2026.10.09 | GP | Software | WorkMotion vs Deel & Remote

Primary:

WorkMotion Software GmbH

Associated:

Remote Technology, Inc.

Deel, Inc.

Oyster HR, Inc.

Globalization Partners LLC

Remofirst, Inc.

Papaya Global Ltd.

Multiplier Technologies Pte Ltd

Viewpoint:

Former Executive

Moderator: Prajnya Hegde (PH)

Patrick Sarpen (PS), Former Senior Account Executive - WorkMotion

SUMMARY

Overview

The discussion assessed WorkMotion’s global employment platform, including employer of record services, direct hiring, and contractor management. These products help businesses employ international workers without establishing full local subsidiaries, while addressing labor-law compliance, worker misclassification, payroll, and permanent-establishment risks.

Employer of record remains the core product and primary growth engine. Direct hiring complements it where employee-leasing periods are restricted or legal advisers favor a more conservative structure. Contractor management provides an entry point for identifying freelancers who may need conversion to formal employment.

Key Insights

The expert viewed compliance as WorkMotion’s strongest differentiator, particularly in Europe and the DACH region. Owning local entities reportedly improves margins, contractual control, onboarding speed, transparency, and customer satisfaction compared with third-party partnerships. Mid-market businesses offer the greatest potential, especially in software development, IT services, manufacturing, and advertising. Existing customers generate most revenue because retention is strong and clients often add workers over time. WorkMotion’s instant contract generation was highlighted as a major advantage for urgent hiring. The expert rated the platform above 8 out of 10, approaching 9, based on compliance capabilities and customer satisfaction. Major industry risks include return-to-office policies and tighter regulation of cross-border employment or employee leasing.

Competitive Landscape

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Company

Positioning

Strengths

Limitations or pressures

WorkMotion

Remote

Deel

Rippling

Strong European compliance specialist; estimated by the expert among the upper tier of providers

Owned entities, licensing model, local legal expertise, rapid contracts, German infrastructure

Identified as the closest direct competitor

Strong execution, scale, and frequent competitive wins

Major global competitor with strong scale

Broad reach and substantial market presence

Broader HR technology competitor

More developed HR platform and integrations

HR platform and integrations trail some competitors

The expert questioned aspects of local compliance in certain markets

Reportedly lost some European customers over contractual compliance concerns

WorkMotion differentiates through specialized employment compliance

Oyster and Safeguard Global

Other notable providers

Established global employment offerings

Positioned below the leading two in the expert’s informal ranking

Quantitative Insights

Metric

Detail

Employer of record fee

Starts at €499 per worker per month

Estimated market opportunity

More than $3 billion to $4 billion

Owned entities

Approximately 80% of entities used globally

Country coverage

More than 160 countries

German leasing limit

18 months before another structure may be required

Estimated transition to direct hiring

Around 20% of customers, depending heavily on country

Contractor pilot

150 freelancers within the first three months

Average sales cycle

Approximately 60 days

Fastest reported onboarding

11 minutes from contract generation to signature

Customer satisfaction

Consistently above 90%, described as industry-leading

Profitability

Cash reserves

Reportedly achieved in the first quarter of 2025

More than €20 million

Strategic outlook

US and Asian expansion alongside continued DACH leadership

10/12/2026 at 05:58 AM UTC

PS: Without the video, it makes more sense.

PH: Yeah, right. Great. So if you feel any disturbance from my end, you please let me know. I'll make the adjustment accordingly. Okay, so let's start. Hi everyone, my name is Prajnya Hegde and I'm a senior analyst at Guidepoint Insights. I would like to welcome you all to today's call on WorkMotion where we will be evaluating this global employment platform. We are delighted to have with us Patrick Sarpen who previously served as a Senior Account Executive at WorkMotion. Hi, Patrick, thank you for joining us today.

PS: Hello, thank you very much for having me. Quick context from my side. As Prajnya already said, I was a senior account executive at WorkMotion from June 2022 to November 2025.

PH: To continue on that, could you please provide a brief overview of your professional background, tell us a bit about your experiences and also about your recent role during your time at WorkMotion?

