Aeroates may be a relatively new player the area of workforce management, but one thing is for sure: the team has already established itself as a reference in quality workforce services, going far beyond traditional payroll services.

“Our roots in aviation exposed us to a particularly demanding environment,” Giovanna Mirabile, Chief Executive Officer of the company, explains. “We are used to dealing with numerous matters simultaneously, be it cross-border employment matters, payroll, compliance, recruitment, employee relations and the need to make workforce decisions quickly while remaining commercially and legally sound.”

She goes on to explain that as Aeroates developed, the team realised that many of the challenges it was solving for clients were not unique to aviation, driving the company’s expansion into other sectors.

“We see successful Maltese businesses that have grown considerably but whose HR structures have not necessarily grown at the same pace, with elements of HR and workforce management maybe being managed in a rather informal and segregated away,” she says.

“However, the employment landscape is changing. New and evolving employment legislation, greater regulatory scrutiny and increasing obligations on employers mean that HR can no longer be treated simply as an administrative function,” she continues.

As Ms Mirabile points out, decisions around recruitment, contracts, remuneration, working conditions, performance and termination can carry significant legal, financial and reputational consequences if they are not managed correctly.

“For growing businesses in particular, which may still have a rather informal approach to workforce management, this creates a risk,” she states. “As a business grows, the risks around employment grow with it. Good HR is no longer simply about having the right paperwork; it is about protecting the business while creating the right environment for its people.”

This is exactly where Aeroates comes in, offering services where its professionals can effectively become an extension of the client's management team, providing access to experienced HR expertise at the level and frequency the organisation needs.

“Our solutions can range from establishing the fundamentals, policies, contracts, recruitment processes and compliance, to supporting performance management, remuneration, organisational development, difficult employee matters and longer-term workforce planning,” Ms Mirabile explains. 

Aeroates’ client base is testimony to the company’s expertise. “Our client base is already highly international and includes the management of cross-border employment activities,” says the CEO. 

“We support organisations and individuals operating across Malta and a number of European jurisdictions, and we see significant potential to develop this international dimension further.”

She explains that one area Aeroates is particularly interested in is Malta's potential as a base for international and European workforce operations.

“Malta offers EU membership, a well-established business and professional-services environment, an English-speaking workforce and a competitive operating ecosystem,” Ms Mirabile points out. “We see an opportunity for Malta to position itself not simply as a jurisdiction in which to establish a company, but as a strategic base from which international businesses can manage elements of their European workforce.”

This is where Aeroates' cross-border capability becomes particularly relevant. International employment is rarely just about issuing an employment contract. Businesses need to consider payroll, social security, employee mobility, local employment requirements and the compliance implications of employees working across different jurisdictions.

“Our role is to help organisations understand those requirements, determine an appropriate structure and then support the ongoing employment and workforce administration,” she says.

Given the Aeroates team’s extensive experience in all matters related to workforce management, the team also has a finger on the pulse of all relevant developments that will impact workforce management and is perfectly positioned to provide advice and support to businesses impacted by such developments.

“There is a lot happening that businesses need to prepare for,” Ms Mirabile states. “This includes major developments around pay transparency and equal pay, changing requirements affecting labour migration and third-country nationals, greater scrutiny of employment practices, data protection, and the growing use of technology and AI within recruitment and people management.”

She cautions against viewing each new regulation as another isolated compliance exercise, explaining that the bigger issue is whether the organisation has the right HR governance in place.

“Compliance should not start when something goes wrong. Good HR governance means having the right contracts, policies, remuneration structures, management processes and documentation in place before a problem arises,” she observes.

Ms Mirabile explains that Aeroates’ role as a partner to clients is to take some of the burden away from management while also helping managers become better equipped to manage their people.

She explains how her team can assess what an organisation already has in place, identify gaps and prioritise what genuinely needs attention. “Not every SME needs dozens of policies or complicated HR systems. The solution has to be proportionate to the size, risk and needs of the organisation,” she says.

The benefits of partnering with a specialised workforce management service provider are clearly extensive. Access to experienced expertise without carrying the cost of building an equivalent capability internally is one clear advantage, but Ms Mirabile also highlights an operational benefit that is sometimes underestimated: management time.

She explains that if a CEO, finance manager or operations manager spends several hours each week dealing with recruitment problems, employee issues, contracts or HR administration, there is a cost attached to these activities, even if it never appears as an HR expense in the accounts. When an organisation’s management team is constantly dealing with HR matters, this is time taken away from developing their own client relationships and commercial operations. 

 “The fractional HR model that we offer as a service does not simply mean outsourcing HR and workforce related administration,” says the Aeroates CEO. She goes on to say how ‘people’ decisions are business decisions, affecting cost, productivity, risk, retention, and ultimately, profitability.

 “Our role as an HR partner is therefore not simply to administer HR, but to sit alongside management and help them make better workforce decisions. That is the relationship we want to build with our clients,” Ms Mirabile concludes.