How to hire overseas employees

By Praseeda Nair on Small Business UK - Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs

At a certain point in your business, you will need to hire more people to keep up with the spike in your business. At this juncture, you have to decide whether you need to hire full-time, part-time, or outsource the work.

Your decision, of course, is based on the type of business you run. If it’s primarily a digital business, then you will probably need people with technical skills. While there might be a scarcity of the type of skilled labor force you are looking for in your local job market, you will find an abundance of people overseas who have exactly the skills you need.

Since the work can be done remotely, you can hire them as independent contractors. This arrangement works out well for everyone. It’s less expensive for you than employing someone who will work in of your office and the people you hire will enjoy the freedom of working as freelancers. Additionally, it’s easy to send money online once you’ve found a fast, safe, and reliable online money transfer service and easy to organise the work through collaboration software.

Another option is to use an Employer of Record (EOR), a third-party provider that manages overseas workers on your behalf, including onboarding, payroll and taxes. 

Let’s take a look at the process of finding and managing an overseas workforce online.

Where to find people

When it comes to finding overseas employees, there are three options.

1. Use an outsourcing website.

One option is to use an outsourcing website that will serve as an intermediary between employers and employees.In essence, a job site bridges the gap between people with work projects and people with the technical skills to do the work.

2. Tap into your own professional network. 

One way to network is by attending international business conferences.  Finding people through a professional network is a powerful way of finding someone who has been highly recommended by people you trust.

3. Review professional websites and blogs.

If someone is working as a freelancer or consultant, they will usually have a website. You can evaluate their suitability for the work you need based on their portfolio and examples of their work. For instance, if you hire a web developer, they will have samples of websites they built for previous clients.

What to look for in candidates

Before looking for employees, you need to create a clear job description. 

In essence, you will probably need to hire two types of workers: entry-level and professionals.

Entry-level positions

It may not be necessary for someone to have all the necessary technical knowledge, skills, and experience that you need. The main thing is that they are teachable and have enough basic computer knowledge and experience to benefit from the online training your company is setting up.

For instance, an entry-level worker should be familiar with Skype, how to surf the net, how to fill out online forms, and how to log into your website to take the training tutorials. In short, they should know their way around a computer, understanding basics like how to install software, manage updates, and use well-known business software. If your company has developed a unique marketing process, then all you need are entry-level workers and educate them on how you want them to perform their digital tasks.

Professional positions

You may need people who have specialized skills. If, for instance, you are hiring writers, graphic artists, or website developers, then they need to have specialized skills as it is time-consuming and expensive to teach someone from scratch. 

For instance, if you were to hire someone as a web developer, they should already know how to wireframe or layout a website, how to write HTML and CSS, and how to add interactivity with JavaScript. It would be helpful, too, if they were familiar with object-oriented languages, perhaps Python, Ruby, or PHP.

Understand the legal issues

When hiring someone from overseas, or, in some cases, sending people overseas, you will have to understand the legislative issues. It can be difficult to figure out which country’s laws you need to comply with for specific types of jobs. Is it the labor laws of your country or the legislation of the country your employee will be working in? When in doubt, consult with an international business lawyer.

In closing, it’s important to keep in mind that finding the right person to outsource work is a question of trial-and-error. Sometimes people don’t live up to their recommendations; at other times, you find that they have understated their qualifications and perform better than expected.

Use an Employer of Record

An Employer of Record (EOR) is a third-party company that legally employs your overseas workers on your behalf. Rather than you having to set up a local entity, the EOR takes care of all the payroll, tax, and onboarding responsibilities, and ensures compliance with local employment laws.

This allows you to employ top talent from anywhere in the world while avoiding the costs, and administrative and legal complexity that this could otherwise entail.

Top EOR providers include:

Deel

Deel provides EOR services across 150 countries, with a self-serve HR platform that manages onboarding, payroll, time off and expenses, and more. Deel’s dedicated employee experience team and over 200 in-house legal experts are on hand to ensure a seamless experience for your overseas talent.

Features:

• All-in-one platform manages everything from onboarding through to termination
• Dozens of integrations with accounting software, productivity tools and more
• Over 200 in-house legal experts to asisst with local regulations

Rippling

Rippling makes managing a global workforce a breeze, with automated compliance and an onboarding process that handles everything from benefits to training. Rippling can auto calculate payroll, factoring in hours, expenses and time off quickly and accurately to ensure you can pay your overseas workers within days.

Features:

• Comprehensive onboarding handles benefit enrolment and assigns relevant training
• Automated compliance runs continually in the background and flags potential risks
• Expert advisors on hand to provide local knowledge

Velocity Global

Velocity Global’s EOR solutions spans more than 185 countries, giving you the confidence to compliantly hire, pay and manage employees wherever they might be based. As well as the usual payroll and onboarding support, Velocity goes that little bit further with immigration support for relocating talent and 24/7 human support for businesses and workers, no matter what time zone they’re in.

Features:

• Accurate payroll that complies with local regulations
• Reporting and analytics to power decision making
• Integrations with applicant tracking and human resources information systems ensure positive hiring experiences

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