2025 GLOBAL WORKFORCE REPORT
Lean HR, global scale: Intentional AI moves the global workforce
Discover insights from over 3,650 HR and business leaders on the rise of lean HR teams. Learn where global hiring is accelerating, the risks costing companies millions, and how next gen tech and new models help them keep pace.
Here’s what to expect inside:
- How AI and an integrated stack for payroll, compliance, and people ops fits small HR
- Where global hiring is surging, and why most new hires are expected to be overseas by 2026
- Playbooks for leaders on solving cross-border challenges (from EOR to unified payroll)
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The next wave: When global hiring balloons, pioneering automation makes it manageable
The surge in international hiring isn’t slowing down, and HR teams are adapting in new ways. Departments that are often fewer than 10 people are running payroll, compliance, and hiring across multiple countries with AI and integrated systems at the core.
Smaller teams are now running global strategy smarter, faster and intuitively, proving that HR’s impact isn’t defined by headcount but by the tools and processes in place.
In practice, that means small HR teams are doing the work of much larger ones, and pulling it off. This is thanks to leaning on EOR partnerships already in use, while also pushing for better integrated payroll and HRIS.
Companies that can manage cross-border regulations, contractor classification, and multi-currency payroll the smart way can avoiding risk and moving into new markets faster.
“The first wave of technology in HR made it possible to hire globally. The next wave is transforming how those teams are managed. Beyond supporting HR ops as standard, AI is becoming the operating system for how companies run a global workforce.” — Job van der Voort, CEO & co-founder at Remote
Intentional AI and intuitive automation are where it's at
The teams making real progress with new tools tech are applying AI deliberately, with enough foresight to not go overboard. This cuts noise, repetitive admin, and gives teams space for bigger lift goals. Poorly applied AI creates more work; cleverly applied AI built into the right systems does the opposite for a global enterprise. All-in-one platforms with an responsive, adaptable HRIS give lean teams a single place to manage hiring, payroll, and compliance. Paired with self-service employee portals and smart automation that takes care of routine admin in the background, HR is free to spend time on culture, retention, and growth mode plans. With foundations like this, small HR teams can scale workforces, and create an agile employee experience across every markets.
By numbers: Snapshots of the second wave expansion stats, for global scale and micro HR
Small HR teams are carrying global weight
Most companies don’t have big HR departments anymore, but that isn’t stopping them from managing hiring, payroll, and compliance across borders, and often doing so better.
87%
of companies have HR teams with fewer than 10 people
International hires are becoming the default
Leaders expect most new roles to be filled abroad, showing that international hiring is now the norm, not the exception.
73%
expect more than half of new hires will be international by 2026
Automation is taking over HR’s heavy lifting
AI and automation are moving into the background of HR operations, streamlining admin and giving teams more bandwidth for expansion plans, people focus, and culture.
64%
of routine HR tasks are expected to be automated by 2026
Compliance is where companies stumble most
Cross-border growth is on a roll, but many employers are still running into regulatory challenges that slow them down and drive up costs.
74%
have faced compliance challenges abroad
$42,000
average cost of each compliance incident
Actionable insights inside the report
About the survey scope and data:
To build this dataset, we surveyed 3,650 HR and business leaders (director level and above) across the USA, UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Australia, Singapore and South Korea.
A loud message from the 2025 data: leaders are tired of juggling multiple systems. Many are actively looking to replace their HRIS.
Actually, 51% say they’re searching for a new platform right now, and another 36% would consider switching in the future, in exchange for a single, integrated solution that can handle global payroll, compliance, and reporting.
The report explores how companies are approaching this shift and what “good” looks like.
Employer of Record services have gone mainstream, shifting out of the niche solution space.
55% of companies employing internationally already use an EOR, and satisfaction levels are high, 76% of leaders using EORs say they’re happy with the model. The report unpacks how leaders are weighing entity setup, contractor use, and EOR partnerships, and what mix works best in practice.
More often, contractors are being viewed as a planned part of workforce design, rather than a fallback. 79% of leaders say contractors and freelancers have become a more important part of their strategy.
Many companies are relying on them to test new markets, cover niche skills, and flex headcount without long-term risk. The report explores how companies are balancing this approach with the realities of compliance and misclassification.
Employees are asking harder questions about pay. 82% of HR leaders report more pressure on pay due to cost-of-living increases, while 77% believe pay transparency will improve culture. The report looks at how leaders are responding to these twin pressures by rethinking compensation, retention, and global fairness.
Unsurprisingly, AI has become part of everyday HR, but adoption is uneven. 64% of leaders expect two-thirds of HR’s routine tasks to be automated by 2026.
At the same time, 28% stopped using an AI hiring tool over fairness concerns, while 27% adopted new ones.
The report highlights where AI is already making a difference, where it’s backfiring, and how leaders are approaching governance.
The majority of companies have had employees ask to relocate or work while traveling in the past year.
80% of leaders reported receiving these requests, so employee mobility has moved out of the 'edge case' camp. HR must plan for this now.
The report looks into strategy around work-from-anywhere requests, relocation policies, plus payroll and compliance tools for a workforce that won’t stay in one place.