An interview with Iryna Oprya, Acumen International’s Media Department Head
If you are ready to scale your business by taking it abroad, you need an experienced global partner to help you navigate the global business landscape. This is especially true after the events of 2020 that impacted businesses around the globe and brought new regulatory guidelines that must be followed.
Acumen International is a leading Global PEO company that provides its Express Global Employment service to help businesses expand and hire global talent in 190 countries. The challenges of 2020 impacted our company in the same ways they affected companies worldwide, but they helped us innovate and grow our services, to be ranked among the best.
Acumen’s interview with CEO and Founder Nick Ganzha in February 2021 covers the many key factors to consider when choosing the best Global PEO for your international business needs. In this interview, Nick reflects on how 2020 impacted the global HR and global employment industries, discusses the complexities and controversies faced by business leaders who plan to expand globally, and forecasts his expectations for global business in 2021.
Nick’s thoughtful answers clearly demonstrate why a Global PEO model is the perfect solution for businesses of any size who want to go global.
Iryna Oprya (IO), Media Department Head, Acumen International:
Nick, thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Before digging in, do you think most organizations today are aware of the Global PEO concept and the opportunities it offers? Please elaborate.
Nick Ganzha (NG), Founder and CEO, Acumen International:
Many companies think of PEO as a US-based concept intended mostly for small businesses. They don’t realize that a global PEO is a global employment solution for businesses of any size, for talent acquisition and retention, and a global expansion solution. Today, businesses of any size can easily expand into any market in the world, to sell their products and hire the best global talent, whatever their resources or stage of development. What was once the prerogative of blue-chip companies with unlimited resources has now become an opportunity for small and medium-sized companies with limited resources to tap into global markets.
Over the past decade we have seen a rising trend toward remote work, which actually shaped our global employment industry. The events of 2020 made remote work ubiquitous across all industries around the globe. Where working remotely once meant working from home in your city of employment, it now encompasses working with companies on the other side of the planet. On a global scale, remote employment is clearly the trend of the future. And who knows? Maybe in the coming decade, remote work will take place on another planet.
IO: What will this growing trend bring with it? In other words, what are the key factors that global businesses will need to consider when choosing the best Global PEO?
NG : To me, the one and only major factor to consider is that a Global PEO service is the perfect vehicle to help companies shift from a traditional work model to a remote one if they want to survive and thrive in the business landscape of the future.
IO: Please go into more detail. How exactly can Acumen International help businesses make this transition?
NG : We do it with our Express Global Employment solution, delivered in 190 countries. EGE is Acumen’s outstanding new service that was recently branded as a separate turnkey solution, designed to meet our clients’ urgent global hiring needs. With EGE, we can employ your selected global workforce on your behalf in any country in the world. Better yet, we can do it within 72 hours or less if we’re talking about employing the country’s local citizens with our 100% compliant solution.
Whether you are an enterprise looking to employ global talent or an agency hiring a global workforce for your clients, our Express Global Employment service provides a one-stop-shop solution to meet all your needs. Acumen is here to help you with expedited and compliant global employee onboarding, worldwide.
IO: Nick, you mentioned remote work as one of the most important global HR trends of 2020. What other trends and changes did 2020 bring about?
NG : First of all, I would say that the COVID-19 pandemic wins the 2020 Trend of the Year award. In addition to health threats and depressing statistics, it has affected every industry and every sphere of modern business life. The global HR and global employment industries were no exceptions. Our greatest challenge was the many international employees who were stranded in various countries due to COVID-19. This posed unprecedented challenges for companies employing a global workforce, in particular the challenge of keeping their global talent compliantly employed in the countries where they were stranded.
Another trend stemming from the pandemic is a plethora of newly posed legal challenges regarding the classification of workers by employers, both domestically and globally. The events of 2020 introduced many business owners to the high cost of worker misclassification cases, and ways to evade them.
IO: What challenges did these global HR trends pose before Acumen International? How did your team cope?
