Levy Global Support LLC - Consulting services for universities and nonprofits

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SERVICES

​Reduce risks, improve outcomes, and deliver value for your global programs.

No matter what phase you're in — whether your focus is remote work, global expansion, or online education — Levy Global Support can guide you through the complexities of global operations.

We offer a range of services and training, from strategic to tactical, always tailored to your needs and budget.

Want to learn more? Facing a challenging problem? Contact us for a free consultation via phone or Zoom.
​Strategic Guidance
Risk Assessment
Support Frameworks
​Tactical Guidance
Expert Consultation & Problem-Solving
Training
​Implementation
Employment Services
​Safety Services

 

Risk Assessment
Global work can trigger many hidden risks. If you’re like most organizations, you have organized your business and compliance functions around particular laws and customs in your home country and state. At home, you know what might go wrong and how to fix it. But when your organization goes abroad, you are an outsider and an upstart, facing rules and norms that US-centric business processes weren’t designed for—and with higher stakes, because your local reputation will depend on just one project.
 
We have conducted international risk assessments for public and private institutions, including major research universities, academic medical centers, and a small college. Overseas risks span the range of on-campus risks but often require different solutions. So we analyze your organization across all business functions to identify gaps that could affect safety, reputation, compliance, employment, financial controls, budget, tax, mission and values, or academic and operational success. Then we recommend business-process improvements to track and mitigate global risks, minimizing disruption and maximizing success.
🌐 Institutional Assessment:  A comprehensive review of your global operations effectiveness and risk mitigation.
  • Stakeholder meetings to identify operational needs, risks, and opportunities
  • Risk analysis and prioritization
  • Recommended policies, business processes, and review criteria to fit your needs
  • Roadmap for implementation
  • Training for stakeholders and decision-makers

🌐 Program Assessment:  An operational health check on existing programs.
  • Stakeholder meetings
  • Risk identification and prioritization
  • Mitigation and compliance recommendations
  • Roadmap for improvements
  • Training and consultation for ongoing problem-solving
 
🌐 Due Diligence:  Targeted planning for proposed programs to minimize risk and cost.
  • Risk identification and prioritization
  • Implementation options to address program and compliance needs
  • Consultation to support effective decisions and implementation
  • Problem-solving during implementation

 

Support Frameworks
Global research and teaching has always been entrepreneurial. Overseas program leaders tend to be deeply experienced, connected, and savvy about the countries where they work—and institutions often give them broad autonomy. However, regulatory trends and centralized university processes make it harder than ever for programs to operate without home-campus involvement.
 
Faculty and administrators seek two kinds of support. Internally, they need guidance on making campus business processes work in the host country, or relief from processes that conflict with host-country rules. Externally, they need resources to address host-country issues they don’t know well—perhaps taxation, exports, or data protection—and to navigate increasing US regulation of global activities.
 
Levy Global Support helps you address both kinds of support needs, unlike global advisory firms that focus only on host-country needs. There is no one best framework for global support, so we draw from several “best practice” models that have proved successful. We match your internal dynamics and needs to the model that will work best for you.
Common Frameworks 
Committee
Collective decision-making with global stakeholders from each business function (We consider this a transitional model)
Coordinator
Central point-person to coordinate among business functions for global problem-solving, policies, and processes
Comprehensive
Central office to manage global operations policies and processes and build cross-functional expertise
Departmental
Comprehensive office serving a single large program or department
With each of these models, we promote entrepreneurial autonomy with a “resource” approach rather than an “enforcement” approach. That is, we design processes that address pressing problems for faculty and staff, so that the institution is seen as a value-add and not an obstacle. And because overseas problem-solving often requires cross-functional coordination (tax compliance may affect visa options, etc.), we put that collaboration at the heart of our practice.
🌐 Global Support Plan:  A comprehensive study of support needs and implementation planning.
  • Stakeholder meetings to identify operational needs and goals
  • Facilitated decision-making on support frameworks and scope
  • Research on focus countries for optimal processes (if desired)
  • Recommended business processes and services to meet identified needs
  • Roadmap for implementation
  • Role definition and identification of expert resources
 
🌐 Framework Implementation / Improvement:  Guided design and implementation of business processes and services to support global activities.
  • Review of global strategy and goals
  • Refinement of “best practice” options to fit institutional culture and needs
  • Facilitated business process improvement
  • Integration of expert resources
  • Training and consultation for ongoing support needs
 
🌐 Support Assessment:  Review of existing support to align with programmatic and business needs.
  • Survey and/or focus groups
  • Gap analysis: actual services and resources vs expected services and resources
  • Recommended process and service improvements
  • Roadmap for implementation

 

Expert Consultation & Problem-Solving
Many clients need tactical guidance on global operations issues, in real time. We serve as an resource-on-call to several major universities, both private and public. Clients count on us to guide them through overseas roadblocks, and to hone in on the most important and urgent issues. We look before you leap, without slowing you down.
 
