Project reference · Outstaffing · Consumer goods
Five people, five and a half years, none of them on the client’s own payroll.
The Ukrainian office of an international premium drinks company wanted its office manager, and later its logistics and marketing support, employed by someone else. From 2013 to 2018 we were the legal employer of five people working in that office. We ran their payroll twice a month, kept their papers in line with Ukrainian labour law and sent one invoice a month that the client’s outsourced accountants could book without questions. The client chose every person. We made the arrangement work.
5 people employed for the client
Scope
5½ years, 2013 to 2018
Continuity
5 days from go-ahead to first day
Speed
Employment and service contracts
Compliance
Five people over time
The arrangement grew with the office
Two years in, the client asked for a logistics coordinator, and she was at work within days. Later came temporary import and logistics support, twice, and a marketing assistant. Each addition was a short written request under the same agreement: who, which role, from when, at what pay. We turned each request into a contract, a payroll record and one more line on the monthly invoice.
The brief
What the client actually needed
The country manager had found the right person for the office desk himself. What he did not want was a local payroll, personnel files and labour-law paperwork for a team that would never be larger than a handful of people. He asked us to employ her, pay her and handle everything an employer must do in Ukraine, from leave and sick days to salary cards and social contributions.
The client’s HR sat in a regional office in another country and its books were kept by an outsourced accounting firm. So every number we produced had to make sense to three audiences at once: the manager in the office, the regional HR team and the accountants who booked our invoices.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
The client chooses, the employer carries the risk
Every person was selected by the client, but the legal duties sat with us: contracts, leave, sick pay, dismissal rules. Our agreement spelled out where the client may direct the work and where only the employer may act.
Temporary work, permanent rules
Short assignments started on civil-law service contracts. When the client wanted a temporary specialist to have paid leave and full social guarantees, we moved her to a fixed-term employment contract without a gap in her work.
Invoices someone else has to book
The client’s accounts were kept by an outsourced firm with exact rules for tax invoices and signed originals. One wrong line meant a rejected document, so we matched its format and couriered originals every month.
Cost reports for a different year
The client reported on a financial year that did not match the calendar year. Regional HR asked for the full monthly cost per person, with and without VAT, often by the end of the same day.
More than a salary
Laptops, mobile phones and medical insurance were supplied by us and re-invoiced, each agreed in writing first. A laptop was handed over and returned together with the contract that needed it.
Starting tomorrow
Requests often came with a start date a few days away. One new coordinator walked into the client’s office before we had even reached her by phone. We counted that as her first day and caught up on the paperwork.
What we did
Set up, run, grow, hand back
- Early 2013 · Set up. An offer the day after the first call, an outstaffing agreement within three weeks and the first employee at work five days after the client’s go-ahead.
- 2013–2014 · Run. Payroll twice a month, a monthly act, invoice and tax invoice, a temporary extra-duties allowance, a change of role and regular salary reviews, each with the right contract amendment.
- 2015–2016 · Grow. A logistics coordinator for eight months, temporary logistics support for four, and cost reports for the client’s regional reporting.
- 2017–2018 · Peak and hand back. Three people at once, one service contract converted into fixed-term employment, a marketing assistant on a renewable contract, and an orderly close when the last assignment ended in 2018.
Outstaffing rarely makes headlines. Done well, nobody in the office notices it at all. That was the point for five and a half years.
In the client’s words
“Please confirm the availability of a qualified specialist … and that the people engaged in the service receive the social guarantees required by Ukrainian labour law.”
The client’s director, asking in writing to extend its import and logistics support, 2017 (translated).
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 in Ukraine without a payroll of your own?
Tell us who, which role and from when. We will tell you the full monthly cost, all in, before anyone signs.