Skuad Alternatives

Expanding your business in India is challenging due to the complex and expensive web of approvals and compliance requirements. In such cases, an employer of record (EOR) platform is a strategic tool to navigate the complexities of international expansion, recruitment and compliance.

Skuad is a global EOR platform that enables companies to hire, onboard and pay employees and contractors in different countries. It offers services to 160+ countries and helps organisations to meet their hiring needs. 

However, the tool has some limitations like lack of transparency, mismanagement of taxes, unfulfilled promises, poor payroll handling, and inadequate communication. 

This is what an unhappy customer has to say:

So when exploring this EOR option, it's a good idea to explore other Skuad alternatives too. Look for a tool that’s user-friendly, reliable and maintains transparency. 

We've compiled a selection of solutions that our reviewers have identified as top-notch Skuad alternatives, including Rapid, Safeguard Global, Sequensant, Native Teams and Papaya Global. 

Let's look at the top five alternatives of Skuad, especially when looking for a reliable employment partner to hire employees in India.

‍1. Rapid

Rapid empowers international companies to swiftly establish an Indian tech team without the need for intricate legal setups. 

This Skuad alternative grants hiring companies the freedom to concentrate on their core operations and expansion ambitions while it shoulders the responsibilities of HR management, payroll administration, compliance adherence, local benefits provisioning and employee liabilities.

Rapid offers smart solutions to help businesses hire remote employees and contractors in minutes. 

This Skuad alternative also organises rented office spaces and handles IT equipment logistics for its clients. Thus, it creates a complete and satisfying experience for employees working in the office. 

Key Features

1. Digital Onboarding: Rapid offers a unified platform for the collection and processing of documents online. It also generates compliant contracts tailored to the Indian context resulting in minimising the onboarding time of 6-9 months to a few minutes. The platform also offers dedicated onboarding support to guide employees through the onboarding process.

2. Background Verification: Rapid offers a range of background verification services categorised into three tiers — Pro, Power and Premium. This Skuad alternative allows hiring companies to select the desired level of checks that align with their specific needs.

3. Customer Support: Backed by 24/7 email support, Rapid engages closely with companies to comprehend their business risks and challenges, resolves intricate issues and presents a dedicated team to guide employees through the onboarding journey.

4. Flexibility: The platform empowers companies to implement their organisational culture, such as employee policies, leave policies, salary structure, holiday lists etc.

5. Passthrough Taxation: Rapid ensures up to 18% savings on various non-salary disbursements, including office rentals and IT equipment costs. This is accomplished by completely transmitting the GST benefits to the companies.

6. Placement Support: Rapid enables hiring companies to lease physical space, so they don't need to restrict themselves to remote employees and contractors. Rapid also facilitates the purchase of IT equipment.

7. Service Marketplace: Rapid offers an end-to-end experience for hiring companies via its service marketplace. It allows hiring companies to collaborate with different service partners, including recruiters, visa processors, personal tax filers, immigration experts and employee benefits service providers.

Pros

• Helps migration of contractors to employees
• 100% transparent pricing and no hidden fees
• Offers scalability with privacy controls that comply with global regulations like GDPR, CCPA and DPR
• Takes care of local laws, compliances and employee liabilities, allowing clients to focus on their core business activities

Cons

• Currently offers support for India only

2. Safeguard Global

Safeguard Global is a Skuad alternative that helps hiring companies recruit top talent, pay employees, give real-time visibility of people analytics to better understand the cost and manage the business. 

Safeguard Global handles all payroll, benefits, tax and compliance requirements for  global workers and offers EOR services in 170+ countries.

Key Features

1. Payroll Services: Safeguard Global offers both international and local payroll services. It removes complexity from global payroll, integrating global payroll with HCM or HRIS and offers a unified view of pay data.

2. HR Services: The EOR service offers complete support to ensure hiring companies fully comply with local legislation so the in-house staff doesn't have to worry about employment laws, wage regulations, payroll taxes or insurance audits. To facilitate the onboarding, this Skuad alternative conducts complete background and medical checks, helps write compliant contracts and administer benefits according to the local requirements.

3. Global Accounting and Tax Services: Safeguard Global reduces tax and compliance risk for international business. It also takes care of all direct and indirect taxation.

4. Tech Support: Safeguard Global offers round-the-clock support for the employees in their home language and time zone.

5. Legal entity setup: This Skuad alternative helps hiring companies in global expansion by providing support to understand process, costs and risks related to different types of foreign registration, to prepare documents, apply for licences and obtain tax IDs.

6. People Analytics: Safeguard Global helps hiring companies by analysing employee data to better understand trends that affect the employee experience. It also provides real-time dashboards that let companies track and analyse global pay data.

Pros

• Offers fast response to clients' queries
• Excellent support from dedicated executives 
• Robust multi-country payroll software

Cons

• The service is expensive
• Dedicated customer support team only for Enterprise customers

3. Sequensant

Another Skuad competitor, Sequensant, reduces risks and costs while helping hiring companies to hire compliantly. 

