Support Your Operation in Foreign Markets

Introduction

Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) are one of the best secret weapons for businesses looking to expand. If your company is considering spreading its wings internationally, a Global PEO is a must. These organizations provide employee management services and administrative assistance to companies operating in a foreign jurisdiction. A Global PEO is essentially a legal entity and Employer of Record (EOR) for international employees. As the Employer of Record, the PEO is legally liable for the workers it employs in a foreign country. The good news is that you won’t have to deal with the messy details related to HR, payroll, tax, benefits, or talent issues.

Enlisting the help of a PEO is a faster, easier, less stressful way of hiring employees overseas.

And the best part—compliance and operational matters are taken care of, leaving you time to focus on your growing business.

A Global PEO Provides Speed to Market

When seeking global talent to meet the needs of your customers, time is of the essence. PEOs use best practices to help streamline the onboarding process.

They also allow you to put employees in place in a fraction of the time it would take to hire them yourself.

Because your company doesn’t have to wait for the legal approval associated with establishing a separate entity, you can enter the market and take advantage of opportunities faster. In some situations, you can even deploy staff in a matter of days. This approach provides much faster market entry and gives you that all-important competitive edge.

A Global PEO Makes Hiring Easy

Setting up local entities in foreign countries is challenging and expensive. Global PEOs allow you to hire employees without having to set up a legal entity in a foreign country. Instead of trying to manage the complexities of each country’s restrictions on contractors, PEOs allow you to hire full-time employees that can get the job done.

The best part—you maintain daily control over the activities of your staff while the PEO manages administrative functions.

A Global PEO Manages Compliance

One of the biggest challenges for employers expanding overseas is understanding the local culture, customs, and legal intricacies. Local employment laws around the world can be complicated and may vary by country.

If your company fails to comply with regulations regarding payroll, taxes, or benefits, you could face time-consuming audits and expensive fines.

A Global PEO can ease compliance burdens because it specializes in international employment law and already has an established legal presence in countries around the world. The PEO can ensure that the proper amount of tax is withheld, that employees receive compensation according to local regulations, and that employees receive a compliant benefits package. Ultimately, this dramatically reduces your legal risks and liabilities.

A Global PEO Facilitates Market Testing

Entering a new market can be expensive. Before you invest the time and energy to create a legal entity, you should test the new market to find out if it works for you.

By engaging a PEO, you will be able to mitigate the cost of building a new branch or subsidiary. If you enter the market yourself and things don’t work out, you’re left to wind down the entity, which can take months or even years. Some companies utilize contractors to test a market, but the contractor relationship is often risky and can cause compliance issues later.

Partnering with a local expert like a Global PEO helps reduce risk and offers peace of mind. Laws related to employment, taxes, and employee benefits are constantly changing, and a good PEO stays up to date with these changes, so you can rest assured that your business runs in a compliant manner.

The best Global PEOs have local in-house experts that carefully research and monitor any changes to international laws to ensure that their clients always remain compliant.

A Global PEO Reduces Costs

The human resources department often finds out last minute that they need new employees and then need to determine how to employ and pay them quickly.

PEOs use best practices to help streamline the onboarding process.

Getting employees onboarded in weeks instead of months or years can have immediate cost savings. Using a PEO also allows you to skip the expensive and time-consuming process of establishing a separate legal entity in a foreign country.

Additionally, using a PEO ultimately reduces costs to administer benefits. Working with a PEO can also help streamline the expansion process so that you have predictable expenses. The funds saved by hiring a global PEO can ultimately be used to expand the business further.

To sum it up, a global PEO will help you expand your business overseas in a quicker, less costly, and more efficient manner.

By outsourcing these critical HR and administrative tasks to an expert, you will have the time to concentrate on what is most important—running your business.