International recruiting is becoming increasingly popular as more and more companies turn to remote and distributed work models in the context of globalization. This type of recruiting allows for a more flexible hiring process and enables companies to hire the best talent worldwide. However, the international recruiting process also faces challenges due to cross-cultural differences.
Understanding cultural differences is the primary challenge in international recruiting. The hiring process should be approached differently depending on the candidate's cultural background, location, and expectations. Companies must take the time to understand the cultural nuances of different countries in order to avoid misunderstandings and build trust.
Cross-cultural communication skills are critical to attracting top talent and ensuring a positive candidate experience. Companies must invest in training cross-cultural recruiting teams to effectively deal with the complexities of international hiring. Ultimately, successful international hiring requires a customized approach based on the cultural norms of the country in which you are hiring.
In addition, hiring employees in another country or region can have serious consequences when companies do not understand local laws and regulations and employ people in violation of them. And as a company expands and touches more countries, payroll tax and compliance requirements can add up quickly. If these details are not addressed, companies may be subject to fines, lawsuits, and other legal issues.
To address this, EqualOcean has compiled a list of several top-performing global HR solution providers to provide a reference for companies with global operations and international talent acquisition needs.
1. GONEX
Founded in 2022 in Beijing, GONEX (Chinese: 高奈珂斯) provides companies with one-stop global HR solutions. The company offers products and services, including Employer of Record (EOR), Payroll Service, Contractor, and Mobility, with business coverage in over 100 countries and regions.
Compared with the traditional outsourcing model, cross-border employment and management are now more compliance-oriented. The EOR service is full-risk outsourcing, where GONEX assumes compliance responsibilities and risks as a nominal employer, helping real employers with contract signing, onboarding and offloading, payroll and benefits issuance, and providing legal consulting, tax processing and other services.
GONEX mainly serves medium-sized and above overseas companies, with clients from medical and health care, intelligent manufacturing, financial services, high-tech Internet and other fields. The fee model is based on the number of employees monthly.
GONEX announced that it has raised an angel funding round of tens of millions of CNY from K2VC (Chinese: 险峰长青), and individual investors Hao Cheng and Yongzhi Yang in November last year.
On April 20, Gonex held a media conference launching GONEX-IRIS, the world’s first AI-native HR Industry application. It is designed to answer any human resource-related questions in real time, which perfectly addresses the compliance issues due to languages, time zones, and cultures barriers, improving both productivity and employee satisfaction.
2. ChaadHR
ChaadHR was founded in Shanghai on August 04, 2022, as a company specializing in remote team management and overseas payroll services for Chinese companies going global, with members from giants such as LinkedIn, PayPal, Airwallex, Robert Walters, Korn Ferry, Alibaba, Baidu, Amazon, etc.
ChaadHR provides EOR solutions for companies in 160 countries and regions around the world to manage employees legally and compliantly in countries or regions where companies do not have a legal entity. Meanwhile, ChaadHR also offers a one-stop solution for companies in the process of globalization, including labor law consulting, employee contracting, cross-border payroll, manpower outsourcing services, automated compliance checks, and more.
3. Deel
Based in San Francisco, California, Deel HR is a global-first Human Resources Information System (HRIS) that offers everything needed to manage an entire global workforce compliantly, starting in 2018.
Valued at USD 12 billion with USD 295 million ARR, Deel is addressing the global challenge head-on with the launch of a new global HR platform. The Deel HR platform consolidates global team management and combines the many aspects of international hiring into one place.
Deel announced the launch of Deel HR, US Payroll, and Deel Engage, applications for hiring, managing and paying global workers compliantly in Janurary this year. The company claims the new platform brings global HR into the 21st century. US Payroll is the company’s new in-house payroll engine, while Deel Engage is a set of HR Slack and Microsoft Teams plugins connected to Deel HR to help distributed teams manage their work better.
The company, which raised $50 million at a $12 billion valuation in May 2022 in the latest venture round, now has over 15,000 customers using its HR platform, including Nike, Shopify, and Klarna.
4. Papaya Global
Papaya Global is a SaaS fintech company providing global payroll technology and the only one with an embedded payments platform designed for the workforce needs of global enterprises. Papaya's comprehensive technology, known as Papaya Payroll OS, provides global payroll with automation, compliance, flexibility, and security.
Founded in 2016, Papaya's team currently spans Tel Aviv, New York, Austin, London, Kiev, Singapore, and Melbourne. Its technology has been recognized by all leading global analysts, including Gartner, Visa, NelsonHall, and others, as disruptive in the field of workforce management and payments. Among other accolades, Papaya was included in the Forbes Cloud 100 and CNBC's Top Startups for the Enterprise.
March 27, 2023, Papaya Global announced the launch of its latest offering, Papaya Global Payroll Payments — a fully automated, embedded payments platform that gives clients the ability to process global payroll and make mass payments to employees, authorities, benefits vendors, and other beneficiaries.
