Case study
How an international financial services firm formalized its Philippines workforce with Global Squirrels
An international financial-services firm had built a Philippines-based contractor workforce of around 50 people, paying full employee-equivalent benefits but carrying the work as a tangle of direct contractor relationships. As legal exposure grew, the firm partnered with Global Squirrels to consolidate the entire workforce onto a single freelancer-model platform – keeping every benefit the team received, while moving payroll, statutory work and compliance off the firm’s books.
Executive summary
An international financial-services firm had quietly grown a Philippines-based contractor workforce of around 50 people. The team was paid every employee-equivalent benefit – HMO, 13-month, paid leave, sick days, bonuses – but engaged through direct contractor arrangements with no third party in between. Recent case law had made that structure increasingly risky to maintain, and the firm’s growth plans pointed toward a workforce of 60-70+, which would only deepen the exposure.
Two real alternatives were on the table. Setting up a direct Philippines entity was operationally heavy. A full Employer-of-Record arrangement would have layered a 14% statutory surcharge plus AUD $99 per head per month onto the existing wage bill – approaching six figures annually and only growing. Neither was attractive.
The firm partnered with Global Squirrels on the Freelancer model. Contracts now run between the Global Squirrels US entity and each contractor at AUD $29 per head per month, well under either alternative. Every benefit the contractor team received remained intact, payment cycles continued at the same fortnightly rhythm, and payroll, statutory work and audit-ready records moved off the firm’s books. A pilot of five to ten team leaders ran first; the remaining contractors onboarded in phased waves through March and April. Retention across the migration held at 100%.
Client at a glance
The client is an international financial services firm that has built a remote Philippines-based contractor workforce of around 50 people, with plans to scale to 60-70+. Compensation included full employee-equivalent benefits. The firm engaged Global Squirrels to formalize the workforce structure without losing those benefits and without the cost or operational weight of a direct Philippines entity or a full Employer-of-Record arrangement.
The challenge
Most firms running an offshore contractor workforce at scale eventually face the same set of pressures at the same time. For this client, the picture looked like this:
- A workforce of around 50 Philippines-based contractors who were treated, in practice, as employees – paid HMO, 13-month salary, paid leave, sick days and bonuses – but engaged through direct contractor arrangements with no third party in between.
- Growing legal exposure. Recent case law has highlighted the risk of contractor relationships being reclassified as employment, with potential for back-payment claims and material penalties.
- An unappealing alternative on the other side. Setting up a direct entity in the Philippines was operationally heavy. Moving everyone to a full Employer-of-Record model would have added a 14% statutory surcharge plus AUD $99 per head per month – close to a six-figure annual line item on top of the existing wage bill.
- Manual payment flows. Payroll was being run as cross-border transfers every fortnight, with no consolidated record and no audit-ready trail.
- A workforce that did not want to lose anything. The contractors received employee-equivalent benefits, and the firm wanted to keep that intact through any restructuring.
- A growth plan that would only make all of this worse. Headcount was already drifting from 40 in mid-2024 toward 50 and beyond, with a stated target of 60-70+.
The solution: Global Squirrels
Global Squirrels structured the engagement around the Freelancer model, with the firm’s specific cost ceiling and benefits continuity built into the architecture from the start:
- The Freelancer model on the Global Squirrels platform, with contracts running directly between the Global Squirrels US entity and each contractor, separates the firm from direct contractor employment risk.
- Pricing at AUD $29 per contractor per month on top of pay, well below the AUD $99 per month per head plus 14% surcharge of the Employer-of-Record alternative.
- Continuity of every benefit the team already received – HMO, 13-month pay, paid leave, sick days, bonuses – delivered through the same timesheet flow so contractors saw no degradation of their package.
- A fortnightly payment rhythm aligned to the firm’s existing payroll cycle, with payments processed on the 7th and 22nd of each month and a one-week processing lag clearly communicated up front.
- A timesheet-and-approval workflow built into the platform, with each contractor entering their own hours and the firm’s HR generalist approving in bulk, retaining management visibility without re-doing the work.
- Statutory payments and Philippines-side compliance taken over entirely by Global Squirrels, removing the cross-border payroll transfers from the firm’s own banking workflow.
- Month-to-month contract terms with no cancellation fees, giving the firm a way to test the model with a pilot group before committing the full workforce.
How the migration ran
Migrating a fifty-person workforce in a single cutover would have been operationally brittle. The firm and Global Squirrels structured the move as a phased rollout instead:
- Pilot group of five to ten team leaders migrated first, with onboarding kicked off on March 1.
- First fortnightly payment run for the pilot group processed on March 22, validating the end-to-end cycle.
- After a one-month pilot period, the remaining contractors onboarded in phased waves through March and April.
- Single HR generalist designated as primary timesheet approver, with two senior leaders set up as backups for redundancy.
- Each contractor opened a Union Bank Philippines account as part of onboarding (with GCash supported as a backup payment method for anyone unable to set up traditional banking).
- Internal communications run alongside the migration to explain the new payment timing and the platform login, so contractors knew what to expect.
Daily oversight stayed with the firm. Global Squirrels handled the platform setup, the contractor onboarding, the statutory work and the payment processing – everything around the work.
The results
One quarter into the engagement, the firm had consolidated its 50+ contractor workforce onto a single platform, moved cross-border payroll off its own books, and reduced per-head administrative cost by around 70% versus the Employer-of-Record alternative it had priced.
- Full contractor workforce of 50+ migrated onto the Global Squirrels platform within roughly eight weeks of the pilot launch.
- Per-head administrative cost held at AUD $29 per contractor per month, around 70% below the cost of an equivalent Employer-of-Record arrangement once the 14% surcharge and the higher monthly fee were factored in.
- Annual savings versus the EOR alternative comfortably into six figures, with the saving growing as the workforce scaled past 60-70.
- Cross-border payroll transfers eliminated from the firm’s own banking flow. Payments now run as a single fortnightly invoice to Global Squirrels, settled via Wise.
- Audit-ready trail in place from day one – every timesheet, approval, payment and statutory contribution recorded against the contractor and accessible in the platform.
- Zero loss of benefits for the contractor team. HMO, 13-month, paid leave, sick days and bonuses all continued running through the platform, with the firm able to add discretionary bonuses through timesheet adjustments.
- Retention through the migration held at 100% in the first quarter – no contractor exited as a result of the platform change.
- Internal HR capacity freed to focus on retention and team management rather than payroll administration.
Testimonial
Why financial services firms choose Global Squirrels
- A genuine Freelancer model alternative to Employer-of-Record, with contracts running through the Global Squirrels US entity at a flat per-head monthly fee, not a percentage of payroll.
- Full continuity of benefits. HMO, 13-month pay, paid leave, sick days, and bonuses all flow through the platform’s timesheet system, so contractor teams keep their existing package intact through the migration.
- Audit-ready records out of the box. Every timesheet, approval, payment, statutory contribution, and bonus is logged against the contractor and surfaced through the platform.
- Month-to-month commitment with no cancellation fees on the freelancer model, allowing scale-up or scale-down to match workforce changes.
- Local Philippines banking guidance and support – Union Bank as a preferred partner, GCash as a backup – to keep contractor payments smooth at launch.
- Phased rollout support, with the recruiter and account team helping orchestrate a pilot-then-scale migration rather than a single switchover.
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