Employer Of Record At Rescue To Ease Building Remote Teams In India

In our previous newsletter NOW - The time to hop onto Indian growth bandwagon, we discussed at length about why the global companies are looking at India as

a). A  mass potential consumer market (1.3bn!), and

b). At Indian talent, as a huge reservoir of cost-effective, highly skilled workforce to augment their stellar teams

But, in a discussion with a high potential, early stage startup, the company’s founder asked some key questions, which we thought might also be reigning in your mind, if you are considering building remote teams in India.

So this is how the conversation went:

Expat Orbit (EO): You guys are building a great product! But, if instead of hiring your developers in the US, you hire them from India, you will be able to save at least 50% of your cost! In fact, passing on some of that cost advantage to your customers would give you that definite competitive edge too.

Founder: I totally agree with you. But it’s too much hassle. We hired a freelancer, but it was a nightmare managing his work timings, deadlines, communication challenges and all….We might as well spend a bit more, but have that peace of mind to work more efficiently

EO: But how about you hire full time Indian employees, instead of freelancers?

Founder: But that would need us to incorporate an entity in India, right? I was told, we can’t hire without any entity there. And that again is way too much legal burden. We might just as well concentrate on what we do best.

EO: You are right. But that’s where the concept of Employer of Records (EOR) comes into play. So, an Indian entity becomes the legal employer of your employees in India. It onboards your employees on its payroll, processes their salaries and deposits taxes on your behalf with the Indian government as per the obligations.

You just don’t need to incorporate any entity in India, or go through the legal or regulatory formalities, related to paying your Indian employees.

And you simply get them as full time employees, who work dedicatedly for you.

Founder: You mean those platforms that talk about ‘hire anywhere, anytime’ sort of things? But then we still have to go through the process of finding the right people to hire, understanding the local compensation, insurance, etc. to be paid to them, arranging the right infrastructure for them, like laptops or office space, etc.? And what if there are any regulatory challenges, or changes? We still have to have someone in our team to manage all that stuff. That’s just an additional cost for us!

EO: Well, that’s where Expat Orbit steps in. We not only act as an EOR for your Indian employees, but also do customized recruitment for you, arrange the office infrastructure and other logistical requirements, use our deep seated expertise of local laws, industry practices, general expectations of Indian employees to structure your remote working policies, compliant and efficient compensation structures, requisite contractual obligations, etc. Besides, we allocate a dedicated manager to keep you informed of upcoming compliances or any regulatory updates and seamlessly implement them.

Founder: So basically like any other freelancing or offshoring arrangement, you would be proving a candidate from your current pool of resources?

EO: Here comes our USP. We don’t just provide candidates from the current pool on bench, but our recruitment division does a handpicked recruitment ensuring that the candidate fits well to your job requirement and organizational objective. Not just this, we also help your home team and the Indian employees get acquainted with each other’s cultures for a more conducive work environment.

Founder: Ummm.. alright. That sounds great actually! But what if someone from our US team needs to travel to India to train the team there? That would be another set of challenges right - visa and all?

EO: We go with you all the way! We are a full fledged global mobility company that goes beyond remote team building with EOR, to help your expat employees with not just movement, or international compliances, but even in settling comfortably in India. Even if later on you decide to incorporate an entity in India, you won’t have to look anywhere else.

But more on that later!