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We will be presenting a paper on the Key Considerations for Scaling your Global Talent. 

You can also bag yourself two tickets to a Seattle Seahawks game by entering our raffle. Visit us at stand 409 and pick up a ticket. We look forward to welcoming you!

“The NHRMA 2022 Conference will offer over 65 educational sessions on a variety of current HR topics. These sessions will equip you to better tackle emerging workplace issues, define your personal and organizational goals, reimagine your inclusion and diversity strategies, and provide you with the tools to help grow in your HR leadership. Plus, earn valuable recertification credits!”  – nhrmaconference.org 

We believe that all companies looking to grow internationally put themselves in a better position to succeed when they outsource their human resources management. We believe this because we understand the risks businesses face when they take on the HR endeavor themselves. Today, we will look at some of the most common benefits of outsourcing global HR needs.

Enter Global Markets Faster

Establishing local entities globally can take quite some time. Growing organizations that trust Stipenda avoid the complex challenges of compliance, immigration changes, tax implications and more.

Protection from International Compliance Risks

Any business trying to navigate through international compliance issues will need to dedicate multiple people and a lot of man hours to do so correctly. Stipenda allows businesses to focus their time on their areas of expertise. When companies make Stipenda the employee of record for their outlets in Europe, Asia, Africa, etc., they greatly reduce their liability risk when hiring employees and licensing intellectual property in different parts of the globe.

Access to Better Quality Talent

Stipenda has built in relationships with top talent from around the globe. Local laws and regulations can be rather complex. Trusting Stipenda to add talent allows a company to remain in charge of their employees without worrying about compliance issues.

Better Employee Benefits

Companies that trust Stipenda as their co-employment partner gain access to the highest quality talent in different regions of the globe. Stipenda can often leverage our experience and talent pool to offer higher wages and better-quality benefits to employees. The higher the pay and the better the benefits, the more likely a business is to attract top tier talent.

Faster Route to Profitability and Growth

Because Stipenda has experience helping businesses grow in regions all over the globe, we are more efficient at setting up a business for sustained growth quickly and safely. Companies can start off small with a country or two and then ramp up as Stipenda starts to show how they can ensure a cost-effective and profitable rollout of a company in a foreign market.

Manage Risks

Outsourcing human resources allows for the lowering of legal risks as Stipenda takes on compliance issues. Additional shared employer risks can include handling everything from employee hiring to employee firings. When employee disputes arise, which can often be an unfortunate price of doing business, Stipenda can be trusted to resolve these issues legally, which will protect a business from facing damaging lawsuits.

Accurate Payroll Your Company and Your Employees Can Depend On

International payroll can be a rather expensive undertaking for a company. It’s vital that local/national income tax regulations are completely understood. Stipenda understands that money that needs to be deducted from employee salaries to ensure they are in compliance with their local government’s rules and regulations.

With social distancing today’s norm — coupled with widespread office closures throughout the industrialized world — prospective international surveyors are relying on companies like Stipenda.

By Chris Casacchia, California Business Journal.

The economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic have rippled across the globe, shrinking gross domestic product levels to their lowest rates in decades. Consider the sobering figures that marked the June quarter: U.S. economic contraction slid 9.5% from the March quarter, the biggest drop post-World War II.

Other developed economies in Europe fared worse. Spain’s GDP plummeted 18.5% quarter-over-quarter, while France’s fell 14%. Italy saw national production slide 12.4%, and Germany, Europe’s financial giant, saw a 10.1% reduction.

Despite the doldrum of economic data, some positive trends are emanating from Europe, where numerous cities are reopening economies as they move further away from the darkest months of the outbreak. The gradual shift has revitalized efforts from some U.S. corporations to expand internationally, boosting demand for employment service providers like Stipenda.

The Boston-based company, which has most of its management team based in the U.K., integrates solutions for private clients and for professional employer organizations supporting U.S. business expansion across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

The advantages of globalization are still heightened,” Stipenda Chief Executive Solomon Williams said in a phone interview from his home in Leamington Spa near Stipeda’s U.K. operation in Warwick, about 100 miles northwest of London.

Labor cost disparity has long been the bedrock of globalization, which has given rise to electronic manufacturing hubs in China, apparel makers in Vietnam and information technology workers in India.

That arbitrage, most evident for decades in the global manufacturing industry, can be found in corporate functions as well, Williams argues.

“Labor cost disparity now exists even in professional work,” he says. “With the normalization of remote working, we are seeing companies capitalizing on that.”

