How an EOR Can Help During Geopolitical Disruption

Geopolitical disruption can be traced back to a pinpoint on a map, but its impact often spreads well beyond that point. The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, for example, have caused disruption on a global scale. Trade wars and protest movements can have the same effect.

Like a string of falling dominos, this disruption can affect business plans and operations and throw them into disarray. But an employer of record (EOR) can help businesses work around these challenges and maintain operational continuity.

Research published by Safeguard Global looks at how geopolitical disruption interferes with global hiring and operations as well as how an EOR can help companies move beyond the chaos.

Companies are interested, but are they actually hiring globally?

Based on a survey of 400 CFOs across the UK and US, Safeguard Global’s CFO Paradox Report looks at how CFOs support their company’s hiring strategy, how their company approaches global hiring, and what sometimes interferes with those plans.

The report indicates strong interest and readiness for global hiring among the companies represented by the CFOs. Ninety-seven percent of the CFOs say their company is interested in global hiring, and 96% believe their organization is prepared to hire across borders.

But the companies’ actual plans to hire across borders don’t match the reported levels of interest or preparedness. Just 22% of CFOs say their company plans to hire globally in the next six months, and 37% report that their company is decreasing global hiring, prioritizing domestic hiring over international hiring, or both.

Does geopolitical disruption interfere with cross-border hiring and operations?

Yes — our CFO Paradox Report offers evidence that geopolitical events can disrupt global hiring and business operations. Forty percent of CFOs say geopolitical disruption has made their organization more cautious when hiring globally, and 38% note that policies related to geopolitics have upended their ability to expand across borders.

Nineteen percent of survey respondents cite geopolitical conflict as the impetus for relocating an employee in the last year. Such developments also led 38% of CFOs to increase budgets to facilitate employee relocation or mobility, while 36% delayed or reduced hiring in affected regions. Thirty-seven percent shifted hiring to more stable markets.

Conflicts, trade wars, and other disturbances can derail an organization’s cross-border hiring plans, but there are things a company can do to limit the impact of these developments.

How does an EOR help limit the impact of geopolitical disruption?

EORs hire and employ workers in another country on a company’s behalf when that company lacks the ability to legally employ someone in that country. An EOR’s ability to limit the impact of disruptive events depends on the nature of the event and how it affects an organization and its employees or hiring plans.

The fictitious scenarios that follow illustrate how an EOR can help.

A small firm based in Kyiv, Ukraine, looks for a way to keep operating: A small Kyiv-based graphic design firm employs 48 people. Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, many of the firm’s employees departed and applied for asylum and refugee status in other countries, participating in an exodus of roughly 6.9 million Ukrainians who would leave the country by the end of 2025.

Dispersed primarily across Europe, these refugees needed to support themselves and their families, and they wanted to continue the work they’d been doing. The firm was also intent on staying in business, if possible.

An EOR with a presence in numerous European countries was able to hire these workers on behalf of the design firm, so they could continue their work, earn income to feed and house their families, and keep the firm running.

A New Zealand-based shipping company urgently needs marine workers: In November 2019, Iran-backed Houthi forces began attacking shipping vessels traveling through the Red Sea. To avoid this danger, many shipping lines rerouted their vessels around the southern tip of South Africa, increasing the voyage distance by 40% and causing delays of two to five weeks.

Longer shipping routes tie up vessels for longer periods of time, creating the need for more vessels just to move the same amount of cargo. The use of more vessels translates into an increased demand for maritime workers.

Given the urgency of the situation, a New Zealand-based shipping company needed to hire captains, deckhands, engineers, and stewards as quickly as possible. The company assumed that these workers would be needed only as long as the lengthier routes were necessary, but there was no way to predict how long that might be.

The business turned to an EOR with the ability to hire in South Africa. The EOR began hiring in the port cities of Durban and Coega, and within three weeks, it had filled 88% of the roles the company required.

Nepali software company relocates software engineers due to safety concerns: In early September 2025, youth-led protests broke out in Nepal after the government banned 26 social media platforms. Fueled also by underlying frustration over government corruption, unemployment, and economic inequality, the demonstrations turned violent. By the end of September, at least 75 civilians had been killed and more than 2,000 had been injured.

A small software company based in Kathmandu found itself in the center of the demonstrations and decided to shutter its office until the demonstrations subsided. The company employed five Indian software engineers who lived in apartments near the office, and they asked to return to India in order to escape the violence.

The company intended to continue operating to the extent possible and needed the software engineers to do that, but it had no way to legally employ them in India.

An EOR offered the perfect solution. Using the EOR’s own entity in India, it was able to employ the five software engineers on the company’s behalf, allowing them to work remotely from their homes in India. The EOR had the employees working within a week of their arrival back in Delhi.

Learn more about The CFO Paradox report and Safeguard Global’s EOR solution

Political unrest, conflicts, and trade wars can erupt with little warning, and they are beyond the control of even the largest businesses. But an EOR can help organizations work around these events, helping them maintain some stability in the face of many unknowns. An EOR provides flexibility through tailored solutions for specific conditions and needs, even when those conditions are short-term.

To find out how an EOR can meet your needs, visit our EOR page or contact us. And to learn more about the CFO perspective on global hiring, download The CFO Paradox report.