The challenge: navigating complex international regulations to hire outside a home market
The Ecolex Group was looking to hire highly specialized talent outside of their home market in Singapore, targeting regions like the U.S., China, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. When they evaluated their options for global expansion, they found providers that were limited strictly to payroll processing, accounting, and tax services — there was no single solution that covered all of their needs.
They prioritized finding an employment of record (EOR) partner that could stay on top of changing, complex international regulations across these drastically different jurisdictions.
“Not only is it costly to assimilate to local tax laws, the U.S. framework is extremely complex, while Japan has another set of rules. I’d rather leave it to experts than dedicate our own resources to a resource- and time-consuming task,” said Rosalind Lee, Corporate Finance and Business Controller at Ecolex Group.
Finding the right provider is not as easy as it sounds. A global expansion partner needs to be zealous in respecting international labor laws, experienced in compliance, and quick on their feet.
“Working with our previous provider was difficult because of the time difference," said Lee. "It was a U.S.-based company, whereas we are in Singapore. But we couldn’t do it alone and processing payroll in a timely manner, meeting all the statutory requirements at local and federal levels, and ensuring compliance with the Employment Pass (EP) for our American talent was paramount.”
The solution: a single platform for compliant global hiring and local support
The Ecolex Group carefully chose an ally with the dedicated regional teams and market-leading technology required to bypass the costly and time-consuming administrative tasks that threatened to slow their global growth. This partnership enabled the company to quickly expand into key global markets for product testing prior to establishing permanent foreign entities.
“Going to an EOR is definitely the best choice at a company’s early growth stage," said Lee. "As your business scales, hiring via an EOR means you can continue to grow seamlessly until reaching the critical mass that justifies setting up a legal entity.”
Ecolex Group found the solution to their international expansion woes: G-P’s Global Employment Platform provided all of their hiring needs in one place — from automated contract generation and payroll and expense reporting to absolute compliance with country-specific labor laws in the U.S., China, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia.
What most impressed me was seeing all the contracts available — the formats G-P are able to generate in an astoundingly short period of time and at a granular level. In the U.S., for example, each state has its own labor law, which translates into different fees. All contracts fully comply with the internal laws of the countries considered."
One of the main advantages of working with G-P was their robust team of local experts who offer full-time support at each stage of the growth journey.
“Relying on an EOR with presence in Singapore makes our lives so much easier. No more time zone issues or trouble working together,” said Lee. “G-P’s team is on the lookout for our needs and concerns at any time of day. They have compliance on lockdown, particularly pertaining to EP issues.”
The impact: painless market entry, direct customer access, and a consolidated global footprint
G-P’s platform is backed by HR, legal, and financial expertise, eliminating the need for third-party advice and providing peace of mind for the Ecolex Group team. They could rest assured they had a partner at their side to handle all HR and compliance matters across five continents.
G-P understood the importance for organizations in growth mode to rely on a partner that will scale in tandem with them. The Ecolex Group found that this type of partnership provided an invaluable edge over the competition.
G-P’s platform provides total visibility of the teams we set up in other countries. We know that with a simple click, we could be going to the next market. We always like to work with people that are in growth mode. Our energy and our passion always contrast with companies that are already stagnant.”
By relying on G-P as their global growth ally, Ecolex Group experienced painless, rapid market entry, enabling them to focus solely on what they do best: developing sustainable lipid chemistry and growing their business globally.
The Ecolex Group is confident expanding wherever demand is detected, rapidly bringing on team members in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and China. The company unlocked the ability to seamlessly integrate teams of local talent — an invaluable advantage when it comes to consolidating a local footprint in new markets.
"We are now able to focus our efforts on the Chinese market to significantly improve our margins by going directly to the end customer instead of relying on a local distributor," Said Lee. "By unlocking a local presence, we can provide a more specialized, technical offering to our customers that a distributor cannot. We will also be looking to use G-P to consolidate a team in Argentina.”
We are fighting to consolidate our footprint and are exploring new ideas, opportunities, and products on a daily basis. We see that same energy when working with G-P.”
