Contents

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1: What is a Global PEO? 3

THE GLOBAL PEO, EXPLAINED

Chapter 2: The PEO’s DNA 5

Chapter 3: Local Reach 8

THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS

Chapter 4: Assessing Client Services 11

Chapter 5: Employment Expertise 14

Chapter 6: Administering Global Benefits 16

Chapter 7: Managing Your Global Workforce 18

CONCLUSION

Chapter 8: Tying the Whole Package Together 23

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

What is a Global PEO?

The traditional way of expanding globally

doesn’t work anymore.
This is why: Let’s say you want to hire one person in France. This seems simple, but in today’s world,
it’s actually incredibly difficult.

First, you’d have to own a subsidiary or branch office, which means you’d have to find a reliable local
payroll company, accountants, lawyers, and HR advisors. Then, you’d have to wait until your entity gets
a tax ID and a bank account. You’d also need to set up benefits, as required in France, and figure out
which collective bargaining agreement (union) your employees fall under.

While this work is going on, you’re going to need to make absolute certain your brand-new entity is
compliant with local labor laws. The liability of making sure all the details are covered falls on you—not
the in-country partners you’re entrusting with this sensitive, complex process.

3
INTRODUCTION
What is a Global PEO?

Finally, in six months, maybe a year, and after several thousands of dollars, you may be able to hire and
run payroll in-country. This assumes that the employee you want to hire hasn’t already found another
job.

Enter the Global Professional Employer Organization (PEO) and accompanying Employer of Record
platform. The Global PEO acts as your company’s “Employer of Record” for all your international
employees.

Using its local subsidiaries or partner companies, the Global PEO legally acts as the employer in any
location. All local legal matters, including HR matters, are managed via the Global PEO, since the
employees legally are employed via the Global PEO’s companies. The employees are assigned to
work full-time and exclusively for you. Thus, you have a global workforce, without having to set up a
complex global infrastructure.

The Global PEO acts as your company’s

“Employer of Record” for all your
international employees.

Evaluating a Global PEO is much more complicated than evaluating many other go-to-market partners
because setting up and managing an international workforce involves so much more than simply
“putting someone on the payroll.” Drafting a compliant employment agreement—including how to
structure benefits, avoiding unforeseen pitfalls with local working conditions, and working through the
market norm best practices—requires deep expertise in any one of dozens—sometimes hundreds—
of countries. Having a partner who can help you understand the nuances, see around corners, and
prevent the inevitable bumps in the road is critical.

Within this eBook, you’ll find a list of the top questions to ask any Global PEO you are considering
engaging. These are questions to help you uncover everything from hidden costs to the availability of
advice, so you can establish what’s included and where there may be gaps.

4
THE GLOBAL PEO, EXPLAINED

Chapter 2

The PEO’s DNA

So, you’ve made the decision to partner with a Global PEO to help with your international hiring. That’s
an important first step. But that was the easy part.

A Global PEO will serve not only as your company’s business partner, but a de facto extension of your
organization. Remember, the employees you hire are on their payroll, not yours. They are responsible
for meeting all the tax needs right down to the most local of levels. The Global PEO is also responsible
for making sure your employees are paid on time, and that they feel the same level of respect and care
you give to members of your team at your headquarters. When done well, the difference between your
HQ employees and employees engaged through a Global PEO can be seamless. You’re required to put
a significant amount of trust in your Global PEO—far more from a business capital perspective than
you would any other business partner.

“It’s crucially important to understand the PEO’s DNA. The

Global PEO industry is very young, therefore, before you
sign anything, you should get an easy-to-understand origin
story, a history of the company, its founders, and its areas of
expertise.”

N I C O L E S A H I N , F O U N D E R & C E O O F G L O B A L I Z AT I O N PA R T N E R S

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THE GLOBAL PEO, EXPLAINED
The PEO’s DNA

Here are the specific questions you should ask—and the answers you
want to receive—before getting into business with a Global PEO.

1. Who started your company?

The Global PEO should be able to clearly explain its origins. If the Global PEO you’re considering
is primarily a company with experience in payroll or other singular aspects of HR, it may be OK
in that area but lacking in a variety of others needed to retain a successful global workforce and
maintain a complex legal platform in an ever-changing global regulatory environment.

