How to Hire Overseas Quickly & Easily

As the world becomes ever more connected, a growing number of companies are choosing to build overseas workforces. Many of the traditional barriers to overseas hiring, including language differences, complex legal requirements, and high up-front costs, have fallen away.

Despite many positive changes, however, employers that want to build remote teams still face obstacles. And the process of setting up a foreign legal entity and navigating relevant rules and regulations requires significant resources. As a result, overseas hiring has largely been the domain of large corporations.

So, can smaller businesses still take advantage of foreign talent? In practically all cases, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Small, medium, and even micro employers have access to several mechanisms for quickly, easily, and cost-effectively recruiting overseas employees.

Many of the traditional barriers to overseas hiring, including language differences, complex legal requirements, and high up-front costs, have fallen away.

In this post, we’re going to look specifically at “employers of record” (EORs), or “global professional employment organizations” (PEOs), and explore how they can help you build a highly-skilled overseas team.

Why Should You Consider Hiring Overseas?

Overseas hiring has two main benefits. First, access to foreign labor markets allows you to fill skill gaps in your current team for what will often be a lower cost than hiring locally. Sometimes, skills shortages in an employer’s home country mean that it’s not even possible to rely on the local labor force.

Do You Need to Set Up A Separate Legal Entity?

Many employers assume that to hire overseas they need to establish a company in the jurisdiction in which they’ll be recruiting. While many companies follow this route, it is by no means the only correct approach.

Setting up a new legal entity is a complicated, resource-intensive process. And if an organization doesn’t have the necessary legal, linguistic, and cultural expertise in-house, it will also need to hire outside consultants.

Many countries, particularly in Europe, allow organizations to set up less complex legal frameworks, such as branch offices, which afford more or less the same freedoms as having a company.

Alternatively, it is also possible to enlist the help of an employer of record, or EOR, which hires individuals on your behalf. In most cases, this is by far the most cost-effective solution.

What Is an Employer of Record (EOR) or Professional Employment Organization (PEO)?

The terms “employer of record” and...

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Video: Combining Cardio, Sprints and Strength

In this video, I demonstrate how I use my stationary bike (the ProForm Pro 22) along with the "manual workout" setting (on the iFit platform), combined with some adjustable dumbbells and a yoga mat to create one heck of a workout.

This is how it goes:

1. Ride nice and easy for 30 seconds
2. Increase the resistance on the bike and ride hard for 30 seconds
3. Repeat the first two steps two to five times
4. Get off the bike and do two to five ManMakers
5. Get back on the bike and start from the beginning
6. Repeat this sequence as many times and you have the energy or time for

Despite their mockworthy name, "ManMakers" are a great full-body, multi-joint exercise that also has the ability to crank your heart rate up to 11. ManMakers neatly combine a few elements of the burpy, rows, push-ups, squats, and the overhead press. There are a few versions of this exercise but I like this variation since it allows me to focus more time and attention on the renegade rows and doesn't require that I do as deep a squat and therefore saving my legs for the bike.

Benefits of combining strength and cardio

One of the big reasons for combining cardio, sprints, and resistance training is that when you lift weights, you get a release of growth-related hormones that help your muscles to grow or get stronger (insulin-like growth factor, testosterone, and epinephrine). Brief and hard bicycling bouts also have been shown to cause a very similar amplification of growth hormones. So why not get the best of both worlds and combine them?

Other Variations

And don't worry, you don't have to do this on a stationary bike. Nor do you have to do ManMakers. You could use an elliptical machine, a rowing machine, do running sprints on a treadmill, or even simply alternate between jogging on the spot and doing High Knees. Then do your favorite resistance training exercise (preferably one that employs multiple joints and body parts) and you'll get the same basic benefit.

Give this a try and let me know how it goes on my Facebook or YouTube page.

