Building a global team is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business. But the old way is broken. The costs and complexity of creating local legal entities in each new country pose a major barrier to growth. There is a smarter way. An employer of record (EOR) allows you to hire top talent anywhere in the world, without the administrative nightmare.

This streamlined approach gives you the flexibility and efficiency to build your dream team, no matter where it resides. Forget the old rules. It’s time to access a global talent pool and advance your business.

The challenge of direct international recruitment

Before exploring the benefits of an entity-less approach, it is crucial to understand the challenges of recruiting talent directly from another country, even on a temporary basis. For growing businesses, these obstacles can stop expansion before it even begins.

• Complex entity registration: Setting up a legal entity in a new country is a minefield of bureaucracy and delays. The process can take months, drain resources, and distract you from your main business goals.
• Navigating Foreign Laws: Employment laws vary greatly from country to country. From contracts and termination rules to working hours and leave entitlements, staying compliant is a full-time job. A single misstep can result in significant legal and financial penalties.
• Payroll and benefits headaches: Managing payroll and benefits in a country where you have no expertise is a high-risk game. The different tax systems, National Insurance (NI) contributions and compulsory benefits create a complex web in which it is easy to make mistakes.

These challenges are not only annoying; These are significant risks that can expose your business to unexpected costs and legal disputes, stifling your ability to scale with confidence.

How an Employer of Record (EOR) Simplifies Global Expansion

An employer of record service is the solution to these obstacles to expansion. An EOR acts as the legal employer for your international team members, handling all HR, payroll and compliance tasks on your behalf. This allows you to tap into global talent pools quickly and efficiently.

Here’s how an EOR transforms your approach to building a global team:

Compliance

An EOR gives you immediate access to local expertise. Instead of spending months researching employment laws, you can rely on your EOR partner to ensure compliance with every hire. They manage:

• Compliant employment contracts: Create locally compliant contracts that protect both your business and your employees.
• Respect of labor law: Manage all aspects of local regulations, from minimum wage and overtime to termination procedures.
• Risk mitigation: Minimize your exposure to legal disputes and penalties by ensuring that every aspect of employment is handled correctly.

Streamlined and accurate payroll

Payroll errors are expensive. The risk of errors increases when operating in an unfamiliar country. An EOR processes payroll accurately and on time, based on your instructions, while handling all the complexities. This includes correctly calculating tax contributions, managing national insurance contributions and ensuring compliance with local laws regarding payment. You can be confident that your team is paid correctly, every time.

A unified employee experience

You want your entire team to feel connected, regardless of their location. Using different systems for international employees creates confusion and a disconnected culture. An all-in-one platform that integrates with an EOR service lets you manage everyone under one roof. With a solution like Employment Hero, you can manage leave, documents, expenses, and performance for your entire global workforce from a single interface. This creates a cohesive and inclusive experience for all team members.

Significant cost and administration savings

Creating and maintaining legal entities is expensive. The entity-less model, enabled by an EOR, significantly reduces overhead. You avoid the high fees associated with entity creation, legal consultations and ongoing administrative burdens. An EOR centralizes tasks like payroll, benefits administration, and human resources management, allowing your team to focus on strategic growth initiatives rather than manual paperwork.

Access to unrestricted talent pools

Why limit your search for talent to a single city or country? By partnering with an EOR, you can hire the best person for the job, wherever they are. This access to diverse skills, experiences and perspectives improves innovation and makes your business more adaptable. You can respond more quickly to market changes and customer needs, giving you a powerful competitive advantage.

When should a local entity still be created?

Although the EOR model is a game-changer for many businesses, it is not a one-size-fits-all solution for all situations. Certain commercial activities may nevertheless require a physical and legal presence.

For example, businesses involved in sectors such as manufacturing, physical retail or certain regulated professional services often require local facilities, stores or specific licenses to operate. If your business model requires a physical footprint to produce goods or directly serve customers, creating a formal entity may be inevitable. It is essential to evaluate your long-term strategic goals and operational needs to determine the right path for your expansion.

Hire top talent anywhere with HeroForce

In the age of digital connectivity, relying on an employer of record offers a compelling and powerful alternative to traditional methods of building a global team. It allows you to grow faster, smarter and with more confidence.

HeroForce is Employment Hero’s employer reference service. We enable you to hire talent from over 180 countries, simplifying your expansion while ensuring everything is done legally and ethically.

Whether you’re expanding into new markets or struggling to fill critical roles, we connect the best talent with the best employers.