2. Who are your investors and what are their intentions/motivations?

The Global PEO should ideally be self-sustaining or at least set up to be successful long term. Too
much venture capital or private equity financing may raise concerns. Your business will rely heavily on the
PEO’s infrastructure, so it make sense to try to avoid working with a company whose primary motivation
is to make as much money as quickly as possible in an explicit effort to sell to a new investor.
Also, relatedly, you’ll want to ascertain whether the PEO has been around long enough to have
sufficient cash reserves. In a high-growth industry, investing in a fly-by-night partner who carries
the liability of multiple companies’ global payroll is very high risk. It takes capital to invest in the
technology needed to sustain in this industry in the long term, and to secure the liabilities one
takes on by engaging a global workforce on behalf of other companies around the globe.

3. What are your plans to build out the infrastructure of your Global PEO further?

The Global PEO should be invested in continued, sustainable success. This means, the
Global PEO you’re talking with should be equipped with the following:
i. An in-house client services team up-to-date on global expansion issues, based in
your time zone.
ii. The capability to manage complex issues that require high legal and technology
standards, such as data protection.
iii. A technology platform to assist your teams with payroll authorization, data
compliance, and other management or HR functions.
iv. Best-in-class IP protection and services.

The option to use a Global PEO to accelerate global sales makes it easier for companies to export
technologies, goods, and services internationally, and take advantage of global markets.

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THE GLOBAL PEO, EXPLAINED
The PEO’s DNA

47.8%
-Percentage of S&P 500 company revenues
that come from outside the U.S. (citation)

S&P Dow Jones Indices for MarketWatch, “S&P 500 companies

generate barely over half their revenue at home”

Source: MarketWatch

4. Has your company been recognized by any third-party organizations as a leader in the
PEO marketplace?

Simply put, the Global PEO should have won at least one award. Again, the Global PEO industry
is very young with only a handful of truly viable players in the space. But, there are a variety of
business awards, accolades, and citations (payroll, employment services, growth business) for
which a Global PEO could be nominated.

5. What sort of costs should I watch out for?

Global PEO should be up front about their pricing, but it’s important to watch out for hidden fees.
These typically relate to:
i. A minimum term you’d have to continue paying even if a professional leaves;
ii. Additional percentage markup on foreign exchange (which can add several hundred dollars
onto the monthly payroll), and;
iii. Value-added tax (VAT) charges. Find out if VAT applies and at what rate, as this can go up
to 25% in Europe, for example.

WAT C H O U T “ B L I T Z S C A L I N G ”

“Blitzscaling” is a term coined by venture capitalist and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, intended
to mean when a company scales (either by want or need) extremely quickly. The meaning is not
inherently nefarious. However, in the Global PEO industry, you’ll want to be cognizant of a company’s
long-term plans for their business. What is their intent? Are they readying an asset for sale?
Remember, you need the Global PEO’s infrastructure to secure your business prospects in other
countries, and your global workforce’s stability. You need a Global PEO who’s in it for the long haul.

Harvard Business Review “Blitzscaling” https://hbr.org/2016/04/blitzscaling

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THE GLOBAL PEO, EXPLAINED

Chapter 3

Local Reach

In theory, what a Global PEO does is simple.

A Global PEO is the employer of record for your international workforce, employees which you manage
to execute your business needs. Operating your global workforce through a Global PEO affords you
an elegant solution to a challenging problem not all companies are equipped to solve quickly: setting
up the complex legal infrastructure traditionally required to hire internationally, and testing out
geographies you’re not otherwise prepared or able to commit to from a time and resources perspective.

So how is a Global PEO able to do this so effectively? Two ways:

1. The Global PEO owns its own recognized business entities in a large number of countries,
and manages them through its in-house team—thus enabling lightning-quick onboarding and
management.

2. The Global PEO has trusted, reliable partners in-region to assist with the process, meaning the PEO
essentially sub-contracts to partners in each country.

75%
Percentage of employees that should be working within
one of the Global PEO’s established business entities.

