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Hiring International Sales and IT Teams in Foreign Countries

Expanding operations into foreign markets is an excellent way to generate revenue by tapping into different monetary resources. In such a case, hiring local salespeople to represent your company in its target market is the best idea.

Successful global expansion is rooted in the efforts of a talented, remote sales force that help you break into the local market, communicate more efficiently with your clients, and consequentially generate maximum revenue.


Hiring a Global Sales Team vs. Hiring Independent Sales Reps and Self-Employed Agents in Foreign Countries

The Difference between International Salesforce Types

Foreign Independent Sales Reps Direct In-House Sales Forces
Cheapest and free of legal hassles. High risk of employee misclassification with costly penalties for that. Expensive and only companies with large budgets can afford it. Setting up the company’s legal entity in a foreign country is required.
Reduced team spirit, less engagement with the product, independence of sales reps that will be less likely to work as a team and be productive in the long-term. High team spirit, product engagement, and high productivity by retaining the best team members long-term.

Hiring a Global Sales or IT Team in Foreign Countries: What You Need to Know

Depending on the needs of your business, you may want to hire an IT team to streamline your software development project or a bunch of salespeople to represent your company in the foreign market, which requires you to keep the following considerations in mind.

How a PEO Can Help Mitigate HR Compliance Risks and Exposures when Hiring International Teams

Activities for your global sales force or IT teams can differ based on your overall strategy, the product your company offers, the specific geography you’re trying to target, and how much involvement you want from your international sales staff. Many employment solutions can only help with a single issue, such as paying salaries to your global sales or IT teams. However, these solutions often do not assist you with the scope of activities specific to these teams. This can be a problem if you need help managing all aspects of your team’s activities.

These include paid travel, car allowances, and mobile phone provisions. In some cases, families may even be relocated to another country if an employee is sent abroad for business development.

Once you have engaged remote salespeople or IT teams and software developers in a legally correct manner to mitigate compliance risks and exposures, it is just as important to decide how you will stop cooperation with them. Whether due to changes in your company or theirs, it is essential to have a plan to end the relationship to protect yourself from any legal issues that could arise.

Need Some Tips on Compliantly Firing a Foreign Sales Rep?

As an employer company, it is often necessary to ‘divorce’ yourself from a salesperson or IT developer whose services are no longer needed. However, it is also essential to protect yourself from any unexpected resignations from your IT team or other staff members. Unexpected resignations can often lead to substantial financial losses for many companies.

As your business grows, you’ll need to evaluate which type of salesforce or IT team members will be the best fit at different stages. Self-employed foreign reps or IT developers can be a good option during the startup phase. However, if you’re looking to serve strategic partners, you’ll likely need fully committed international sales or IT professionals.

There are several reasons why an employer may not be able to fire an employee legally. These include immigration status, retaliation, or refusal of lie detector testing. It is essential to be aware of these before taking any action.

If you have an employee leaving your company, pay them all outstanding wages for work done. This includes any final payments, no matter how poor the quality of the work may have been. If the employee is required to sign any nondisclosure agreements, make sure they do so before leaving.


Top Benefits of Full-Time Employee vs. Independent Sales Rep

Global PEO and EOR Solution for Hiring International Sales and IT Teams


A neutral body that takes over the whole scope of foreign-sales-teams activities on your behalf, regardless of the number of salespeople and countries where you want to hire them, can be the best way to go. Companies of this kind are primarily known as Global Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs). Companies of this type are very broad in character and scope.

Global PEO company is your single partner with international experience and standardized employment reporting procedures.

Acumen International is a Global Professional Employer Organization and Global Employer of Record. Its global network is set up in different countries with established jurisdictions in all matters about HR, taxes, accounting, payrolls, compliance, labor, and employment. It provides an excellent solution that is equally compliant across 190 countries.

At Acumen International, we take on all the legal, financial, and contractual responsibilities for employers and foreign workers. This way, employers only have to sign a single service agreement, and employees only have to sign an employment agreement. We make the whole process simpler and more accessible for everyone involved.

