Focus on Your People 

The clear answer is to focus on your people.  An engaged, skilled, and motivated workforce is essential for creating truly adaptable and competitive organizations.   

That’s why employee experience has become a core priority of the modern organization. Building a great employee experience is a win-win as it benefits both the employees and the business itself, with well-established links from the quality of employee experience through to engagement, productivity, retention and, ultimately, organizational success.  

Research published in the Harvard Business Review suggests that profits can rise as much as 50% if employees can be moved from the bottom to the top quartile of employee experience.  

Thinking about employee experience can often be diluted down to ‘better pay and conditions’, but that reductive view will not work in the contemporary labour market. Stepping back, HR leaders are seeing a change from a transactional or loyalty-based relationships between employer and employee to what is known as a ‘Lifestyle Contract’. This is where employees are looking for more choice, connection, and contribution in their workplace. 

This is matched by the employer’s need to create a more flexible, adaptable organization overall which can move with changing markets and disruptive technologies.  

From the Atlas Global Employer of Record Report 2024 

For international and remote teams, in particular, the day-to-day employee experience is often the strongest driver for engagement. However, fostering a great employee experience is made more difficult through the lack of a centralised office space and regular in-person interactions with teammates. 

So, what are the components of a great employee experience in the modern context that HR leaders need to consider, and how are Employer of Record (EOR) service providers increasingly being utilized to help to deliver on that promise? 

A Focus on Skills 

Starting from the foundations, HR leaders should have a strong focus on hiring for, building, and rewarding skills. A skilled employee will not only adapt and be productive in a rapidly shifting marketplace, but, if they are given learning and professional development opportunities, they are also more likely to stay longer.  

This is why HR leaders are starting to hire for skills rather than just experience or qualifications when adding to the workforce.  

With technology and market trends spurring significant change, 60% of employees will require upskilling by 2027, according to World Economic Forum calculations, yet only half can access the training they need. This is why creating an ecosystem where learning is easy to access and clearly rewarded is essential. 

For example, in Coursera’s Learner’s Outcomes Report — a survey of 55,000 learners across more than 190 countries — 95% of learners reported personal benefits after taking a course on the platform, with 77% reporting career benefits including receiving a promotion (14%), improving their performance at work (43%), and gaining skills to apply to their career (62%). 

From the Atlas Global Employer of Record Report 2024 

Whether building skills in-house or seeking skills externally, EOR providers can help. By partnering with an EOR, employers can focus on a skills-based strategy regardless of location – thus vastly increasing the available talent pool beyond the local region or state. In addition, mature EOR providers are starting to add Learning and Development services to their offerings.  

For example, Atlas Learning — a new partnership between Atlas and Coursera for Business — was launched to help global worksite employees (WSEs) develop their existing skills and learn new ones. Through Atlas Learning, over 9,000 courses are available to employees worldwide in seven of the world’s most widely spoken languages. 

Globally Equitable Benefits 

Benefits are key to the employee experience and, at an organizational level, providing global benefits that are equitable in all markets can help build a unified workforce across regions.  

Of course, managing benefits across multiple markets is a challenge for even the most well-equipped organizations. That’s why many are turning to EOR service providers who can provide invaluable insights into what benefits are required, are expected, and are competitive across different regions and countries.   

In recent years, EOR service providers have evolved to offer enterprise-level medical and health benefits, stock options, and even one-time benefits like moving bonuses. This demonstrates a focus on attracting and retaining top global talent by offering benefits that are typically only available at large corporations. 

Not only can EOR providers pinpoint the most appropriate benefits packages, but they can also help to source these and make them affordable for clients by leveraging their economies of scale.  

Flexible Work Models 

Pragmatic HR leaders will recognize that the future of work is evolving towards a more hybrid and flexible approach.  A one-size-fits-all for the unproven benefits of working in a traditional office will only serve to position an organization as backward thinking and drive the best talent away.   

For example, Forbes reports that 65% of workers now desire to work remotely all the time, highlighting the popularity of this work model.  Even more innovative models are emerging that prioritize employee wellbeing without sacrificing productivity, such as the 4-day work week.  

From the Atlas Global Employer of Record Report 2024 

Working with an EOR gives organizations the flexibility to adopt various types of working models. With core EOR and Visa Sponsorship services, an organization can easily facilitate talent in countries where they don’t have an entity already established, or even relocate talent to be closer to their offices if needed. 

Tech That Makes Work Easier 

With teams now dispersed globally, leveraging the correct human capital management (HCM) technology is more important than ever before. 

This is a primary concern for in-house teams like HR and payroll, who need to ensure that employee details are stored and maintained on one centralised system that can handle functions like onboarding, benefits management, and payroll.  

The term ‘Human Experience Management’ has been coined to describe the move towards creating empowering work experience for both employers and their talent, focusing on technologies that will improve the experience for talent. 

In the EOR industry, this includes value-add technology features like mobile apps, receipt and expense management functionalities, and learning and development platforms — all of which contribute positively to the experience of the employee.  

In 2024, there is global economic uncertainty and constant disruption across all markets.  Employers are seeking to build organizations that are much more adaptable and agile, while at the same time, employees are looking for more belonging, engagement, and personal growth in their roles.   

Succeeding in the current market requires building resilient workforces, and so fostering a holistic human-first experience for employees is crucial. Increasingly, international organizations are partnering with EOR providers that can deliver great experience at every touch point with human-first, personalized and local service.