Frustrated with repeated issues coming up for your EOR employee in France? You’re not alone. Too many French Employers of Record are focussed on growth and profit margins. They neglect the most important parts of their business: keeping their customers happy! It should be a simple service: reliable payroll, attention to detail, being responsive and providing premium customer service to their clients and supported employees.
Switch to a provider who gets it, who understands that when your new international employee does well at their job, they help your company achieve it’s business objectives. And the role of the EOR is to support this at every step. Your success should be their success. If you are looking for Employers of Record who understand this, you’ve come to the right place.
At Contractor Taxation, we have been working with international employment since 2008. We have experience working with all the major EOR companies as well as the boutique providers specialised by region or industry. Whether you have one VIP in France or a small team, we’re here to help you move to a beter EOR. Our Employer of Record advisory service is completely free. We are knowledgeable, friendly, and responsive by phone or email.
Why is using an EOR in France so painful?
First it is important to know that It doesn’t have to be hard. But when we ask our clients why they are frustrated with their existing EOR, there are some common themes.
1. They make mistakes. Missing or messing up payroll. Mistakes on health insurance or expense reimbursements. Basic operational errors is a major headache. How can you trust an unreliable provider?
2. Confusion. Too many points of contacts. No one taking ownership. Unable to get a straight answer from a human. When an issue comes up and your boss (or your bosses bosses boss) wants an answer you need a partner who is on your side, who is clear and responsive and gives you more rather than less. Better yet they should anticipate what you’ll need and the follow up questions you might get – and they answer those in advance. This sort of pro-active, thoughtful service is what stops little problems becoming big problems.
3. Slow. Slow to respond. Slow to onboard. Slow to action your requests. Slow to issue paperwork. Payslips and tax papers are always late… Urgh it’s so frustrating. You’ve got enough on your plate without having to constantly chase a provider over basic admin.
4. Inflexible and impersonal. Dealing with a tech-focused EOR means everything happens though an app with no opportunities for customisation. Asking questions means a chatbot will point you to a FAQ which doesn’t really clarify anything. Why can’t you just speak to someone who knows what they are talking about?
The fact is that France is a difficult country to operate in at the best of times. Often that is why you’re using an EOR in the first place – to minimise the challenges of having employees in France! You don’t want to incorporate and have to deal with all the layers of bureaucracy. And whilst using an Employer of Record does eliminate much of this hassle, it’s still France. There is still the complex legislation of the French Code du travail and portage salarial – their specific model for third party employment which is implemented via the portage salarial conventions collective or collective bargaining agreement. The social security costs are almost 30% for the employer alone and employees get significant time off (25 days annual leave, 11 public holidays and potentially RTT days on top). Also a typical French employee comes with the beliefs and expectations from having grown up in a culture that deeply values intellectual debate, worker protections and individual rights. For many of our clients there is also the counterpoint: a US line manager with a different communication style, a background in “at-will” employment and challenging targets they have to hit. That’s enough to deal with, the last thing you need is an EOR who makes things harder.
The job of the EOR is to minimise friction, to accommodate the your needs and those of your employee as much as possible, to provide a reliable and efficient service in the background, and to be super helpful whenever you need it. Luckily there are French EOR who understand this. We’ve helped hundreds of companies get great business outcomes from hiring in France. So if you’re not happy with your current vendor, talk to us and we’ll help you choose a better one.
How to switch French EOR
We won’t sugar coat it, switching can be a bit of work. Most employers prefer to transfer the employment and make sure the employee keeps their accrued benefits of tenure like accumulated seniority, vacation days (Congés Payés), 13th month bonus and protection from dismissal. This way the employee isn’t disadvantaged at all by the transition and you minimise any financial impact. But it’s also possible and sometimes simpler to just end the employment with the current EOR and start fresh with the new one – especially if the employee is relatively new.
Whilst our core advisory service is free we do also have highly experienced EOR consultants who can manage the transition to a new vendor for you. They have years of experience in offboarding and onboarding and can make sure the process is seamless.
The most important thing is making sure that you are moving to an EOR that will meet your expectations. We have published some tips on how to pick an EOR that will provide the best customer service and employee experience in France. But in a nutshell, ask us for a recommendation!
We’ve seen this industry from all sides. We’ve run an EOR ourselves. We have used EOR for our own employees. And we’ve introduced many clients to EOR providers. In the process we’ve dealt with all the EOR companies. The big names, the oldest ones, the boutique providers and even those who aren’t around anymore. We know who you can count on. And we can help you benefit from all that experience.
What We Do: Free EOR Advisory
We will give you a free consult by phone, zoom or email. We will take time to understand what you need and then give you our advice. And we know what we’re doing.