PS: Actually, my traineeship started as a salesman. So from this time on, and now I'm 39, 20 years of sales experience in different brands and industries. So therefore, I would consider myself as a sales expert and therefore I got hired June 22 as a senior account executive and from there on giving and sharing my experience from previous experience also to account executives as a junior account executive with less experience.

PH: Okay, great. Thank you for that introduction, Patrick. So let's start this discussion on WorkMotion straight away. Could you walk us through WorkMotion's business model in your own words? What are the major pain points or customer challenges is the company trying to solve and where do you think the platform creates the most value?

PS: Yeah, from my own words, to describe it as simple as possible that everyone understands with one PH: Yeah.

PS: sentence is, if you have a company and you don't want to found an own entity abroad, then an employer of record model is the way to go. Because you don't have the cost, the labor law pain points, setting up your own entity with slow and expensive processes with local labor law, which is complex, and also with misclassification risk of freelancer or permanent establishment risk, the main point, I would say. So therefore, if you don't want to found an own entity, go with an employer of record model.

PH: So the company, as I was going through this company, I found out that the company initially started its business with the focus on employer of record, right? But then it expanded into direct hiring and contractor management. So, what are your thoughts on this expansion strategy of the company? And, what impact do you think that it brings to the company's business model, revenue trends, or also for that matter, long-term opportunities?

PS: Yes, it's really important to understand this model as a really complex labor law process at all. It's not only about, okay, I hire someone abroad without founding an entity, because this won't mitigate the whole risk of working with an employer of record provider.

PH: Right.

PS: As you might think, direct hiring matters more than it looks. It's not a niche product; it's more about... There are certain risks, especially in Europe, in the DACH region, where it comes to restriction of a limited time of employee talents from abroad. For PH: Yeah.

PS: instance, Germany, Romania, Croatia, most likely the Balkan countries, they have limited time periods where you are only allowed to hire through employer of record model. And it's really important as well that you understand that

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it needs a license based model because the leasing can be a license based model or a consulting model. The consulting PH: Yeah.

PS: model is the easiest way. But when you don't have a license, you're not allowed to directly lease talents with an employer of record model. Because then of this limited time restriction, for instance, in Germany, 18 months. Above this, you just need to direct hire the talents with your own entity or with a direct hiring model. And this direct hiring model is also called WorkDirect previously, PH: Mm-hmm.

PS: where we just register or where WorkMotion just registered, you know, a paper registered entity where direct hiring was possible.

PH: So as you mentioned, is it safe to say that the employer of record model and the direct hiring model are complementary to each other in terms with respect to customer, or do you think that they compete with each other for the same customer and the employee base?

PS: Thanks for the question, Prajnya. Basically, with the first sentence you mentioned, they're just working with each other together. So therefore, you have an easy transition if it comes to the limited time of hiring through employer of record model to the direct hiring.

PH: Okay. And if we focus only on WorkMotion as a company, how often does a customer use these multiple products? If they start with employer of record and then expand or you can say upsell into this direct hiring module. So what is the frequency of that happening within a particular customer?

PS: It depends actually on which country the company who is working with WorkMotion is hiring the talents. As I mentioned, Germany, Romania, Croatia, much more likely the Balkans, that's more often the case. A switch from employer of record to direct hiring is necessary. How often, the frequency of how often it happens is not that high, I would say. I can't give you the exact numbers because this is after the sales process itself. Most PH: Right.

PS: likely it starts with contractor management or employer of record and then it's switching to direct hiring and direct hiring more often is the after sales process when it comes to customer success management.

PH: Right. So like how do customers typically make the decision to choose between the employer of record and direct hiring? Like apart from the regulatory aspect you mentioned, like for Germany being the minimum years being 18 months, right? But apart from that, do you think there are various other factors that might influence a particular customer to choose between employer of record and direct hiring?

PS: Yes, actually we had these cases in the past when they just Thank you very much. Have alternatives like lawyers were just really risk affected and really concerned about an employer of record model then they were directly choosing the direct hiring model and this happened from time to time, actually.

PH: Okay.

PS: Not quite often, but sometimes even in my sales, I can only talk from my perspective, but I know also from colleagues of mine, they had the same experience. If there's a lawyer who has some concerns about employer of record, they're more likely to choose the direct hiring model.