Expanding your business into new markets is a powerful growth strategy. But hiring talent on a global scale introduces a maze of new labor laws, payroll complexities and risks. Many companies turn to partners like a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) or Employer of Record (EOR) like HeroForce to help them navigate this.

Although both departments manage HR functions, they operate differently and the distinction is essential. Understanding the difference between a PEO and an EOR can be the key to unlocking seamless global growth while protecting your business against significant risks.

This guide breaks down the differences and explains why an EOR is the smartest, safest way to build your global team.

What is a Professional Employer Organization (PEO)?

A professional employer organization (PEO) offers outsourced HR services such as payroll processing, benefits administration, and compliance assistance. When you partner with a PEO, you enter into a co-employment relationship.

In this model, the PEO becomes the administrative employer of your staff, while you remain the day-to-day employer responsible for managing their work and performance.

The trap? To use a PEO in a new country, your business must have its own local legal entity there. This requirement adds considerable cost, time and administrative burden to your expansion plans, often defeating the purpose of finding a simple solution.

What is an employer of record (EOR)?

An employer of record (EOR) offers a more direct and secure route to recruiting international talent. An EOR allows you to hire employees in another country without the need to create a local entity.

The EOR acts as the legal employer for your team members in that country. They manage all aspects of the employment relationship, from contracts and payroll to taxes, benefits and compliance with local labor laws. You still manage the daily tasks, projects and performance of your employees, maintaining full operational control.

By assuming full legal responsibility, an EOR eliminates the complexities and risks of employment on a global scale, allowing you to hire the best talent, anywhere.

Main differences: PEO vs EOR

Understanding the key differences between PEO and EOR will help you determine which solution is best for your business. We have developed a comparison table below to help you make a decision.

Functionality	Employer of Reference (EOR)	Professional Employer Organization (PEO)
Local entity	Not obligatory. The EOR uses its own entity.	Required. You must create your own legal entity.
Employment model	EOR is the only legal employer.	Co-employment model. You and the PEO share responsibility.
Risk and liability	EOR assumes full legal responsibility for employment.	Responsibility is shared, creating a risk of “co-employment”.
Ideal for	Global expansion and recruitment of talent in new countries.	HR outsourcing for existing employees in a country where you have an entity.
Compliance	Compliance management ensured by the EOR.	Compliance support, but ultimate responsibility is shared.
Speed	Hire and onboard talent in days.	Slow process due to entity configuration requirements.

The risk of co-employment and why it matters

The co-employment model used by PEOs is one of the biggest differentiators and a source of significant risk. In a co-employment agreement, your company and the PEO are considered employers. This shared status means you also share legal responsibility for employment.

If the PEO makes a mistake with payroll, misinterprets a local law, or fails to provide legal benefits, your company may be held liable. This exposes you to potential fines, legal disputes, and reputational damage in a foreign jurisdiction.

An EOR eliminates this risk. As the sole legal employer, the EOR assumes 100% of employment responsibilities. They are the ones responsible for ensuring that every contract is compliant, that every pay slip is accurate and that every local regulation is respected. This clear division of responsibilities gives you peace of mind and allows you to focus on running your business.

Why an EOR is the smarter choice for global growth

For businesses looking to scale with confidence, an EOR offers a distinct advantage. It is a model designed for speed, simplicity and security.

1. Avoid the cost and complexity of entity setup

Creating a legal entity in a new country is a monumental task. This can take months, sometimes even more than a year, and cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal and administrative fees. This requires navigating unfamiliar corporate laws, tax systems, and banking regulations.

An EOR bypasses this entire process. You can leverage their existing global infrastructure to hire talent immediately. This saves you a huge amount of time and money, allowing you to be agile and responsive to market opportunities. Instead of waiting for installation, you can onboard your first international employee in just a few days.

2. Minimize risks with impeccable compliance

Global labor laws are complex and constantly changing. From termination rules and leave entitlements to mandatory benefits and data privacy, staying compliant in multiple countries is a full-time job. A single misstep can result in heavy penalties.

A trusted EOR partner has teams of local experts who live and breathe the labor laws in their respective countries. They ensure that all aspects of employment are dealt with, from drafting contracts to managing statutory contributions to complex dismissal procedures. This reduces the compliance burden on your shoulders.

3. Hire top talent, no matter where they are

The modern workforce is global. Restricting your recruitment to your local market means missing out on a world of exceptional talent. An EOR breaks down geographic barriers, giving you the freedom to hire the ideal candidate for the job, regardless of location. This allows you to:

• Access specialized skills: Find experts in their field who may not be available in your home country.
• Build a diverse team: Foster innovation and a stronger company culture with a globally diverse workforce.
• Retain the best performers: Retain valuable employees who must relocate, ensuring you don’t lose your institutional knowledge.

