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Do you have difficulty getting ID06 for your employees?
Do you have a collective agreement with building?
Difficult to get a Swedish social security number for foreign employees?
We have a package solution for all of this. We offer professional staffing and recruitment of personnel in all sectors. All our staff have a collective agreement. Get in touch to find out more about a solution that suits you.
As telecommuting becomes more common worldwide, establishing companies are realizing the benefits of hiring foreign labor - Swedish companies no longer face the limitations of hiring workers who live near a physical office.
The trend towards hiring remote workers has gained momentum a number of years ago. Already in 2018, the number of remote employees had increased by 80 percent compared to the previous decade. Business owners in several industries have long questioned the need for a central office with high rental costs, travel restrictions for employees and the costs of ongoing office maintenance. This trend has of course accelerated amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We hold staffing company in Malmö, staffing company in Gothenburg and one recruitment office in Stockholm.
With significant advancements in communication technology and more professionals entering the freelance market, it has never been easier to hire foreign workers wherever they are located.
When it comes to efficient staffing and recruitment of foreign labor, a major challenge for companies is paying workers on time and in accordance with local labor regulations. This challenge has been mitigated by third-party vendors that offer a wide range of payroll, payment and human resource management solutions. These forward-thinking companies, like us at WorkForce, have come up with efficient systems that automate the payroll process. This means that Swedish companies can easily manage several salary cycles with different tax classes, work rules and salary expectations.
Here we look at important strategies for hiring foreign labor and how we at WorkForce can help your company with effective recruitment and staffing of foreign labor.
Att employing foreign labor entails many advantages for expanding companies who want to attract new customers, reduce labor costs and test new products and services. Here are three of the most compelling reasons to hire a foreign employee:
Enter new international markets
Hiring local talent in a new market has been proven to give your products and services a local feel. Local people are much better positioned – both culturally and professionally – to represent your brand within a new market. These people recognize what consumers want and have an intuitive feel for the nuances of the local market. This has been demonstrated by our staffing and recruitment staff.
Gain access to a larger pool of staffing and recruitment candidates
Companies that only hire workers close to headquarters limit their ability to connect with the best talent. By widening the pool of potential candidates, a company can benefit from remote solutions. When there are no longer any restrictions on where suitable candidates can be found, there is no reason not to hire a foreign employee. And with the help of a reputable third party provider such as WorkForce the whole process can also become even easier.
Staffing provides cost efficiency
In the global labor market, it is possible to hire workers at competitive wages that are relative to the standards set by their local regulatory authorities. Swedish companies that employ foreign labor can also save costs that equally talented employees may require in the company's main country of operation, in this case Sweden. Additionally, employee benefits will vary from country to country. With the right research and support, it is possible to offer a lucrative package when hiring foreign workers, while still saving money on wages and benefits.
The law on the posting of workers highlights certain rights that posted workers are given under Swedish labor law and that foreign employers must follow when they post workers to Sweden, including the right to annual leave and the same working environment and working time restrictions that would apply in a purely domestic relationship.
These rights directly cover every foreign worker without any union or other party demanding it. Unions can take measures aimed at ensuring that employers apply rules that give posted workers certain minimum rights set out in a collective agreement. Long-term posting of workers puts workers in a different position – in such cases, posted workers must be treated as if there is only a domestic relationship between the worker and the employer.
There is no minimum wage according to Swedish law. This can instead be agreed between the trade unions and the employers' organizations through collective agreements. The law on the posting of workers allows Swedish trade unions to take measures against foreign employers to, for example, ensure the same minimum wage for foreign employees who are posted in Sweden as a result of central Swedish collective agreements. In practice, this means that Swedish unions can demand the same salary level from foreign employers for posted employees as in a strictly domestic employment relationship.
Overall, Swedish law contains a developed system to prevent foreign employees from performing work in Sweden on less favorable terms than would have been applied in their home country.
The legislator has now also published extended requirements from a tax law point of view. Right now, around 20 thousand employees of foreign employers are temporarily in Sweden to work. An expatriate is someone who works in Sweden, but is employed in his home country and for whom the same conditions and salary levels apply on temporary assignments in Sweden as for Swedish workers.
In earlier years, only larger multinationals could devote the necessary resources and costs to global expansion. To maintain compliance with labor regulations, the only option for a company was to start locally. This meant taking on the risk of failure, with no clear indication that a company would succeed in a new market.
Today, there are new options that have leveled the global business playing field. Smaller, nimble companies have just as much opportunity to expand internationally and hire foreign workers.
