Global employment

Boundless helps companies employ people in other countries without setting up local entities. We do this by acting as the Employer of Record.

As the Employer of Record, Boundless is the legal employer of your team members. We manage employment contracts, payroll, taxes, statutory benefits, and ongoing compliance in line with local employment law. You retain day-to-day responsibility for your team’s work, while we handle the legal and administrative aspects of employment.

Boundless removes the legal and operational complexity of employing people across borders.

We help companies employ international team members compliantly, avoid misclassification risks, reduce administrative burden, and move faster when hiring in new countries. This allows teams to access global talent without waiting to establish local legal infrastructure or manage fragmented payroll and compliance processes internally.

Boundless provides a platform to manage employee information and payroll visibility.

You can review and approve payroll, update employment details, and track active countries in one place. Employees can access their payslips and update personal details such as address or bank information. Approved changes are applied to the next payroll cycle.

Employees hired through Boundless receive all mandatory statutory benefits required by local law.

This includes entitlements such as paid leave, social security contributions, and job protections. Where pension, health insurance, or social security schemes are mandatory, Boundless calculates, deducts, and pays the required contributions in line with local regulations. Optional benefits can be discussed on a country-by-country basis.

In many countries, engaging full-time workers as independent contractors is not compliant with employment law.

Misclassification can lead to penalties, back payments, and reputational risk. Using Boundless allows you to employ people under compliant employment relationships, with appropriate rights, benefits, and protections, supporting both legal compliance and long-term team stability.

Yes, you can use Boundless alongside your existing entities.

Many companies choose to centralise employment, payroll, and compliance through Boundless even when they operate local entities. This helps reduce internal complexity, consolidate processes, and extend coverage to countries where you do not yet have a local presence, all within a single system.

Boundless supports employment in 35+ countries. In each supported country, we provide compliant employment contracts, payroll processing, statutory benefits administration, and local employment support. Available countries and detailed country guides are published on our website and updated as coverage expands.

Boundless runs payroll for your international employees and manages all related tax obligations.

Employees are paid directly by Boundless in their local currency. You receive a single monthly invoice in your chosen currency covering gross salaries, employer taxes, statutory contributions, and our fee. Boundless files and pays the required employee and employer taxes in each country, based on local rules and payroll cycles.

You retain responsibility for day-to-day people management that is not tied to employment law.

Boundless supports you on employment-related matters, including payroll questions, contract changes, statutory requirements, and complex situations such as disputes or terminations. In sensitive cases, we may consult local legal experts to provide guidance aligned with local employment law and established practice.

Boundless manages employment in line with local laws in each country we support.

We work with experienced local advisers and maintain internal expertise to ensure employment contracts, payroll, benefits, and terminations follow local requirements. When sensitive situations arise, such as disputes or employment changes, we guide you through the appropriate process so issues are handled carefully and in line with local regulations.

Boundless supports growth by making it easier to employ people in new countries as your business evolves.

You can onboard employees quickly in their home country through our Employer of Record model, without the time and cost of setting up a local entity. As your needs change, you can adjust team size and geographic distribution while maintaining a consistent employment and payroll framework across countries.

Getting started begins with a conversation. You book a call with a Boundless expert to discuss the countries you are interested in. We share salary and tax estimates, explain local employment requirements, and answer technical questions. If you proceed, our team guides you through setup, employment reviews, and onboarding so your employees can be added to the platform and employed compliantly.

An Employer of Record (EOR) is a company that helps companies to legally hire and employ workers residing in countries other than where the company is based by acting as the local legal employer. Because employment laws, taxation, benefit requirements and employee rights vary widely from country to country, it’s paramount to have an expert local legal employer, such as an EOR, to manage a company’s cross-border employment. This includes everything from local employment agreements to statutory rights and benefits, as well as updates on local legislation.

At their core, EORs help organisations looking to hire abroad delegate the responsibility of navigating unfamiliar legal systems and ensuring they remain fully compliant with local employment and tax laws. They also help preserve and manage employees’ benefits, rights and feelings of equality with the HQ team members. This partnership allows a business to minimise its responsibility of employing workers from a legal perspective and instead shifts that responsibility to the EOR.

This means the EOR manages everything from paying international employees to administering and tracking statutory benefits. The EOR manages and files local employee taxes and offers guidance on many legally related employment issues.

There is no fixed time limit for using an EOR, because permanent establishment risk depends on activities, not duration. EOR use is usually low risk for non-commercial roles, but risk increases when employees generate revenue, sign contracts, or represent the company. Companies should assess role activities, and strong EOR providers guide PE considerations.

An EOR provides a faster, lower-risk alternative to establishing your own legal entity. Because the EOR already maintains local entities, payroll systems, and compliance processes, you can hire in days instead of months. The EOR becomes the legal employer and manages contracts, taxes, benefits, and reporting, eliminating ongoing entity setup and maintenance costs.

EOR platforms ensure HR compliance by acting as the legal employer and applying each country’s labour laws, tax rules, payroll regulations, and statutory benefits to every hire. They maintain local entities, use in-country specialists, and update contracts and payroll as rules change, creating a unified compliance framework across global operations.

With an EOR, companies can hire internationally within a few days because the provider already has local entities, payroll systems, and compliant employment frameworks. You share candidate details, and the EOR prepares contracts, sets up payroll, manages statutory benefits, and ensures onboarding meets local laws, making it one of the fastest global hiring methods.

An EOR becomes the legal employer on your behalf, managing contracts, payroll, taxes, and benefits without requiring a local entity. A PEO uses co-employment, meaning you must already have an entity and retain legal responsibility. For startups expanding globally, an EOR is typically better because it streamlines hiring and reduces compliance risk.

