HMD Global Onboards Employees Across 50+ Countries in Two Weeks

At a glance

• Compliantly onboarded hundreds of employees across 50+ countries
• Completed onboarding in under two weeks
• Enabled seamless transition to local entities post-acquisition

Overview

When HMD Global acquired Microsoft’s feature phone assets and secured exclusive rights to the Nokia brand, they inherited a global workforce overnight. To close the deal, HMD and their partner needed to rapidly and compliantly onboard employees across dozens of countries—many without existing legal entities.

Challenge

Hundreds of employees needed to be onboarded in countries where HMD and their partner had no legal presence. Waiting to establish entities wasn’t an option. They required a compliant, short-term solution that would ensure business continuity, protect employee experience, and enable a future transition once permanent infrastructure was in place.

Solution

HMD turned to Pebl’s Employer of Record (EOR) service to immediately hire and support employees in countries without legal entities. This allowed the acquisition to move forward on schedule while internal teams focused on establishing permanent operations. Pebl’s local expertise ensured full compliance and a smooth onboarding experience.

Outcome

With Pebl’s support, HMD successfully onboarded hundreds of employees in over 50 countries within two weeks—enabling the completion of the Microsoft acquisition. As local entities were established, Pebl provided a seamless offboarding process from the EOR model, ensuring continuity and compliance at every step.