International Hiring Strategy: How to Find, Contract & Onboard Your First Employee Abroad
Episode 52. Start Global Insights – podcast for exporters.
At some point in your international expansion journey, you will face a question most businesses are not prepared for: how do you hire your first employee in a country where no one knows your company?
You need a local sales manager in Germany. Or a country lead in Romania. Or the first business development hire in Argentina. The role is critical, often the most important decision of your entire market entry, and you are operating without a brand, without a local network, and without a playbook.
In this episode of Start Global Insights, Dmytro Shvets spoke with Andriy Strekhaliuk, founder and CEO of executive search agency Astra Plus and visiting lecturer at UCU Business School.
Andriy has over 14 years of experience building global recruitment functions, from DuPont’s EMEA talent acquisition spanning 11 countries, to Mondelez International across Ukraine and Eurasia, to technology startups with teams in Silicon Valley and Eastern Europe. He completed his MBA at the University of Glasgow and was mentored by one of the UK’s top executive search firms, known for offering an extraordinary 18-month placement guarantee.
Listen to the full episode at Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube Music.
This episode is a structured summary of everything he shared: the mistakes, the frameworks, the legal risks, and the practical tools for building a systematic international hiring process.
Why hiring employees abroad is harder than it looks
Most people underestimate international hiring because they have successfully hired in their home market. They assume the process is fundamentally the same, post a job, screen candidates, make an offer. It is not.
When you hire in a foreign country, you are operating across at least four dimensions of complexity that do not exist at home: different candidate behaviour and expectations, different legal and contractual requirements, different salary markets, and no brand recognition. Together, they make international hiring one of the most hard, and commonly mishandled, challenges in global expansion.
The cost of getting it wrong is significant. A failed hire at a senior or leadership level can cost between three and five times the candidate’s annual salary, and that is before you restart the entire search process. For high-level roles in new markets, that is a very large number.
The #1 mistake: copying your home hiring process
The most common mistake Andriy sees, and it appears across companies of all sizes, is what he calls “undertreating” the new location: approaching it as if it were your home market, without any local research or cultural adaptation.
“You copy your approach toward the new location without preliminary research. The positions we work with are critical, it could be the number one position in that country, the first team there. And you are treating it exactly like you would treat a hire in your home office.”
The most visible symptom of this mistake is the job description (JD). A JD that works perfectly in Ukraine or Sweden may be deeply ineffective, or even counterproductive, in the Middle East, Latin America, or South-East Asia. Cultural expectations around seniority, work-life balance language, compensation transparency, and tone vary enormously across markets.
But the problem runs deeper than the JD. Companies also apply their salary assumptions (usually wrong), their interview structures (often too many rounds for fast-moving markets, or too few for relationship-oriented ones), and their employer value proposition without testing whether any of it resonates locally.
The fix is to build a discovery phase into every international search: after each interaction with the market, ask what you have learned about candidate behaviour, what risks you now see, and how your assumptions need to be adjusted. Treat international hiring the way a lean startup treats product development, as a process of constant hypothesis validation.
How to attract candidates when no one knows your company
One of the most practical questions Andriy addressed: what do you do when you are entering a market where your brand does not exist? No reputation, no reviews, no referrals. How do you attract strong candidates?
He outlined three strategies, illustrated with a real case: recruiting a Sales Engineering Director for an online privacy startup, a company that could not even reveal what it was building, for competitive reasons.
Strategy 1: Lead with your DNA and mission
Every company has a story, even if it is not yet well known. Your history, your vision, the problem you are solving, the fact that you are expanding internationally, these are all genuinely compelling to the right candidates. Lead with them. If your entire hiring team (founders, managers, interviewers) consistently communicates this story with energy and authenticity, it creates an emotional bond that brand recognition cannot manufacture.
This also acts as a filter. Candidates who are purely money-driven and want immediate, maximum compensation are probably not the right first hire for a market entry. The candidates who respond to a mission are more likely to be the long-term builders you actually need.
