Project reference · Employer of record, serviced desk and recruitment · Media and consumer brands
A country manager's seat we filled twice and kept for four years.
A European media and consumer-brands company wanted to sell in Ukraine without opening a company there. We found its country manager, employed him, gave him a desk at our office and ran the administration. When head office replaced him we handled the exit under local law, found the successor and kept the seat running until the company decided to leave the market.
One contract with head office
Contract
Our payroll, their manager
Employment
A desk at our address
Office
Exits run under local law
Compliance
Fifty-four months, one seat
One person on our payroll, one invoice a month
We paid the salary, taxes and medical insurance, advanced money for trade fairs and business trips, collected the receipts and arranged meeting rooms when buyers came to see him. Every month head office received one calculation and one invoice: the salary cost converted at the official rate, the fixed costs in euros. Head office approved each expense before we paid it.
The brief
A market entry that wanted a person, not a company
The client represents international entertainment and consumer brands to manufacturers and retailers, with offices across Central and Eastern Europe. It wanted one experienced sales manager to open the Ukrainian market from nothing: someone with contacts in media and publishing, fluent English and the energy to build a business alone.
We wrote the profile and the advert, interviewed and tested the candidates, and the owners met the shortlist in our office; the two finalists flew to head office for a last round. Before the start a law firm compared a representative office with a local company for the client. Head office chose neither: the manager would be our employee, work from a desk in our office and cost the client one invoice a month.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
No company, all of the obligations
An office of one still needs a legal employer, a workplace, payroll, insurance and labour records. We carried all of them, so head office never needed a local entity, a bank account or an accountant.
Approvals from far away
Trips, fairs and phone bills were approved by email before we paid them, and we kept a running expense file with the receipts so that the client's auditors could follow every amount.
Ending an employment properly
When head office decided to replace its first manager, we were the legal employer. We set out the procedure, the notice period and the full cost in advance, invoiced it before notice was given and closed the employment on the agreed day.
A search that stopped and started
The successor search was put on hold within a week while the client looked at a candidate of its own, then restarted months later against a fixed start date. The new manager started on the day agreed.
Local-currency costs, euro invoices
Salaries in hryvnia, invoices in euros and a social-contribution ceiling that moved every January. A monthly prepayment and closing invoice kept both sides square.
Leaving as cleanly as arriving
When the company decided to leave the market it gave notice under the contract. We ran the remaining months, told the employee in writing and ended her employment on the agreed date with her final pay and labour book.
What we did
Search, employ, seat, replace, close
- Months 1–8 · The first search. Profile, advert, interviews and tests, the owners' meetings with the shortlist, finalists at head office, offer accepted.
- Months 9–35 · Employer of record and desk. Employment contract, payroll, insurance, advances and expenses, a desk and meeting rooms, one monthly invoice; contract appendices on notice and exit costs.
- Months 35–42 · Exit and successor. The first manager's employment ended under local law; the successor search paused, restarted and closed with a start on the agreed day.
- Months 42–54 · Outstaffing and a serviced desk. A new agreement, the second manager on our payroll at a desk in our business-support office, monthly euro invoices, and a clean end when the client left.
For almost four years the client's business in Ukraine had one address, one employer and one invoice a month, and it never had to open, run or close a company to have them.
How we work
We do not show you another company's name
The client and its people are not named here, and they will not be named in a meeting either. We are glad to talk this project through in detail. What we will not do is discuss the last client that way with you, or you with the next one.
Next step
Want one person in Ukraine before you want a company?
Tell us the role and the budget. We can find the person, employ them, give them a desk and send you one invoice a month, and if plans change, end it properly.