Global hiring for staffing and recruiting firms

Quick answers

The five questions staffing leaders ask first.

Why staffing and recruiting firms employ across borders

The drivers are commercial, and they compound.

Your clients now hire everywhere. A client that wanted a developer in Austin now wants one in Poland, Mexico or the Philippines, and expects you to deliver. If you only place where you have an entity, the requisition goes elsewhere.

Your own delivery cost decides your margin. Sourcing, screening and coordination in the Philippines, India, South Africa and Colombia cost a fraction of the same seat at home, and protect fee margin when clients push on price.

Placement fees are one-off. Employment revenue recurs. A contract placement through an EOR pays every month the worker is on assignment, a steadier business than one-time fees.

Compliance is now a selling point. Clients have been burned by contractor arrangements that unravelled. A firm that can show the contract chain, the local employer and the payroll for every placement wins procurement.

One partner instead of forty. A licensed presence in every country a client might ask for is impossible for most firms. One infrastructure partner behind the placements turns that constraint into a service line.

The roles and where they sit

Your own people and your placements. Each links to its country guide.

Hiring routes compared

The routes differ on what staffing firms care about: whether the placement is lawful, who carries termination cost, and whether the client trusts the pricing.

What an international placement or offshore hire actually costs

These are illustrative planning figures, not quoted rates and not statutory percentages for any country. Real numbers depend on the market and the salary.

Worked example, illustrative only. A sourcing specialist employed for your own firm in a Southeast Asian market on 15,000 USD gross, with a 12% contribution load and 8% in thirteenth month and benefits, costs roughly 18,000 USD. Add the EOR fee and tooling and you are planning around 21,000 USD fully loaded. A placement builds up the same way, plus your margin.

The five traps that catch staffing and recruiting firms

These are the failures we get called in to fix. Most were invisible at placement.

1. You need a labor leasing licence you do not hold

Placing a worker you employ onto a client’s site, under the client’s direction, is temporary agency work, and many countries regulate it. The regime usually requires a licence held by a locally established company, sometimes with capital, bonding or reporting conditions, and often with limits on assignment length and equal treatment rules for the worker. A foreign staffing firm placing through its home entity, or a hastily formed local shell, typically does not qualify. The consequences range from fines to a void placement with the client deemed the employer. An EOR is the compliant structure because the local employer is properly established and the arrangement is employment under the client’s supervision, not unlicensed leasing. We tell you which countries require what before you quote.

2. Margin stacking the client cannot see

When a firm places through an EOR, three layers sit between the worker’s salary and the client’s bill rate: statutory employer costs, the EOR fee, and the firm’s margin. Blend them into a single rate and the client cannot tell what the worker is paid, the worker may discover the gap, and a procurement review unravels the deal a year in. Some countries also require the worker to be told the terms of the client engagement. The workable model is itemised: salary, statutory costs and EOR fee passed through at cost, your margin stated as a line or a percentage. Our partner pricing is quoted flat per country and volume. You decide what the client sees. Transparent placements renew. Opaque ones get rebid.

3. Placement versus employment: the contract chain has to say who employs whom

In an EOR placement there are three contracts, and they must agree. The EOR employs the candidate on a local contract naming the client site, the supervising manager and the assignment term. The EOR contracts with your firm as partner, setting fees, notice and who bears termination cost. Your firm contracts with the client for the placement, the bill rate and the assignment terms. The failure we see is a client contract that reads as if your firm employs the candidate, or one that lets the client end the assignment on a week’s notice while local law gives the employee a month plus severance. Somebody funds that gap. The chain has to carry termination cost through to the client, or your margin pays for it.

4. Candidate data crosses borders before the placement does

A recruiting firm processes personal data by definition: CVs, identity documents, right to work evidence, salary history and references. Sourcing candidates in Europe or the UK for a client elsewhere sends that data out of a regulated region under GDPR or the UK regime, which needs a lawful basis, a valid transfer mechanism and a documented chain of who processes what for whom. When the placement runs through an EOR, the EOR becomes a processor or joint controller for the employment data, and that has to be written down. Brazil, South Africa and Colombia have regimes with similar duties. Candidate consent buried in a job application is rarely enough for onward transfer to clients and EORs.

5. Your own recruiters abroad, on commission, as contractors

The offshore sourcing team is where staffing firms most often misclassify. The pattern is familiar: recruiters in the Philippines, India or Colombia paid a small retainer plus commission, on the firm’s ATS, working the firm’s requisitions on the firm’s hours, with no other clients. Every classification test calls that employment. Commission-only makes it worse, because in several countries variable pay must still meet minimum wage each period, feeds leave and thirteenth month calculations, and is owed on termination. Reclassification brings back contributions, benefits and severance for the whole period, and it lands on the firm that sells compliance to its clients. Employ the team, run commission through local payroll, and the risk disappears.

Where to hire, country by country

Every market below has a full country guide covering costs, payroll, leave and termination.

How Dryft works with staffing and recruiting firms

1. Decide which relationship you need. Direct client, for your own recruiters and delivery teams. Partner, for placements where we are the legal employer behind your client contract. Most firms use both.
2. Check the country before you quote. Tell us the country, the role and the client site. You get the licensing position, the loaded cost and the termination exposure before you commit a bill rate.
3. Set the contract chain once. A partner agreement between Dryft and your firm, a client schedule that carries termination terms through, and a local employment contract per candidate.
4. Onboard in days. Offer, local contract, right to work checks, registrations and payroll setup run in parallel. You stay the face to candidate and client.
5. Run payroll monthly. Global payroll, commission and variable pay, contributions and filings, one invoice per country.
6. Handle assignment ends properly. Extensions, conversions to the client’s entity and terminations run under local rules with the cost visible in advance.
7. Grow the book. Recruiting support where you need reach, and managed delivery teams for capacity without headcount.

FAQ

This guide is general information, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Every cost figure here is an illustrative planning range, not a quoted rate for any country. Labor leasing rules, data protection regimes and termination costs differ by jurisdiction and change regularly. Confirm the position for your countries with a qualified adviser. Last reviewed September 2026.