Indeed, nearly half of respondents (45%) in a recent survey said they’ve continued global expansion plans or will initiate them within 12 months. Furthermore, 80% of companies say now is the time to take advantage of opportunities quickly disappearing in the global marketplace.

The survey queried 166 senior finance executives at companies with international expansion plans and generating more than $100 million in annual revenue—essentially Stipenda’s target market.

This constituency with more ambitious international growth plans, according to Williams, is facing cost and time constraints, as well as compliance concerns related to international laws and agreements. “We’re giving them the support they need without the risk,” he says.

Stipenda, which is handling about 550 projects for its customer base comprised mostly of U.S. businesses, offers payroll, tax management, immigration, benefit management and human resource services. With social distancing still the norm, coupled with widespread office closures throughout the industrialized world, prospective international surveyors are relying on service providers like Stipenda, which either have workers on the ground in foreign markets or a network of resources there to meet customer demands, from establishing subsidiaries to more IT-driven work, such as providing connectivity and developing virtual networks, a growing need for remote workforces in the digital age.

“Clients don’t need to have offices because remote working has now been normalized” Williams says. “You can be anywhere as long as you have infrastructure.”

The company is also seeing new interest from well-funded U.S. startups driven to international expansion by rapid economic growth in overseas markets; increased domestic overcrowding in certain emerging sectors; risk of foreign competitors capturing market share; and improved support for small businesses seeking overseas expansion.

“It makes sense to employ local people and get skill sets locally,” Williams says. “Even though we’ve had some big crashes, most countries are more stable than they’ve ever been.”

Copyright © 2020 California Business Journal. All Rights Reserved.

The United Kingdom is undergoing unprecedented times of uncertainly.

The challenges faced with the potential Brexit fiasco have exposed businesses to new levels of scenario planning which, for many businesses and decision makers, is unchartered territory. Short of staring into a crystal ball, a new age of strategic leadership is being deployed as a matter of immediate requirement to cover the myriad of possible outcomes, as UK businesses scramble for solutions in the event of a ‘No Deal Brexit’.

Hence it is not a surprise that during these times of uncertainly the requirement to mitigate risk whilst keeping costs at a minimum, whilst remaining competitive, compliant, and relevant is a balancing act most businesses find themselves in.

Outsourcing is an obvious solution to alleviate that risk. It brings access to specialised capabilities, continuality assurance, performance functionality, resource management efficiency and most of all cost controlled benefit solutions.

When it comes to your most valuable resource, the management of human capital is a very complex but critical component of the business operations. In a fierce market place where employment opportunities are becoming more competitive, the requirement to offer the most attractive, yet flexible staffing solution is ever more pressing for HR and procurement managers.

So is outsourcing the right direction for your organisation? The following points need to be considered.

• What are your organisation international mobility, cultural and growth goals?
• Does outsourcing fit with your overall strategic goals and initiatives?
• What is the organisational plan for deployment of HR in the short and medium term?
• What is the anticipated international deployment, relocation volumes and budgetary plan?
• Are you comfortable with working with third party administrators?

To evaluate outsourcing further you should consider discussing this with the relevant stakeholders within your organisation and establish a task force with representation from HR, finance, procurement and legal. Each department will view the requirement with a different perspective, and it’s likely that a subjective, but hopefully objective, discussion will emerge into a pragmatic solution to place your HR requirement into the hands of a Professional Employment Organisation (PEO).

When developing the specifications for your new outsourced partner, it’s important to evaluate your current processes and policy in an honest assessment of how you are currently meeting the needs of your internal requirements and the operational and commercial demands of your clients. By documenting and clearly articulating the project parameters, the expectations and goals should logically fit an outsourced PEO solution and make the selection of an amicable PEO straightforward.

Selecting a PEO partner that meets the essential requirements of employer of record (EoR) capabilities, proof of established legal entity offices, and partners with functional HR reporting technology and certified compliance documentation are the key factors in the decision process. Additionally, does the PEO offer flexibly and growth opportunities into multiple countries – do they have the capabilities to move into other jurisdictions should you need to expand further? It’s important to source a PEO partner that understands your holistic company needs, that reflects your culture and resonates with your company ethos – after all the PEO will be serving as an extension of your company and co-employing your employees.