Third-party Global Employment Solutions: Be as Agile as Possible with a Global PEO and EOR Partner

Before thinking about hiring employees, you’ll need to set up your business entity and jump through all the associated hoops. This can include paying taxes, setting up a compliant payroll system, and sometimes applying for a social security number from the tax authorities. These additional steps can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months.

As your business expands globally, it is important to be agile to make the best decisions for your company. Markets and consumer demand are constantly changing, so it is vital to be as flexible as possible. The more agile you are, the easier it will be to make the right choices for your business.

Outsourcing can be an excellent way for organizations to save money and increase efficiency. By carefully selecting which global employment functions to outsource and working with a trusted partner, businesses can reap the benefits of outsourcing without putting themselves at risk. Outsourced standard functions include payroll, benefits, and absence management, but the decision of which functions to outsource should be made case-by-case. With careful planning and execution, outsourcing can help your organization run more smoothly and save money in the long run.

When expanding your business into new countries, there are many benefits to using a global PEO (Professional Employment Organization) or EOR (Employer of Record). A Global PEO and EOR Partners can handle all the immigration, hiring, payroll, tax, and HR compliance for you, freeing up your time to focus on other aspects of running your business. And if you ever need to leave the country, you can do so without being tied down by any long-term commitments.

Benefits of Building an International Sales Team  or IT Team with a Global PEO Partner

Quickly and Easily Enter International Markets with PEO: No Entity Setup Needed

Starting a business is costly, whether you use a PEO or set up your legal entity. However, working with a PEO can save you money compared to the latter option. With a PEO, you benefit from their years of experience and knowledge of best practices, which can help reduce costs. In contrast, setting up your legal entity takes up valuable resources and staff time, not to mention the added cost of complying with various regulations. Therefore, working with a PEO is the way to go if you’re looking to cut costs and streamline your operations.

There are many benefits to using a global EOR (Employer of Record) or PEO, including cost savings in entity setup fees. By partnering with an experienced and reputable company, you can leverage existing legal entities in other countries, which can help you save money and time.

When considering the benefits of using a global employer of record, companies can expect to save money when entering or exiting international markets and hire top talent quickly. Additionally, this method allows companies to draft and maintain compliant employment contracts, manage all payroll and tax withholdings, and ensure a quick entry or exit from international markets.

Quick Time to Market and Ability to Hire Top Talent Faster

Global expansion is a complex and time-consuming process with many potential pitfalls. A professional employer organization (PEO) can help you navigate the process and establish a presence in your chosen country quickly and efficiently. By tapping into the global talent pool, you can expand your reach into new markets with a sales force or IT developers that speak the local language and understands the nuances of doing business in that country.

A PEO can help you establish a presence in your chosen country quickly and effectively. Setting up a legal entity can be lengthy, sometimes taking up to 12 months. This can lead to delays and setbacks in your global expansion plans.

This is where a professional employer organization (PEO) can be extremely helpful. Compared to the time and effort required to set up a legal entity, using a PEO is much quicker and easier. This can be crucial when maintaining momentum during your expansion and avoiding the loss of potential candidates, clients, or other opportunities.

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Full HR Compliance and Streamlined Employment Processes

No question starting up a legal entity takes significant time and effort. Not to mention, there are always added costs associated with compliance and other red tape issues. However, using a PEO can help alleviate many of these concerns.

A PEO can help ensure HR compliance during your business expansion. On the other hand, setting up a legal entity exposes you to compliance risks that could impede your ability to reach your target market. Countries have different employment laws, which can change suddenly and without warning. This leaves your team scrambling to catch up and adapt business practices, a process that can lead to non-compliance. A PEO, however, has extensive knowledge of employment regulations around the world and can advise on a variety of employment legislation, including:

  • Compliant employment contracts
  • PTO (sick pay, holiday pays, etc.)
  • Parental leaves
  • Holiday entitlement
  • Hiring and firing practices (termination, notice period, etc.)
  • Overtime regulations
  • Payroll, compensation benefits, and tax reporting
  • Visa applications and work permit securing.

