Project reference · Employment without an entity · Recruitment
Hired before the company existed, handed over when it did.
A European real-estate investment company was building a small team in Ukraine to manage property it had bought there. It wanted its first two local staff at work straight away, but its Ukrainian company was not yet registered. We recruited both, became their employer and ran their pay every month, billing the parent company abroad. When the new company was ready, both moved across to it by agreement, with nothing left open. We then recruited for the new company.
2 people employed and paid by us while the client’s company was being registered
Employment
4 months written into the service agreement as a safe margin, with our word that an earlier hand-over cost nothing extra
Flexibility
1 week from our first three invoices to the parent company abroad to full payment
Cash flow
5 people recruited for the client’s team, the two employees included
Recruitment
The shape of it
A bridge with a planned end
Two people on our payroll for about three months, then on the client’s own. The recruitment went on after the hand-over.
The brief
What the client actually needed
The client already ran property in several countries and was setting up the same organisation in Ukraine. Its first request was for a finance lead and an asset specialist, with further roles to follow. We agreed the profiles, searched our database and the market, held the first interviews in our office and arranged the finalists’ trips to the client’s head office abroad.
Seven weeks after the first brief the client chose its two people. Its Ukrainian company, however, was still months from registration, and without it there was no one to employ them. The client did not want to lose either candidate, or to hire them under a foreign contract that Ukrainian labour and tax rules would not accept.
So we offered to employ both ourselves, under Ukrainian contracts, until the client’s own company could take them on.
Why it matters
No entity, no employer, unless someone stands in
A company that is not yet registered in Ukraine cannot sign a Ukrainian employment contract, open a payroll or pay social contributions. Waiting for the registration can cost the candidates a company has just chosen. A local employer of record closes that gap: the people work for the client from the first day, while the contract, the payroll, the taxes and the employment records sit with us. The arrangement only works if it can also end cleanly, on the day the client is ready.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
An employer for a company not yet born
We signed both employment contracts as the employer. A service agreement with the parent company set out who directed the work, who paid, and how either side could end the arrangement.
Foreign invoices, local salaries
Both agreements were cleared for currency control before signature, so we could invoice the parent abroad. Salaries were billed in advance and paid out once the money arrived, with a cost sheet behind every invoice.
Interviews in two countries
Finalists met the future country manager in our office and then flew to the client’s head office. We arranged invitations, visas, flights and hotels, and recharged the costs on a separate invoice.
A contract written to end
We wrote the service agreement for four months to be safe, and promised in writing not to hold the client to it if its company was ready sooner.
A clean hand-over
When the company was registered, both employment contracts ended by mutual agreement. Unused leave was paid, the employment record books were returned, and both people moved straight to the client’s own payroll.
Then the new company hired
The client came back for an in-house lawyer, an asset manager and an analyst, all hired, and a retained search for its country head with a full market map. That seat was finally filled from inside the client’s own organisation.
What we did
Search, contract, employ, hand over, recruit
- Weeks 1–7 — Search. Profiles agreed, candidates found, first interviews in our office, finalists to the client’s head office.
- Week 7 — Contract. Recruitment agreement, service agreement and two employment contracts, all signed on the same day.
- Months 2–6 — Employ. Payroll, taxes and expenses every month, one invoice with a cost sheet, and answers on Ukrainian labour law for the client’s HR team.
- Month 6 — Hand over. Contracts ended by agreement, leave settled, records returned; both people join the client’s new company.
- Months 7–14 — Recruit. A lawyer, an asset manager and an analyst for the new company, and a retained search for its country head.
The client had its first two people at work months before it could employ anyone, and no loose ends when its own company took them over.
In the client’s words
“For the record, we are more than satisfied with the different services that have been provided.”
The client’s country manager, in his note at the hand-over.
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The client, its owners 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
Need people at work in Ukraine before your company is registered?
Tell us who you want to hire, from when, and when you expect your company. We will show you the employment contract, the monthly invoice and the hand-over steps before anything starts.