Using a Request for Proposal (RFP) process to select a PEO partner is an efficient method to evaluate your specific needs and identify the expertise and flexibility of the prospective PEO. This is the opportune time to outline the scope of the PEO contract to understand the set up process, the deliverables, the pricing agreement and the key performance metrics. The length of the contract is usually a minimum one year and is often open ended as this variable component is subject to performance and business demands. A client-centric PEO will also ensure the relevant and valid insurances (professional indemnity, public & employers liability) are included as part of the compliance offering.

Cloud based HR portals are used as the hub of communications between the PEO, the client and the employee. We recommend a secure, trusted HR portal as the key platform for correspondence, documenting, data management, and reporting on all facets of the HRM requirements. Modules such as onboarding, people management, performance & absence management, and career succession along with timesheet, invoicing, policy & financial reports are accessible 24/7 in real time and can be confidently shared between all stakeholders.

Whether your requirement is to deploy one or one hundred employees in global locations, Stipenda has PEO solutions covering 65 global jurisdictions and has been operational for 16 consecutive years supporting MNC’s, SME’s, independent contractors and agents alike. Our international offices are represented in UK, Germany, Ireland, Hungary, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Canada, and North America and we are experts in the industries of Technology, Education, Medical, Energy and Finance.

Stipenda is a private limited company of the United Kingdom, which is part of the Stipenda Group of companies which are active members of NAPEO (National Association of Professional Employer Operations) and SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management). We have facilitated in excess of over 5,000 projects worldwide, employing more than 20,000 individuals and boast a high retention rate with 65% of revenues coming from long term engagements. The Stipenda Group invests in world-class technology including secure transactional treasure platforms and procures integral partnerships with international payroll, compliance, taxation, human resource and legal experts in each country of operation.

Visit https://stipenda.com/ for the full range of services or contact us directly in UK +44 (0) 330 3800 161 or USA +1 800 910 7847

New research from NAPEO member Stipenda, a Massachusetts-based company that supports professional employer organizations (PEOs) across the United States with their global employment capabilities, reveals the potential international PEO market to be worth an estimated $8.8 billion per year.

PEOs provide companies with services from payroll to managing employee tax issues and, to date, the majority of their activity has been domestically focused. As companies increasingly look to international markets for growth opportunities and the PEO market matures, Stipenda believes that PEOs will be called upon to support their clients’ employment requirements on the international stage.

The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO) estimates that around 2.5 million people across the U.S. are currently part of a PEO arrangement. Many of these individuals are employed in small-­and medium-­sized businesses. Owners of these companies look to outsource everything from administering the payroll and paying employment-­related taxes, to providing health benefits and securing workers’ compensation coverage, enabling them to concentrate on running their business.

Stipenda grew out of UK-­based CPM People in response to increasing demand from these same small-­and medium-­sized companies in the U.S. looking to expand overseas.

Solomon Williams, CEO, Stipenda, explains: “We were receiving a lot of inquiries from U.S. companies with around 10 to 30 employees looking for help with their employment requirements, particularly in Europe and Africa. Some of these requests came via the companies’ existing PEOs in the United States. We quickly realized the majority of PEOs didn’t have the ability to support their clients in other countries , and there was an opportunity to launch an international employee solution to work within the existing PEO framework. We decided to work in partnership with U.S.-­based PEOs, giving them a global capability.”

There are currently over 13 million (2010 estimate -­13,255,8001) people employed outside of the U.S. by American companies. If a similar proportion of these were to be covered by PEOs as are currently covered in the domestic market, this would total around 240,000 people and could be worth as much as $8.8billion in gross revenues per annum.

“The international employment market has been largely untapped by PEOs so far,” continued Williams, “but I expect that to change. With the rapid globalization of business, even small-­and medium-­sized companies need to look to foreign markets.The opportunities are there but multiple logistical challenges remain, and firms will need the support of employer organizations to address them.”

Stipenda launched in April with the opening of an office in Boston. Stipenda is an associated company of CPM People, leading specialists in global employment management headquartered in Warwick, U.K. CPM People has more than a decade of experience delivering employment solutions across the globe. The company launched Stipenda in response to the increasing number of U.S. companies looking for support managing the affairs of their employees in international markets.

ABOUT STIPENDA

Launched in 2013, Stipenda offers a global solution for professional employer organizations (PEOs). Through its international operations it has over a decade of experience in providing international employment solutions. Its services include payroll, tax management, immigration, benefit management and HR. Stipenda offers seamlessly integrated solutions for PEOs looking to support clients across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia. Stipenda is headquartered in Boston. For more information, please visit www.stipenda.com.

Start-up companies across the U.S. are driving demand for international professional employer services, according to Stipenda, a company that supports professional employer organizations (PEOs) across the United States with their global employment capabilities.