Global PEO Can Protect You from Sales Rep Employment Risks

An employment agreement usually includes a 2-week notice period, which can help companies avoid sudden resignations of employees that might lead to decreases in sales and, subsequently, profit loss.

Many companies have expanded internationally and have found that using a global PEO solution is very beneficial. This is because it allows them to get employees who are fully committed to the company and similar to the sales teams they already have in-house. In addition, it allows them to keep these employees for an extended period, which protects the company from any employment risks. Acumen International is a legal employer and therefore takes on all employment risks. This can save the company a lot of money that would otherwise be spent on setting up expensive business entities overseas.

Global PEO Is a Cost-Effective Global Employment Solution

Compared with traditional direct sales force hiring on own entities, employment using the Global PEO solution is much cheaper, flexible, and risk-free for the employer.

An international workforce that you employ using our Global PEO solution is a kind of hybrid of independent and direct salesforce. Here are the advantages of Sales Rep employees:

  • Hired compliantly
  • Dedicated and fully engaged with company product
  • As the parent company’s employees, they are obliged to fulfill global strategy and advocate the brand, not simply make sales and earn a commission like in case with independent sales reps
  • Lower expansion cost
  • Flexibility, lean approach: companies can enter more markets, test the markets before they decide to get established there, and quickly withdraw from unattractive countries.

A substantial benefit of long-term staff is that it gives your company the ability to build strong brand equity and make the company and your product recognizable in the foreign market. With short-term sales reps, you risk losing everything if the person decides to leave. In the long run, strong brand equity allows you to reduce overhead costs so that you invest less in the promotion of your products in the foreign market over time while enjoying the same sales volumes and revenues.

Global Payroll Made Easy and Affordable

One of the most challenging aspects of business management is keeping up with payroll. Maintaining an accurate and up-to-date payroll is vital for any business, large or small. But for businesses with sales or IT employees in multiple countries, keeping track of different payroll laws and regulations can be daunting. This can be even more difficult when you have employees in different countries, each with its unique payroll laws.

When managing payroll for international employees, businesses must be mindful of each country’s different tax, payroll, and employment laws. This can be daunting and time-consuming, with stiff penalties for non-compliance. Acumen International payroll services can help you navigate international payroll and employment laws and take care of all the details, so you can focus on running your business.

Global Employment Cost Assessment

In today’s business world, it’s more important than ever to be mindful of costs when expanding your company internationally. Hiring talent in different countries can be expensive, so you must know each country’s compliance, tax, labor, and immigration requirements. One way to save money when hiring employees or independent contractors is to choose the most cost-effective and business-friendly country. This can help you reduce expenses by up to 50%.
Different countries have different labor laws and benefits, so it’s essential to do your research before making a decision. So why not take advantage of our Global Payroll Calculator — the advanced country-by-country employment cost comparison tool? With just a few clicks, you can compare the payroll costs, benefits, employer and employee taxes, and mandatory benefits for 190 countries. The Global Payroll Calculator can make it much easier to find cost-effective locations for your next global expansion move.

The tool considers local taxes, payroll regulations, benefits, compliance requirements, and other labor-related factors that can impact an employer’s budget. By tracking developments in 190 countries worldwide, the research team behind the calculator strives to keep the data up-to-date so businesses can make informed decisions about expanding their operations internationally.

Get Ready To Conquer The World: How A PEO Can Help You Dominate Any Industry

There are many benefits to using a PEO, including saving on compliance risks and time-consuming set-up processes associated with setting up a new legal entity. PEOs are also cost-effective and quick, making them a great option for businesses looking to start the market quickly and efficiently.

If you’re looking to hire and expand on a global scale, you need a partner that can manage payroll, HR, work visas, and employee benefits compliantly and smoothly. Acumen International is that partner. We have the expertise and experience to navigate the complex international employment laws and visa requirements so you can focus on exploring new business markets. Let us help you realize your global expansion goals.

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