PH: So based upon your understanding about the company and the market from a sales perspective, which product

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do you feel is currently experiencing strongest customer adoption and which product do you think has the most growth potential going forward?

PS: It's still the core product, employer of record itself, and this has the strongest growth as well. It's still the leading part and the go-to-market strategy. I was involved in the go-to-market launch of the contractor management and this showed really the fastest early traction. In the first 3 months of the contractor management solution, where I just led also the position, and we had a pilot project of 150 freelancers already. And this was really fast and necessary because there's a huge potential of misclassification of freelancers. And so, the freelancer model is heading to the employer of record model, because at a certain point, when we mitigate also the risk of the freelancers, we can see... oh look, there's a risk analysis and a questionnaire... at a certain point when it comes to the transition from a freelancer to an... direct hiring or a talent who needs to be hired through an employer of record model.

PH: Right. So as you mentioned, the company, if we take that from a company's perspective it offers 3 products, right? So, do you think that by offering these 3 products... that is employer of record, direct hiring, and this contractor management... does the company have a particular competitive advantage that can differentiate it from the other established players like you can say Deel or Remote for that matter?

PS: Yeah, that's why in the DACH region or Europe most likely the customers we talk to choose especially us for the compliance part.

PH: If we compare WorkMotion with these big players, right, like I mentioned, Deel, Remote, Rippling also for that matter. Do you think that WorkMotion's product portfolio, are there some product gaps or product enhancement opportunities within WorkMotion's product portfolio? Do you think there is something missing in the company's offerings that can be focused by the company going forward?

PS: In terms of what WorkMotion misses compared to the competition, in terms of product, I would say an HR platform. Integration of all the big players is something that could, or just lack some. Parts are missing or other competitors are just ahead of WorkMotion. Yeah.

PH: Right. So you're mentioning about the integrations, right?

PS: Yes.

PH: Okay. The company also mentions that it owns nearly 80% of the entities worldwide, right? In onboarding demand, what are your thoughts on that? How does that owned entity compare with the other competitors in the market according to you?

PS: The margin is even higher with your own entities. The upside is the margin with your own entities and actually also based on the experience WorkMotion had working with a partner, it causes a lot of trouble and therefore WorkMotion concentrated and decided, "It's more important that WorkMotion runs the licensed employee leasing model," within this license-based model in every country, and having their own entities, and increasing the margin and the compliance by a significant amount. And this also differentiates WorkMotion from all the other competitors.

PH: Yeah. So you mentioned about this being a comparatively higher margin model, right? Generally, what kind of capital investment or normal investment is usually required for opening this owned entity and how does the company try to reach profitability or higher profitability? How is the payback period for this model?

PS: You mean the own cost by setting up an entity?

PH: Yeah. So by what period do you think that the company recovers the investment that it makes in setting up this

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own entity in the other countries?

PS: It depends actually about which country we are speaking of. And PH: Okay.

PS: These are actually also some details. Our CFO was not really transparently talking about when it comes to the cost of setting up an entity and where we just got profitable by the return of talents got onboarded in this own entities, but the overall figure of profitability in WorkMotion was really transparent so I knew even by the time I was working there and the profitability was reached by the first quarter of 2025 and I know they had cash reserve of over 20 million and they were. This is a really profitable company, actually, how they are working, especially PH: Yeah. So, what do you think, what are the biggest advantages of owning your own entities for the company? If you compare that to the partnership model.

PS: Especially based on the experience with the customer satisfaction. And the partner I mentioned previously is PH: Mm-hmm.

PS: That when you have your own entity, you decide and you are creating the contracts with the talents directly with your own entity abroad. So therefore, you have the control of labor law by your own research and also by the contracts you have with the talents from the clients you are working with. And this makes everything much faster, much more transparent and much more customer satisfaction and with your own support and especially when you're working with partners and this was a huge challenge for Workmotion in, I don't know, maybe it was 2023, also going into 2024, where the partner they've worked with just messed it up huge time and PH: Yeah.

PS: Therefore, this was also a huge challenge as I already mentioned for Workmotion and that's why they decided to go with own entities PH: Correct. So in which countries does the company prefer to go with their own entities versus using a third-party partner? Do you think there are specific countries that are more preferable to start your own entities in terms of lower regulatory hurdles or any other factors?