Sequensant helps hiring companies to hire independent contractors, consultants, temporary workers, freelancers etc. This Skuad alternative also offers human capital analytics services to hiring companies to calculate future demand needs and workforce analytics.

Key Features

1. Global Workforce Management: It enables companies to hire, onboard, pay, and manage employees worldwide.

2. Contractor Management: Along with regular employees, this Skuad competitor also guides hiring companies in the use of independent contractors, consultants, temporary workers, freelancers, and other types of non-permanent workers.

3. Employee Management: Sequensant provides human capital management performance tracking tools to measure the level of productivity of remote workers.

4. Guided Hiring Process: Sequensant provides country-specific hiring recommendations to build robust and compliant benefits packages.

Pros

• Helps in quick hiring, automates paperwork and tracks employee onboarding in one easy-to-use interface
• Helps to set up an international business structure that is tax-efficient and aligns with the client's growth goals
• Assists in preparing documents, applying for licences and obtaining tax IDs
• Offers real-time visibility of people analytics to better understand costs and make strategic business decisions

Cons

• No free version available

4. Native Teams

Native Teams is an alternative to Skaud, helping brands to grow their business. It helps in hiring, payrolls and managing global teams without a local legal entity. 

Native Teams offers services in 55+ countries worldwide. They provide efficient employment, work payment solutions and tax reporting and accounting support to companies with any number of international employees.

Key Features

1. Company-as-a-Service: Native Teams helps hiring companies to manage operations without establishing a legal entity in specific countries. This service provides flexibility in managing the hiring company’s international presence.

2. Global Payroll: Native Teams offers salary calculators, payroll, expenses, taxes and benefits – everything on one platform, making payments to international teams easy and compliant.

3. Employment Contracts: Native Teams facilitates the creation of localised and compliant employment contracts tailored to the regulations of specific countries.

4. Global Mobility: Native Teams assists with visa applications and work permits, facilitating global mobility for employees working abroad.

5. Tax Management: It helps businesses comply with the latest taxation laws and regulations across various jurisdictions, ensuring accurate tax handling.

6. Absence Management: Native Teams offers tools for effectively managing employee absences and vacation requests, ensuring smooth workforce scheduling and coverage.

Pros

• Offers excellent customer support services
• Easy-to-use payroll processing systems

Cons

• Lacks some expanded HRIS features like employee training

5. Papaya Global

Papaya Global is an innovative solution that capitalises on the power of AI-driven automation to optimise various critical processes, ranging from payroll management and benefits administration to meticulous compliance oversight. This Skuad alternative offers complete payroll solutions, workforce management from onboarding to benefits, and end-to-end EOR service in over 160 countries. They also help with contract worker management and immigration.

Key Features:

1. Global Workforce Management: Papaya Global helps client organisations hire, pay and manage employees worldwide from one platform. For example, it offers an employee app for workers to access their payslips and time attendance. It offers a centralised platform for HR and Finance teams for payroll and payments. Papaya Global’s dedicated NetSuite Connector uses a verified API integration for global payroll data and automatically turns a G2N report to JE. 

2. Global Payroll: Papaya Global offers a unified platform for US employees, international employees and global contractors and an HRIS to hire and pay employees in over 160 countries.

3. Dedicated Expert Support: Along with the global backing for platform operations and troubleshooting, Papaya Global also provides dedicated experts who offer location-specific information regarding employment and payroll, such as cost simulation, tax filing, immigration etc.

4. AI-Powered Automation: It offers onboarding and data syncing tools, such as AI-driven HCM Cloud Connector helping in HR data sync and minimising onboarding from a year to a day.

5. Pricing Models: Papaya Global offers a flexible pricing structure tailored to align with specific and unique business requirements. This personalised approach ensures that organisations receive a pricing plan that best suits their operational needs.

Pros:

• Offers automated payments in local currency directly to workers' bank accounts
• Automation-driven framework dramatically mitigates the potential for errors that can arise in payroll management and compliance adherence.
• Cost-effective to set up and maintain ongoing operations
• Offers scalability with privacy controls that comply with global regulations like GDPR, SOC2 etc.

Cons:

• No free trial facility

Conclusion

With multiple alternatives to Skuad, you're probably wondering how to choose the correct option. 

When looking for an EOR service partner, you must confirm the expertise and knowledge of the service providers you decide to expand your business. You also need to be aware of their pricing and hidden charges, if any.

The customer support facility for employees and contractors is another deal-breaking concern. A service provider offering unified workforce solutions and suitable pricing is the right choice for EOR service.

Rapid can be a good Skuad alternative if you're looking for a partner to scale up in India. It offers a comprehensive solution encompassing HR management, payroll administration and compliance adherence. Rapid also provides services like office space arrangement and IT equipment management for hiring companies.

Its user-friendly platform, transparent pricing, quick on-boarding, passthrough taxation, service marketplace, migration of contractors to employees and dedicated customer support make it an attractive choice for international enterprises seeking to establish an Indian team. 

Book a demo with our experts to learn more! 

‍