Global Work Glossary
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Table of Contents
What are the employee types within a global workforce?
What are the benefits of having a global workforce?
How does a global workforce influence global hiring practices?
What are the challenges of managing a global workforce?
What role does HR play in managing a global workforce?
What are the legal and compliance considerations for employing a global workforce?
What is the impact of remote work on a global workforce?
How can technology support a global workforce?
Manage your global workforce with Deel
What is a global workforce?
A global workforce refers to the group of workers who work for an organization and are based in different geographic regions around the world. These workers may work remotely, short-term or long-term, from local offices, in company-owned facilities around the world, or through international assignments.
The global workforce structure allows organizations to tap into a broad talent pool, leverage diverse perspectives, and operate in multiple time zones, cultures, and legal environments, enhancing innovation, efficiency, and global reach.
What are the employee types within a global workforce?
In a global workforce, workers fall into distinct categories, each with unique characteristics and legal implications. The common types of employees found in global organizations are:
1. Direct employee
Part-time employees and full-time employees on the company’s payroll are direct employees. They receive a salary and statutory benefits, and fall under their employer’s control regarding working hours, tasks, and tools. A direct employee is generally considered to be a permanent employee.
2. Independent contractor
Independent contractors (or freelancers) are self-employed persons who provide services for a company under a contract and may operate through a staffing agency. They issue invoices for their work, retain control over their schedule and tools, and typically do not receive statutory benefits or a salary.
An independent contractor is generally considered a temporary employee, even if they remain contractors for extended periods.
Why is it important to correctly classify workers in a global organization?
By classifying workers properly in a global organization, you’ll ensure compliance with local labor standards and regulations, reduce the risk of fines or legal disputes, and help maintain clear working relationships and responsibilities. This promotes transparency and trust. It also helps protect your organization and people by applying appropriate tax treatments and benefits and supporting a sustainable working arrangement.
Read more: Discover how to classify workers correctly with our insightful guide.
What are the benefits of having a global workforce?
A global workforce offers organizations unrivaled opportunities to innovate, expand, and enhance operational efficiencies. Leveraging expertise from around the world can give your organization a competitive advantage in the following ways:
Access to a diverse talent pool
Hiring globally allows you to hire the best talent, regardless of location, boosting innovation and creativity through diverse perspectives. This encourages new ideas, problem-solving, and adaptability, fostering a dynamic and inclusive workforce.
Further reading: Enhance your recruitment process and build a strong global workforce using insights from these recruitment strategy examples.
Operate around the clock
By operating in different time zones, you can support continuous operations and boost productivity. Deel IT ensures reliable and responsive 24/7 IT support worldwide, for instance, by using its global team in 104 countries to provide seamless assistance and improve customer experiences across various regions.
Leverage local expertise for market expansion
Local employees bring valuable insights into regional markets, making it easier to adapt products and services to local preferences. This supports smoother regulatory compliance and fosters stronger customer connections, promoting growth in new markets.
What is the impact of having a global workforce?
A global workforce boosts innovation, operational efficiency, and market adaptability. This can act to enhance the brand reputation for organizations through being positioned as a diverse, inclusive employer. It can also help organizations better navigate economic uncertainties through regional diversification.
How does a global workforce influence global hiring practices?
Hiring and managing a global workforce comes with significant challenges, especially for early-stage or small organizations. Navigating local labor laws, managing payroll in different currencies, and ensuring compliance across borders require substantial time, money, and expertise.
Employer of Record (EOR) solutions address these complexities by streamlining global hiring processes and allowing companies to hire talent in any location without needing to establish separate legal entities. This makes global expansion accessible and efficient for businesses, allowing them to focus on growth.
Seek, a global carbon monitoring platform founded in 2020, leveraged the benefits of EOR when it needed to hire a remote international team but struggled with the time, money, and resources to do so. Deel EOR simplified the process for Seek, enabling it to build and grow a global team, align its workforce with its goals, and scale effectively to meet its global potential.
“Being able to work remotely with a global team [has] been super transformative for me. I can now get access to top talent without asking them to relocate and without my company necessarily being an enterprise. My team and any applicant can stay in their home country while enjoying working for Sweep. I’ve been able to hire in London, Bulgaria, the United States, and more. Every company and every talent now has the same chance. Everything is possible.”—Rachel Delacour, CEO and Co-Founder, Sweep.
Read more: Learn how Sweep uses Deel EOR to transform its global hiring practices and make it easy to grow and scale its workforce.
What is the concept of global staffing?
Global staffing refers to the strategic approach of identifying, recruiting, and managing talent from across the globe to meet organizational needs. This enables organizations to assemble a highly skilled and diverse workforce, with the right talent placed in roles that align with business objectives and the unique demands of different markets.
What are the challenges of managing a global workforce?
Managing a global workforce comes with unique complexities that arise from differences in geography, culture, and legal frameworks, including:
- Time zone differences: Coordinating across multiple time zones can make scheduling and real-time collaboration difficult. Organizations need to adopt asynchronous communication tools to maintain productivity and inclusivity.
