We Interviewed 50 Companies That Switched EOR — Here's What They Learned

Why we did this

EOR migration advice is mostly written by EOR providers — which means it's almost always self-serving. We wanted to hear from companies that had actually done it: what went wrong, what they wished they'd known, and what they'd do differently.

The most common reasons for switching

Cost was the primary driver in 68% of cases — most companies discovered they were paying 25–45% above market rate. Support quality was the second most common reason (42%), followed by compliance concerns (28%) and country coverage gaps (22%).

What went better than expected

The actual migration was faster than feared

"We thought it would take six months. It took six weeks." This was the most common positive surprise. With proper planning and a cooperative new provider, EOR migrations in straightforward markets can be completed in 4–8 weeks.

Employees were largely indifferent

Most companies feared employee pushback. In practice, employees cared about two things: that their pay didn't change, and that their benefits didn't lapse. When those two conditions were met, the change of employer-of-record was largely invisible to employees.

What went worse than expected

Notice periods were longer than remembered

"We'd forgotten our contract had a 90-day notice clause. We ended up paying two providers for three months." Nearly a third of companies we interviewed had underestimated their exit obligations with the existing provider.

Country-specific complexity caught teams off guard

Germany's works council notification requirement, France's mandatory consultation on contract changes, and Brazil's homologação process all created delays that hadn't been anticipated. The lesson: always ask your new provider about country-specific migration requirements before starting.

The top 5 things companies would do differently

• Check the exit clause before doing anything else
• Involve employees earlier — 4 weeks minimum notice, not 2
• Confirm the new provider's entity status in every target country before signing
• Run a parallel payroll on the transfer month to catch discrepancies before they affect employees
• Don't start the migration in December — payroll complexity is highest at year-end