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PEO vs EOR: What’s the Difference and Which Is Best for You?

PEOs and EORs can help simplify global employment. Here, we’ll look at the key differences so you can determine which is best for your business.

PEO vs EOR: What’s the Difference and Which Is Best for You?
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Since the pandemic, remote work has continued to gain traction. Now employers are realizing that if they can hire remotely, they can hire globally, too, opening their business up to a world of opportunity. But international employment is really complex. Fortunately, an entire industry exists to make it easy for you to hire anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Both PEOs (Professional Employer Organizations) and EORs (Employers of Record) can help you navigate the complexities of international employment. But they don’t provide exactly the same services, and one may be better suited to your company’s hiring strategy than the other.

In this guide, we’ll answer the key questions surrounding PEOs and EORs for you, including:

  • What are PEOs and EORs?
  • Is there a difference between them?
  • Which service is best for your company and its global talent strategy?

Let’s get started.

PEOs and EORs Explained

Although some people within the HR industry use the terms interchangeably, PEOs and EORs do have important distinctions, so here’s a quick look at what the two do.

Professional Employer Organization (PEO)

In HR, PEO stands for Professional Employer Organization. PEOs offer an outsourced HR function that helps companies to comply with local employment laws related to payroll and taxation. This is a co-employment relationship and is sometimes referred to as “global payroll.”

By working with aglobal PEO services provider, you can lower HR overheads and improve your employee experience, all while maintaining control of organizational decision-making, such as managing your employees’ day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

Read our in-depth guide to Professional Employer Organizations to learn more about PEOs.

Employer of Record (EOR)

An Employer of Record (EOR) offers similar HR services to a PEO, but EORs become the legal employer of their client’s chosen talent. This isn’t a co-employment relationship, which means that the EOR takes on the added responsibility of complying with local employment laws relating to onboarding, payroll, benefits, and more. As a result, the client doesn’t have to spend time and resources studying the complex labor laws of different countries, which can save them time and money.

Check out our detailed guide to EORs to learn more about how they can benefit your business.

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‍Key Differences Between EORs and PEOs

Now that we’ve outlined exactly what PEOs and EORs do, let's look at the differences between them so you can determine which service is right for your company.

PEOs and EORs both offer massive benefits to businesses. However, they operate in significantly different capacities. Determining which service is best for your business depends on where your business is within the global expansion process.

If you have established or are setting up local entities (i.e., incorporating a company or registering your business) in new markets and need local HR support, PEOs can take on that responsibility. As a result, they can reduce the amount of time your HR teams need to devote to administrative tasks such as payroll.

However, if you’re looking to hire talent globally without setting up local entities in each jurisdiction, a PEO probably isn’t right for your business. In that case, an EOR is likely to be better suited to your needs.

This is because EORs already have local entities in the hiring country/countries, so they can legally employ talent on your behalf. This, too, can save your HR team a significant amount of time and resources. After all, setting up local entities can be very expensive and time-consuming.

In both cases, service agreements are drawn up and signed by client companies to outline the exact services offered by a specific PEO or EOR service provider.

In short, PEOs can be a useful way of outsourcing particular HR functions and reducing costs, while EORs are especially helpful if you’d like to hire talent in a country where you don’t already have a local entity.

In the table below, we’ve outlined the typical differences between EORs and PEOs, but please note that each provider has a slightly different offering:

PEO EOR
Manages payroll & taxes Yes Yes
Manages mandatory benefits (e.g., pensions & insurance) Sometimes Yes
Provides a locally compliant employment contract No Yes
Manages holidays & time off Sometimes Yes
Manages expense reimbursements Sometimes Yes
Handles severance & termination Can advise Yes
Takes legal responsibility for employee No Yes
Manages collective agreement responsibilities No Yes

Build the Best Teams on Earth with Omnipresent

Omnipresent’s tech-powered platform and always-on expert support enables ambitious companies like yours to onboard and retain top talent in over 160 countries and regions compliantly. In other words, we help you build the best teams on earth - hassle-free.

If you’re looking to hire internationally, let us take care of the complexities of onboarding, payroll, and benefits, giving your HR team more time to focus on building a global team that excels.

Schedule a free consultation to get started.

The information on this page is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as legal advice. Please see our disclaimer for more information.

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Author
Selene Sahagun

Selene provides transactional consultation in a broad range of employment matters, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, due diligence, transfer of employees, and post-transaction integration. She has advised clients on compensation analysis, restrictive covenants, equity-based programs, international assignments, anti-harassment and anti-discrimination trainings, compliance investigations, strategies for complex termination processes, collective dismissals, labor audits, modification, and harmonization of labor benefits as well as workforce management including outsourcing schemes.

Want to onboard an international employee today? Get started.

Omnipresent makes it easy to hire, pay, and support your international team with our top-notch services including our trusted global employer of record services. Book a call with us to start building your global team today.

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