Hiring globally in 2026 is no longer only about finding talent.
It is about executing payroll correctly, onboarding people fast, and maintaining compliant operations across jurisdictions, without creating avoidable operational risk.

An Employer of Record like Rise is designed for that reality, to employ your full-time team on your behalf so your company can expand internationally without opening a local entity.

Rise then handles the employment administration layer, local labor laws, required tax documentation, and payroll operations, while you manage day-to-day work.

Key Takeaways

  • What an EOR does and when it’s the right model for global hiring
  • The criteria that separate a reliable EOR from a risky one
  • Where Rise fits: payroll execution, onboarding workflow, compliance coverage
  • A step-by-step rollout plan and the questions to ask before signing

Why an Employer of Record is Important In 2026

An Employer of Record is the legal employer for full-time employees in a given jurisdiction. This matters because employment is not only paying someone.

It includes compliant agreements and contracts, local labor law alignment, employer and employee tax handling, payroll setup under local rules, and benefits administration where applicable.

With an EOR model, your company directs the employee’s work, while the EOR runs the employment administration and compliance layer.

Rise supports global workforces across contractor, AOR, and EOR models. For teams that want to hire full-time employees internationally without establishing a local entity, Rise EOR provides the structure to do so with a standardized operating model.

How To Evaluate The Best Employer Of Record Service 2026

If you are choosing an EOR in 2026, a useful approach is to judge providers on execution, not marketing claims.

These are the criteria that consistently affect outcomes:

1. Coverage And Expansion Strategy

If your roadmap includes multiple markets, the EOR must be able to keep pace.

Rise adds new EOR markets every week, is constantly launching new EOR countries, and will be live in 60+ EOR markets by end of 2026.

For scaling teams, the practical advantage is being able to expand without rebuilding processes for every new location and maintaining clear country coverage expectations.

2. Payroll Operations And Funding Flexibility

EOR payroll can become operationally heavy when funding methods are limited or inconsistent across locations.

Rise provides modern payroll services by letting employers fund payroll using USD (bank transfer) or USDC/USDT (crypto wallet).

Rise also supports hybrid payroll execution, enabling teams to run fiat + crypto payroll from one dashboard.

3. Onboarding That Minimizes Human Error

Onboarding should reduce back-and-forth and prevent missing documentation that causes delays.

Rise automates identity and compliance layers through KYC/AML workflows, and handles employment agreements and tax documentation for EOR employees.

4. Compliance, Security, And Audit Readiness

In 2026, compliance is both employment compliance and platform compliance.

Rise is SOC 2 Certified, GDPR compliant, supports multi-factor authentication (MFA), and uses high-level encryption. Rise is also a legally registered Money Service Business (MSB) with FinCEN.

5. Worker Experience And Withdrawal Control

A practical differentiator is whether workers have flexibility without creating employer-side complexity.

Rise is built so global workers choose how they want to be paid (fiat, stablecoins, crypto, or a mix). Employers fund payroll, but workers control their own withdrawal currency.

How Rise Simplifies EOR Payroll In 2026

employer of record

Rise is a global payroll, onboarding, and compliance platform that supports paying contractors and full-time employees worldwide.

For EOR specifically, Rise runs payroll under local rules while giving your team the ability to withdraw in ways that match their personal financial preferences.

Employer Funding: Simple Inputs, Global Output

Employers fund payroll in one of two ways:

  • USD via bank transfer
  • USDC/USDT via crypto wallet
Once payroll is funded, Rise runs payroll per local rules and handles the operational flow needed to complete payments.

Worker Withdrawals: Choice Every Cycle

Workers choose their withdrawal method and can adjust it each cycle:

  • Local currency
  • USDC
  • USDT
  • Other supported cryptocurrencies
  • Any combination (hybrid split)

This structure is intentional: Rise lets workers choose how they want to be paid, while keeping employer funding simple and standardized.

Hybrid Fiat + Crypto Payroll As Core Infrastructure

Hybrid fiat & crypto payroll is the core infrastructure powering Rise products.

Rise automatically handles fiat-to-crypto conversion, supports instant mass payouts, and supports multi-chain operations across Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism.

For Web3 teams, Rise includes smart-contract automation designed for crypto-native operations.

How Rise Simplifies Onboarding For EOR Employees

best employer of record service 2026

EOR onboarding is often where global hiring slows down.

Rise is designed so the compliance-heavy parts are managed by the platform, while the employee completes required steps through guided action items.

What Rise Handles For EOR Employees

Rise handles:

  • KYC/AML
  • Employment agreements
  • Tax documentation
  • Local labor law compliance
  • Payroll setup
Then the employee logs in to Rise, chooses a withdrawal method (fiat or crypto), and completes onboarding forms required by local law.

Employee Rise Onboarding 2026 (Step-By-Step)

Rise's onboarding follows a clear sequence:

Stage 1: Setting up your Rise account

  • Receive the email invitation to join Rise (check spam if needed).
  • Use the link in the email to sign up.
  • Select “Join as a payee” (not “Send payments”).
  • Choose to onboard as an Individual.
  • Complete required KYC steps using a valid government-issued ID.
  • Create a signing passkey (recommended on a laptop).

Stage 2: Once you’re in the platform

  • Navigate to Action Items and complete the following:
    • Health insurance enrollment form
    • Tax declaration form
    • Employment agreement

Stage 3: Getting paid with Rise

Rise offers Everyday Pay, which means earnings are available to you daily.
Expect to see funds arrive in your accounts, midnight GMT, on workdays.