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THE GLOBAL PEO, EXPLAINED
Local Reach

Of these, which would you guess is the better solution? The answer is easy:
the first one. Here’s why:

A Global PEO, to even consider itself a viable option as a PEO, must have its own subsidiaries in the
countries where it holds the abundance of its workforce. There are no exceptions to this statement. As
a business, you’re relying on the Global PEO to get your employees onboarded as quickly as possible,
and operating within full compliance of all local and national labor laws. The fastest path to onboarding
and local compliance is to be working with a Global PEO with recognized business entities in the top
markets in which global business is conducted.

Having in-house subsidiaries rather than sub-contracting gives a Global PEO more control over its end
product—services quality, delivery of services, legal contract terms with your global workforce, and the
assurance that the local entities are being maintained according to the standards a public company in
the U.S. requires.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a Global PEO having trusted partners at the local level. In fact,
in many countries this is a necessity to getting started. But, to be sure you’re getting into business
with a Global PEO that can withstand the test of time, the PEO must have a high percentage of its own
entities compared to the percentage of local partners.

25%

75%

Local Partners PEO Owned Entities

Ideal % of professionals
working through entities
vs. partners

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THE GLOBAL PEO, EXPLAINED
Local Reach

Be sure to ask these questions about local reach:

6. In which countries will my workforce be engaged via sub-contracted partners vs. your
in-house subsidiaries?
The Global PEO should have between 60% and 75% of its professionals working within the Global
PEO’s own previously established, government-recognized business subsidiary. (Due to legal
issues related to ownership of entities, it is unlikely that any Global PEO will be at 100% for many
years.)

7. How do you choose your partners in each country, and how long have you worked with
them?
Remember, the professionals execute work for your company but are on the payroll of the Global
PEO, so you should view the Global PEO’s partners as your partners. Ideally you want to be
working with a top-tier Global PEO with extensive international experience. The Global PEO
should have a sound internal vetting process when it comes to third-party partners, and they
should consider themselves responsible for the decisions of their partners.

THE GP 5

These are the top five areas in which companies hire professionals around
the world (based on research conducted by Globalization Partners)

COUNTRIES INDUSTRIES JOBS

1. UK 1. Software 1. Sales

2. Signapore 2. Online Services 2. Sales Engineering

3. Mexico 3. Biotechnology 3. Operations

4. China 4. Manufacturing 4. Marketing

5. Canada 5. Consulting 5. Software

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THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS

Chapter 4

Assessing Client
Services

Client services is arguably the most important component when it comes to

weighing your Global PEO options.
Because once you get involved with a Global PEO, that company becomes the Employer of Record for
your employees. In other words, that company becomes an immediate extension of your business, and
represents your company culture. When problems arise, you know you’re going to need to connect
with the client services team at your Global PEO partner.

But how accessible is this team?

Assessing client services at a Global PEO starts right at the beginning. Your first few interactions with
a Global PEO should revolve entirely around client services functions such as setting up employment
contract terms, appropriate benefits packages, and the ability to negotiate with local candidates while
staying within the local and national rules of engagement (laws).

Exemplary client services are really what you’re paying for when it comes to vetting a Global PEO.
Because if you can’t reach the people you need in an emergency—and if you can’t trust that team to
get you the correct answers to important questions—you’re exposing your organization to thousands
of dollars in legal costs, business penalties, or possibly a lawsuit.

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THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS
Assessing Client Services

A high percentage of the Global PEO’s leadership should ideally be made up of lawyers with
specific experience in international labor law. This ensures the Global PEO’s client services team is
appropriately trained and will be able to service your needs as they spring up—which they will.

There are so many answers you’ll want from just this aspect of any Global PEO business. Here are
the key questions you should ask when it comes to client services:

8. What assistance do you provide in helping us create legal, compliant employment

contracts?
The Global PEO should understand the precise circumstances for the hire, as well as the country,
and advise your team on best practices.

9. Do you have a dedicated team available to help answer my questions?

The Global PEO should assign a dedicated, experienced team to assist with all questions
large and small.

10. Where is this team based? In my time zone or elsewhere?

The Global PEO should have locally based, regional teams in place who speak the local language
and can help your employee with any questions he or she may have in their time zone.