Since launching, around half of PEOs – organizations that provide businesses with support around activities like payroll and compensation – to whom Stipenda has spoken are seeking support for their start-­up clients overseas.

Stipenda provides the global capabilities currently not offered by domestic PEOs and sees this demand from young businesses as evidence of growing international ambition among US start-­ups.

“Historically, start-­ups have been keen to cement their position within their domestic market before looking at overseas opportunities,” said Solomon Williams, CEO, Stipenda. “That pattern is clearly changing as businesses look, at an early stage, to exploit opportunities internationally. The demand we’ve seen for support is clear evidence of the trend.”

Stipenda sees the increasing international focus of U.S. start-­ups as driven by several factors including: rapid economic growth in overseas markets; increased domestic over-­crowding in certain key start-­up sectors; awareness of the risk of imitators overseas capturing market share; improved support for small businesses looking to expand internationally.

“For e-­commerce start-­ups in particular, there’s a growing awareness that to head off potential competition they need to capture international markets sooner rather than later,” continued Williams. “Being online, by definition, gives them scope to do that in part but there’s always a need for people on the ground. It’s in that regard that solutions we offer are in demand.”

High profile U.S. internet start-­ups that have expanded their global footprint from a young age include companies such as Airbnb, a property rental website, Fab.com, a designer homewares site, and Code academy, a programming education website. All have looked towards early European expansion and specifically cited a fear of ‘copycats’ as a rationale behind that move.

ABOUT STIPENDA

Launched in 2013, Stipenda offers a global solution for professional employer organizations (PEOs). Through its international operations it has over a decade of experience in providing international employment solutions. Its services include payroll, tax management, immigration, benefit management and HR. Stipenda offers seamlessly integrated solutions for PEOs looking to support clients across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Stipenda is headquartered in Boston. For more information, please visit www.stipenda.com.

The increasingly globalized marketplace is changing the way companies, including start-ups, are resourced. Start-ups across the U.S. are driving demand for international professional employer services to help meet their staffing needs worldwide, particularly in Europe and Africa. In fact, over the past three months, nearly half of the PEOs our company have spoken with have expressed interest in support for their start-up clients overseas.

Traditionally, start-ups look to cement their positions domestically before thinking global, but today’s business owners are changing that pattern. Expanding overseas at an early stage is no longer just an option for many American businesses; it’s a must for a number of reasons.

The first is that it maximizes potential revenues. Many international markets are becoming easier to access and can dramatically increase the size of your target market. According to Michael Fink, founder of Reputation.com, going global can expand a U.S. start-up’s customer base by 67 percent.

Furthermore, domestic markets are increasingly crowded in a number of key start-up sectors, and international markets represent the only potential source of revenue.

Largest PEOs in the U.S.

Finally, for start-ups that are Internet-based, their competition is international and first-mover advantage can be crucial. These businesses do not have the opportunity to practice on the nursery slopes of local and domestic markets, but are thrust straight onto the international ‘black-runs’.

In order to thrive, these businesses are expected to act like multi-nationals developing a local presence at an early stage to gain the confidence of the local customer base. But with fewer resources than larger companies, support is needed. PEOs organizations that provide businesses with support around activities like payroll and compensation are increasingly in demand to support start-ups’ overseas expansions. As global competition increases, the need for specialized staffing services to support expansion in those areas is growing.

Global expansion without global issues.

Setting up a business is complex on its own setting up another business outside our own domestic market can be even more challenging.

Imagine having an existing client of yours among you to provide a service to them, not in your usual territory, but on the other side of the world.

You face a challenge of saying no to the client, who then finds another supplier. If that supplier happens to be better than you in certain areas, that is the first stage in your declining relationship with the client.

You would be seen as a business without an ambitious outlook at best.

Let’s say however that you decide to go with the client you decide to set up in a new territory and deliver your services to the client there.

What will be your plans and how will you do this?

• You can outsource
• You can form a joint venture with a local provider
• You can set up your own infrastructure to deliver such services

Let’s go through these and examine the details

Outsource

• You search for a supplier
• You asses their capability and capacity to deliver to your client
• You enter into contractual obligations
• They begin serving your client

Where are you in this relationship? Outside, that’s where. You gradually loosen your ties with your client. Meanwhile, your own supplier gradually increases theirs.
Unless you are prepared to constantly intervene in this relationship between your supplier and your customer, it will not end well for you.

Joint Venture

As with outsourcing, you and your supplier, agree to deliver the services jointly.