When a PEO can still make sense

Although an EOR is the effective solution for global expansion, a PEO can still be useful in specific situations. If your company already has an established legal entity in a country and simply wants to outsource human resources administration for your existing employees there, a PEO may be a viable option.

In this scenario, you are not looking to expand, but rather to streamline your operations in a market where you already have a presence. However, for any business wishing to enter a new market, the EOR model is unequivocally the fastest, safest and most efficient choice.

Grow with confidence with Employment Hero

Hiring great people is the foundation of growing a business. Don’t let borders and bureaucracy get in your way. An employer of record removes barriers to hiring globally, transforming a complex challenge into a simple, streamlined process.

Our HeroForce EOR service allows you to hire the best talent around the world without risks or administrative hassles. We navigate the complexities of international employment so you can build your dream team and grow your business with confidence.

London, June 25, 2025 – Employers who dilute their policies of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are likely to trigger an exodus of talents, suggests new research.

A representative study at the national level of 1,000 adults who work by the IRIS Software Group technology company revealed that almost 60% of British workers would consider leaving whether their employer gets back on the commitments of the DEI. Two out of five (39%) said they would seriously consider leaving, while one in five (20%) said they would walk “certainly”.

Generation Z is the most likely generation of threatening to stop (68%), followed by millennials (64%) and generation X (47%). More than a third (36%) of those of generation X say that a decline in DEI policies will not influence its decision to join or stay with a business.

The data also reveals a racial fracture in the workplace expectations: 70% of respondents from the black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) history say they would leave or consider leaving if the policies were back, against 56% of respondents who identify themselves as white.

The news comes while the recent analysis of the annual reports of FTSE 100 companies reveals that there is a sharp decline in the use of terms relating to Dei **, influenced by a changing political climate.

Stephanie Kelly, director of people from the Iris Group group, said: “Our latest research clearly shows that British companies must go beyond the dei cash register. An inclusive culture deeply imports employees, with many provisions to leave roles that do not line up with their values. »»

IRIS ‘results suggest that employees are not yet in dation with DEI leaders. Nine out of 10 people (92%) said they thought their workplace was inclusive, and more than three out of five (62%) agree that their employers have improved the policies in the last 12 months, while a similar number (60%) expects this trend.

However, almost half (45%) of the workers interviewed by Iris expect the bosses to go further in improving Dei policies, with only 3% calling their employers to return to their approach.

“The inclusiveness begins at the top. Management teams must defend it, live it and integrate it into daily decisions. Kelly suite.

According to Iris’ survey, more than a quarter (26%) of the workforce believes that they do not see clear policies of Dei in their organization. This despite the people who point out that clear policies supporting Dei are one of the main ways in which companies can promote a feeling of belonging to the workplace (30%), behind only fair access to career development and promotion (35%), and a coherent and consistent remuneration and recognition between peers.

Two -thirds (68%) of British workers say that the approach of a company towards Dei is important for them when examining a new employer, which suggests that progressive policies will be crucial to attract the best talents.

Stephanie COWARD, Managing Director of IRIS HCM, said:
“Technology plays a vital role in helping HR teams generate significant and values ​​-led strategies.

“From the declaration of representation to support for more equitable hiring and promotion processes, many companies have made enormous progress in the fight against discrimination and the improvement of cultures in recent years, but it is something that requires continuous investment – complacency is not an option. Dei is good governance and do good people, and understandable, that is what attracts and retains superior talent. ”

END

* Survey of 1,000 British employees conducted by the census, on behalf of IRIS Software Group, between May 29 to June 2, 2025

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About the IRIS software group
Founded in 1978, Iris Software Group is a global supplier of software solutions and services hosted by the Cloud to more than 100,000 customers in 135 countries. Iris is a trusted partner for companies, finance, HR and payroll teams, educational organizations and accounting firms of all sizes, providing innovative operational solutions that rationalize complex processes, maintain compliance and unlock growth. By simplifying, automating and providing information on critical daily mission tasks for organizations of all shapes and sizes, Iris guarantees that customers can wait with certainty and confidence. Iris is certified in 2024 super place to work® in the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Romania, Canada and the United States. Follow Iris on Facebook,, Twitter,, Instagram And Liendin. More information on its award -winning software solutions can be found here.

Media contact:
Iris software group
Jennifer Peters | Associate director, public relations and communications
News@irisglobal.com