Back in 2013, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson authored the book “Remote: Office Not Required”, praised by critics as a “compulsively readable case for a radically remote workplace”. While “Remote” was a concept that we at TPD gravitated towards early on, generally I’d consider it before its time. It has only been since the COVID-19 pandemic that we’ve seen a significant shift in organizations adopting the remote-first approach. 

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic workers who could were prescribed to work remotely to “flatten the curve”. While it’s debatable whether this worked at a national level, the approach remains practical at an organizational level to reduce the risk of absenteeism if COVID or even the flu tears through the office. But there is more to it now; the workforce has gotten a taste of the other widespread benefits of “remote” which can generally be summed up with one word: Flexibility.  Forgoing the commute means less money being poured into the gas tank and more time for work-life balance.

Organizations are seeing other benefits as well, reduced facility expenses and higher employee engagement. But what about access to talent? “As an employer, restricting your hiring to a small geographic region means you’re not getting the best people you can.” - Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson in “Remote”. Remote opens up a world of possibilities (quite literally) when it comes to hiring! There are a few practical challenges to overcome, like time zones, language barriers and legislation. Let us take that last one off your plate with our Employer of Record (EOR) Payrolling Service. 

What is EOR Payrolling Services

What most people think of when the term “payrolling” is used is the outsourcing of your company’s paycheck processing, think administrative services. That’s not what we’re talking about here! This type of payrolling occurs when a company wants to engage a worker or workforce, but doesn’t want or can't be the employer of record for that workforce. You may also hear this offering referred to as “Employer of Record”, “EOR”, or “Employee Leasing”. An EOR service provider can employ the worker (or workforce) for you and contract them to do work on your behalf. Compared to am processing, this service provides a safe haven and local HR support to both the employee and the company. 

Why Use an EOR Partner for your Workforce?

Deploying a remote workforce means potentially dealing with some major and diverse compliance requirements, country to country or even state to state. For example, depending on your type of business and what your remote employees are doing, you may be required to register your organization in each jurisdiction where a worker resides with an associated physical address. In addition to the initial time and financial investment to incorporate, you’ll pay ongoing licensing fees and be required to file annual reports. Taxes, unemployment insurance and workers' compensation are all due to the jurisdiction in which your remote worker resides or completes the work, which means remitting to multiple parties every payroll cycle. 

The risk of non-compliance doesn’t stop at fines and penalties, employer/employee lawsuits related to wrongful dismissal, unpaid wages, human rights violations and extraordinary damages are prevalent when organizations lack understanding of local employment standards acts. Partnering with an EOR service provider can save you time and reduce your liability, while enabling you to enter strategic markets and access top talent regardless of location. 

How Does the Service Work? 

TPD’s Employer of Record Payrolling services can be used stand-alone if you’ve already identified the worker you would like to utilize, or in conjunction with our recruiting services to source a shortlist of talent for your selection. 

For each worker you deploy, TPD provides a specific quote based on the job classification, jurisdiction, and sometimes even the workers' demographics, for what we refer to as the employer load. The load consists of both legislated burdens (workers' compensation, tax, unemployment insurance, statutory paid time off, etc) as well as our enhanced employee benefits offering to help you land and retain top talent in today’s competitive market - more about that later! On top of the load we add a small service fee to cover our onboarding, payroll processing, HR support and liability. 

With your approval, we reach out to the worker to extend an offer of employment with TPD and initiate the onboarding process. Depending on the jurisdiction, your workforce can be onboarded and deployed in as little as 48 hours from your approval. 

How to Select the Right EOR Partner for your Business

You work hard to build your organizational culture and employer brand. You believe in offering your employees extended health benefits, a time off package that exceeds statutory requirements: vacation, holidays, sick pay, bereavement leave, jury duty… You likely do all of this in part because it’s the right thing to do, but also because there is a clear benefit to your business in terms of staff productivity and loyalty. At TPD we call this the Benefit of Benefits! And you can capitalize on the Benefit of Benefits with your contract workforce, too, provided you choose a staffing partner whose values align with yours. 

At TPD, we were founded with a mission to be different, to put people first. As the first and still one of the few staffing agencies to provide our Fieldstaff with a 100% employer-paid benefits package, our program eliminates the two-tiered workforce and has built the strongest retention program in the industry. Our staff can even enroll in our 401K retirement plan with an option for client contributions! 

Helping people succeed remains at the forefront of our mission today as a trusted partner to help you manage your most valuable resource, your people.