Your supplier may not want you to edge the out of their own market and as a result may not be as cooperative as you wish.

Your supplier may simply use your relationship and market knowledge to gain traction with your client.

You must have complete trust and confidence in such a relationship or it will go south.

The Stipenda Solution

This is almost a combination of the two alternatives above but critically, you lose no traction with your client.

The advantages:

• You source your own staff.
• You negotiate your deal with your client.
• You instruct your staff in all aspects of delivery and management.
• You retain 100% relationship to the client.

Crucially you lower your setup costs substantially by not having to meet these requirements:

• You do not need a local entity.
• You do not need local banking services.
• You do not need local legal advice of infrastructure.
• You do not need local advice on employment compliance.
• You do not have ongoing infrastructure maintenance cost.
• You do not have to manage foreign currencies.

The Stipenda model is visible everywhere. From start-ups to multi-nationals, the need to operate flexibly outside your home territory is critical to fast roll outs and service delivery

Knowing that they’re going to be paid in full and on time every week or month can quickly help employees settle into their new working lives overseas. Just as you offer an efficient, on-time payroll service for domestic employees, so you can now extend this service overseas. And it will be in full accord with local requirements for tax and insurance too.

Singapore performs strongly across most categories, due in particular to its low taxation regime, the quality of its transport and communications infrastructure, and its economic and social infrastructure. It is also one of a handful of countries that has a free trade agreement with the United States. Hong Kong ranks second followed by Switzerland, with Canada – the U.S.’s largest trading partner – coming fourth.

Stipenda launched in April this year to help PEOs – organizations that provide businesses with support around activities like payroll and compensation– offer international solutions to their clients.

Stipenda has already seen strong demand from PEOs looking for support with relatively young companies with an international focus. This is being driven by rapid economic growth in markets overseas; increased domestic over-­crowding in certain key start-­up sectors; awareness of the risk of imitators overseas capturing market share, and improved support for small businesses looking to expand internationally.

Solomon Williams, CEO, Stipenda, said: “A company can live or die by its employees and they should be a major consideration for businesses that are looking to expand overseas.

“People often don’t look beyond the cost of labor, but there are many more areas that need to be considered. Industrial relations and the definition of employee and employer rights for example, are areas that can end up having a dramatic impact on business performance. We have put this index together based on our 20-­year experience of providing international employment solutions for companies in markets across Europe and Africa.

“For firms looking to gain a foothold in South-­East Asia, there are two territories – Singapore and Hong Kong – that stand out as places to consider from an employment perspective.”

1 Elements of the index include: political, social and economic stability; tax and regulatory regime; legal system; innovation; infrastructure; workforce; currency stability and corruption levels. The index looked at the U.S.’s top 50 trading partners in 2012 excluding Angola and Iraq.

Venezuela is the lowest ranked country on the list, ranking poorly across most categories. It does however score highly for the level of education of its workforce. A full list of the rankings is available at https://stipenda.com/make-­us‐part-­your-­business.

The Stipenda World Employment Index Top 10: the foreign countries with the most favorable conditions for U.S. businesses to employ staff.

Methodology

Stipenda took the U.S.’s top 50 trading partners and looked at 14 metrics across eight categories (listed below). The categories reflect issues that either directly or indirectly impact businesses looking to hire talent in overseas territories. The metrics employed in each category are based on measurable and comparable data for as many of the 50 countries as possible. Of the 50 countries, Angola and Iraq were excluded due to a lack of available data, so a total of 48 have been included in the final rankings.

Sources for the metrics include the World Economic Forum, the International Labour Organisation and Maplecroft’s Political Risk Atlas. In each instance, the most up-­to-­date data was used.

A country that performs strongest in each category is given a score of 48 down to the lowest ranked country, which receives a score of 1. The scores across all categories are totaled and averaged. The final rankings are based on the highest average scores across all categories.

Not all countries have a metric for each category. Where this is the case, they have been excluded from that category, posting no score rather than receiving a score of zero. This means the average scores for these countries are based on a fewer number of metrics rather than being negatively affected.

ABOUT STIPENDA

Launched in 2013, Stipenda offers a global solution for professional employer organizations (PEOs). Through its international operations it has over a decade of experience in providing international employment solutions. Its services include payroll, tax management, immigration, benefit management and HR. Stipenda offers seamlessly integrated solutions for PEOs looking to support clients across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia. Stipenda is headquartered in Boston. For more information, please visit www.stipenda.com.