Our value is our broad experience. We look at issues cross-functionally, drawing on our real-world implementations, industry “best practice”, and country-specific research. Joe Levy’s extensive background in global HR, global safety, and country setups allows us to provide comprehensive support in those specialties. In other areas, we draw on our network of experts, and we help you ask the right questions to get better information at low cost. Then we bring the perspectives together, allowing you to make good decisions that reflect the interplay between different business functions and risks.
Note: We provide guidance and recommendations regarding legal and tax issues, based on our experience and common practice. However, Levy Global Support does not render formal legal, accounting, or tax advice. We will refer you to counsel or other licensed professionals when appropriate.
🌐 Cross-Functional Consultation:  Guidance on which operational and compliance issues require attention, and recommended solutions or referrals. Topic areas include:
  • Budgeting
  • Employment
  • Exports & export controls
  • Financial operations
  • Host-country registration
  • Imports & Customs
  • Intellectual property
  • Privacy & data protection
  • Safety & emergency management
  • Sanctions
  • Tax
 
🌐 Specialty Consultation:  Hands-on guidance, policy/process development, and execution in our specialty areas of expertise:
  • Country/program planning and setup
  • Compensation & benefits
  • Employment
  • Safety & emergency response
 
🌐 Online Program Consultation:  Guidance on compliance issues affecting online education programs:
  • Global baseline for risk mitigation
  • Program formats & risk impacts
  • Country prioritization for risk management
  • Country-specific issues, including tax, privacy, and degree/credential recognition

 

Training
We conduct virtual and in-person workshops for administrators and faculty at all levels of global experience. Our standard content can be tailored to fit your particular needs and interests. We also create bespoke workshops for particular clients, and can enlist colleagues with special expertise on particular countries or issues.
Existing Workshops
🌐 Overseas Employment Options
  • Risk overview
  • Types of workers (expatriate, host-country, third-country)
  • Overseas work policies & justifications
  • Staffing mechanisms (payroll, partner, PEO, contractor)
  • Case studies
  • Decision criteria & how to apply them
  • Related considerations
  • Implementation

🌐 Global Compensation & Benefits
  • Types of employees & assignments
  • Goals & tradeoffs
  • Market benchmarks
  • Approaches to expatriate compensation
  • Approaches to host-country compensation
  • Tax protection schemes
  • Compensation policies
  • Benefits programs
  • Equity considerations
  • Implementation

​🌐 Global Support Functions
  • Global operations overview
  • Program leader expectations & the "resource" approach
  • Global support structures
  • Governance
  • Design & implementation
  • Expertise resources
  • Service priorities
  • Improvement cycle

🌐 Global Risk Review Processes
  • Risk overview
  • "Doing business" thresholds
  • Criteria for review
  • The review committee
  • Review protocols & minimizing disruption
  • Pairing risk review with global support
🌐 Global Travel Safety
  • Global safety cycle
  • Evolving safety landscape – travelers & vulnerabilities
  • Real scenarios
  • Duty of care
  • Travel policies
  • Risk assessment
  • Traveler preparation
  • Emergency resources & protocols
  • Top priorities

🌐 Global Emergency Planning & Response
  • Incident types
  • Duty of care
  • Best practices for emergencies
  • Response roles
  • Emergency assistance providers
  • Intake
  • General protocols
  • Incident-specific protocols
  • Risk assessment & traveler preparation
  • Top priorities

🌐 Online Education Compliance
  • Risk overview
  • The host-country perspective
  • "Doing business" compliance
  • Tax compliance
  • Credentialing & licensing issues
  • Privacy issues
  • Sanctions & export controls
  • Other compliance requirements
  • Global mitigation priorities
  • Country-specific due diligence & mitigation
  • Top recommendations

 

Employment Services
For universities and hospitals, overseas staffing was once limited to major global programs and centers. Now, requests for remote and hybrid work abound—including staff moving abroad and new staff who don’t want to move. Many universities have adopted policies on international remote work. But how do you evaluate proposals, and how do you manage host-country compliance? Overseas work has numerous downstream impacts on the worker and the employer, including duty of care, employment laws, benefits, compensation, immigration, tax, privacy, intellectual property, corporate registration requirements, and others.
 
