How Mandate Research replaced 3 disconnected HR tools with AI-built apps with Remote Agent
Mandate Research is a policy consultancy and research company hiring across nine countries, currently transitioning from an Estonian entity to a full UK business. As a specialist firm advising progressives and institutions across Europe, the organization needed employment infrastructure that matched the precision of the work it delivers.
Lorena Klos, Head of Operations, has spent three years building that backbone. Today, it runs on Remote, including custom apps she builds herself with Remote’s agent.
94%
reduction in board reporting time
1 platform
replacing multiple disconnected tools
2 apps
built on Remote without the need of a developer
The challenge: Fragmented tools and a compliance advice gap
Mandate Research was managing a global workforce across nine countries using a patchwork of disconnected tools. Personal development plans were tracked through Word documents with no centralized visibility for senior management. The mentoring scheme ran entirely via email with no reporting or oversight. Leadership reports required hours of pulling data from multiple Google Drive spreadsheets, where version control was an ongoing problem. Each gap meant another tool to buy, integrate, and maintain.
HR and compliance advice was equally slow. Getting guidance on employment matters in any of the countries where Mandate Research operates meant days of independent research and waiting for responses before any action could be taken.
The situation came to a head when the company's previous EOR provider gave compliance advice for a hire in the Nordics, which directly contradicted guidance the employee had received from their local trade union. The employee, a member of the Senior Management Team, was not comfortable proceeding.
“Our last EOR provider’s advice was always a bit patchy. A colleague knew for a fact that in their country, the advice we got from them was not correct and as a result, was not comfortable signing the contract.”
Lorena Klos, Head of Operations, Mandate Research
The solution: A single platform for EOR and AI-powered workflows
Mandate Research moved to Remote, starting with the Nordic hire that had surfaced the compliance issue.
Remote AI Agent
Klos has used Remote's AI agent to build internal workflow applications directly within Remote, with no developer and no separate software contracts. The agent creates the application and the whole team uses the result. She developed a mentoring scheme application to manage mentor-mentee pairings and reporting, and a personal development plan application to replace the manual Word document process with structured forms, task assignments, and role-based views for line managers and direct reports. She also uses the agent to generate board reports.
Remote EOR
Remote's Employer of Record service enables Mandate Research to hire compliantly across Europe. With plans to expand its European team over the next 18 months to better serve its client base, EOR sits at the center of the company's growth strategy.
Remote HR
For direct employees, Mandate Research uses Remote HR to manage time off, sick leave, timesheets and day-to-day HR administration across the team. Improved profile switching and a functional mobile app have increased staff engagement with the platform.
“I want people to come to Remote and they don't even see what happens in the background. They have all these options, they click on them, super easy, smooth. And then we get everything. The process just works on its own, automated in the background.”
Lorena Klos, Head of Operations, Mandate Research
The impact: Accurate compliance and operations built to scale
The difference in compliance accuracy was immediate. When Klos submitted the same employment question that had caused problems with the previous provider, Remote's answer matched exactly what her colleague’s trade union had confirmed was correct.
HR advice that previously took days now comes back in two to three hours. Leadership reports that once required hours of manually collecting data from spreadsheets of uncertain version now take minutes, with Remote's AI agent replacing a fragmented, error-prone process.
Remote’s AI agent also gave Mandate Research software it would otherwise have purchased. The mentoring scheme and personal development plan apps run inside Remote and are used across the team, with no developer involved and no cost beyond the Remote subscription.
With a single platform handling EOR, HR management, and agent-built internal workflows, Mandate Research is ready for its next phase: expanding across Europe and bringing expenses management into Remote so employees have one place for everything.
“Now I build all our HR reports with Remote's agent. Pulling them together takes minutes rather than hours.”
Lorena Klos, Head of Operations, Mandate Research
Ready to scale your global team? Talk to an expert