Strategy 2: Be transparent
Transparency builds trust, and trust is everything when a candidate cannot verify your reputation. Be honest about where you are as a company, what you can and cannot offer right now, and what the role genuinely involves.
Consistency is critical here. If an agency presents the company one way and the CEO contradicts that in the interview, candidates become suspicious and the process breaks down. Andriy’s team includes coaching for hiring managers on how to communicate consistently, because a broken message is as damaging as no message.
Strategy 3: Treat the search as a discovery process
Do not go into an international search with a fixed, immovable brief. Halfway through companies often find, that the candidate they envisioned does not exist at the price point they assumed, or that a more junior hire with high growth potential is actually the smarter entry move. Build in permission to pivot. The companies that hire well internationally are the ones that stay curious about the market, not just the candidate.
The international hiring roadmap, step by step
If a company wants to hire a sales manager, say, in Germany, a first hire in a new country, what is the systematic process? Andriy laid it out clearly:
Step 0. Define the actual need.
Before anything else, challenge your own brief. Why do you need this specific person in this specific country? If you need French-language sales coverage, a candidate in Belgium or Canada may serve that need as well as someone in France. Step zero is asking “what problem are we actually solving?” not “how do we fill this role?”
Step 1. Research the market.
Understand the economic environment and the talent landscape. Is there a hub of relevant professionals in your target city? What does the sales function look like in this industry locally? How fast does the hiring market move? Use your own sales team data if you are already operating there, even partially. Use LinkedIn to map the talent pool before you even open a search. Or local distributor to get their insights on the market.
Step 2. Research the legal and tax environment.
Understand the employment law basics, payroll taxation, and what type of contract structure is legally viable. This does not mean becoming a local law expert, it means knowing enough to make informed decisions and knowing when to engage a local lawyer. (More on this below.)
Step 3. Set a realistic budget and validate it.
Your initial salary assumption will almost certainly be adjusted once you talk to the market. Benchmark the remuneration levels in this market to understand the range before starting your search, and refine your understanding during interviews with different candidates.
Step 4. Validate your Employer Value Proposition (EVP).
Before mass outreach, test your EVP with a small number of candidates. Does your mission resonate? Is your package competitive? Are there elements of your offer that are surprising (positively or negatively) in this market? Iterate quickly and cheaply before committing to a full campaign.
Step 5. Run parallel inbound and proactive sourcing.
Publish the role to capture active candidates, those already looking. Simultaneously, begin proactive outreach to passive candidates, those not actively searching but potentially open to the right opportunity. For critical first hires, passive candidates are often the most qualified. Run both tracks at once rather than sequentially.
Step 6. Adapt your interview process to the market.
In some markets, candidates expect a fast, efficient process. Too many interview rounds signals disorganisation and drives strong candidates away. In others, a more deliberate, multi-stakeholder process is normal and even expected. Know which environment you are in before you design your funnel.
Step 7. Choose the right engagement model and make a compliant offer.
Before you make an offer, decide whether the hire will sit on a local legal entity, an Employer of Record (EOR), or another structure. The contract and the offer package must be legally compliant and culturally appropriate. In some countries, candidates will want every detail, every benefit, every clause written explicitly in the contract. Plan for this.
Step 8. Onboard intentionally.
The hire is not done at signature. Bring the new employee to your home office if possible. Send leadership to visit them on the ground. Set explicit 30-, 90-, and 180-day goals. Check in regularly. The onboarding period is where most international hires succeed or fail — and most companies invest far too little in it.
EOR vs. freelancer vs. legal entity: choosing the right model
One of the most important decisions in international hiring is the legal engagement model. There are three primary options, each with a different risk profile and cost structure.
Option 1: Full legal entity
You register a legal presence in the target country (a subsidiary, branch office, or representative office) and employ people directly under your own entity. This offers the most control and the strongest employer brand signal, but it carries the highest setup cost, administrative burden, and legal complexity. It makes most sense when you are committing to a market long-term with a team of multiple people.
