Boston Dynamics is a global leader in robotics solutions. For over 30 years, the company has pushed the boundaries of technology. Today, their robots solve real-world problems for customers around the globe.
We sat down with Boston Dynamics to learn more about their path toward global expansion and how the G-P partnership helped them build the workforce to succeed. Here are a few highlights from our discussion.
#1: The benefits of partnering with an experienced employer of record (EOR)
Around 2019, Boston Dynamics started transitioning from a specialized R&D (research and development) center to a global commercial enterprise. They wanted to market their four-legged inspection robot, Spot, and their logistics robot, Stretch, to customers worldwide. To pull this off, Boston Dynamics needed a global team. It didn’t take long to see that G-P was the right partner to handle the heavy lifting of global employment: managing local compliance, payroll, and benefits without the need to set up local entities.
Our first priority was accessing talent in Canada, where we had some former employees who wanted to come back to work for us. It wasn't enough to justify setting up an entity, but we wanted to facilitate onboarding — so that was our first introduction to G-P. That experience was very positive for our internal HR people, the managers, and the employees in Canada. When we started to deploy our products outside of the U.S., it was a natural choice to leverage G-P to help us hire in other countries where we needed people close to our customers."
Rachel Salamone
Chief People Officer at Boston Dynamics
#2: Hiring specialized talent without the massive costs
The first global hire is often the hardest. For Boston Dynamics, the initial challenge wasn't mass expansion, but securing niche talent without the budget strain of entity setup. The highly specialized nature of robotics meant that candidates were often located outside the U.S. In one case, the team needed a professional with rare expertise in robotics animation. As a global EOR, G-P had the entity infrastructure to help Boston Dynamics hire the candidate in Denmark immediately.
We didn't have entities there, and we didn't necessarily want to spend the resources to set ourselves up to hire one or two people within a given country. That's where G-P really comes into play — we're able to piggyback off of their robust global infrastructure and hire our folks through their entities."
Eduardo Ramos
Sr. Staff Total Rewards Analyst at Boston Dynamics
Watch the full video for a closer look at Boston Dynamics’ journey to global expansion.
#3: Protecting your brand with a positive employee experience
Boston Dynamics continues to scale their operations across Europe and Asia with G-P. Given their strong name recognition, employee experience is very important to them. It’s a key ingredient for retention that allows them to consistently innovate and produce world-class robotics. G-P makes sure that EOR employees feel part of the Boston Dynamics team.
They want to be employees of Boston Dynamics. When we talk to them about our EOR arrangement with G-P, we can tell them with confidence they'll have just as good of an experience — and probably better — than if we employed them directly. They get support in their own time zone, in their own language, with people who really understand what it means to be an employee in that country."
Rachel Salamone
Chief People Officer at Boston Dynamics
#4: Expert support that can respond to high-stakes situations, fast
The support of a highly experienced EOR like G-P provides protection against fast-moving regulations. G-P's global employment expertise proved vital during a highly sensitive situation involving a new hire.
We had a new hire through G-P who had a medical incident prior to onboarding — it was a very complicated situation. Were it not for the guidance of G-P, we probably would have made some mistakes along the way. For us, it's not just about compliance and regulation. It's also about the experience of the individuals."
Rachel Salamone
Chief People Officer at Boston Dynamics
#5: Access to the latest AI technology
Boston Dynamics uses G-P Gia™, our AI-powered global HR agent, to speed up their compliance processes. The company’s people operations team uses Gia for discovery due diligence before committing to a new country.
Gia has become the de facto first step for me. In my experience, Gia is very trustworthy. What we used to fish for, potentially took hours in the past. Combing through all this documentation now gets spit out in a single sentence with a quick prompt.”
Eduardo Ramos
Sr. Staff Total Rewards Analyst at Boston Dynamics
How leaders are accelerating HR with AI
Boston Dynamics’ long-term partnership with G-P allowed the company to find specialized talent, confidently manage risk, and use AI for strategic agility.
“Don't wait," Ramos concluded. "The longer you wait, you're just losing out on the opportunity for you to drive your business goals forward.”
Boston Dynamics isn't the only leader partnering with G-P to hire globally. Leaders at Rackspace and Workday are also taking action to adapt to the new era of HR and AI. Get an inside look at how these companies are increasing agility and building compliant global teams.
Watch the full webinar series to get expert advice for your company today.
