Organizations that are hiring or onboarding expats in Africa normally use the services of an African employer of record service. Due to the simplicity and cost-efficiency of working with this employment procedure, international employers are drawn to the employer of record solution, particularly in a brand new foreign location where the principles are unfamiliar.
Nonetheless, not every EOR delivers the identical kind and quality of services. Just like with other professional business services, the company-client needs to maintain a continuous process of evaluation and always be ready to make a change if needed.
Read more: https://employerofrecord-africa.com/employer-of-record-services/
Why Switch to a New Employer of Record in Africa?
The EOR is the local ’employer’, though your organization compensates and manages the worker. When you switch EORs it’s comparable to changing employers in that country, together with all of the administrative time and cost that entails, so it isn’t a simple decision.
Why would you go to the effort and cost to switch to a new EOR? Here are some reasons, and it might be one or more of those or repeated incidents that inspire the shift.
Unexpected fees or overall cost is too pricey: Add-on costs, percentage-based fees which increase over time, hourly fees for technical advice
The EOR is not a core’ business for the supplier: Lack of staffing and local experience, low priority support, unbiased direction, reliance on automatic applications
If any of them seem familiar to you, it could be time to check at the upcoming steps toward a shift.
Considerations When Choosing a New Employer of Record Service
In case you have made the choice to create a change, you’ll want to fully vet the accessible EORs to be certain they will deliver the support you need and also to prevent the problems from the past.
Active Partners in your target country
If you’re employing at a core set of nations and would like to maintain that choice, the EOR service must have active, knowledgeable partners in your target countries. At the minimum, they need to be well-staffed and established in the states and areas that matter most, with account representatives who manage those frequently. You never know where you’ll discover remote ability, and you do not wish to be restricted by your EOR supplier.
Access to Local Employment Expertise
One of the core advantages of an employer of record is having access to in-country knowledge and expertise. However not every EOR is working with a local supplier, and might rather be managing employment in-house and remotely, through an unstaffed entity with contracted legal and accounting support. Because of the fact that local laws and culture might be challenging to learn and track from overseas, having active regional resources can be invaluable.
Customer Service
This may seem obvious, but there are varying levels of customer service, so you need to ask some questions such as:
- How responsive is the EOR to questions and requests?
- Can there be an account manager assigned specifically to your accounts?
- Who handles different kinds of requests, and how easy is it to attain them?
- What’s the EOR’s business culture in regards to client service?
Fees and Cost Structure
Among the benefits of an EOR is that it saves the cost of local incorporation only for hiring purposes.
- Is the fee a percentage of total reimbursement or a predetermined flat fee per worker?
- Are there factors or potential add-on expenses?
- Is the fee scalable if you wish to hire more workers as you expand?
- Is specialized advice like legal and tax within the fee, or charged hourly?
Technology and Security of Employee and Company Data
Data protection and security is a significant issue in most businesses, but its multiplied when hiring distant workers in foreign countries. Employee and company data will need to be processed and stored according to industry standards, and the EOR should demonstrate how they do this and that has access to this data.
You may request a copy of their information transfer/privacy policy that would confirm this.
Who They Work With – Past and Present Clients
If you assess the company of record’s present and previous customer list, you can find a great sense of the quality and business reach. By way of instance, if you’re in the IT sector, you’d search for an EOR that’s worked with comparable businesses and their workers.
Likewise an EOR which works with businesses where compliance is a priority (such as NGOs and nonprofits) are a great sign they’re trustworthy. Employers of documents that work with single businesses which employ many workers in numerous countries would be an indication of the depth of knowledge and expertise, in addition to demonstrating the customer’s confidence.
What Are My Legal Obligations When Changing EORs?
It is not always possible to just create an immediate change, as the EOR also has duties to follow or they risk non-compliance or employee complaints. As the client, it follows that you can not take a casual approach to moving the worker, and will require informed regional support to make the shift.
At a minimum, you’ll require a legal employee termination from the present employer of record prior to onboarding, together with a new community employment contract. You’ll also have to terminate the present master services agreement if no workers will stay with the present EOR.
