WRI Makes a Local Impact on a Global Scale

With a mission to cut global emissions in half and protect the interests of vulnerable populations, WRI researches ideas that help shape public policy around the world. To do this important work, the organisation relies on talented people on the ground to gather information, interact with local officials and governments, and develop solutions. We put equity at the centre of all our work, so that the world's most vulnerable populations have a voice on the things that impact them. And climate change impacts them quite significantly.

The organisation has offices and staff in several countries, but the breadth of its mission requires workers worldwide, even in countries where it doesn't have a local entity to hire them. We're thinking about how we can better do work on the ground, and that involves hiring staff who are technical or policy experts who could meet with local organisations and with local governments on a regular basis—not just flying in and out.

WRI had been relying on consultants in the countries where it doesn't have a local presence, but recently that hasn't been a good option because of the scope of the work needed—projects may take longer than a consultant's contract, or may even be indefinite. Additionally, the organisation wants to ensure that workers receive benefits: not just benefits that are required, but in certain cases, there are benefits we want to add. Being able to provide people with health insurance, for example, is important to us. We want to make sure that our staff feel fully taken care of.

Not only did WRI need to find a way to legally employ people in countries where it doesn't have an entity—or employ people where entity setup isn't yet complete—it needed to ensure that everyone hired is in full compliance with all local labour laws. We really wanted to make sure that whoever we're partnering with to hire employees is complying with local laws and fulfilling all the legal obligations. It's obviously important for the employees being hired, but (as an NGO) we also have funder obligations, and we want to make sure we're not doing anything to risk funding.

WRI began the RFP process to find a way to hire the people needed to further its mission. After evaluating a few different providers, WRI chose Global Employment Outsourcing (GEO), the employer of record solution from Safeguard Global.

An employer of record hires workers on behalf of an organisation, handling all the legal and administrative HR and payroll requirements, while the organisation manages the workers and their day-to-day contributions.

Safeguard Global's footprint is in so many countries, and having one point of contact and standardised processes is a value-add for us. We wouldn't need to try to find organisations in each country or payroll companies in each country and have to do the vetting each time.

As part of its partnership with Safeguard Global, WRI currently employs 18 people in Kenya, where the organisation is in the midst of a lengthy entity registration process. Once WRI establishes its Kenyan entity, it will transfer the workers to its own payroll in the country—it's been really great to have that flexibility. In addition to the workers in Kenya, WRI employs people in Australia, Sweden, Philippines, Colombia, Canada, Belgium and Argentina through Safeguard Global.

We can just do the work that we need to do, knowing that Safeguard Global is helping us manage risk in the countries we want to go to.

Another benefit of GEO that WRI values is the ability to sponsor work visas. Whilst we try to hire local talent for projects, that doesn't always work out. When WRI hires through GEO, its workers have local HR teams to help answer questions or provide guidance on employment regulations. I always tell them that the local HR business partner is their first point of contact. I want our workers to understand the legal (employer of record) arrangement, and also the fact that the local HR partners are the ones who are knowledgeable about the local policies.

Since partnering with Safeguard Global, WRI has been able to integrate outsourced workers into its internal infrastructure and offer the same employee experience as the people it employs directly. Things like timesheets and expense reports, as well as IT, project management and performance management—all WRI workers use the same systems.

Since we've integrated them into our performance management system, we're able to figure out who's ready for promotion or has a performance issue. So, when we do our salary increases and things like that, it's automatic. We just send that information to Safeguard Global and they just process it.

And because WRI has partnered with Safeguard Global for a number of employees around the world, the organisation has been able to save on the cost of global hiring. We got our costs down by about 40% because of the sheer volume of work.

The ease with which Safeguard Global has enabled WRI to expand its hiring capabilities around the world has let the organisation focus on its strategic objectives. For example, where to go to further the mission—not on how to get there. Previously, the conversations would be, 'let's find out how we can hire somebody in a particular country.' Now, when we find somebody, we can hire them through Safeguard Global. We create the strategy, and Safeguard Global implements it.