More Than a Service: EOR as a Strategic Partner in Business Growth

In the era of outsourcing, companies worldwide use third-party partners to handle various non-core business activities, from marketing to logistics to cybersecurity. With these vendors, you’ll typically have a regular client-service provider relationship.

But can you say the same for using employer of record services? Are they merely transactional?

When you outsource global employment-related tasks, such as human resources, payroll, and legal compliance, it greatly impacts your business operations, employee experience, and expansion plans—in other words, your business growth.

Here’s how the strategic value of EOR services spans across various stages of the hiring and business expansion process, enabling you to reach your business goals in the global market.

Market entry and expansion planning stage

EOR partners can provide deep insights into local labor markets, talent pools, salary benchmarks, and regulatory environments to inform strategic decision-making during the market entry phase.

This is especially true if the global EOR you’ve chosen to partner with has already established its own legal entities in your target market rather than working with in-country vendors to handle payroll and HR functions. It means that the organization already has first-hand experience in navigating local employment laws, compliance, and best practices regarding hiring and doing business in that region.

EORs conduct risk assessments to identify potential compliance gaps, employment-related liabilities, and operational challenges that may arise during expansion. This proactive approach allows companies to mitigate risks and devise contingency plans.

A speed to market is key to leveraging business opportunities as they arise (especially if you’re aiming to establish your brand in a new market before your competitors do), an EOR can help you approach this strategically. Instead of going “all in” and placing significant investments into an unknown, potentially risky market, you can test the waters in a more cost-efficient manner and hire employees through an employer of record.

This way, even if the market turns out to be unprofitable, you can easily wind your operations down compliantly with the help of your global EOR partner. On the other hand, if your business flourishes in the new market, you can keep growing with EOR services or set up your own entity when the time is right.

Recruitment and talent acquisition

EORs can leverage their local networks and expertise to assist with talent acquisition efforts, including candidate sourcing, background checks, interview scheduling, and more.

Employers of record that offer their own software, like Deel, often offer native features or integrations with applicant tracking systems (ATS), allowing you to seamlessly move candidates from one stage of your hiring process to the next. This leads to enhanced data centralization and higher operational efficiency.

As a company that’s already built a global team to cater to different regions, an EOR can help you be very strategic about who you hire and where you hire from.

Deel’s internal experts can help identify suitable talent hubs based on our original data and assist you in finding the best global talent faster.

For example, in 2023, companies based in the UK and Australia hired many workers from the Philippines with roles in Data and Accounting, while Spain hired many finance specialists and customer success managers from Argentina.

Finally, finding the top talent for your team is not enough—you need to have a competitive offer to attract the best candidates to apply for your roles. An EOR can help both small and larger businesses access employee benefits and perks that would otherwise be unattainable financially.

Ongoing compliance and HR management

Partnering with an EOR can play a significant role in your global compliance and HR management strategy.

As labor laws change and evolve continuously, ensuring compliance with all the local regulations across different countries is challenging without hiring in-country partners with local knowledge to keep you updated.

Working with an EOR reduces this burden, while a proactive risk mitigation approach safeguards your reputation and minimizes non-compliance issues. As a result, you have more time and resources to focus on business growth strategies.

Now, setting up a team in a new country isn’t just about compliance. It’s also about creating a positive (remote) work environment and an equitable experience for all your workers, no matter where they reside.

EORs, as your international workers’ legal employer, handle and streamline all aspects of employment administration:

• Employment contract drafting
• Onboarding and termination
• Global payroll processing
• Benefits administration
• Tax withholding and filing
• Time tracking and time off management, and more

With all these processes automated and accelerated, your employer of record partner also allows you to create an exceptional employee experience, which can contribute to your employee retention strategy.

For example, Deel provides a high level of autonomy and flexibility for both independent contractors and full-time employees through self-service features, fast and simple onboarding process, multiple payment and withdrawal methods, and more.

Operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and scalability

Employers of Record serve as invaluable partners for companies undergoing structural changes, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), offering comprehensive solutions to seamlessly integrate new workforces.

For example, if you’re looking to keep talent based in a country where you don’t have your own entity.

EORs guide companies through critical aspects of M&A activity, such as employee onboarding and offboarding, ensuring a positive experience for new hires and minimizing disruptions to business operations.

The benefits of having an EOR partner go beyond M&As when it comes to flexibility in workforce management.

EORs offer flexible workforce solutions that scale with business needs, whether it's hiring additional employees, adapting to seasonal fluctuations in demand, or employee relocations.

You can also optimize labor costs by tapping into EOR’s competitive pricing, consolidated global payroll processing, and access to cost-effective benefits and insurance plans for your international employees.

Strategic advisory

EORs can provide market intelligence and industry trends to inform strategic decision-making, including talent acquisition strategies, competitive positioning, and other global expansion opportunities.

Leading EOR providers like Deel offer strategic guidance and consulting services beyond basic employment administration. They leverage their in-depth knowledge of global markets, labor trends, and industry best practices to help clients optimize their international workforce strategies, enhance talent acquisition efforts, and mitigate HR-related challenges.

By tapping into this expertise, you can make informed decisions that drive sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Your Deel CSM can also share insights on emerging technologies that streamline HR processes, such as AI-driven automation tools, and empower you to improve operational efficiency, reduce manual tasks, and enhance overall company productivity.

Why Deel is the right EOR partner for you

From compliance and HRIS to PEO and payroll services, Deel offers the most complete global people platform on the market—and we’ve been where you are now.

Our platform was designed based on our experience as a global team, which means we know all the struggles of juggling multiple systems, inconsistent and incompatible data, lack of visibility, costly mistakes and compliance risks, prolonged and messy onboarding, and other obstacles inhibiting business growth.

Deel successfully tackles all these challenges and we’ve got numbers to prove it:

• 100+ owned entities around the world
• 200+ in-house tax, payroll, and legal experts
• 15+ flexible payment methods
• Experience in running a global team of 3,000+ members distributed across 100 countries
• First response time of 1.25 min from our customer service available 24/7
• 86 hours saved by automated HR admin
• $210,000+ of entity set up costs per country

See for yourself—book a demo with our team and ask all your questions.