Ending your relationship with your current EOR varies by provider. The first step is to clarify the process and gather all necessary information to ensure a smooth exit.

The key factor is the notice period outlined in your commercial agreement and employee contracts. For most employees, it is typically 30 days, which provides ample time for a smooth transition. However, for management or senior-level roles, notice periods may extend to three months. In some cases, you may need to negotiate a shorter notice period, though your current provider may resist this to maintain revenue.

Ensure you understand how employee contract termination will occur, as this varies by country and provider. For example, at Boundless, we ask for employee resignations, which is often the simplest approach.

Recognition of continuous service varies by country. In some regions, we are able to reflect continuous service in the employment contracts, but in many cases, this isn’t legally possible. Since we become the new legal employer, this may affect certain entitlements like sick leave, parental leave, or state-tied benefit payments, particularly for employees on or about to go on leave. Handle these cases carefully to avoid benefit disruptions.

In countries where continuous service cannot be recognised, certain entitlements, such as severance pay or pension contributions, may be reset. We recommend carefully reviewing the employment laws of each country and planning accordingly to mitigate any potential impact on your employees.

After signing the agreements, you’ll need to review and approve employment contract templates for each country. Contracts are typically issued in the local language, but review them in your preferred language as well.

When reviewing these contracts:

• Ensure the employee’s original start date is recognised to retain their statutory rights. This is crucial for your employees, so request this where possible.
• Confirm that employment conditions from previous contracts are maintained or improved.
• Align on employee benefits and how they’ll be reflected in the contracts.

You’ll also need to provide employee data to your EOR for contract creation and payroll. Different providers have varying methods for secure data transfer—preferably through a secure platform. Avoid sending sensitive data, such as social security numbers or bank details, via email, as it’s not secure.

• Share the agreed timeline with your employees, so they know what to expect, including key dates for signing new contracts and transitioning to the new system.
• Work with your new EOR to prepare comprehensive HR and payroll FAQ documentation that covers changes in contracts, payroll schedules, and benefit transfers.
• Tailor communication to suit your employees’ needs and address any specific concerns, such as visas, long-term leave, or potential temporary impacts on tax allowances or benefits.
• Prepare employees for potential slight differences in salary during the first couple of months as payroll aligns with local tax authorities.
• Establish clear, open communication channels where employees can ask questions and get updates, helping them feel supported throughout the transition.

Transition timelines vary based on team size and operational complexity. Smaller teams may transition more quickly, while larger, multi-country teams may take longer to ensure a smooth and compliant handover. Your new EOR will work closely with you to create a transition plan that fits your specific needs and timeline.

In most cases, switching to a new EOR doesn’t require additional health and safety training or medical checks, as these are tied to the nature of the work rather than the EOR provider. However, some countries may have specific regulations that require updated safety protocols or medical checks when there’s a change in the legal employer. Your new EOR will help ensure compliance with local requirements.

Our Employer of Record services are charged per employee, per month. Boundless charges a flat fee of €600 per employee per month for Employer of Record services. This fee applies across supported countries and is billed monthly alongside payroll and statutory employment costs.

The Employer of Record fee reflects the scope of responsibility Boundless assumes on your behalf. As your Employer of Record, Boundless acts as the legal employer and manages the underlying employment framework in each supported country. This includes maintaining the legal entity used for employment, assuming employer responsibility, running payroll, handling statutory benefits, tax filings, and meeting ongoing employment, HR, accounting, and legal obligations in line with local law.

The fee also covers ongoing compliance management, updates as local employment requirements change, and support for employment-related matters throughout the employee lifecycle. In parallel, Boundless invests in providing a consistent employment experience for your team and expanding country coverage over time, so you can hire compliantly in additional markets as your business grows.

There are no setup fees for Employer of Record or HR Support services. Pricing is based on the number of employees you engage through Boundless. Fees scale as your team grows or changes, without long-term or minimum commitments tied to specific countries or number of employees hired.

The total cost of hiring internationally depends on the country, role, and compensation package you want to offer. Boundless provides country-specific salary and tax estimates during your initial consultation. These estimates include gross salary, employer taxes, statutory contributions, and the applicable Boundless fee, helping you understand the full employment cost before you hire.

Boundless simplifies multi-country onboarding by standardising documentation, automating local compliance checks, and guiding teams through each country’s setup requirements. HR Support ensures every hire has the correct contracts, records, and compliance steps completed for their specific jurisdiction.

Your HR team can use Boundless’ HR Support to scale global operations by accessing compliant templates, automated workflows, and country-specific guidance. It streamlines hiring, documentation, and employee management across regions, allowing teams to operate consistently without building in-house expertise for every market.

Boundless’ HR Support helps teams maintain statutory benefits and payroll accuracy by centralising each country’s requirements, automating updates as laws change, and ensuring every employee’s deductions, contributions, and entitlements are processed correctly. This gives HR teams a consistent and compliant approach across all markets.

Local HR experts ensure compliance by applying country-specific knowledge of labour laws, tax rules, statutory benefits, and payroll obligations. They monitor regulatory changes, review contracts, validate payroll calculations, and manage mandatory contributions and terminations. Their on-the-ground expertise prevents misclassification, incorrect filings, and other non-compliant employment actions across jurisdictions.

In-country HR support means having HR, payroll, and compliance specialists based in the employee’s country who understand local labour laws, tax rules, benefits, and cultural expectations. It matters because global hiring requires accurate payroll, compliant processes, and fast issue resolution, which can only be delivered through local expertise in each market.