In 2019 and early 2020, we would very occasionally hear from clients that they needed their HRIS to be globally capable.

However, ever since the world shut down in March of 2020 and remote / hybrid work took hold, the number of global HRIS requests that OutSail receives has gone through the roof.

Companies of all shapes, sizes and industries are increasingly looking to hire talent wherever they can find it. A global workforce used to be a rarity in the mid-market, but now it is becoming the norm.

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We have posted many articles about global employment (global payroll, global PEOs, contractor management), but we haven't talked enough about Global HR management.

Most of the leading global payroll & global PEO platforms do not provide robust HR management capabilities, so most companies require two systems:  a global payment platform and a global HRIS.

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So what makes an HRIS more global or less global?

1.) Global Offices

One defining feature of the best global HRIS systems is that the vendors themselves are global organizations, and are often founded outside of the US.

The US market is so large that companies like Paycom and Paylocity can serve only domestic clients and build huge businesses, but companies that start outside of the US have to learn to serve multi-national organizations immediately.

These companies also tend to have support teams in most time zones across the globe which improves response times for your distributed teams

2.) Language Support

Another characteristic of a good global HRIS system is that the system has native language support for multiple languages. Many domestic

HRIS's will use Google Translate to offer additional languages to customers, but these translations can lead to less nuance and leaves non-US employees feeling de-prioritized

3.) Global Compliance‍

Maybe the most important feature of a good global HRIS is if it can help you stay compliant in multiple regions

A domestic HRIS that is pretending to be global will say 'Yes, you can store employees in our system and give them access to some modules.'

But what those systems can't do is ensure that the way your international employees are using the system is locally compliant. A great global system should have local rules engines built in to let you know if an employee's leave request or payment schedule is locally compliant.

4.) Global Payroll ‍

Finally, very few, if any, global HRIS's also have global payroll built into the system. However, increasingly we are seeing companies like ADP and Paylocity buy global payroll platforms.

Other vendors, like Workday and UKG, are developing deep partnerships with global payroll solutions

If your company is going global and you need help finding the right partner, let us know!