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THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS
Assessing Client Services

99.9%
The minimum payroll accuracy
rate a Global PEO should have.

11. How do you work with my candidate

during the onboarding process?
The Global PEO should follow a standardized
process for onboarding each employee,
including making sure the candidate
understands the Global PEO’s role and feels
cared for as a valued member of the team.

12. What controls are in place related to

payment of payroll and ensuring my global
team is paid on time?

The Global PEO is legally on the hook to

pay the client’s employees irrespective of
whether the client pays the Global PEO. For
this reason, their contract with you should
carefully consider and balance this risk, to
ensure solvency of the business. Additionally,
the Global PEO should be able to boast a
99.9% (or higher) payroll accuracy rate.

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THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS

Chapter 5

Employment Expertise

The Global PEO you sign up with needs to be built on a core foundation of
expertise in employment law in just about every country in the world.
For example, in the Philippines, it’s customary to offer a bag of rice to an employee as an annual
benefit. In the Netherlands, if an employee is injured on the job the company is on the hook to pay the
employee approximately 91% of base pay during the first year after and 80% of base pay during the
second year.

“One of the things that stood out during the evaluation process is that
Globalization Partners required that we put down a deposit. To me,
that’s a positive because then if there’s something that could delay our
wires, I know that my employees are going to be paid on time, and we
don’t have to run a fire drill at the 11th hour. That, to me, is comforting.”

- G L O B A L I Z AT I O N PA R T N E R S C L I E N T

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THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS
Employment Expertise

There’s much more:

• Payroll and commission structures vary widely country to country and differ significantly
from the U.S.

• Mandatory benefits are sometimes difficult to decipher and can be overwhelming to a

U.S. HR team

• “At-will employment” is exclusively a U.S. concept, making termination extremely challenging

internationally

Laws are always changing. It’s critical that a Global PEO’s in-house experts can keep up with constant
change.

The Global PEO should rest on the foundation of employment and HR expertise. Understanding the
difficulties that come along with managing a large and disparate workforce is a core element of what a
Global PEO should do well.

There are numerous HR-related situations that can come up at any given moment. Ask the Global
PEO you are evaluating the following questions to test whether they can handle whatever is thrown at
them—and ultimately, at you.

13. In the event of a termination, who will be my primary point of contact?

The Global PEO should have an upper management structure with at least a decade of experience
in global employment and human resources management. In addition, a proportionate percentage
of the leadership team should be attorneys with international labor experience. (See “Assessing
Client Services” for more on this topic.)

14. Do you have in-country team members who can assist my professionals in their
language and time zone?
The Global PEO should have locally based, regional teams in place who speak the local language
and can help your employee with any questions he or she may have in their time zone.

15. Is there a charge every time I need to talk to the Global PEO’s team?
There should be no extra charge to talk to the team of experts. It should be included with the
overall cost of doing business with a Global PEO.

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THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS

Chapter 6

Administering Global
Benefits

When managing a global workforce, simply stated: There is no

one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to benefits.
Each country—each local municipality—has its own set of unique benefit requirements, making
offering benefit programs to international professionals a challenge for a benefits administrator.

For example, Germany uses a “top up” system, which means the government provides adequate
benefits to professionals (typically including medical, dental, and vision coverage), but that companies
may be expected to add supplementary benefits often depending on seniority or other factors.

It’s this way in much of Europe with many countries offering state-provided health care entirely. In fact,
high-end medical benefits are a point of continental pride in the EU.

And in Asia, there is a set of culture norms which a U.S. company must learn and abide by as it
pertains to offering benefits. In the Philippines, it is typical for an employer to offer a monthly allotment
of rice to the employee, for example.

Technically, the Global PEO should be your one-size-fits-all solution to this most challenging of
HR problems. The Global PEO should have a set of solutions to satisfy the requirements—be they
statutory or cultural—in every country per every professional you hire.

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THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS
Administering Global Benefits

16. How can your team help me understand what benefits are statutory and what are
market norm in a country?
The Global PEO should review the specific hiring circumstances and advise you on what’s best.
For example, you may not want to offer benefits in Australia as those benefits are viewed by
authorities as a taxable benefit to employees. Every hiring situation is different. The Global PEO
should guide you on what’s best for the employee with the least amount of risk.