PS: Yeah. Actually, in really restrictive labor law countries, it's more likely to found an own entity and doing a license- based model. But there are also a lot of countries where a license-based model or founding an own entity doesn't make sense at all due to the lack of talents hiring abroad, right? Why should you found an entity, for instance, in Zimbabwe if you only have 1 talent from a client there? And also in different countries when the labor law is not as restrictive as it is in Europe, a consulting model is totally fine to go with.

PH: Right. So if you take all these factors into consideration, how would you define the total addressable market for WorkMotion? What factors would you take into consideration while calculating or while determining the size of the market opportunity?

PS: I know the C-level was talking about the huge potential of hiring talents from abroad overall. And I know there are calculations about this market as well, that this market has a value of more than $3 billion to more than $4 billion.

PH: Okay.

PS: So based on this and the growth the company has and compared to the competition, I know WorkMotion was or is technically behind Deel and Remote because of hyper growth and US-based companies. But I also know that WorkMotion had a go-to-market strategy for the US as well and they are actually winning a huge market share in the US as well. Also because of the way they're changing the market with their own model, because of this huge

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compliance and license-based model. I can't tell you the exact numbers by now. I know there has some changes, but the potential is really high. The only risk by this is that the companies are going back to the office model so that PH: Yeah.

PS: every talent or every employee needs to go back into the office again. This is the only risk.

PH: Right. So you mentioned about the companies like Deel and Remote that have a better presence in the US market. In general, based upon your understanding, what do you think is the market share currently held by these big players like Deel, Remote, and Rippling for that matter, and what opportunity do you think is available or remains for WorkMotion?

PS: In the US or overall?

PH: Overall.

PS: I don't have the exact numbers still in mind, but I've seen from the growth and what was actually also done by last year and with the go-to-market strategy of the freelancer, WorkMotion was really on the high-end positions as well. I know maybe Remote, Deel, they were just switching each other with the first and second place and then were like maybe Oyster or Safeguard Global. And WorkMotion was even on the fourth or fifth position. And I don't know the exact numbers, but in terms of market share, we were really, really close or on a good placement, I would say.

PH: Okay.

PS: I say we, PH: Yeah.

PS: but I'm not working there anymore. Sorry.

PH: Yeah, no problem. That's entirely fine. So coming to the next part, right? Could you give us a sense of the company's customer base? How it is split between startups, small businesses, mid-market or also large enterprises for that matter?

PS: Mm-hmm. Actually, I was selling to... it doesn't matter the size of the company... from small companies to enterprise, and even not always the enterprise clients were the ones where the companies with the most revenue we made with, actually.

PH: Mm-hmm.

PS: What you need to understand is it depends on the strategy of the company itself. If they have a remote-first policy and want to hire even all the talents from abroad, then you have a small company hiring maybe 20, 30, 40, 50 talents. But when you have like an enterprise client already having offices everywhere or everywhere around the world, then they have only maybe 1 case where they don't have their own entity and then they want to have an employer of record model. So therefore, it's not necessarily to say that enterprise clients were the most revenue driver for WorkMotion. So therefore, we sold to everyone, everyone who wants to hire talents from abroad.

PH: Was the ideal market fit for the company's products? Like, do you think it was applicable to all stages of the companies? Like, as the company scaled from small to enterprise level, was the company able to manage that scalability and volumes?

PS: I missed the first part because of the connection. Maybe you can repeat it.

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PH: Yeah, sure. So like, which customer segments do you think is more ideal fit for the company's products? Like, do you think that within the 4 segments... that is startups, small, mid-market, and large enterprises... do you think there is 1 particular segment that fits perfectly well with the company's product capabilities, or do you think it can expand as the companies grow?

PS: It can expand, actually. Especially it depends on the strategy of the company itself and the policy they decided with. But in terms of the most potential, it lays on the mid-market and especially in IT, and you won't believe it, and also in the manufacturing industry. We PH: Yeah.

PS: had a huge client potential also over there because they just already switched. And it also depends on the talents they're finding. Most likely, a lot of high-skilled workers in Germany, you can't find or they are too pricey, so too high salary. And therefore, most likely also the talents abroad were cheaper and often more skilled. And that's why.

