How organizations hire, manage, and scale global teams continues to evolve — and the pace of change is only accelerating.
As international hiring becomes more accessible, the challenge is no longer whether organizations can expand globally. Instead, the question is how businesses structure their global workforces in ways that are resilient, compliant, and aligned with long-term growth.
As the pioneering direct Employer of Record provider, Atlas HXM closely monitors the trends shaping global employment. To better understand the shifting landscape, we surveyed HR leaders across North America who manage international teams and compiled the findings in The Global Atlas Report: 2026, highlighting the challenges organizations face today and the strategies they are adopting to scale global workforces.
This year's research is presented across two Global Atlas reports. The first explores the challenges and strategies organizations face when expanding into new international markets, while the second examines how companies are managing and maintaining cohesion across increasingly distributed global teams.
Global Workforce Complexity Is Rising
As organizations scale across borders, the operational challenges of managing international teams are becoming more pronounced.
According to The Global Atlas 2026 report, HR leaders face growing pressure to navigate complex employment regulations, immigration policies, and compensation expectations across multiple markets.
Some of the most common challenges reported include:
Ensuring compliance with international employment laws
Managing visas, permits, and immigration requirements
Designing competitive global compensation packages
Managing operational complexity across countries
Attracting and retaining international talent
In addition to operational complexities, nearly half of the organizations surveyed say attracting and retaining international talent is very or extremely challenging.
The challenge may not stem from a lack of talent itself. Instead, many companies struggle with where and how they search for talent globally.
The Comfort-Zone Hiring Problem
Many companies continue to concentrate hiring efforts in markets that feel familiar.
For example, organizations based in the United States frequently prioritize recruitment in regions such as Canada or Europe. While these markets offer regulatory familiarity and cultural alignment, they are also highly competitive and saturated talent hubs.
This creates what some experts describe as an artificial talent shortage.
In many cases, the real challenge lies in:
Overlooking emerging talent markets
Applying compensation models that do not translate internationally
Designing roles around domestic assumptions
Skills Are Now Driving Global Hiring
Another key shift shaping international hiring is the move toward skills-based workforce strategies.
In previous years, companies often hired internationally to support market expansion or regional operations. Today, many organizations are hiring globally as a way to access specialized expertise.
Common roles driving international hiring include:
Research and development professionals
Engineering and scientific specialists
Consulting and advisory experts
These roles are less tied to geography and more closely linked to where the strongest expertise exists.
As a result, companies are increasingly building teams around capabilities rather than locations, allowing them to access talent that may not be available locally.
Retention Concerns May Be Overstated
While many HR leaders report ongoing challenges with employee retention, workforce data suggests the reality may be more nuanced.
Atlas HXM reports a 90-day employee retention rate of 94%, an increase from 92% the previous year.
This suggests that retention challenges may be influenced more by broader economic conditions than by declining employee loyalty. In softer labor markets, employees often remain in roles longer, reducing turnover pressure.
However, early attrition can still occur when organizations fail to establish the right foundations for international hires.
Common causes include:
Non-compliant employment contracts
Misaligned benefits packages
Ineffective onboarding experiences
Unclear role expectations
EOR models can help organizations mitigate these risks by ensuring compliance and consistency across international teams.
As Jim McCoy, Atlas HXM CEO, explains, “To build a global team is not a ‘one and done’. Once you make that first international hire, the work on building cohesion has just begun.”
Regulatory Uncertainty Is Accelerating Hiring Decisions
Surprisingly, regulatory volatility is not slowing global expansion.
According to the report, 68% of organizations say changing immigration policies are accelerating hiring decisions, rather than delaying them.
To adapt, organizations are building more flexible workforce strategies by:
Diversifying hiring locations
Reducing reliance on visa-based relocation
Building distributed teams
Working with compliance specialists and advisors
Instead of waiting for policy clarity, companies are moving forward with expansion while designing systems that allow them to adapt to change.
Employer of Record Is Becoming a Core Expansion Strategy
One of the most notable shifts highlighted in The Global Atlas 2026 report is the growing adoption of EOR services.
Once considered a niche workforce model, EOR has become a mainstream solution for companies expanding internationally.
Research shows that:
54% of organizations currently use or plan to use EOR services
In the United States, adoption rises to 59%
EOR solutions are now competing with — and in some cases replacing — traditional employment structures such as foreign subsidiaries and contractor networks.
Organizations are increasingly using EOR to:
Enter new markets without establishing a legal entity
Maintain flexibility during periods of regulatory uncertainty
Simplify global employment structures
As businesses prioritize speed, compliance, and scalability, EOR services are emerging as a key enabler of modern global workforce strategies.