You can:

  • Set up direct deposit, or
  • Log into the platform anytime to manually withdraw funds

To add payout options:

  • Go to the Withdraw tab and select Withdraw Options.
  • Add a domestic bank account (fiat) and/or a crypto wallet, you can add multiple options.
  • Once funds are available, choose where you’d like them sent.

To set up direct deposit:

  • Navigate to Direct Deposits.
  • Allocate different percentages of your pay to different accounts if you’d like.

Stage 4: Benefits enrollment

Health insurance and 401(k) setup, managed by Ease and ForUsAll.

  • Health insurance: Your Rise health insurance is managed through Ease. Please keep an eye out for an email from them with instructions on how to complete your setup.
  • 401(k): Your Rise 401(k) is managed by ForUsAll. You’ll receive an email from their team with next steps to get enrolled, one month into using the Rise platform.

Stage 5: Support You’re all set. If you need help at any point, our team is here for you.

For customer support, contact: hello@riseworks.io

How Rise Simplifies Compliance And Reduces Operational Load

best eor service 2026

Compliance at global scale fails when it relies on manual data collection, disconnected tools, or unclear responsibility boundaries.

Rise is designed around the opposite approach: automation, repeatable workflows, and standardized data flows for modern remote teams.

Compliance Automation Built Into Core Workflows

Rise automates compliance, identity, and tax documentation globally.

  • For EOR employees, Rise handles the employment compliance and payroll setup layers.
  • For contractor hiring, Rise also supports an Agent of Record (AOR) model designed to protect companies from misclassification risk, where Rise becomes the legal contracting entity and manages agreements, KYC/AML, identity verification, and tax documentation across 190+ contractor markets.

Rise ID: Reusable Verification

Rise ID is an on-chain identity for workers that supports reusable KYC, contractors do not repeat verification.

It is designed to secure transactions and serve as a verified work identity, reducing friction for repeat engagements and ongoing payroll activity.

Scale Across Payment Preferences Without Adding Admin Work

A key compliance-adjacent operational advantage is that Rise keeps employer inputs consistent while allowing worker withdrawals to vary.

  • Employers fund payroll.
  • Workers choose withdrawals.

That separation reduces the chance that internal payroll administrators become the bottleneck for global payments.

Rise Workflows In Practice (EOR, Contractor, AOR)

Rise supports repeatable workflows that are useful for operating at scale.

A) EOR Workflow

  • Add employee details
  • Rise handles compliance, taxes, and agreements
  • Employer funds payroll
  • Rise runs payroll per local rules
  • Employee withdraws fiat or crypto

B) Contractor Payroll Workflow

  • Invite contractor
  • Contractor completes onboarding and KYC (self-service)
  • Employer funds payroll (USD or USDC/USDT)
  • Schedule payments
  • Contractor chooses withdrawal currency
  • Rise handles compliance and tax forms
  • Payouts occur automatically
Important operational rule: contractor onboarding is completely self-service, employers only send an invite. Employers do not enter contractor banking info, crypto addresses, or personal details.

C) AOR Workflow

  • Add contractor
  • Rise handles classification and agreements
  • Contractor completes onboarding
  • Payments follow the hybrid payroll flow
best eor 2026

When Rise Is The Right EOR Choice In 2026

Rise is built for teams that need a global-first operating model and want to reduce admin overhead while enabling modern payout preferences.

Common scenarios include:

  • Paying teams in countries with currency volatility
  • Paying contractors in stablecoins to avoid banking delays
  • Eliminating misclassification risk through an AOR model
  • Hiring full-time employees without opening a local entity (EOR)
  • Using USDC for global settlement and funding payroll from crypto treasuries
  • Managing hybrid payroll for mixed fiat + crypto workforces
  • Avoiding FX costs in international payouts
Rise supports 90+ local currencies, 100+ crypto assets, and operations across 190+ contractor countries, with EOR coverage that is dynamic and expanding.

Conclusion

The best employer of record service in 2026 is defined by operational execution: compliant hiring without local entities, payroll that runs reliably under local rules, and onboarding that removes friction rather than adding it.

Rise simplifies this by combining EOR, AOR, and contractor payroll in one platform, powered by hybrid fiat + crypto payroll infrastructure.

Employers fund payroll, while workers control how they withdraw (fiat, stablecoins, crypto, or a mix), each cycle, with local and international benefits supported for EOR employees.

Rise is built to reduce operational load through centralized approvals and workforce management capabilities, and supports scaling globally without rebuilding processes across markets.

Book a demo to see how Rise runs payroll, onboarding, compliance, and global HR workflows for distributed teams in practice.

FAQs:

1. What is an employer of record (EOR) service?

An employer of record service employs workers on your behalf in a given jurisdiction, handling agreements, compliance, taxes, and payroll operations while you manage day-to-day work.

2. How does Rise simplify global payroll for EOR employees?

Rise lets employers fund payroll via USD bank transfer or USDC/USDT from a crypto wallet, then runs payroll per local rules. Employees choose how to withdraw funds in fiat or crypto.

3. Can employers choose an employee’s payout currency in Rise?

No. Rise is designed so workers control their own withdrawal currency and can change it each cycle. Employers fund payroll, but workers choose how they receive funds.

4. What does Rise handle during EOR onboarding?

Rise handles KYC/AML, employment agreements, tax documentation, local labor law compliance, and payroll setup. Employees then complete required onboarding action items and choose withdrawal methods.

5. Does Rise support benefits for EOR employees?

Yes. Rise supports local and international benefits for EOR employees, with health insurance and 401(k) enrollment supported through Ease and ForUsAll.

6. What security and compliance standards does Rise follow?

Rise is SOC 2 Certified, GDPR compliant, supports MFA, uses high-level encryption, and is a legally registered MSB with FinCEN.

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