Welcome to RemoLabs! This research series presents insights derived from anonymized customer data, utilizing RemoFirst's Employer of Record platform, as well as surveys and third-party market research. We then share our findings to help you hire smarter and navigate global expansion.

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Hiring international talent brings incredible advantages: access to specialized skills, around-the-clock productivity, and the ability to build truly global teams. 

But behind the scenes, HR and People teams are quietly absorbing a growing burden — staying compliant across a patchwork of labor laws, payroll systems, and benefits standards.

From our international hiring insights, People teams spend an average of 8.3 hours per month on compliance-related tasks for every global hire they support. That number might not seem outrageous on its own. 

But it adds up fast.

Hiring 10 employees abroad? You’re now looking at over 80 hours of admin work every month. That’s the equivalent of two full work weeks, just to stay compliant.

In this RemoLabs report, we’ll unpack:

• What these 8.3 hours typically involve
• Why the time drain is more than just an operational inconvenience
• How modern HR teams are finding smarter ways to manage it

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What’s Hiding Inside Those 8.3 Hours?

Compliance isn’t one task — it’s an ongoing, detail-heavy process. 

Here’s a breakdown of the types of work that often consume People Ops bandwidth when hiring across borders:

• Contract creation and localization: Ensuring each new hire’s contract aligns with local labor laws, probation periods, termination terms, and statutory benefits.
  
  
• Payroll coordination: Managing local tax withholdings, social contributions, and correcting discrepancies — especially when working across different currencies and pay cycles.
  
  
• Benefits setup: Navigating country-specific healthcare, pension, or paid leave requirements.
  
  
• Right-to-work documentation: Collecting IDs, visas, or government forms required by local authorities.
  
  
• Regulatory tracking: Staying current with employment laws, which can change frequently in markets like France, Brazil, or India.
  
  
• Audit prep and reporting: Responding to audits or preparing documentation for government filings or internal reviews.
  
  

These tasks tend to be manual, repetitive, and time-sensitive. That is a recipe for burnout, especially in lean teams.

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Why This Workload Creates Strategic Risk

The most obvious impact of compliance admin is time loss. But it has deeper ripple effects for growing organizations:

🔄 Slower Onboarding

When contract localization or documentation reviews lag, start dates get pushed — not a great first impression for new hires.

🧯 Higher Risk of Errors

Small compliance mistakes can create major legal headaches. For example, misclassifying an employee as a contractor in Spain could trigger fines, back taxes, or even lawsuits.

📉 Less Time for Strategic Work

The same HR team responsible for global compliance is often also tasked with retention, culture, DEI, performance reviews, and L&D. Compliance hours crowd out strategic initiatives that actually drive team health and growth.

😓 Burnout in People Ops

Industry research shows HR professionals can spend a significant portion of their time — often 40% or more — on administrative and compliance-related tasks, leaving less capacity for higher‑value work. 

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What Do Leading Teams Do Instead?

Forward-looking People teams aren’t trying to “work harder,” instead, they’re redesigning workflows and systems. Here are three ways companies are reclaiming time without sacrificing compliance:

1. Automate Wherever Possible

Many routine compliance tasks such as collecting documents, updating policies, and tracking deadlines can be streamlined with the right tools and processes. 

Some HR teams build internal task systems to automate reminders and documentation workflows. Others use platforms like RemoFirst, which combine tech and local expertise to simplify onboarding, payroll, and compliance across multiple countries.

But the tools themselves only go so far — especially when you need to interpret or adapt to country-specific regulations. Which leads to...

2. Leverage External Experts Strategically

Hiring in new countries doesn’t mean you need to become an expert in their labor laws. 

Partnering with global HR compliance specialists or an Employer of Record (EOR) can centralize and offload most of the admin work.

EORs take on the legal responsibility of employing international talent on your behalf. That means they:

• Draft compliant contracts
• Manage local tax withholding and benefits
• Handle legal updates and audits
• Shield your company from misclassification risk

Instead of burning 8.3 hours per hire per month internally, these processes are handled by local experts who do this work at scale.

Tip: If you’re considering an EOR, ask about their country coverage, local legal experience, and how they handle benefits parity — especially in regions like Latin America or Southeast Asia, where regulations can be nuanced.

3. Run a Compliance Time Audit

Before you overhaul your workflows, start by tracking how much time your team spends on compliance today.

Here’s a quick framework:

• Track by task: Document how much time is spent each week on contract reviews, payroll questions, benefits setup, etc.
  
  
• Track by country: Some countries (like Germany or India) may consistently take longer due to regulatory complexity.
  
  
• Estimate per hire: If your company is scaling globally, calculate the projected time burden for 5, 10, or 25 new hires.

If your audit shows that a single People Ops generalist is spending 20–30% of their time on compliance, it’s time to rethink your approach.

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A Quick Note on Cost vs. Value

Some leaders hesitate to invest in external help because they assume handling compliance in-house is cheaper. But that misses the bigger picture:

• What is your People team not doing because they’re chasing tax forms?
  
  
• How many onboarding delays could be avoided with localized support?
  
  
• What would your retention or engagement scores look like with more strategic HR time?
  
  

In other words: time is money, too.

Final Thoughts

Compliance will always be part of international hiring, but it doesn’t have to be a blocker or a time sink.

If your team is currently spending 8.3 hours per global hire every month, you’re not alone. But there are better ways to support your People team, streamline operations, and reduce risk.

Whether that means introducing smart automation, bringing in local experts, or conducting a time audit, the goal is the same: free up your People team to focus on what really matters — building a thriving, engaged, global workforce.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What types of compliance tasks take up the most time when hiring globally?

Tasks like localizing employment contracts, managing multi-country payroll, setting up benefits, and staying current with labor laws tend to be the most time-consuming. These often vary by country and are prone to frequent updates.

2. How can I tell if my team is spending too much time on compliance?

A time audit is a good first step. Track how many hours your team spends per international hire per month. If you’re at or above the 8.3-hour average or struggling to prioritize strategic initiatives, it may be time to rethink your workflows.

3. What is an Employer of Record (EOR), and how does it help reduce compliance workload?

An EOR like RemoFirst is a third-party organization that legally employs international workers on your behalf. It takes on compliance responsibilities like contracts, payroll, taxes, and benefits, so your internal team doesn’t have to manage those tasks in-house.

4. Can automation fully replace compliance oversight for global hires?

Automation can help with repetitive tasks (like document collection or deadline tracking), but it usually can’t interpret or adapt to complex, country-specific regulations. That’s why many teams combine automation with expert support.

5. What’s the risk of handling global compliance manually without external help?

Manual processes increase the risk of legal mistakes, onboarding delays, payroll errors, and employee dissatisfaction. For lean teams, these risks can become harder to manage as the company scales internationally.

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About This Data

Our data is anonymized from customer insights and trends as well as surveyed from hundreds of HR and People Ops leaders globally. While this does not include millions of data points, this is collected among thousands of companies globally who are finding and open to talent based in countries around the world.