From Cost to Speed to Customer Service, Take a Look At The Most Important Features to Look For in Your Next Global PEO Provider
Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) provide immense value to companies that are expanding their business operations overseas. Specifically, Global PEOs are designed to best serve companies that are looking to find an alternative way to legally operate in a foreign country rather than endure the significant time and costs associated with establishing their own foreign entity. This applies to both businesses who are expanding overseas for the first time and also companies that already have subsidiaries in foreign countries and are looking to hand the major responsibilities of owning a foreign entity over to a Global PEO.
As is the case with any other type of business, not all PEOs are created equal. Many global PEOs are strong in certain areas of business, but lack depth or quality in others. Most importantly, companies and entrepreneurs expanding overseas need to be aware of the qualities in a PEO that present the most value to expanding businesses. With this knowledge in mind, you can gain the ability to prioritize the factors that are most important to your business and target those capabilities in the PEO you ultimately choose to partner with.
Below are the most important qualities to look for when researching a potential Global PEO:
What to Look For in a Global PEO
Finding the Global PEO that provides the most value at the lowest price can be a challenging process for businesses expanding overseas for the first time. Similar to any other industry, the organization with the highest pricing rates is not necessarily providing the highest quality of service. But nonetheless, it is important to compare the costs associated with different PEO providers and make a sound decision that makes sense financially as well as operationally.
GlobalizationPedia compares the cost of numerous PEOs in a given market, and we provide a free ranking of the best and most cost-effective options for international expansion.
Choosing a PEO that can expedite your plans for expanding globally will save your company significant time and money over the course of your expansion into your target market. For reference, it will typically take businesses multiple months to establish their own entity in a foreign country and begin operating in a compliant manner.
Depending on the exact Global PEO provider you choose to partner with, you will have the ability to begin hiring and managing a global workforce in your target market in a matter of days. This is a major advantage of using a PEO for your international expansion, particularly if you are looking to get up and running in a new country in the immediate future.
PEOs are designed to have dedicated experts to assist the client company with any challenges and/or objectives they are looking to carry out as part of their global expansion. Depending on the industry of the client, there may be areas of international expansion that are challenging to navigate due to the complexities of local labor laws and cultural norms. PEOs possess in-country entities with adaptable employment experts, so a primary objective for a company expanding internationally is to identify a PEO that has the industry specialists they are looking for.
Of course, it is also important to verify that the PEO has a strong reputation for providing quality customer support and managing each account with personal care.
GlobalizationPedia’s network of strategic partners have all been vetted by our team of employment experts and possess fast, personalized customer service assistance to help provide a high-quality PEO experience.
Another important variable to look for in a PEO is that the organization possesses in-country entities in every country they serve. We recommend avoiding companies that work with third party providers and focusing your partnerships on working with highly reputable PEOs that deliver their services directly to clients. An advantage of working with a PEO is that it allows your business to mitigate the legal risks associated with international expansion and hand over most compliance-related factors to the PEO. Global PEOs have deep legal expertise with an in-house legal staff to help ensure full legal compliance with local regulations.
Something to keep in mind when looking for an expansion partner is whether or not the Global PEO has entities in all of the countries where your business might look to expand into in the future. PEOs will often feature support for multi-country expansion, which allows their clients to simplify the process of expanding into multiple markets by simply adding on to their partnership with their existing PEO.
Depending on the market your company is looking to enter, having the ability to provide ancillary benefits can play a crucial role in both retaining and recruiting talented employees. There are a wide variety of Global PEOs that provide ancillary plan benefit options, which gives expanding companies plenty of options to gain the competitive advantage of providing this benefit.
A relatively new feature that companies are commonly seeking in a PEO partner is having the option to use a cloud-based employee management tool. This relatively new innovation can simplify the experience of accessing employee data and managing a foreign workforce from anywhere.
Having a cloud-based tool also makes it easier to manage your international employees with compliance to local laws and regulations. GlobalizationPedia has an array of PEO partners that provide their cloud-based software options as a part of their global expansion solutions.
It can be challenging for foreign companies to successfully hire and onboard employees in another country from overseas. If your company is planning on recruiting new talented professionals as part of your global expansion project, partnering with a Global PEO that has an in-house recruitment team will significantly enhance the process of sourcing and hiring employees in your target market.
If your company already has its own foreign entity and is interested in the possibility of smoothly transitioning your entity into a PEO, there are a few Global PEOs that offer Entity to PEO transitioning platforms to help your business take advantage of the cost savings and simplified processes that a PEO can provide.
By utilizing these recommendations as a part of your process for choosing the best PEO provider for your unique set of needs, you can add significant value and cost-saving to your approach to globalization and streamline your process of expanding internationally.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for international business expansion. Whether your company is looking for extra support for recruiting new talent or an employment software to simplify the process of managing a global workforce, it is important to make sure that your prospective PEO has the capabilities your company is looking for.
GlobalizationPedia can help connect your business with a PEO that has the business solutions that provide the most value to your company’s organizational goals.
GlobalizationPedia offers various resources to provide assistance to companies expanding overseas. To help companies locate the best PEO organizations in the countries where they are looking to expand, we provide comprehensive PEO guides for every major market across Europe, Asia, and North America. We also function as the world’s leading PEO matching tool, so if you are interested in receiving a free proposal with a list of the best PEOs in your target market, fill out the form below today.
