How SILVERSEA Accelerated Growth in China by Choosing Horizons

Industry	Shipping
Location	Spain
Company Size	30+
Founding Year	2016
With Horizons since 2021

Website

Key Takeaways

01. SILVERSEA made the switch from an underperforming EOR provider to Horizons EOR.

02. SILVERSEA was impressed with the speed and quality of Horizons’ service, especially for country expertise and employee experience.

03. SILVERSEA decided to use Horizons Recruitment to identify and hire their second employee. They were impressed with the results.

04. Based on their positive experience, SILVERSEA sees Horizons as a clear long-term partner for expansion in China and around the globe.

05. The main motivator for SILVERSEA? Employee experience. SILVERSEA appreciated the support from Horizons’ customer care team – not only with SILVERSEA management, but with their employees in China too. In their experience, this commitment to the customer is a rare find.

Introduction

SILVERSEA, a leading provider of shipping containers worldwide, needed a presence in Asia. From their head office in Spain, they hired their first employee in Shanghai in 2019 using a local Employer of Record (not Horizons), where they stayed for just over 2 years.

“Hiring employees with Horizons was a night-and-day experience. Suddenly, the payroll was smooth, the account manager was responsive, and the additional services (like recruitment and office space) gave our team members the flexibility they needed to be successful.”

Ana Mont’ Alverne, Global People Manager at SILVERSEA.

The right partner matters…

SILVERSEA was planning a major expansion for their China office (and elsewhere) and needed a partner with a proven global hiring record to help them achieve their goals. They decided to hire a Global People Manager at HQ who saw the need to change the EOR provider to support this mission.

Above everything else, SILVERSEA values the satisfaction of their team: With employee experience in mind, SILVERSEA began searching for a better alternative who could accurately and efficiently provide the quality of service they were looking for, and with a human touch. That’s when they discovered Horizons.

Taking advantage of Horizons: Recruitment

Horizons is an EOR – but since its beginning has provided a full-suite of professional HR services, including executive-search recruitment. For hiring their third employee in China, they relied on Horizons’ professional China-based recruitment team to get the job done.

SILVERSEA’s HR lead had more than 7 years recruitment experience before her role at SILVERSEA, so knew exactly how the process should go:

“The speed and quality of Horizons’ recruitment team was impressive. We identified and onboarded our new team member much sooner than expected, and the process was smooth. Horizons really took care of everything. After this experience, I knew we could trust Horizons with all aspects of our hiring project.”

Ana Mont’ Alverne, Global People Manager at SILVERSEA.

After recruiting their employee, he joined Horizons’ downtown Shanghai office where he received a warm welcome and a desk next to his colleagues.

From 2 to 5 employees with more to come

After the second employee was onboarded, SILVERSEA decided they could begin to scale their operations with Horizons as a trusted partner.

Over the next 6 months, they hired 3 more team members in the Shanghai office, with several more hires planned through the next year in China alone.

SILVERSEA will also seek to hire outside of China & Spain – and for them, Horizons is a clear choice of partner in any location they seek to hire without a subsidiary. They know they can count on Horizons to make employment compliant, the payroll smooth, and their employees feel like home.

SILVERSEA’s favorite features

SILVERSEA has many positive things to say about Horizons’ service.

For the Horizons platform, SILVERSEA is pleased with its transparency and how easy it is to provide expense reimbursements and commissions to their employees:

“Horizons provided all relevant information about Chinese labor law – and the platform itself is super friendly to use” says Ana Mont’Alverne.

And if there are any payroll queries, the platform will show an itemized list for each deduction, allowing for an unparalleled level of transparency.

For the service itself, SILVERSEA identified two areas where Horizons really stood out:

Dedicated account managers. Account managers at Horizons serve as the main point of contact for clients. Account managers are there to help the employee with any inquiries they have and make the process smooth for both them and for the client. SILVERSEA appreciates the fact that the account managers are local and therefore understand the hiring culture, but also the fact that they work for a global company and can bring that international perspective. This dynamic means SILVERSEA feels comfortable asking questions surrounding work culture in China (for example, when they want to send gifts or surprises to employees). Account managers also form deep relationships with the client employees in-country, which leads to…

Employee care. SILVERSEA is a company that cares deeply about their employees. They needed a partner that shares this perspective, and they found that with Horizons. That’s why Horizons invests so heavily in its global hubs, including office space and meeting rooms where client-employees can arrange meetings. SILVERSEA will often receive photos from their employees in China of office events, gifts provided at holidays, or the amazing views from the 33F Shanghai office with a complete overview of downtown. As SILVERSEA said, “Employees who send photos like this are happy employees!”

Conclusion

SILVERSEA feels like they made the right choice to switch providers. If someone is considering partnering with Horizons, SILVERSEA would offer the following advice:

“We would warmly recommend Horizons to any company needing a global hiring partner. Quick responses to our queries, stellar recruitment support, and an overall excellent level of service are the Horizons touchstones. If you need a fast, compliant, international hire, give Horizons a try!”

Ana Mont’ Alverne, Global People Manager at SILVERSEA.

Frequently asked questions

What should I look for in an EOR provider?

The best Employer of Record (EOR) providers offer the following:

A modern, intuitive platform to manage employee leave, expenses, and payroll.
Add-on services like international recruitment, visa assistance, and international office space, optional for companies that need an extra edge.
Truly global coverage. That means if you want to hire in Spain, Canada, China, and Vietnam this week, you can. And you should have the added benefit of paying all employee salaries through one invoice.
Genuine local knowledge. A good EOR will have people based in the country you’re expanding to, and their legal team will be well-versed and well-experienced in the law.

See what other clients say

"As a seed-stage, London-based startup, we were initially hesitant to expand internationally due to the administrative workload involved. Horizons completely took the headache out of the process and allowing us to hire a team of software engineers in Germany."

Gabor SzedlakCo-founder & COO

"I truly appreciated the thoroughness and the professionalism of Horizons personnel while going through the process of hiring internationally. When they spoke and commented, they spoke confidently and knowledgable on all subject matters pertaining to internal employment."

Gary PaskyVice President of Software Development

"On deciding to begin commercial activities in Asia Pacific, we needed a provider to handle the employment and remuneration of our workforce. With Horizons the result was a fast, efficient and fit-for-purpose employment solution. We recommend Horizons as an EOR provider.”

Chris MorrellManaging Director

"The collaboration with the Horizons team is excellent. Both our local employee as well as our HQ in Germany are more than pleased with the support provided and the simplicity of the service. We can highly recommend the Horizons solution to anyone."

Christoph EngelbertCo-Founder & CTO

"We needed an EOR that could provide expert support for payroll in APAC. We are pleased with Horizons’ expertise and the fact that they are flexible, responsive, and easily accessible from Belgium. They were able to provide services within the short timeline we required."

Katia FlamandHuman Resources