- Language barriers: Different languages spoken by team members from different parts of the world can hinder communication and result in inefficiencies. Providing multilingual resources and encouraging the use of a common business language can help bridge these gaps
- Cultural differences: Diverse cultural norms and practices can lead to misunderstandings or workplace conflicts. Cultural competency training or similar programs help teams build strong relationships and foster mutual respect for a more inclusive environment
- Legal and compliance issues: Varying employment laws, tax regulations, and labor rights across different jurisdictions can be difficult and time-consuming to navigate. Staying informed and compliant is necessary to avoid legal risks and protect the company’s reputation
- Ensuring fair compensation and benefits: Maintaining equitable compensation and benefits across different regions can be challenging due to varying cost of living standards and labor laws. Organizations must balance fairness with competitiveness to attract and retain top global talent
Complementary resource: Struggling with managing a global workforce? Gain expert insights and practical solutions with this guide on how to scale global HR seamlessly and effectively.
What role does HR play in managing a global workforce?
HR is integral to successfully managing a global workforce, bridging gaps between diverse teams, and ensuring organizational goals are met. HR’s responsibilities span several key areas, including:
- Recruitment, onboarding, and retention: Developing and executing strategies to attract top talent, onboard employees, and encourage long-term retention, tailored to the specific demands of a global workforce
- Compliance with local employment laws: Ensuring adherence to local labor laws, tax regulations, workplace standards, and other requirements for employees working in different countries, acting practively to minimize legal risks and uphold company reputations
- Compensation and benefits design: Developing compensation and benefits packages that are both competitive and equitable across regions, balancing global consistency with local fairness
- Cultural integration and inclusion: Facilitating cultural integration by implementing training programs and initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion, helping to build a unified work environment that bridges geographic and cultural differences
Is managing compensation across diverse jurisdictions challenging for your remote teams? Check out our guide to employee compensation for remote teams to discover which compensation strategies to use and why.
What are the legal and compliance considerations for employing a global workforce?
Employing a global workforce means navigating complex legal and regulatory requirements across different countries. Organizations must stay informed to avoid legal risks and maintain a positive reputation in global markets.
Companies must comply with local labor laws, including minimum wage requirements, working hours, and employee rights in each jurisdiction where they operate. This ensures fair treatment of employees and prevents costly legal disputes. Employment contracts must also align with local standards, clearly outlining terms such as job roles, benefits, and termination policies.
Companies must address tax obligations and data privacy regulations. This includes managing payroll taxes and social security contributions while respecting regional rules like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe.
Keep up to date with the latest compliance news from around the world with our comprehensive and concise compliance newsletter.
What is the impact of remote work on a global workforce?
Remote work has revolutionized the global workforce by breaking down geographical barriers and providing workers with more flexibility. This has allowed organizations to expand their talent pool and promote diversity and inclusivity across teams.
By allowing organizations to hire talent from anywhere, remote work facilitates a more globally representative workforce, enriching perspectives and driving innovation. Employees often experience higher satisfaction and productivity as remote work gives them the autonomy to tailor their work environment to their needs.
For businesses, remote work reduces the overhead costs associated with physical workspaces and increases access to specialized skills in different regions. Remote work’s flexibility allows employees to work beyond their traditional 9-to-5 or 40-hour schedules, creating opportunities for organizations to maintain round-the-clock operations and adapt to evolving global demands.
Remote work also brings challenges that require thoughtful solutions. Maintaining team cohesion can be difficult when employees are spread across different time zones and locations. Effective communication, collaboration, and engagement require deliberate management strategies, such as adopting digital tools and fostering a culture of trust and inclusion.
How can technology support a global workforce?
Technology plays a critical role in enabling and optimizing a global workforce’s management. By bridging geographical gaps, technology facilitates seamless communication and collaboration across borders.
Tools like video conferencing, project management software, and instant messaging apps allow teams to connect in real-time, regardless of location. Cloud-based systems provide centralized storage and access to information, ensuring employees worldwide can access the resources they need to perform effectively.
HR technology further enhances global workforce management by offering consistent tools and processes for employee performance, engagement, and development. HR tech simplifies complex administrative tasks and ensures compliance across regions, from automated payroll systems to learning management and learning experience platforms.
HR technology also supports career development initiatives by providing employees with equal access to training and upskilling opportunities regardless of their location. By leveraging this technology, organizations can build cohesive, efficient, and scalable global teams.
Manage your global workforce with Deel
Deel is a holistic payroll and HR solution that provides everything a company needs to manage a global workforce. Deel streamlines every aspect of global employee management, all in one place, making it easy to:
- Quickly hire and onboard employees with Deel EOR—our platform brings payroll, tax, and compliance built into the same, all-in-one platform
- Hire, manage, and pay contractors with Deel Contractor—Deel automates HR admin, mitigates misclassification risk, and ensures on-time payments in 150 countries—all with unrivaled compliance and payment flexibility
- Consolidate and streamline your international payroll operations—Deel handles compliance, tax deductions, and filings wherever you have entities
- Standardize and automate equipment and software operations with a global-first IT solution—with Deel IT, you can handle IT onboarding, offboarding, and everything with just a few clicks, wherever you need
- Unlock unrivaled insights with people development, engagement data, and performance in one integrated solution, Deel Engage
- Access reliable global HR information and insights from your workforce data with our built-in HRIS solution that makes it easy to manage all worker types globally
- Automate tasks with extensive integrations explicitly designed for global teams
Book a demo to see how Deel can help you successfully manage a global workforce with ease and efficiency.