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Companies choose to hire foreign workers for a number of reasons including:
- To address a skill gap. For instance, a UK based company may choose to hire a worker from India who has deep understanding of Indian healing system as the company is working on a product based on traditional Indian healthcare science.
- If a particular skill is available at a cheaper price, companies may choose so for saving cost. Other things remaining constant, it is cheaper to hire an employee from India than UK, given lower cost of living, lower salary benchmark for similar jobs in India. Also, hiring such workers from developing nations improve the well being of the local people and so they show increased loyalty.
- To promote cultural diversity.
- An existing employee may choose to relocate to another country say due to marriage.
At a time when more and more jobs can be done remotely using a laptop and an internet connection, there is a rise in demand of remote workers. While the same remote job can be performed almost equally well by a worker next to your seat in an office to someone from another continent, the same however is not the sole criterion. Each country is obligated to the well being of its own job force and laws ensure that remote jobs while hiring foreign workers are not detrimental to the interest of the local workers/economy. There are issues related to tax and compliance as well.
That being said, a firm incorporated in United Kingdom can hire workers from another country (with exception of few countries with which UK have restrictions such as Russia as of now). This is the norm in today’s global world where hiring of foreign workers is allowed by following set guidelines, complying tax and other such obligations.
Now hiring is broadly categorized under two heads:
- Permanent employee: They receive full benefit which any traditional brick-and-mortar companies provide such as health insurance, vacation and sick benefit.
- Independent contractor: Also sometimes referred to as freelancers are responsible to negotiate for their own benefits and it is not mandatory for companies to provide them perks/facilities that come with permanent employee.
Since hiring an independent contractor comes with less compliance and cost, there might be a temptation to hire as contractor wherein they should be hired as permanent employee. If caught by government officials, there can be penal action (such as fines to termination of license) by law enforcement authorities.
There are two broad ways to hire foreign employees:
- Form an entity in the foreign worker’s country of origin
- Engage an EOR (Employee of Record). This is more efficient. The EOR administers all foreign employment issues on behalf of the company.
In United Kingdom, sponsor licence is needed to hire workers from outside the UK. Some immigration routes, such as Global Talent, are ‘unsponsored’, which means license not needed for hiring employees with an unsponsored visa. Full list of hiring routes can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-points-based-immigration-system-employer-information. This requires lot of expertise in local laws and taxation. The efficient way is to take help of EOR (Employee of Record) service provider like Remote.
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As per Remote team, to open their own entity in France, it took several months, several thousand dollars and multiple flight trips by their CEO on board.
Remote services take the hassle of you forming an entity in a foreign country.
One of the slogans of Remote is “hire globally without local entities”.
International payroll, benefits, taxes, and all compliance for businesses related to hiring, big and small taken care by Remote against a fixed fee per hired foreign permanent employee/contractor.
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In theory, the employee will be on the payroll of Remote but in all ways the hired foreign employee/contractor will be working for you.
Your EOR provides outsourced HR services for employees outside your home region. Instead of hiring your own lawyers, accountants, payroll providers, and other professionals, you depend on your EOR to handle the details on your behalf. Your international and out-of-state employees receive their paychecks from the EOR, but they work within your company the same as your domestic employees do.
What does an employer of record do?
Remote has made it easy to hire foreign workers for remote jobs. For instance, you can hire an employee from India for remote jobs through Remote. The minimum onboarding time Remote needs is only 3 working days. Similarly, an Indian company can employ in the United Kingdom with ease.
Remote Partner Programs
Remote works closely with relevant partners through their partner programs, thereby creating value for employers, employees/contractors, and the global remote hiring industry in large.
Remote Partner Marketplace: Apps, solutions, and integrations to increase team productivity, enhance the employee onboarding experience, and more.
Remote Talent Marketplace: Help you find top candidates around the globe.
Remote API is a white label service by which many of the functionalities of Remote can be added to your own company’s portal.
With extensive knowledge operating globally , Remote team maintains a blog section with valuable articles and comes out with research reports related to hiring remote employees and contractors.
Also case studies and webinars.
