How BambooHR converted a 2,000-customer waitlist into a flourishing global employment offering with Remote

BambooHR is among the most trusted HR platforms for small and mid-sized businesses. Designed to help organisations manage their people, BambooHR has long specialised in supporting local teams. As more customers expanded into multinational organisations, however, a gap appeared: the system that managed domestic needs had no built-in way to help hire, pay or oversee employees across borders.

To address that shortfall, BambooHR formed a partnership with Remote to deliver a fully embedded Employer of Record (EOR) and contractor management capability, embedding global employment infrastructure directly into the platform customers already use.

The challenge: supporting a global workforce without a global solution

Almost a quarter of BambooHR's customers employed people in multiple countries, yet the platform could not compliantly provide employment, payroll or benefits for international staff. In the absence of a native EOR capability, customers were left with a narrow set of expensive workarounds:

• Establish legal entities in every country, a costly and time-consuming exercise
• Combine several EOR providers, which might not integrate with BambooHR, forcing HR teams to re-enter data across systems; or
• Treat international workers as contractors, accepting the risk of misclassification.

"BambooHR currently has thousands of customers with staff across the globe. Some are establishing entities, which is costly and slow. Others hire such talent as contractors and thereby take on misclassification risk."

Juliet Fletcher, Group Product Manager, BambooHR

Building an in-house EOR meant full ownership on paper, but the trade-offs were steep: an estimated $100 million in development costs and years before the product could compete. BambooHR's customers needed a global employment solution now, not eventually. Partnering meant getting to market in months rather than years, without taking on the cost or the ongoing burden of keeping compliance current across dozens of countries.

The solution: one platform for global hiring and HR management

Having assessed various options, BambooHR selected Remote for three reasons: shared values, a clear commitment to compliance, and strong technical capability. Remote's ownership of 100+ in-house entities worldwide, rather than relying on third-party sub-processors, proved decisive.

"We wanted to make sure we were working with a partner that had similar values. Compliance was top of mind, and that was obviously non-negotiable. And then we wanted a good technical partner, someone that was robust in their global payroll platform."

Brian Crofts, Chief Product Officer, BambooHR

For BambooHR customers the experience appears inside the platform they already use. Remote's EOR and contractor management capabilities are integrated directly into BambooHR's existing interface. Remote operates the compliance and payments infrastructure behind the scenes while BambooHR retains the brand and the customer relationship.

Equally important: Remote does not compete with BambooHR's core HR offering. The two products complement one another seamlessly and deliver a comprehensive global employee management experience for customers.

BambooHR EOR powered by Remote

The embedded global employment experience is integrated directly within BambooHR's ATS, Onboarding, Access and Time Off modules, so expanding into any of 90 countries blends seamlessly with your existing processes. Customers can complete country-specific onboarding, powered by Remote’s comprehensive compliance schemas, and recruit international employees without leaving the BambooHR interface. Once onboarded, these global team members are managed alongside local staff in the familiar HRIS, creating a single, consistent source of truth for the whole organisation.

The underlying compliance infrastructure is delivered entirely via Remote’s API. As employment regulations evolve in jurisdictions such as Germany, Norway or France, the relevant data flows automatically into the BambooHR system. This native integration allows HR teams to provide a compliant, high-quality employee experience without having to master the complexities of international law themselves.

"We trust Remote's API to surface the necessary data to hire an employee compliantly in a given month. We do not need to understand every nuance of those compliance changes. The data is served up, it maps to BambooHR's design system, and we deliver that baked-in compliant experience to the customer automatically."

Juliet Fletcher, Group Product Manager, BambooHR

BambooHR Contractor Management powered by Remote

Building on this unified foundation, BambooHR embedded Remote’s contractor management product to deliver a coherent workforce solution. The switch between managing full-time EOR employees and global contractors is seamless, satisfying the need for a single platform to oversee the international workforce. While the products address different employment requirements, the user experience remains completely continuous.

The impact: rapid global expansion

Market reaction was positive from the outset. Prior to the EOR launch, over 2,000 BambooHR customers had already signed up to a waitlist. Within the first year, hundreds of customers and employees had onboarded through the embedded experience, and thousands of new opportunities were created within BambooHR's existing customer base.

BambooHR reached the market in under six months — a timescale that would have been unattainable with an in-house build. The pace of iteration since launch has matched the speed of delivery. When customers requested, just four days after contractor management rolled out, the ability to import their existing contracts into the platform, the two teams responded quickly.

"Roughly four days after launch we received considerable customer feedback. Remote's API and SDK did not yet support that functionality, but we collaborated and shipped it to customers in less than a week from launch."

Juliet Fletcher, Group Product Manager, BambooHR

Today, BambooHR customers can manage domestic employees, international employees and global contractors together in one place. Global employment specialists can use Remote's AI knowledge bot to obtain real-time compliance answers for any country, and support cases are integrated between the two companies so customers receive prompt responses without switching platforms.

For Brian Crofts, the clearest indicator of the partnership is simpler than any metric.

"I'll tell you, I cannot always tell who works for BambooHR and who works for Remote. Everyone shares the same enthusiasm for solving major customer challenges. Everyone is great to work with and everyone is mission driven."

Brian Crofts, Chief Product Officer, BambooHR

Ready to extend your platform without spending years building it? [Explore Remote Embedded]