When the service was first established, it was labeled PEO, Professional Employer Organization, because we believed that we were doing something similar in nature to what the U.S. PEO business model achieves for clients. Essentially, we were removing all of the administrative burdens, risks and hassles for clients.
At the same time, we started to recognize that what we were doing was actually different, and we thought that the difference was significant enough that we wanted to distinguish it. We did not want to confuse or mislead clients into believing that PEO and the service we performed were exactly the same.
The services are based very much around the co-employment model in the U.S. Co-employment, however, does not exist in the same format in other countries around the world. In fact, very few countries have co-employment. Some may even view it as illegal. France and Switzerland, for example, have laws that take a fairly harsh view of the co-employment style of relationship. In those countries, they almost take the stance that the employer may be looking to shirk some employment responsibility.
We, as a team, mulled over it. We wanted to keep the association with PEO because many of the benefits or advantages to GEO were exactly the same as PEO, but we had to distinguish them. We came up with the phrase Global Employment Outsourcing, which fed into GEO very nicely and kept the link. We were quite pleased with it. It is now SafeGuard World International trademarked, and we are looking to draw the brand in the international employment space.
Global Employment Outsourcing does exactly what it says on the tin. A client can completely outsource the employment of their international workers to us in exactly the same way our global payroll services work. The two have very similar models. We have a global network of expert partners in each of the countries we serve, and they become the technical employer of record for the worker on behalf of the client. Then, we simply invoice our client for the costs of the services that the worker is providing them.
What is different, and how I believe GEO sets us apart, is that we are very flexible in how we help the client structure their employment scenario. For example, we can customize employment terms. Some traditional staffing agencies may be very rigid in what they can offer from the employment contract to the terms that are contained within that contract and right out to the customary versus statutory benefit provisions that a client might wish to provide for workers. The statutory benefits here in the U.S. and in the U.K. are not always enough for some of the senior workers. They may not be enough for companies looking to attract a high level of talent and retain it.
It is important for companies to understand what customary benefits an employer should offer in that country. It is crucial to identify what the better talent may be seeking from employers. We can customize those employment scenarios for the clients and build them out to whatever extent they wish or to which we are limited by the legislation of that country.
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