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Top 10 Writing and Grammar Mistakes That Even Published Authors Make

 

All the little details of writing are difficult, and even published authors can struggle to get everything right. Thankfully, these writers have editors who clean up the writing to make authors look their best.

Macmillan Publishers' editors ranked the most common errors they see, and shared some of their advice for writers. Here's a colorful infographic to help you edit. You'll find more information and links to related Grammar Girl articles and episodes below.

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1. Misplaced commas

Commas are one of the most commonly used punctuation marks, and there are a baffling number of ways to use them. To further complicate matters, some things people think of as comma rules are actually styles, which means you may have to use them in different ways, depending on which style guide you need to follow. Comma splices, the serial comma (also called the Oxford comma), and commas between adjectives are just some of the tricky comma topics you may need to revisit every now and then.

2. Wordy sentences

With everyone's shortened attention spans, you need to get to the point. One easy way is to avoid simple redundancies. It can also help to...

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Ready for Homeownership? 8 Steps to Prepare Your Finances

Buying a home is a huge, expensive decision, no matter if you're a first-time homebuyer or have been buying and selling real estate for decades. Homeownership comes with financial upsides and risks, and for many people, it's an emotional transaction as well.

So how do you get fully prepared to buy a home? Getting ready should begin long before you start scrolling through online listings, going to open houses, or working with a real estate agent.

Today, I'll help you understand if homeownership is right for you, how much you can afford, ways to save for a down payment, and tips to get the most affordable mortgage possible. The more you know about the home buying process and prepare for it, the cheaper and less stressful it will be.

Here's more about each step you can use to prepare your finances to buy a home.

1. Evaluate renting versus buying

Before you start obsessively searching for your dream home, the first step is to make sure owning a home is the right move for you. There's no financial rule that says you must buy a home. In some cases, you're better off not becoming a homeowner.

In general, it's not wise to buy a home unless you're confident you will live in it for at least three years.

Whether you should own or rent depends on various factors, including:

• Where you want to live. If you're in a large city, renting can be much less expensive than buying a home. 
   
• How long you plan to live somewhere. In general, it's not wise to buy a home unless you're confident you will live in it for at least three years. That gives you enough time to recuperate your buying costs and prepare to sell the property.
   
• What lifestyle you enjoy. For many people, being a homeowner allows them to enjoy hobbies, such as gardening or home remodeling, which they couldn't do as a renter. But renting may be more appealing to those who travel frequently or don't want to be responsible for the upkeep...

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Nutritional Supplements You Don't Need (And Some You Do)

I recently got an email from Brian who wrote: "In episode #28, you talk about multivitamins and calcium. But what about other supplements, like..." And here, Brian listed 25 different nutritional supplements, literally from A to Z, starting with Ashwagandha and ending with zinc. Maybe you have a similar list.

According to the FDA:

Three out of every four American consumers take a dietary supplement on a regular basis. For older Americans, the rate rises to four in five. And one in three children take supplements.

And we’re spending a lot of money on them. Supplements are a $122 billion dollar industry. And yet, it doesn’t look like we’re getting much of a return on our investment.

The vast majority of the supplements that people are taking are of questionable use.

Supplements don't make us live longer

In 2019, researchers at Tufts University examined survey data on supplement use and health from more than 27,000 individuals, spanning a six-year period. They found that those who reported taking nutritional supplements didn't seem to get any benefit from them in terms of decreased mortality. They didn't live any longer than those who didn't. Those with adequate intake of certain nutrients, including Vitamin A, K, magnesium, and zinc, did live longer than those who didn't, but only if they were getting those nutrients from foods. Those who got them from supplements didn't do any better.

Those with adequate intake of certain nutrients did live longer than those who didn't, but only if they were getting those nutrients from foods.

Now, this particular study is painting with a very broad brush. The researchers didn't look at all the different supplements individually or look in detail at causes of death. But studies on individual nutrients and health conditions—including cancer, heart disease, bone loss, and Alzheimer's—have been largely disappointing. 