17. What benefit plans do you provide beyond those that are statutory?
To the extent that you hire with a Global PEO in multiple countries, the Global PEO should be
happy to outline what is recommended that would best match up in each country to your U.S.
plan (while reflecting the local market realities), so you have one plan you can justify to your global
team.

18. What are the costs for those benefits?

Benefit costs vary by country but should be included in the total investment cost you’d make per
professional.

3 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
3 DIFFERENT BENEFIT REQUIREMENTS

CANADA BRAZIL FRANCE

• Benefits are expected

• Medical, dental, vision – but
as a “top up” for strong state
health care
• Short-term disability is not
usually provided because
state provision is good
- 55% of earnings up to
$543/week for 15 weeks
• Benefits are determined
with the Collective Bargaining
Agreement
• All employees within same
company receive same
benefits
• Benefits all provided
through state (through
employer taxes of 46%);
Supplemental benefits are
legally required and vary
according to the CBA (Collec-
tive Bargaining Agreement)
of your industry

• Long-term disability is
usually provided but paid
by the employee to avoid a
benefits-in-kind tax

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 THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS

Chapter 7

Managing Your Global

Workforce

Data compliance is the oncoming storm of the international human

resources world.
Governments around the world are taking the issue of employee data privacy very seriously–with major
consequences for those who don’t comply. Time is truly of the essence for companies as it pertains
to meeting this critical deadline in Europe and beyond.

Most anyone involved in HR, charged with the task of processing employee data, would agree that
the most difficult aspect of the job is keeping on top of the endless emails, spreadsheets, and the
patchwork of tools needed to ensure payroll and the proper administration of benefits to the correct
employee stays on target. These solutions can be a lot like trying to patch a hole in the roof with Scotch
tape once, twice, (sometimes four times) per month, when, really, a brand-new house is needed.

A lack of proper and compliant data security is about to carry consequences far beyond what already
exists, especially for those who employ a segment of the company anywhere in the European Union.
In April 2016, the EU Parliament passed a sweeping data privacy regulation called the EU General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The regulation, which will begin to be enforced May 25, 2018,
tightens an already strict law governing how data is stored in every country in the EU. Consequences
for not adhering to GDPR could result in a company being forced to pay out 2% (and, in severe cases,

matter the industry.

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up to 4%) of total global revenue or 10 million euros (whichever is higher) in fines. That’s enough to
THE GLOBAL PEO’S OFFERINGS
Managing Your Global Workforce

You don’t need just any solution to manage GDPR, you need the best solution to manage data
compliance in every country. When it comes to this critical issue, have these questions ready for any
Global PEO you are considering as it may be the most important question you ask!

19. How do you follow data security requirements?

The Global PEO should at a minimum use secure email when necessary. Additionally, the PEO
should closely examine the laws governing data compliance in every territory in which your
company will hire employees. It’s a manual process when done this way, but utterly necessary to
avoid massive monetary penalties.

20. Do you have software where all our global workforce data is maintained?
This is a bit of a trick question – that’s because no Global PEO can sufficiently say that they do.
Globalization Partners is the only company in the Global PEO space that has a software platform
designed to operate in full compliance with all international data privacy rules, regulations, and
laws.

2%-4%
of total global revenue or €10 million
(whichever is higher)

Amount a company not in compliance

with GDPR might be penalized

http://www.eugdpr.org/

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 CASE STUDY

When a termination means sending

someone home to a war zone
The termination of a Syrian national in Qatar would have had
dire consequences if not for the high level of experience and
expertise of Globalization Partners’ client services staff.

