Today, independent talent may come from one country, be managed from another and get paid through a system based somewhere else.
The numbers back this up. According to MBO Partners' 2025 State of Independence report, 32% of U.S. independents now sell services in other countries. That's up from just 12% in 2012. Independent work has gone global. The systems built to manage it are being stretched in ways they weren't designed for.
For companies working globally, the real question isn't whether they can find talent abroad. They can. The real question is whether they can hire that talent in a way that's consistent, compliant, and efficient.
Every country has its own rules and expectations. What works as a contractor setup in one country might not work in another. Expanding across borders means dealing with new questions about classification, tax, data privacy, payments, and local labor law—often all at once.
Most of the issues related to global workforce planning fall into four areas:
A setup that works fine in the U.S. might not pass the test in the EU, UK, India or Australia. Each place has its own way of deciding who counts as an employee versus a contractor. These aren't small differences. They affect how work gets assigned, how projects run, and how engagements get documented. If you assume the rules are the same everywhere, you're taking on risk without realizing it.
Pay someone in another country, and you might trigger local tax rules or reporting duties you didn't expect. What applies depends on the type of work, the worker's tax residency, how the deal is set up, and local thresholds. These all shift from country to country. Without local know-how, it's easy to miss something. Even small gaps in paperwork can delay payments or raise red flags.
GDPR in the European Union set a high bar for how personal data gets collected, stored and shared. Many other countries have since written their own versions, each with different rules and enforcement. Since workforce data moves across many systems and borders, staying compliant takes ongoing teamwork between legal and operations—not just a one-time setup.
Governments are paying closer attention to classification, taxes, and labor protections as independent work grows. Audits are happening more often. The records behind them—classification decisions, payment history, documentation—face more scrutiny than before. What used to seem like a small oversight can now carry real financial and legal weight.
Finding the right person for a project is only step one. TA teams also need a reliable way to handle cross-border contracts, classification, onboarding and local compliance. Without that, they get stuck in legal reviews, manual approvals, and one-off fixes for every new region. The goal isn't just finding great people anymore. It's building a process that lets you hire them with confidence, no matter where they're based.
Procurement deals with a different version of the same problem. These factors all vary by region: currency, payment methods, invoicing, tax paperwork and local labor rules. That makes it harder to compare costs, track spending or judge supplier performance in a consistent way. What Procurement needs is a way to flex for local rules without losing company-wide visibility and control.
Global independent work isn't rare anymore. It's becoming standard. Access to global talent is a real opportunity, but each new country adds another layer of legal, financial and admin work.
None of this means limiting where talent comes from. It means building systems that make steady, reliable hiring possible across regions. That visibility cuts down on wasted effort, builds compliance confidence, and leads to better workforce decisions overall.
As global independent work keeps growing, the companies that invest in connected workforce management now will be the ones best able to adapt as rules—and business needs—keep changing.
The independent workforce is already global. But the systems supporting it are still catching up. Companies that build consistency across borders, while staying flexible for local needs, will be the ones that can tap into the strongest independent talent available in today's market.
MBO Partners' latest report digs into seven challenges facing contingent workforce programs today, including stalled program maturity and compliance that's treated as a checkbox rather than a real practice. Check it out here!