PH: Of industry that is emerging industry being a big key.

PS: Sorry, I don't understand you.

PH: Can you hear me now?

PS: Yeah, it's better now.

PH: So like you mentioned that manufacturing industry was one of the key industry verticals, right? So like can you list down other 2 to 3 industries where the company saw greatest growth potential? Hello? Hello. Hello, Patrick, am I audible? I guess you are on mute.

PS: Yes, hello, sorry, the connection, I'm back again. Hello.

PH: No, no, that's fine, entirely fine. Am I audible clearly?

PS: Yes.

PH: Okay, okay, that's great.

PS: Okay, PH: So, PS: back to your last question.

PH: Yeah, PS: Sorry.

PH: No problem. So I was just asking that like you mentioned about manufacturing industry being one of the key verticals for the company, right? So like, can you list down any 2 to 3 top industry verticals where WorkMotion found its presence where it saw the opportunity to expand and grow?

PS: Yes, it was the software development industry, especially as well, and the IT sector, especially IT services. What else? Advertisement as well.

PH: Okay.

PS: I know a colleague of mine, he was really like focusing on this one and he made huge growth as well.

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PH: And what would typically trigger a particular customer to start looking for WorkMotion? Like what challenges would they try to address by taking WorkMotion into their consideration?

PS: Main concerns or main addresses. If they have a talent who they really like to hire and they don't have an own entity. If they have an already experienced employee who wants to live somewhere else abroad and PH: Mm.

PS: they want to move and they don't have an own entity or they have already employees from an immigration background and they want to go back and they want to take this opportunity to let them work with them because of their knowledge then they consider to go with the WorkMotion. Good night.

PH: So once a customer started implementing WorkMotion, what measurable benefits do they experience from using the platform? I'm just guessing here in terms of labor efficiency, cost savings, are there any such outcomes or business outcomes that they experience from the platform?

PS: The employees itself?

PH: The customers, the companies.

PS: Yeah, the good thing is with the platform itself, this is also the tool where they are able to because they legally are not the employer, right? So it needs a platform and this platform was the communication API for the talent, for the employee and the employer itself. So all the financial information was set in there because WorkMotion was doing the salary, all the salary reports were there inside and also the communication with the employer went through this platform as well when it comes in terms of sick leave, vacation and everything else like benefits or bonuses they need to be paid and also what the benefit was, also the knowledge of labor law of each country. It was also included into the platform itself and even like the contract process itself. The clients were able to understand all about the labor law by typing in all the contract details of the employer, employee... sorry. And this was one of the unique selling points from WorkMotion as well, the instant contract generation process. And most of their own entities, the contract was instantly generated.

PH: Mm-hmm.

PS: And this is something that comes as a huge benefit for WorkMotion.

PH: Right. So coming to the next part, could you walk us through the company's revenue model and how was it distributed across employer of record, direct hiring and also the contractor management products?

PS: Sorry, can you... repeat it again?

PH: Yeah. So I was asking, could you walk us through the company's revenue model? How does the company generate revenue and how different products contribute to the revenue?

PS: Mm-hmm. Yeah, there were a few revenue streams. The biggest stream was the employer of record model, right? Monthly fee of €499 per talent. It's a recurring revenue stream, and, yeah, by the talents they hired through WorkMotion it was also a huge stream, and also by the interests they earned through the deposit and also the interest for the late payments as well. That's what the CFO was telling us, but I don't have the exact number, so this is something I can't... I don't have verified data on that, so I don't want to guess.

PH: Yeah, got it. So, historically based upon your understanding, the revenue growth usually came from new customer acquisitions or was it through existing customer growth, either through new employee hires or expansion

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into additional countries or other states?

PS: Yeah, most revenue was coming from existing clients, right? We had, after the sales, already won a huge amount of talents and the clients and the client base itself. And that was something WorkMotion was already really good at, the customer obsession part. So in terms of customer satisfaction, there wasn't a huge churning rate; it was even really less. And therefore, most revenue was coming from existing clients and then by getting more and more new clients through different channels and more revenue was integrated into this as well.