We have extensive experience with overseas employment, spanning every continent (yes, Antarctica too), and including faculty and researchers. We routinely arrange compliant staffing through various mechanisms: direct employment, employer-of-record services (aka EOR or PEO), secondment to partners or host-country affiliates, and independent contractors. We go far beyond contracting, and work extensively with expatriates, third-country nationals, and host-country nationals on employee relations, compensation, payroll, and benefits challenges.

What is an employer-of-record (EOR) service? An EOR, also known as a PEO (for Professional Employer Organization), is a third-party firm that employs staff on behalf of its clients and charges a fee. The EOR service enables host-country compliance (e.g. tax withholding and labor regulations) even if the client is not registered in the host country.
🌐 Staffing Case Review: On-call guidance on specific plans for overseas employment, contracting, remote work, or business travel.
  • Case-specific analysis of selected risk areas (e.g. tax obligations, corporate registration, employment, immigration, privacy, intellectual property)
  • Summary of implementation options (e.g. direct employment, PEO/EOR firm, partner organization, independent contractor, volunteer)
  • Compliance recommendations
 
🌐 Overseas Employee Setup: Execution of compliant staffing arrangements for overseas assignments or host-country hires.
  • Evaluation of work situation and potential mechanisms
  • Recommended implementation, with risk analysis
  • Compensation and benefits guidance
  • Vendor selection and setup (e.g. payroll provider, PEO/EOR firm, benefits provider)
  • Onboarding
 
​🌐 Remote Work Policies:  Design and implementation of a remote work policy and process that fits your talent goals and mitigates risk.
  • Risk and compliance overview
  • Facilitated strategy discussion, including goals and tradeoffs
  • Policy design and writing
  • Process workflow design and implementation
  • Training and consultation on staffing decisions
 
🌐 Compensation & Benefits Analysis:  Design of compensation and/or benefits programs that balance institutional and employee objectives, including talent, equity, cost, and effort.
  • Overview of global compensation and benefits principles
  • Facilitated strategy discussion
  • Policy options, including employee classifications and tiers
  • Compensation implementation, including data gathering and benchmarking
  • Benefits implementation, including vendor and plan selection
  • Training and consultation for HR leaders
 
🌐 Workshops:  Training on overseas employment options, compensation, benefits, and related topics.

 

Safety Services
Link to white paper

​
New White Paper

For more on global safety in higher education, see our White Paper, commissioned by Pulse International.

click here
Global Safety Lifecycle: arrows cycling through five steps, assess-prepare-monitor-respond-evaluate
Today, most organizations have an global assistance provider, ready to respond worldwide and 24/7 to medical and security incidents. Your provider is a crucial resource, but fulfilling duty of care also requires integrated risk management throughout your organization. Your provider alone cannot determine how to prepare your travelers, whether to allow a high-risk trip to proceed, or who needs to know about an incident.
 
We help institutions look at the entire global safety lifecycle, and ensure that protocols and expertise are in place to assess risk, prepare travelers, monitor events, and communicate effectively in an incident. We have also created international emergency response plans and safety orientations for several institutions, including procedures for sexual exploitation and abuse, kidnap, and other special situations.​

🌐 Safety Assessment: A health check on your global safety protocols for assessment, preparation, monitoring, response, and evaluation.
  • Review of traveler and site data, policies, protocols, and orientations
  • Stakeholder meetings to identify needs, risks, and opportunities
  • Recommendations and roadmap for improvement
  • Implementation support as needed, including writing or updating policies and protocols
  • Training and consultation
 
🌐 Emergency Response Plans:  Creation of international emergency protocols to complement your global assistance provider’s services and fit within institution’s overall crisis management plan..
  • Stakeholder meetings to identify capabilities and issues
  • Facilitated discussion of emergency response strategy and key communication points
  • Development of protocols and recommendations
  • Training on emergency response, using new protocols
  • Ongoing consultation as needed
 
🌐 Global Assistance Provider Setup:  Selection and implementation of a new global assistance provider.
  • Evaluation of present state, needs, and opportunities
  • Management of RFP process
  • Facilitated discussion of provider pros and cons
  • Contracting guidance
  • Guided implementation support

🌐 Workshops:  Training on global safety matters, including travel safety policies and emergency planning.

Want to learn more about these services? Contact us for a free consultation via phone or Zoom.
Link to NCURA Magazine article
​
​
​Hidden Risk Abroad
Article by Joseph Levy
in NCURA Magazine, August 2022

​
"Most universities are unable to review every overseas program; instead, focus on programs that are larger or have unusual risks."
Read Article
Levy Global Support LLC
1770 Massachusetts Avenue, Unit 183, Cambridge MA 02140 USA  ✣  info@levyglobalsupport.com  ✣  +1 617 359 3672

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