The world may be in a perpetual state of flux, but within the business arena, some surefire constants remain unchanged. Investment in the future with the people powering your company’s success will always represent a wise use of resources. However, while some things never change, on occasion, our approach to these steady constants must…

Within the ever-changing business landscape, new challenges come hand in hand with fresh opportunities, and vice versa. One such challenge comes in the form of the rapid growth of the SaaS industry, fuelled by the increasing popularity of lightweight and versatile cloud-based applications. This fast growth has resulted in an urgent, and ever-increasing, need for experienced, vetted employees with skills suited to specific, specialized roles. Additionally, brand new roles are emerging all the time as the SaaS industry evolves and expands.

The Benefits of HR Outsourcing

Rapid evolution can be a challenge for any company to keep pace with. So, what is the solution to overcoming these challenges?  How does one keep on top of growing a business, whilst also investing long hours into managing talent? One solution comes in the form of HR outsourcing services – working closely with trusted, expert partners who can help to lighten the load. While a company can recruit as normal, an outsourced HR team can take care of the time-consuming necessities such as running payroll and producing work contracts, right through to specialized tasks such as the procurement of work visas. The list of benefits is considerable.

In this article, we’ll explore some of the core benefits of HR outsourcing:

HR Outsourcing Supports Access to Remote Talent

The global events of the past two years have precipitated a great deal of change when it comes to employment structures. The impact of the pandemic caused a spike in remote work – a trend that is showing no sign of retreating – with one study predicting that by 2025, 22 % of Americans will be working remotely. Not only is remote work beneficial to many companies with regard to cost-savings on rent and boosted productivity, it is also becoming increasingly favoured by employees. The benefits reported by employees include lower levels of stress, better work-life balance, greater flexibility, and a saving of time and money that would have been spent on the daily work commute.

For SaaS companies, the surge in remote work presents some welcome opportunities. The hiring process no longer needs to prioritize close proximity to an office, and the pool of remote talent will only get larger – especially as the popularity of remote work is only set to rise.

However, this blessing comes with its own set of complications. With remote work comes more complex paperwork, security risks and regulations, and this becomes especially hard when juggling employees in multiple remote locations, where different employment and compliance regulations may well apply.

Becoming familiar and complying with various local labor laws can become a costly and cumbersome in-house process, necessitating additional HR administrative staff, not to mention the burden of keeping up to date with ever-changing regulations.

Global HR management requires a specialized set of skills and knowledge, and as a result, for a company to confidently embrace the benefits of a globally distributed team, it’s imperative that dependable access to this level of experience is available.

HR outsourcing removes the headache from this undertaking, allowing businesses to lean on outsourced HR experts, who have the systems in place to hire and pay employees on behalf of the company. For example, the solutions offered by outsourced HR agencies can include a global PEO (Professional Employment Organisation), an EOR (Employer of Record), and a Global Payroll service. A PEO provides solutions for companies by being the legal entity that employs a team member in a specific country. Then, an EOR is a third-party organization that assists a company by hiring and paying an employee on its behalf. Finally, a Global Payroll service ensures that teams are always accurately and compliantly paid. Together these services enable businesses to tap into global talent with confidence, free from complicated learning curves and the concern of non-compliance.

Save on Time and Costs

Time is arguably one of the most precious resources in business. Wasting time on tasks where one is not too familiar with the job at hand, is not only a waste of this resource but, when mistakes are inevitably made, will also ultimately amount to even more time being wasted.  When outsourcing HR, businesses can sidestep these pitfalls, letting an experienced pair of  hands take the reigns.

Letting HR experts handle the intricacies of global employee management is hugely beneficial in freeing up more time for a company to focus on different aspects of their human resource management, such as recruitment, internal role transitions, training, and onboarding.

As mentioned, a global PEO (Professional Employment Organization) provides an excellent solution for hiring overseas, and importantly, without the cost and time involved in creating one’s own legal entity in that country. The saving is not a small one – with a legal entity costing up to $20,000 to establish in most countries. With this being just the start-up cost, a company must also keep in mind the ongoing costs of this longstanding and significant commitment. Partnering with PEO can save up to 60% of the cost, making it the smart choice for any business looking to expand its workforce abroad.

Hire Immediately for a Specific Job or Duration

The growth of the SaaS industry over the past 20 years has been exponential, so it is little wonder that the job roles within the industry are not as neatly carved out as within other industries. Also, after a SaaS company gets established, the growth can be sudden and rapid, causing an immediate need for more specialized staff.

As companies evolve, they may also be adopting new technologies to streamline remote work, which can also play a role in shifting job requirements. Occasionally, roles may arise for a specific task and only for a limited time.

So when speed and agility are of the essence, meeting the challenge of these somewhat erratic recruitment needs can be precarious – but not one that needs to be undertaken alone.

Once the company has recruited the candidate, the services of an expert PEO in being the legal employer are invaluable in eradicating possible delays caused by navigating complex remote employment procedures. So while a company can still source the candidates and make the important decisions on who to hire, a partnership with a PEO ensures all the heavy lifting is skillfully handled. 

Minimize the Risk for Your Company

Hiring staff compliantly in the global sphere is a complex undertaking. There are a number of ongoing tasks to manage, but more importantly, the regulations guiding these tasks will be different for each country where employees are located. Compliance is paramount, and the different areas requiring compliance are rather broad. But to be more specific, the main focal points for compliance would be the compensation and benefits package for the employee, tax requirements, social contributions, and workers’ compensation insurance.

Being compliant requires careful research and surveillance, as regulations can change on a fairly regular basis. Not staying up to date with current labor compliance laws can lead to damaging consequences. Not only can non-compliance result in costly fines or lawsuits, but it can also damage the company’s reputation and lead to lower employee retention.

Using a PEO instead of attempting to tackle the challenge alone ensures full compliance, as PEO experts who are well-acquainted with the local regulations take over all employment-related tasks. So while the company can maintain a normal relationship with the employee, it has HR specialists (who have an established legal presence in that specific country) managing the employment process from end to end, on behalf of the company.

HR Outsourcing Provides Solutions

Suppose you are a business that is focused on investing in the best people, the smart way. In that case, outsourcing HR provides the solution for all of the expensive, time-consuming, and stressful duties associated with people management. But also, these tasks are impossible to avoid, and the larger the company grows, the more complicated and laborious the commitment will become.

The benefits of HR outsourcing concerning remote employment via a PEO and EOR, and simplifying processes with a Global Payroll Solution are plentiful, but perhaps the most pertinent is that a company won’t get impeded by the HR issues that can come with expansion and casting the recruitment net abroad. The barriers to hiring top-tier employees from abroad will no longer be an issue.  Also notable is that the growth plans of company leadership won’t be delayed by HR issues that take their focus off running the company. Instead, the company can maintain focus on achieving progress, knowing that complex employment regulations are safely taken care of and can scale alongside their operation.

Do you want to find out more about how HR outsourcing supports global opportunities? Read on to discover: How to unlock the key advantages of global human resource management