Global Employment
How Preply uses Lano to fuel international growth
Lano’s global EOR solution enabled Preply to grow their international team compliantly and convert their best contractors to full-time employees.
16
days needed on average for onboarding new hires
9
countries where employees are based
41
active hires via Lano's EOR solution
"It’s great to have local in-country partners who can support us with complicated cases and respond in a timely manner."
Olha Petrenko
People Operations Specialist
About Preply
Preply unlocks human potential through learning. By connecting learners with online tutors worldwide, Preply uses AI tools to create engaging language classes. With over 32,000 tutors giving more than 15 million lessons in 175+ countries, Preply motivates and supports a global community.
Having grown its revenue tenfold in three years, Preply leads online language tutoring with a diverse team of 640+ employees from 50+ nationalities, based in Barcelona, Kyiv, London, and the US. Preply is committed to providing an exceptional experience for both individual and business customers.
Challenge
Retaining international talent while ensuring compliance
Before starting to work with Lano, Preply already had an extensive network of international contractors spread across several countries. They started out with their main hub in Ukraine and a legal entity in the US, and then opened a legal entity in Spain, which was the first European entity.
But apart from these countries, they only operated with contractors, which posed several challenges. While they could comply with regulations when working with international contractors, they found that this approach didn't fully meet their needs.
The primary issue was that relying on contractors hindered their ability to attract and retain talent over the long term, as they couldn't offer the stability of full-time employment. Due to these limitations, the contractor model was not a sustainable solution because it slowed down their international growth.
So Preply decided to switch from contractors to full-time employees. But since their international team was spread across a variety of different countries and they only had a limited number of legal entities established, they needed to find a solution that would allow them to hire employees compliantly without having to set up a new legal entity in every market.
Solution
Switching from contractors to full-time employees with Lano’s EOR solution
Lano’s global Employer of Record services provided the perfect solution to the challenges faced by Preply. The implementation process was quick and easy, and thanks to Lano’s user-friendly and intuitive platform, all it took was a quick introductory call for the team at Preply to start using Lano.
From the very beginning, Lano integrated smoothly into Preply’s hiring workflows. Once the recruiting team found a new candidate and the offer was signed, all it took to onboard a new international hire was to submit the hiring request through the Lano platform to trigger a seamless onboarding process.
With Lano’s quick turnaround times, Preply was able to onboard new hires within 16 days on average. In cases where Preply was pressed for time to hire a new employee, Lano consistently provided timely assistance and ensured that the hiring process was completed in the required time. Lano’s swift response and efficient handling of different emergency HR situations allowed Preply to onboard new employees quickly, meeting urgent deadlines and maintaining operational continuity.
Another highly appreciated aspect of working with Lano is the professional and competent support during termination procedures and legal entity set-up. Thanks to Lano, Preply was able to complete several international termination procedures without a hitch and is currently in the process of establishing a new entity in the UK to which the existing EOR hires will be transferred.
Results
Strong international growth and full compliance
With Lano, Preply was able to continue its strong international growth trajectory. In 2023 alone, Preply hired 22 new employees through Lano’s EOR solution. In total, Preply currently has 41 active EOR hires spread across nine different countries. While they continue working with contractors for complementary tasks and projects, 55% of their international workforce is managed through Lano services.
With Lano doing all the legal legwork, converting contractors to full-time employees or hiring new talent under a full-time employment contract is an effortless process for Preply that aligns seamlessly with their internal hiring procedures. All they need to do is to review and approve the proposed employment contract and Lano handles all the rest.
With Lano’s support, Preply can be sure that their international employment needs are met quickly and efficiently. The detailed payroll reports they can access via the Lano platform help them understand their workforce costs better, providing clear breakdowns of expenses. This way, Preply can focus on growing their business, knowing that their HR matters are in good hands.
© Lano Software GmbH 2024