50 Innovators of the Year 2023
CIO Bulletin
Innovation brings change — and in the last few years, it has been critical to improving our lives, including by bringing people around the world a little closer than before. With the help of technology and online connectivity, borders no longer stand as barriers.
Safeguard Global excels in bringing talent and business together, eliminating the boundaries between people, regardless of how a map looks. Not long ago, a person’s professional opportunities were limited to where they lived and what companies were in that town. Today, people can work for any company, no matter where they live in the world. Succeeding in today’s extremely competitive market requires a global mindset, which is how Safeguard Global has accomplished so much: by supporting both people and the growth of businesses across the globe.
CIO Bulletin had the opportunity to talk to Bjorn Reynolds, the Founder and CEO of Safeguard Global.
Q. What was the idea behind starting Safeguard Global?
While working at a payroll processing company in the UK, I realized there was an opportunity to innovate in the market by centralizing global payroll for multinationals. This allowed HR teams to streamline processes and work in one language and currency, making it much easier to really understand their workforce budget.
In 2010, a client acquired a company and needed to quickly bring new employees onto their payroll but didn’t have an in-country business entity. So, we created the first global employer of record service, GEO. We wanted to ensure our client was compliant with all local laws and that their people would be paid while the company worked to set up their in-country entity.
Q. What is the vision of Safeguard Global? What are the values under which you operate?
Our vision is to transform the way people work around the world. We believe every organization should be able to find the skilled talent they need. And at the same time, people should be able to find meaningful work that challenges them, helps them grow, and offers a good income, no matter where in the world they live.
We would say GEO was ahead of its time, providing access for trailblazers open to the potential of a global recruitment strategy. Now the workers have shown they can be productive and innovative, whether remote or otherwise. And as a result, organizations can be just as successful when they recruit and employ globally.
Q. You have helped over 1500 clients; what are the different services you offer?
Our solution suite is backed by a data-rich technology platform, local expertise, and industry-leading experience. Safeguard Global provides end-to-end solutions to manage people and scale operations, offering companies a range of HR and financial support for global expansion (recruitment, hiring, payroll, workforce analytics, management of in-country entity set-up, HR, tax, and accounting services, and treasury services).
Q. How does your company reimagine the entire work experience?
In 2020, we took note of the shift in attitudes as people integrated their personal and work lives. No longer was there a division by virtue of a change of scene or commute. I called it the Great Awakening—a time for leaders to commit to offering a different work experience to protect their businesses from losing top talent and to help their employees find balance and mitigate burnout.
We call it Work in Any Way, an approach that meets the needs of how people work; it's more than just flexibility of where or when people work. By building experiences that are unbound by traditional notions of what work should look like, it asks that we understand and adapt to why people do the work by putting them first.
Q. As innovators, how do people analytics help evaluate challenges in businesses?
One of the most important resources in a business is its people. People analytics informs your teams about how to care for and cultivate employees by providing data-based insights affecting workforce decisions such as talent needs and processes to improve productivity or efficiency and, ultimately, provide a positive work experience for people.
Q. How has innovation played a role in your services to an ever-changing global market?
Innovation has always played a role in our business. We created the first global EOR service—GEO was the first to help companies hire internationally without an in-country entity.
Today, our solution set includes everything an organization needs to manage their recruiting, hiring, payroll, workforce management, and the ability to analyze all their workforce data anywhere in the world. We’re the only provider in the market able to offer this to clients.
We continue to innovate. We’ve brought our deep in-country experts’ knowledge base to our client’s fingertips, literally, by developing ChatSG, the world’s first generative AI technology for the global HR market. Today, using natural language processing technology, anyone can ask ChatSG a question about employment and hiring around the world and get an answer within minutes. Imagine how much this changes HR’s planning and recruiting conversations with leaders across their organization. And we continue to expand our offerings and build technology to forever transform the way people work.
Q. What are the benefits of removing barriers in the hiring process?
We have a great example of the impact of using a Work in Any Way approach to recruitment and hiring.
We had some aggressive goals we wanted to reach with our product team. Our Chief Technology Officer, Duri Chitayat, needed to build a strong team with in-demand skills in software development. He fully embraced our approach, working with our HR team to create flexible and people-centric recruiting and hiring processes, with great results.
The team grew from 30 to 125 technology professionals and was able to increase their monthly product releases by 10 times year-over-year. And resources like ChatSG are among the results of having innovative and engaged team members working on our development team.
Q. What does the future of work look like for your company?
We’re continuing to build resources to support the evolution of Work in Any Way companies, which are building more flexible, people-centric approaches to their employees’ work experiences.
Now more than ever, it’s important to remain agile with your workforce. We’re building tools that open access to information when clients need it to make it easier to analyze and make strategic workforce decisions.
There’s so much information in the world right now, and that’s a good thing, but navigating it can be challenging for leaders. Tools like ChatSG, backed by a data-rich knowledge base garnered through years of experience helping companies expand and hire globally, mean planning and decision-making can happen at any time a client needs them. Our technology will provide access to our data-rich human resources and employment expertise in more than 170 countries, providing HR leaders with the best information in the moments when they need it, making them invaluable to their organizations.
A brief biography of the CEO
Bjorn Reynolds is the Founder and CEO of Safeguard Global. He has been the driving force behind the company’s vision, strategy, and culture since 2008. His commitment to the success of clients and employees is an inspiration to the company and of paramount importance to him personally. The result is continued innovation, which drives the company’s vision to transform the way people work around the world.
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