Key Findings & Highlights:

This NelsonHall vendor assessment analyzes Safeguard Global’s offerings and capabilities as a provider of global employer of record services.

Safeguard Global (Safeguard) is a global managed payroll services, employment outsourcing, and HR services provider headquartered in Austin, TX, offering payroll and HR services, including global managed payroll (GMP) services and global employment outsourcing (GEO).

Originally formed as part of a U.K. domestic payroll provider, by 2006, it had begun to focus on international payrolls using an aggregator model, supporting multi-country payrolls through a partnership network of local providers. In 2008, Safeguard World International became independent of the U.K. business following a management buy-out; its first payroll clients included companies such as FedEx and Skype. In 2010, it became a Workday partner and began offering certified integrations to the cloud HCM platform.

In 2009, Safeguard identified opportunities with buyers and partners seeking to solve the challenge of hiring in-country workers where the business had no legal entities, and time was a critical factor. Safeguard also began seeing U.S. domestic PEOs seeking international solutions for their clients concerned about complexity overseas. The offering started as an add-on service for managed payroll clients and became a key solution to meet the overall lifecycle needs of established and emerging multinationals.

In late 2018, Safeguard World International rebranded to Safeguard Global. In early 2019, investment from private equity partners Accel-KKR (AKKR) for a minority stake in the firm provided its funding to support its next growth phase.

With this funding, Safeguard Global acquired Switzerland-based WorkFor, a Pan-European-based provider of technology-enabled human capital management services and partner of Safeguard Global since 2013. The acquisition brought a portfolio of technology-enabled HR services designed explicitly around country domain experience for local payroll and the employer of record model supported by an in-country presence across eight major EMEA countries.

In October 2020, Safeguard acquired GEDA, a German payroll and accountancy services company. The acquisition extended Safeguard's German market presence to support multinational organizations' employee onboarding, management, and payroll.

In January 2022, Safeguard acquired Global Upside Corporation, a global expansion, technology, and services company in San Jose, CA. Global Upside specializes in recruiting, EOR services, new entity incorporation, human resources, accounting, payroll, and tax & compliance solutions. The country footprint across both organizations is well aligned. This acquisition added ~500 employees to the 1,100 Safeguard Global employees to create a combined organization of ~1,600 employees.

The acquisition of Global Upside supports the Safeguard Global ‘Work in Any Way’ workforce management vision, which considers where, when, and how people work to assure a people-centric, flexible, inclusive, and diverse organizational culture.

Today, Safeguard Global supports EOR services for ~930 clients and ~4,900k active workers across ~170 countries. This profile focuses exclusively on Safeguard's Global Employer of Record offering and capability. Refer to the Safeguard Global-Next Generation Payroll Services vendor profile available to NelsonHall subscribers for a more comprehensive profile of Safeguard's broader managed payroll services offering.