Option 2: Employer of Record (EOR)
An Employer of Record is a third-party organisation that employs your new hire on their local legal entity, handling payroll, tax compliance, and employment law, while you direct the day-to-day work. You pay the EOR a service fee. This is increasingly the preferred model for a first hire or small team in a new market, because it eliminates the need to establish a legal entity before you have validated the market. Well-known EOR providers include Deel, Remote, and Rippling, among others.
Option 3: Outsourcing
Rather than employing an individual, you contract an agency or firm that already has the relevant professionals on their payroll and can provide them to you on a project or ongoing basis. This is common in IT, where outsourced development teams in Portugal, Romania, or Ukraine can be engaged without any individual employment relationship. The key difference from EOR: the people were already employed by the outsourcing firm before your engagement, and their primary loyalty is to that firm.
How to benchmark salaries in a foreign market
Salary benchmarking is one of the areas where companies most consistently underinvest and overpay for poor information. The default approach of finding just one report online and using it as the reference is insufficient for two reasons: the data is usually averaged, and candidate expectations almost always run above published averages.
Andriy’s recommended approach is to triangulate across multiple sources:
- International job boards (free baseline). Glassdoor and Indeed both publish salary ranges by role and location. Treat these as a starting orientation, not a benchmark. They use average figures, which may not reflect the seniority level or specific skills you need.
- Paid salary databases. Mercer and Hays both maintain function-specific, country-level compensation data across most global markets. If you are hiring a business development or sales manager, accessing this data does not require a large investment. It gives you a considerably more precise starting point.
- Local partners and distributors. The people you already work with in the market know what local professionals earn. A one-hour conversation with your distributor or local agent often yields more practical intelligence than a paid report.
- The candidates themselves. After two weeks of active outreach, you will know the market. Candidates tell you what they earn and what they expect. This is the most reliable data you will collect, and it costs nothing beyond the time of the search.
“None of these sources is 100% true. But together they give you the overall picture. And after talking to candidates, which is yet another source, you will have a real understanding.”
Digital footprint and localised job descriptions
Before your first candidate meeting, they will search for your company online. What they find (or do not find) will shape their willingness to engage. This is especially consequential when you are an unknown brand in the market.
The critical insight Andriy shared here: English is not enough. Having a global website in English signals that you exist. Having a localised presence (job descriptions, LinkedIn content, and company descriptions in the language of the target market) signals that you are serious about this hire and this country.
But localisation is not the same as translation. Andriy recommends having your JDs and company descriptions validated by someone already embedded in the target market, not just for linguistic accuracy, but for cultural appropriateness. A native professional may tell you that a specific phrase will alienate candidates, or that a standard clause in your contracts carries different connotations locally. That feedback is invaluable and cannot be obtained from a translation tool.
This principle mirrors good export strategy. As with selling into a new market, the message you send to potential partners and customers should be present and consistent across all your digital assets. Your hiring process is an extension of your brand, as candidates are evaluating you at every touchpoint.
Onboarding, 90-day goals & exit strategy planning
The offer letter is not the finish line. International hires are particularly vulnerable to early attrition because the new employee is physically separated from the organisation, lacks informal integration, and may struggle to find their footing without deliberate support.
Andriy recommends two practices that most companies overlook:
Define success before the hire starts
Before making an offer, agree internally and with the candidate on what success looks like at 30, 90, and 180 days. If a hiring manager says “I want to double revenue in this market in two years,” the next question is: what specifically should this person do in the first three months that would tell you they are on track? Those milestones become the onboarding framework, the first performance review criteria, and the basis of a constructive working relationship from day one.
Plan your exit strategy before you need it
This is the element most companies find uncomfortable and skip entirely. Before you hire, understand the legal and financial cost of a termination in this jurisdiction. How many months of severance are required? What notice periods apply? What are the legal obligations around documentation and process?