Here are three employment options for companies that want to hire foreign workers correctly:
Independent contractors are technically self-employed. Companies that work with contractors pay them a lump sum and pay no taxes for them. In addition, they do not pay any social insurance or employer's contribution. In practice, this allows a company to hire a contractor at a higher hourly rate than a regular employee, while saving on overall labor costs.
It is no coincidence that the number of independent freelancers has increased exponentially as the global market has developed. In many ways, contractors are the perfect solution for companies looking for minimal involvement from professionals who are hired to perform certain tasks.
The downside to hiring independent contractors is the risk of misclassification, which can lead to penalties from local regulatory agencies. Independent contractors are not employees, which means they cannot be treated the same as regular employees. If a company manages how the contractor performs the work, has financial control over the contractor, or if the work is ongoing, the contractor may be more accurately classified as an employee and entitled to normal tax allowances and benefits.
Fortunately, there are Swedish staffing companies such as WorkForce that offer solutions to reduce the risk of misclassification and manage the distribution of compatible invoicing and international salary.
Many companies that want to start a business in a non-European market choose not to establish abroad, for several reasons. This may be due to costs, time constraints and the legal and financial risks. A solution for these companies is to employ local workers and comply with local work regulations.
Under an employer agreement, a local third-party company becomes the legal employer of the company's employees – including their foreign employees. In this way, they take responsibility for employees and oversee the administrative side of employment, including salaries, benefits and personnel guidance. At the same time, the client company retains control over its local and foreign employees and directs all day-to-day tasks. This allows a company to bypass the need to establish overseas, while still maintaining an active workforce in its new market.
Partnering with a third-party staffing firm is a great way to test a new market before making a more permanent move. For example, a company may send a small team to see if there is a market for their products and services. If this is the case, a company can then choose to establish itself in that market and have full responsibility for its employees.
For companies committed to having a long-term or permanent presence in a new country – with a number of foreign employees – the best option is to set up a foreign entity and take on legal responsibility for their employees. This is a solid way to have a presence in a new market and position a company to sign contracts and do business.
It should be recognized that setting up a unit can often be costly and time consuming. It requires an understanding of the tax framework and labor legislation relevant to the country of expansion. It also requires the registration of a company with the necessary tax authorities and social security offices. Despite this, it is still the best way to achieve long-term stability in an overseas market.
Even if a company places all legal obligations on a third-party company, many of the existing functions, such as payroll and staffing, can be contracted out to a specialized third party. This ensures that wages are administered correctly and that all taxes and benefits are handled accordingly. In many cases, a third-party vendor has accounting and legal staff who have expertise in all matters relating to local labor laws.
Looking for potential employees in Sweden is the first option. On several occasions, we were able to find new high-quality local employees even in situations where it seemed that the local markets were congested and new employees were nowhere to be found. Despite the impression, this is not always the case. Thanks to our marketing and recruitment strategy, we can find employees who are available and can fill your production halls immediately.
WorkForce is a foreign labor recruitment and staffing service that supports your company if you want to hire foreign labor abroad. This ensures that all employees – including foreign workers – are paid correctly, on time and in accordance with local labor guidelines. When you are ready to make the move permanent, our team of in-country specialists facilitate the establishment of the foreign company. We work closely with the local authorities. As a result, your company saves significant time and money and always maintains compliance.
If you are considering taking your business offshore and hiring foreign labour, we can also recruit your new employees through our dedicated in-house recruitment team. We use our industry-leading network of global partners and advanced search criteria to connect your company with high-quality candidates across all industries. We ensure that all candidates speak the local language and understand the cultural and economic landscape of your target market.
To discover more about WorkForce or any of our custom expansion solutions, contact our team today.
FAQ
From 1 January 2021, new rules apply to foreign workers. Foreign citizens who work in Sweden must also be taxed in Sweden, regardless of how long they have stayed in Sweden or whether it is through staffing.
The rules on tax deductions for jobs performed in Sweden are also changing, which will mean that more foreign companies will have to register with the Swedish Tax Agency.
An employee can only be covered by the social insurance system of a single country, and as a rule it can be said that the insurance of the country of employment applies. Therefore, you who employ foreign labor must normally pay Swedish employer's fees on compensation to employees who are resident abroad and work in Sweden.
In some cases, the foreign company may be obliged to pay employer contributions if it cannot be shown that the employee in Sweden belongs to another country's social insurance system. Exceptions to the rules do not apply to employees who only work in Sweden for a maximum of 15 consecutive working days or for a maximum of 45 working days in total during a calendar year. Days off should of course not be included in the time in Sweden.
Citizens of countries that are not members of the EU/EES must have a valid work permit to even be able to work in Sweden. A work permit is granted for the time that the work is covered - but for a maximum of two consecutive years.
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