NG : For a complete answer to this question, you need to know a bit about my personal story and approach to doing business. We are constantly listening closely to our marketplace and innovating the portfolio of Acumen International’s services and products to meet the demands of our international clients, to serve them in the most professional and productive ways possible.
IO: Did you follow this same principle in 2020? What changes did last year demand from you personally, Nick?
NG : The events of last year challenged us to react to the many disruptions and innovations that upended the global HR industry. Acumen tries to always keep our finger on the pulse of global business trends, and to quickly respond to changes in the international business landscape.
In response to our global client s ’ demands and to stay ahead of our competition, we are about to roll out several innovative SaaS products this year . These tools would give clients insights on how to employ global workforce compliantly a nd payroll cost estimates in 190 countries :
Another thing that sets Acumen apart from our competitors is our unique blended business model that encompasses physically present legal entities, and leverages in-country partners in countries where we don’t have established entities. This model allows our clients to tap into the deep expertise of in-country market leaders and reduce costs at the same time. We developed our business model specifically to spare companies from the high costs of overseas entity formation.
Our unique model sets Acumen apart as the premier global business partner, providing our clients with the benefits of our extensive local expertise. Our local partners bring us closer to our global clients, and keep them in the know about changing in-country policies and conditions.
IO: Is building close relationships with clients a key prerequisite for a world-class Global PEO?
NG : Absolutely! Our intention is to be accessible to every client, to be a company they know and trust. Having a trusted global partner plays a crucial role in the growth and success of companies of all types and sizes. For me, trust is a valuable currency in international business.
Acumen enables companies to work without infrastructure. We provide a light global footprint for them, and we use a similar approach for our own business. What differentiates us from other international PEO companies is that they try to build their own infrastructure, while we work with local partners.
Whether our clients are seeking local support for their international clients, want to acquire global talent, or simply want to expand globally, Acumen becomes their trusted partner. Our international PEO helps companies enter new markets and hire foreign talent, quickly and risk-free.
We pride ourselves on the fact that Fortune 500 companies trust us to serve their global hiring needs.
IO: One final question – what makes Acumen the world’s best Global PEO company?
NG : We aspire to be the best by meeting our clients’ specific needs. We not only build relationships with our clients, but we do everything we can to help them accelerate their success through global expansion. You can learn more about the benefits of our global employment solutions here.
In 2020, Acumen was recognized as an industry leader among other Global PEO providers by the independent US analyst firm NelsonHall in Massachusetts. The firm closely analyzed Acumen’s offerings and capabilities and compared them to other global PEO providers, and listed us at the top.
Also in 2020, Acumen International was granted the Global Payroll Association’s Professional Employment Organization (PEO) of the Year Award. This top recognition of GPA proves Acumen’s consistent excellence in the international PEO arena.
Acumen’s Global PEO service enables multinational firms to expand globally and engage global talent in 190 countries, with unlimited access to our value-added tools.
IO: Thank you for your answers, Nick. To wind things up, can you tell our readers a little bit about Acumen’s plans for 2021 and beyond? You mentioned your two new self-service tools; what else is on the horizon?
NG : Along with our innovative tools that we are designing to meet our clients’ growing global needs, Acumen has branded our Express Global Employment (EGE) service. This service lives up to its name as a high-speed solution that can help companies to legally onboard the selected candidates anywhere in the world in as little as only 72 hours.
And I am happy to announce the launch of our redesigned website presenting our new brand and identity. In the future, we intend to consistently innovate to meet the ever-changing needs of our global clients.
Acumen International has become more than a global PEO over the past decade. We will continue to respond to newly emerging global HR trends, and to be a trend-setter for the global employment industry in the future.
Taking your company abroad is a bold move, and Acumen makes it easier than ever with our well-thought-out solutions for global business expansion.
Visit our website and enjoy its ultimate user-friendly experience to explore the full range of global employment solutions offered by Acumen International.
Explore our website today, or consult our expert team if you have a hiring need anywhere in the world. See why Acumen is the best global partner to help your company succeed abroad in 2021 and beyond.
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