T H E S I T U AT I O N

A client of Globalization Partners hired a Syrian national
as its vice president of sales for the Middle East. The
position was based in Qatar. Oil accounts for more
than 60% of Qatar’s GDP, and much of the country’s
economy is run by expats. Arab-speaking men are in
high demand as sales leaders in this country, so the
client felt very fortunate to have found the perfect
candidate.
After about a year of the arrangement, the client felt
that the employee was unable to sell as much locally
as it had hoped, and perhaps the market was not as
good as expected. The client decided it would have to
terminate its relationship with the employee and pull
out of Qatar.
Luckily, this was easy to do with our Global Employer
of Record platform since the client did not have a
branch or subsidiary in Qatar and could simply ask us
to terminate the employee. However, when a work
arrangement ends between a visa-holding employee
and an employer in Qatar, the employer is responsible
for sending the terminated employee back to his or
her home country within seven days. To this point,
the Syrian national working in Qatar for the client had
been in Qatar for almost a decade. The employee had
a home in the country and children in Qatari schools.
Additionally, and most importantly, sending the
employee back to his country of origin would mean
sending him to Syria—directly into the throes of the
country’s ongoing and incredibly devastating civil war.
CASE STUDY
Managing Your Global Workforce

H O W G L O B A L I Z AT I O N PA R T N E R S H E L P E D

Globalization Partners initially recommended that the client inform the employee that the position would
be terminated with time, but that they would allow the employee additional time to find another job. This
way, the employee would be eligible for further visa sponsorship through a different employer and would
not have to immediately leave the country. This seemed feasible for a while, however, the employee was
unable to find a new position. Ultimately, the situation became financially untenable for the client; waiting
for the employee to find a new role was no longer an option.

Globalization Partners, which sponsors the work and residence permits of employees of our clients as
part of our routine employer of record services, offered a special dispensation to this employee based on
the extremely unique circumstances of his termination.

By negotiating with the local immigration authorities in Qatar, our client services staff worked diligently
on behalf of the client and the employee to find a humane solution, and to ensure that the employee could
secure visa status in Qatar without an employer visa in the event of the inevitable termination.

Specifically, Globalization Partners reached out to our local legal team as well as the local legal immigration
bureau to determine what might happen if the termination were to play out without additional intervention.
Our client never had to have a late-night call across time zones, nor did the client have to do research into
this rare and unprecedented situation.

We provided a solution such that the client could graciously exit the employment situation and terminate
the employment relationship without sending the employee home to a war-torn country in which the
employee hadn’t lived for over a decade. We would never have sent the employee into an unsafe situation,
and we knew that both the client and Globalization Partners would have to invest heavily in the right
solution. Because we treat our clients’ team members as we do our own, we took a tremendous amount
of responsibility for this team member. We did not treat the employee as if he were just another person
“on our payroll.”
CASE STUDY
Managing Your Global Workforce

THE OUTCOME

Termination of employment comes with a variety of far reaching issues for both employer and
employee, which are much more meaningful than simply the end of a paycheck. These issues
are compounded when visas and expats are involved. In this case, Globalization Partners,
in conjunction with our client, found ourselves going from a somewhat routine employment
situation, (the end of a contract), to a situation with dire humane consequences for a soon-to-be
terminated employee. Because of our DNA as a Global Expansion Company, we knew to be
careful in this situation, and navigated it much more carefully than a company may have if they
simply viewed employer of record solutions as an “add-on service” to payroll.
CONCLUSION

Chapter 8

Tying the Whole

Package Together

Choosing to work with a Global PEO to assist your company’s global

expansion is a smart decision.
But choosing a Global PEO is unlike any other partnership choice in business. That’s because your
business and the Global PEO you choose will be intertwined from the moment you sign the contract.

It’s vital for you to deeply consider all the questions posed here. Your team is the lifeblood of your
company—as with your U.S. workforce, you know a major key to your company’s sustained success
is keeping your professionals happy. This means meeting payroll on time, every time; this means
providing employees with the right benefits packages; this means having the ability to manage
responsibly at your fingertips.

Often, when it comes to a global workforce expansion, you find that you don’t know what you
don’t know. The Global PEO industry is becoming a thriving services sector that will only continue
in relevance as the business world becomes more globalized. Having a thriving business is great.
Deciding to test an international market is tremendous. Making the smart call to work with a Global
PEO that has the deepest experience, strongest team and most expertise to help you expand with
absolute confidence is the best decision you can make.

We want you and your employees to have the best international experience possible. We hope that
providing you with this information helps in that effort. And as always, if you have additional questions,
we are at the ready. Contact us today.

sales@globalization-partners.com | 888.855.5328 | globalization-partners.com

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