What Is a UK Company Actually Buying from an EOR Platform?

When a UK company hires abroad through an Employer of Record (EOR), providers fall broadly into two types: those that sell you a self-serve platform, and those that put people behind the platform. Ashleigh Graham, Global Solutions Manager, UK at Safeguard Global, explains what pushes customers from one to the other, why the difference shows up most sharply at a termination or a pay slip query and what UK businesses should ask themselves before they choose.

What should a UK company base its choice of EOR model on?

The basis of this is compliance. That's what EOR is. How do I employ someone with full compliance in a country where I don't have an entity?

There is always going to be a scenario where you have to act really quickly because you've got a candidate, you want that candidate, and you need to move fast because of notice periods. That's where self-serve platforms come in. You can do this in no time, no questions asked.

But nine times out of 10, you're not going to have the resources internally to understand all of these different countries. So, it's really about what model best suits what you're looking for. Are you looking for quick and fast, or are you looking to have a hand-holding, “no question is a daft question” type of EOR partner, one that works as an extension of your HR team?

How many overseas employees does it take before self-serve stops fitting a UK company?

Sometimes, it's not a specific number. Sometimes it's a specific situation. The situation where that question comes up can be from two people, all the way to 35. There is no magic number.

A lot of customers come to us when things go wrong with self-serve platforms. It’s the most familiar type of EOR provider, and on paper it looks like the quickest route. They expand on that basis, and after a while, what looked like the fastest and simplest route suddenly isn’t. That’s when the cracks start to show.

What typically brings the customer to the realisation that self-serve maybe isn't the best route is when a problem occurs. That problem could be a worker termination. Or they may need to come out of a certain country, or they need help in a country that isn’t covered by the self-serve platform.

With a self-serve platform, if you've got lots of people across different countries and you need to terminate one, what I see is that the customer is left to handle it on their own. That’s the point where they come to us saying they thought they were getting the support, and that when they needed it most it turned out to be their problem. And when I needed them the most, it then turns out that it's our problem. We don't know about employment law in that country, and we don't want to have fines. We want to do this the proper way.

What happens when one of your people has a question about their pay slip?

At some point in time, a worker is going to need support. It can be something as simple as a question about their pay slip, or there's a deduction they don’t recognise or a certain tax code they don't understand. Where do they turn? Usually it’s their employer, who often doesn’t know the answer either. 

So, then there's this chain reaction where they go onto the self-serve platform. They have to submit a ticket or go through an AI chat. It's not getting them what they want, and they're spending hours trying to get through to someone. By the time they get through to someone, they're then passed to another person or another department. And then two weeks later, they're no better off.

Where I see the shift happen is when mistakes start being made at the worker level. That’s what makes a customer work out what actually matters to them.

That's why, in the UK, businesses are so open to an EOR platform with human support behind it, where they can speak to someone in their own time zone who's going to walk them through it. And their worker has a named point of contact in their own country. In my experience, what takes two weeks on a self-serve platform can be sorted in a couple of hours.

What happens when a termination or parental leave comes up on a self-serve EOR?

I had a customer who didn’t understand the termination or parental leave rules in a certain country but needed to hire someone in this country quickly and easily. The hire happened fine with the self-serve EOR provider, but when the worker wanted to take parental leave, the customer was shocked at what they had to do. They were trying to see if there was a way to work around it. But there isn’t, because it’s the employment law in that country.

That's one thing that we try to do up front, give customers that information. We tell them what they need to understand if we're looking at hiring in this country. These are the termination rules. These are the types of leave. So, that when it comes down to it, it's not a shock and it's not a surprise, and they don't feel that it's hidden information because we go through all of this with them up front. They can then plan for it if that does come down the line.

Does a self-serve platform really get you there faster?

When it comes to immigration and right-to-work checks, those processes take as long as they take. And that time will be the same regardless of where you go. There's not going to be a magic pill that's going to make the visa process go faster because you've gone with a self-serve platform.

What we tend to see with the self-serve platform is that speed is the selling point, and they automate as much as they physically can. They use standard templates for employment contracts that require as little input from the employer and the worker as possible, to get them out as quickly as possible. That level of automation can mean things are missing from the contract, or things are in it that shouldn’t be, and that’s when mistakes are made. Ultimately, they've not taken the time to really understand the scope because speed was the priority.

We see customers go with a self-serve provider because they need to move quickly, only to regret it later because the next thing they or their worker needs isn’t possible. Often it gets to the point of panic stations, and that's where we come in. We just get them on a call, take the time to properly understand the situation and get it all straightened out and it usually takes less time.

What UK HR, business and finance leaders should ask themselves first

Really think about what you want to get out of it.

1. Does your overseas hire or candidate understand the EOR model?
2. Do you know what to do when it comes to certain terminations?
3. If a termination is on the cards, are you comfortable with going through a chatbot, or would you prefer to speak to someone over the phone?

That's probably one of the key differentiators. No one wants the worst thing to happen, where you have to terminate someone. But if that did happen, how do you want to be supported and what would that look like? That normally dictates which way you go.

On paper, a self-serve platform is quicker, but what many don’t realise is that we can be just as quick if it's as simple as setting out a contract. It's those other elements, that compliance part, that can take a little more time, but our customers and workers often find it’s time well spent.

Choosing an EOR model for your next overseas hire?

If you're hiring in a new country, moving someone abroad or thinking about leaving your current provider, and you're weighing a self-serve platform against one with human support behind it, talk it through with us before you sign. Safeguard Global hires, pays and manages employees on behalf of UK businesses in 187 countries and territories, with 400+ in-country experts behind it. Tell us the country and the role, and we'll set out the termination rules, the types of leave and how long each one lasts, up front, so none of it comes as a surprise later.

Talk through choosing an EOR model