PH: And how frequently would customers move employees from employer of record model, that is from the company's model, to their own local entities? One example you mentioned in the beginning was of Germany, right? So, within 18, post 18 months, they would be required to be directly hired. So, in similar terms, if we look into the total customer base for WorkMotion, what are your thoughts on that? What percentage of the customers would eventually move employees into direct hiring and local entities?

PS: Yeah, good question. I would say around 20%. It depends, actually, it really depends on the country itself because it was most likely or mostly in Europe where it were necessary to move from employer of record to the direct hiring model, so that's why it wasn't that frequently. But if you asked me, it was around 20%.

PH: And also, as I was going through the company's website, if I compared the pricing of WorkMotion with Deel, Remote, and Rippling, and I found out that the company's pricing is comparatively lower if you compare that to the other platforms. So, do you think what I saw is actually the scenario in terms of competition, and how much pricing power does the company have today?

PS: That's a good question. Compared to the other competitors, for sure we were more pricey. In terms of winning clients, the price even... doesn't matter if you are more compliant and have a license-based model, especially also what's most important in the sales process itself was that in terms of a German company working with German companies, it made the sales process easier because of the server... the servers were in Germany. And also, when it comes to like suing parts, the court address was also in Germany. So this is where the price didn't even matter too much for the clients because it wasn't a huge difference.

PH: Right. So how sensitive do you think is the company's customer base to pricing? Have you seen any instances where the customers would become picky in terms of price increase?

PS: Actually, due to the fact WorkMotion changed their model also even to setting up more entities and having more margin in hiring the talents, they were even because of this able to lower the price.

PH: Mm.

PS: WorkMotion was even more expensive in the past, and this was even more often the case then that.

PH: Hmm.

PS: WorkMotion loses on pricing, and due to the fact they changed the pricing to this pricing of starting with €499, and they want more clients. Yes, so it's changed the sensitivity of pricing because PH: So coming towards the sales strategy, right? What is the company's go-to-market strategy and which acquisition channels or sales channels do you think have been most effective for the company in driving new customer wins?

PS: Also the question to go-to-market strategy was the key point all-bound. So it was highly connected that inbound and outbound wasn't seen as separated.

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PH: Hmm.

PS: Also, sales and marketing work really closely together, what we call marketing. So the signals we and the outbound fed the marketing was by this follow-up on the inbound interest itself. Yeah, so this is where the strategy was coming from. For sure, there were other channels or go-to-market strategies, like the integrations with software, HR software and work together. Yes.

PH: What does a typical sales cycle look like for WorkMotion? How much time would it usually take for a particular prospect to become a customer? Yeah.

PS: Actually, it depends on... I would say... Okay, let's start differently. I would say the average sales process at WorkMotion was around 60 days. I know exactly because we...

PH: Mm-hmm.

PS: All of us, we did quarterly business reviews. So we analyzed every quarter, the sales cycle, the win, the loss, the competitors, and we're really ahead of the game and what the sales process need to be looked like in order to win more clients.

PH: Hmm.

PS: So some of the clients, they would really do their diligence by even looking for competitors or just for an employer of record model half a year before hiring someone or if someone leaves or just want to get a crystal clear image of how it works. But we had also clients that were asking us, "Shit, I'm really too late for the hiring." PH: Mm-hmm.

PS: I just need to hire this talent by yesterday. And this also happened a lot. And this is where also the unique selling point I mentioned early on was a huge benefit for WorkMotion where we instantly generated contracts and the clients, they loved it. The fastest onboarding. And this marks a record for WorkMotion was 11 minutes. So it was like the contract was generated 11 minutes later, it was already signed.

PH: And like what were the most common objections have you heard from the prospective clients when they were evaluating WorkMotion? Like what were the major concerns before adopting WorkMotion?

PS: Major concerns. Permanent establishment risk. Main concern. Labor law. Visa process. Work. Wait, work permits also huge concern. And we try to figure everything out through this platform. In some cases, the major concerns even be able to mitigate. So yeah, I guess this was something like when. Yeah. Okay.

PH: Yeah.

PS: Also when it comes to the talent perspective as well, when you hire, for instance, in certain countries, C-level positions, it wasn't possible. So therefore we mitigated or just we're telling them you should change the job title in order to make it work, yeah.

