Solutions
Employer of Record (EOR)
Employ people compliantly in the UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia and other markets without setting up a local entity. We handle contracts, payroll, statutory compliance, and ongoing employment administration.
How does Employer of Record pricing work? EOR pricing is usually made up of a monthly management fee, employer statutory costs, and any country-specific setup items such as work permits or medical insurance. We provide a full cost breakdown before onboarding so you can see the provider fee, mandatory employer costs, and one-off charges separately.
Overview
An Employer of Record (EOR) is a third-party organisation that becomes the legal employer of your workers in a country where you don't have an entity. Global Kinect's EOR service handles employment contracts, payroll processing, tax withholding, social insurance contributions, statutory benefits, and ongoing compliance — while you retain full day-to-day management of the employee's role, output, and responsibilities. This allows you to hire compliantly in 11 MENA countries within weeks, without the cost and complexity of entity setup.
What's included
How EOR works
The EOR model creates a clean legal structure: Global Kinect becomes the legal employer in the target country through our licensed local entities. We own the employment risk — entity registration, contract compliance, statutory contributions, and regulatory filings. You own the operational relationship — day-to-day management, performance, deliverables, and team integration. The employee works for you in every practical sense; the EOR handles the legal and administrative requirements behind it. This separation of legal employer and operational manager is what allows you to hire in new countries in 2–6 weeks instead of the 3–12 months required for entity setup.
What the EOR handles vs what you handle
The EOR handles: employment contracts, payroll processing, tax withholding, social insurance contributions, statutory benefits (leave, sick pay, insurance), work permit sponsorship (where applicable), termination process compliance, and all regulatory filings. You handle: candidate selection and offers, day-to-day management and performance reviews, setting salary and benefits (within local legal minimums), role definition and deliverables, and team integration. This clean split means you get full operational control without any of the legal and administrative burden of being the employer.
When to use EOR vs other models
EOR is the right choice when you're hiring full-time employees in countries where you don't have a legal entity. It's particularly suited for: first hires in a new market (testing before committing to entity setup), small teams of 1–15 employees in a country, countries with complex employment law (France, Germany, the Gulf states), speed-critical hiring where you can't wait for entity registration, and roles where employee status is required (not suitable for contractor classification). If you already have an entity and need payroll processing, our Global Payroll solution is more appropriate. For short-term project-based work, Contractor Engagement may be the better fit.
Onboarding process and timelines
Typical EOR onboarding takes 2–6 weeks depending on the country and whether immigration is involved. The process follows a structured workflow: scope confirmation and commercial agreement (1–2 days), employment contract drafting and review (3–5 days), employee document collection and verification (3–5 days), payroll registration and social insurance setup (3–7 days), work permit application if required (adds 2–6 weeks), and first payroll confirmation. Every step generates evidence — signed contracts, registration confirmations, contribution receipts — so you have a complete audit trail from day one.
Pricing and cost structure
EOR pricing typically includes three components: a management fee, employer statutory costs, and one-off setup costs where applicable. Before you commit, we issue an itemised cost model showing what is fixed, what is pass-through, what assumptions are being used, and what triggers cost change. The management fee covers contract administration, payroll processing, compliance monitoring, HR support, and standard reporting. Country-specific statutory costs are passed through at actual rates with the underlying basis made clear in the proposal.
What to look for in an EOR provider
Not all EOR providers are the same. Many rely on fragmented bureau relationships with limited visibility into how payroll is actually processed, which statutory rules are applied, or how compliant the local contracts really are. When evaluating providers, ask: can they show you the statutory breakdown line-by-line, or is it a black box? Are employment contracts country-specific or templated across regions? Do you get a single platform view across all countries, or separate reports from separate providers? Global Kinect gives you one platform, one submission, and full transparency across every country you operate in.