What help do we offer?
It is quite flexible but generally is one of:
- Recommending a different EOR that better suits you
- Changing your processes for managing your EOR employees
- Renegotiating with your current EOR
- Helping you manage your EOR employees
- Using a different model than EOR like engaging workers as contractors or incorporating your own entity
Why us?
✓ Over 18 Years of Experience
We’ve been here since 2008, before the EOR industry started.
✓ Unparalleled Knowledge
We founded one of first EOR companies (Shield GEO), we’ve worked with almost every EOR and umbrella company in the world and we have employed our own staff through EOR. We understand all aspects of EOR from sales and onboarding through to payroll adminstration, issue resolution and handling terminations.
✓ We Know All Your Options
We have experience of all the established EOR companies and many smaller providers that are specialised in a region or industry.
✓ Handle all industries and job titles
Historically we used to specialise in IT contractors but today we can service almost any industry or role – as long as our partner’s insurers will take it on.
✓ Solution Agnostic
We understand when to hire as a contractor, when to employ through an EOR and when to incorporate. We’ve used all 3 solutions extensively and even moved between them within country as our needs changed over the years. We’ll help you discover what works best for your situation.
Our background
CT has been around since 2008, before the global EOR industry started. Safeguard World didn’t start offering global employment at scale until 2009. There was no Deel or Remote or Globalization Partners. Back then our focus was mostly on international IT contractors working fixed term around the world. And we built up a network of local partners, companies that knew how to pay workers compliantly in their local jurisdiction. Often they could organise work permits and visas for foreign workers too.
Over time we had more and more corporate clients contact us for help with their international employees. We introduced them to our partners but there was a disconnect with service levels. Our partners were used to dealing with individual contractors and recruiters. Corporate clients were different. They had more complex needs, higher expectations in responsiveness and support and access to expertise. Our partners struggled and we had to get more and more involved to smooth out interactions and solve problems.
We realised that we could, in effect, resell our local partners’ product in a way that better served growing companies with international employees.
So in 2015 we created Shield GEO. This was still before Employer of Record had become common parlance – we were calling it GEO (global employment organisation). That term never stuck but what did work was our dedication to good service.
Our model was to use local partners but act as a “service layer” for our clients. Dedicated account managers, personal service, very responsive, transparent, reliable and empathetic. We became experts at problem solving. And our clients were happy. We grew to support 900 EOR employees for more than 300 companies across 55 countries.
And we practiced what we preached. Our own 75 staff were located in 24 countries. We used our same local partners to employ our own people. We had many of the same issues that our clients experienced with setting up benefits and negotiating compensation and managing performance and handling random HR issues and difficult terminations. Which was complex and stressful at times but very valuable for building our empathy for what our clients went through.
And our clients were happy. We only ever lost 2 customers to our competitors. Almost 70% of our new EOR employees came from our existing clients. It’s important to note that this wasn’t just because our service was so amazing (although we believe we delivered great service). It was mostly because our clients were getting good results from their international business activities and wanting to expand further.
This meant they had sourced the right person, they had set them up well and the person had succeeded. And now our client wanted to do it again somewhere else. And our job was to make sure that the EOR portion was a positive contribution towards that success. Generally by being as invisible, reliable and friction free as possible.
Who we help best
Our services best suit clients who
- Want the peace of mind that comes from dealing with friendly, responsive, accessible expertise
- Employee experience is very important
- Compliance and reliability are non-negotiable
- Have employed internationally before & familiar with some of the good and bad
- Have used EOR before
- Worried about risk, complexity and cost of situations like performance management and termination of overseas employees.
Who we don’t suit
We don’t work well for clients who
- Want a hands-off tech focussed solution
- Are looking for the cheapest solution
- Believe they won’t have complications with their international employees
How It Works: Simple, Straightforward Process
Step 1: Free Consultation
Contact us by phone or email. Tell us about your hiring needs: How many people? What roles? What’s your timeline? We’ll discuss your options—no obligation.
Step 2: We Present Your Options
Based on your needs, we’ll recommend several solutions such as providers who deliver great, responsive personalised service
Step 3: We Help You Choose
We’ll explain the pros and cons of each option in plain English. You’ll understand exactly what you’re getting, what it costs, and what the compliance implications are.
Step 4: We Facilitate Setup
Once you’ve chosen your solution, we can help coordinate the setup. We’re here to answer questions throughout the process.
Step 5: Ongoing Support
Even after your employees are onboarded, we’re available if you have questions, need to scale up, or want to adjust your arrangement.
Contractor Taxation – Your friendly, knowledgeable partner for EOR advice. We know all your options, and we’re here to help you choose the best one.
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How to contact us for advice about using an EOR for your international employees
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