PH: No. And also the company mentions that it has presence or it covers more than 160 countries, right? So with the primary market being the European market. Like which, within Europe or also abroad, which markets do you think present a better growth opportunity for the company going forward and can be the biggest area of focus?

PS: For sure the DACH region is still the main market, but they and also simultaneously the US market with a huge potential of growth. Even though that there are still these players, they already knew in terms of what WorkMotion

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offered compared to the competition, that they have the strategy to get a huge share as well, and also don't want the Asia market. There's also, in terms of hiring potential, I know they were heading for a go-to-market strategy for Asia as well.

PH: Yeah. And lastly, on competition, right? So, what do you think or which company do you think are the direct competitors of the company? And what measures does the company take in order to differentiate itself from them? I guess we discussed few top players, but what are your thoughts on the competition?

PS: Yeah, I would say the top one competitor, and this was also in terms of the C-level of WorkMotion, was Remote.

PH: Hmm.

PS: If we lost a client, then it was most likely to Remote because they did their homework, actually. And they were also really good, not in all cases, not in all terms. I know, Deel and Remote, Deel even, they know that... I know they're there, and also WorkMotion knows that they are a huge competitor.

PH: Mm-hmm.

PS: And simultaneously, they, how can I say it in a good way? They had not the best labor law and the best contracts. And this is where in the long run, it will break their neck because a lot of clients we won from Deel in Europe because the employees were suing their employer because of the contracts. The contracts weren't compliantly or labor law compliantly signed as they need to be. And this is where we differentiate from these competitors. Even Remote had some, like in Germany, they were telling no worries about the 18 months, some AÜG license, we can even hire afterwards, but it is not possible. So in terms of DACH market, there was not even one competitor as compliant as WorkMotion. But yeah, they know that the US companies, they were like 10 years ahead of time, right? So PH: Hmm.

PS: Yeah.

PH: So like if we take all these factors into consideration regarding the products, the platform that the company offers, how would you rate WorkMotion on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest rank only purely on the platform, the product?

PS: There is always room for improvement so PH: Yeah.

PS: I can't give them a 10 and it would be also too subjective and biased. So in terms of what they're just offering and how they were really focused on compliance... differentiate them from the rest of the employer of record providers and also how they were improving and also going with the time and the AI usage as well and even integrating their knowledge into AI in order to get the correct answers to the clients as well. I would say they earned a good 8, even a little above 8 because of the customer satisfaction score, because this was always in terms of when they changed this customer obsession topic, they were so concentrating on this. At this point, they always were above 90% of customer satisfaction score and this was the highest in the industry. Actually, they got rewarded by this as well. So better than an 8, almost a 9, I would say.

PH: Mm. And finally, on an industry level, if you look out over the next 3 to 5 years, what do you see as the biggest opportunities and challenges happening within the industry? And what do you think, what impact will that have on the company?

PS: And let's start with the biggest challenge. The biggest challenge is that the companies won't hire abroad anymore

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because they would really like or more likely hire talents or bring them back into the office for the office culture as well. And also if... like countries or even the continent itself, for instance, the European Union decides that labor law needs a limitation, then this might be a huge challenge for all the employer of record providers. And I know Germany was talking about this. How is this possible? We have an AÜG license in Germany, 18-month limited hiring or employee leasing. We should do this for all the talents, for all companies in Germany where they're hiring also talents from abroad, from any country. So basically, they were saying if a German company is hiring someone from Egypt, for instance, this should also be going under the AÜG license model and the limitation of 18 months. And WorkMotion was addressing this, also the employer of records industry was addressing this and even our lawyer internally, the legal team, they were saying it's not possible. Germany can't do this. They can't go over labor law limitations and adapt their own license into other markets. So it was already addressed. And then also the direct hiring model became even a bigger topic for WorkMotion as well.

PH: Right. Great. That comes to the end of today's discussion, Patrick. Thank you once again for joining us and sharing such valuable insights on WorkMotion.

PS: Thank you also for your time and for listening. If you need more information or my time, just let me know.

PH: Yes, I hope you enjoyed our discussion.

PS: Yes, it was nice. Thank you very much for the questions.

PH: Thank you. Have a great day. Bye.

PS: Yes, bye-bye. You too.

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10/12/2026 at 05:58 AM UTC