Papaya Global announced in September 2021 that its valuation had surged to USD 3.7 billion following its USD 250 million Series D. This funding round was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners and joined by Tiger Global, with participation from existing investors - Scale Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP, Alkeon Capital, Workday Ventures, access industries and Group 11. The new investment brings Papaya’s total funding to USD 440 million, with the company's valuation increasing by 10x to USD 3.7 billion since September 2020.
5. G-P (Globalization Partners)
G-P was founded in 2012 by CEO Nicole Sahin with dual U.S. headquarters in Boston and San Diego. It enables companies to quickly and easily expand internationally across six continents and into more than 170 countries without the hassle of setting up local branch offices or subsidiaries. Global Expansion Platform launched by G-P allows companies to hire employees throughout the world without having to navigate complex international legal, tax, and HR issues.
In 2022, G-P was recognised in the highest position on both the Everest Group and NelsonHall analyst reports, highlighting the company's strength in vision, market impact and ability to deliver immediate benefits and meet future customer requirements.
In January 2022, Globalization Partners closed a $200 million financing round and is now valued at $4.2 billion.
6. Omnipresent
Founded in 2019, global employment partner Omnipresent provides client-focused, tech-enabled business solutions combined with personalized expertise to support hiring people globally. Businesses looking to go global can hire and manage employees compliantly in more than 160 countries through the OmniPlatform, Omnipresent's proprietary digital platform and SaaS product.
As a fully remote company with no corporate headquarters, Omnipresent has grown from a team of two to more than 400 people in 50+ countries worldwide.
The London-headquartered company pulled in $120 million in a Series B funding round led by Kinnevik AB and Tencent in March 2022. In addition, Uncorrelated Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, also participated in the funding round.
OmniAcademy, a free online learning platform dedicated to helping HR professionals and senior leaders to grow successful international businesses with ease, was announced in August 2022.
7. BIPO
Established in 2010 in Shanghai, and headquartered in Singapore, BIPO is a global payroll and people solutions provider.
BIPO's latest financing was completed in October 2020, with a strategic investment of nearly CNY 100 million from China's CTG Group (CTG).
The company is a global HR one-stop service provider based in Asia Pacific and radiating globally to promote technology empowerment. Core service products include BIPO HRMS, global payroll solutions, and nominal employer services (EOR), etc. The company is dedicated to providing multi-regional, efficient and compliant services to clients with the help of technology-enabled systems and multi-country service networks.
BIPO currently has its own offices in more than 30 countries and regions, with operations in more than 140 countries and regions, in industries such as retail, shipping, food and beverage, internet, manufacturing, finance, AI, gaming, etc.
8. HotPay
Founded in 2021 and located in Shanghai, HotPay (Chinese: 火星云) is a smart payroll and one-stop employee management platform. In August 2022, HotPay closed a CNY 48.2 million angel funding round led by JUE Capital and followed by Meichai Group and its founding team and is valued at USD 11.25 billion.
HotPay focuses on the scenario of employment and settlement automation, including the specific basic HR aspects such as onboarding management, file management, leave management, performance management, salary calculation, payroll tax reporting, and benefit management.
To this date, HotPay has served more than 500 companies, including Internet giants such as Ele.me (Chinese: 饿了么) and Freshippo (Chinese:盒马).
At present, Mars Cloud is actively expanding overseas markets.
9. Multiplier
Multiplier, founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Singapore, raised a series B funding of USD 60 million led by Tiger Global and Sequoia India Capital and joined by DST Global Partners. Multiplier’s total capital now stands at USD 77.2 million, valuing the company at USD 400 million.
As a global recruitment management service platform, Multiplier focuses on providing companies with solutions for recruiting talent worldwide. In addition to streamlining the recruitment process, Multiplier also offers automated HR workflows, payroll and payment solutions.
In just 18 months since its establishment, Multiplier has cumulatively served companies in more than 100 countries. According to Multiplier, with its unique legal infrastructure, it can help companies rapidly expand their teams in multiple countries without establishing a local legal entity.
Multiplier’s aim is to alleviate the pain points of businesses of all sizes when it comes to hiring, employing and managing talent across the globe compliantly.
10. Jobbatical
Jobbatical specializes in relocating workers and whose business has seen an uplift in the post-pandemic work environments as so many workers become "digital nomads".
The company has raised an EUR 11.6 million funding round, led by Nordic VC Inventure. Additional investors included Union Square Ventures, Swiss Post Ventures, Karma VC, Metaplanet, Devotion Ventures, and angel investors Kristel Kruustük, Indrek Prants, Andres Kull, and former head of Airbnb Experiences Joe Zadeh.
Co-founded by Estonian entrepreneurs Karoli Hindriks, Ronald Hindriks, and Ankur Agarwal, Jobbatical is shifting its focus from recruiting to simplifying the relocation and immigration process for foreign or expatriate employees.
The company claims that it has seen an 8x ARR growth in the past 12 months and 19x MRR growth in Germany, while also getting to cash flow and EBITDA positive.