Although there are some situations where nutritional supplementation is helpful, the vast majority of the supplements that people are taking are of questionable use.

Which supplements should you take?

I’m not going to go through each of the 25 nutrients in Brian’s list one by one in today’s episode. For one thing, I have talked about many of these nutrients (including collagen, glucosamine, Omega 3s...

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Why Crawling Is an Amazing Whole-Body Workout

A while ago I filmed myself for one of my Workout of the Week videos doing some crawling movements. Specifically the Inch Worm, Bear Crawl, and Crab Walk. And while I know that crawling around on the floor isn't the coolest way to stay fit (although Chris Hemsworth makes it look pretty cool), it is a basic human movement that remains important long after we've successfully learned to walk.

Doing some work on all fours, including crawling exercises like these, can promote and maintain proper movement patterns, build new connections in the brain, protect us from injury and challenge our strength and stability. That's why I think getting down on the floor, to do some crawling exercises, is a great addition to anyone's exercise program.

Why crawling?

If you are skeptical about whether crawling can be a great form of strength and mobility exercise, you can simply check out a football practice because you are very likely to see professional football or rugby players crawling on the field during practice. They use this movement to help build lateral strength and the ability to transfer power from the lower body to the upper body.

You may also have seen soldiers crawling as part of their basic training. As they say, "Keeping low can keep you alive," and I couldn't agree more. 

Exercises involving rocking, squatting, rolling, and crawling are now being used regularly to help people out of their chronic pain.

Fitness and rehab professionals have seen a big rise in the popularity of crawling movement patterns as well. Exercises involving rocking, squatting, rolling, and crawling are now being used regularly to help people out of their chronic pain.

Give crawling a try

For us adults, who spend all of our locomotion time on our two hind feet and our sedentary time in the “double 90-degree” chair position, we can use crawling to keep our body guessing and surprise it with new motions and new angles to make exercise interesting, fun and effective. 

Try this:

• Get down on all fours
• Try to keep your bottom down and in line with your head
• ...

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The Surprising Upside of Procrastination

The world as I see it is made up of two kinds of people: those who make their beds every day, and those who laugh at the bedmakers because why bother.

I’ve always been a bedmaker. I like the feeling of a tiny accomplishment early in my day. I’ve also always been a bit self-righteous about it. Bedmaking requires a sense of discipline. So obviously, making your bed is just better, right?

Sometimes, under the right circumstances, procrastinating feels good. And it also delivers a different kind of result.

Like making a bed, I’ve always defaulted to assuming that planning takes discipline. So that must mean planning is always better than procrastinating. But what if my logic is wrong? This pandemic has me calling a lot of old assumptions into question. And while I’m still largely a planner, I’m finding myself dallying with procrastination in small doses.

And you know what? Sometimes, under the right circumstances, procrastinating feels good. And it also delivers a different kind of result. So let’s talk today about when and why it’s OK to let procrastination take the wheel.

Is my procrastination helping me or holding me back?

If procrastination tends to be how you roll, start by asking yourself whether it’s serving you or holding you back.

Here are a few questions for you to sit with:

• Am I scrambling but making things happen, or am I dropping balls or missing deadlines?
• Do I feel like my work product suffers from the rush?
• Is my procrastination negatively impacting anyone other than myself ?
• Would something in my life improve if I put more effort into planning?

Be honest with yourself. Let your answers inform the approach you take.

If your procrastination is either impacting someone else or holding you back in any way, it may be time to strive to overcome it. But if your answers leave you feeling OK, then let’s talk about why procrastinating can be a useful thing.

Procrastination can inspire creativity

Wharton professor Adam Grant describes an experiment to explore the relationship between performance and procrastination. In it, participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Each participant was asked to think of a new business idea. In one group, the instruction was to pitch the idea immediately. The other group spent a few minutes playing a game before pitching their ideas.

The result? Ideas pitched by those who...

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