This is not pessimism, it is risk management. A wrong hire at a senior level in a new market can cost three to five times the annual salary when you account for the failed search, the severance, the reputational damage in a small talent community, and the delay to your market entry. Knowing the exit cost in advance allows you to make a more informed decision about the profile, the contract structure, and the probation framework.
Tools and platforms for international recruitment
For companies building their international hiring capability internally, Andriy recommends the following toolkit:
For market research
LinkedIn. Use LinkedIn’s talent insights to map the size and location of relevant candidate pools before you begin a search. Searching for “Sales Manager” + “Germany” + specific industry gives you a real picture of what is available. Also try to search in local languages.
Conversations with peers. Talk to companies that have already hired in your target market (local distributors, other exporters in your network). One hour with someone who has been through the process is worth more than most reports.
Local executive search firms. Many will provide a free initial consultation. Even without an engagement, a 30-minute call with a firm that has recruited in your target country will give you a calibrated sense of the talent market, typical timelines, and realistic expectations.
For candidate sourcing
LinkedIn. For C-level and first-country hires, the right candidates are almost always reachable via LinkedIn globally.
Indeed and Glassdoor. Cross-border job boards that also allow database searches in many markets, not just job posting.
Local job boards. In many markets, a dominant local platform (separate from global boards) is the primary channel for active candidates. Research what that platform is in your target country before you launch.
Competitor websites. For specialist roles (agricultural background, specific technical skills), competitor companies often list their regional managers publicly. This is a legitimate and widely used starting point for proactive sourcing.
For salary benchmarking
Mercer. Global compensation data, function-specific, available by country. Trusted by multinational HR teams.
Hays. Publishes an annual salary guide across most markets, also offers custom data.
Glassdoor and Indeed. Free, useful as a general baseline, treat as directional rather than precise.
Local distributors and partners.Your best informal source, already embedded in the market, motivated to help you succeed.
The candidates themselves. The most accurate, real-time source you have. After two weeks of conversations, you will know the market better than any database.
Key takeaways
Treat international hiring as a discovery process, not a replication exercise. Every new market requires research, iteration, and adaptation, not a copy of your home hiring playbook.
You are selling yourself to the candidate. Especially when your brand is unknown, every touchpoint (the JD, the recruiter conversation, the CEO interview) is a sales interaction. Inconsistency kills trust.
Step zero is clarifying the actual need. Before opening a search, challenge whether you need this role, this seniority level, and this geography or whether the underlying business need can be met differently.
The Employer of Record (EOR) model de-risks first hires. You do not need to open a legal entity to hire your first employee in a new country. EOR providers give you compliant employment without the overhead.
Freelancer misclassification can cost €45,000+. If the engagement looks like employment, local law may treat it that way regardless of what your contract says. Always engage a local lawyer before choosing this model.
Salary benchmarking requires multiple sources. No single database is sufficient. Triangulate across Mercer, Hays, job boards, local contacts, and candidates themselves.
Localise your JDs, do not just translate them. Have a native professional validate the language and tone. A translation tool cannot tell you that a phrase will scare off candidates in that culture.
Define 90-day success criteria before the hire starts. This protects your investment, gives the new hire clarity, and gives you an honest basis for performance evaluation.
Plan your exit strategy before you need it. Know the severance obligations and legal requirements in the jurisdiction before signing any contract. A wrong hire will happen at some point, the cost should not be a surprise.
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FAQ: Hiring employees abroad
The most common mistake is treating a new country exactly like your home market – copying the same job descriptions, salary assumptions, and interview process without any local research or cultural adaptation. Every new geography requires a discovery phase where you learn candidate behaviour, salary expectations, and legal requirements specific to that market.
An Employer of Record (EOR) is a third-party company that employs your new hire on their local legal entity while you direct the work and bear the cost. It lets you hire legally in a new country without setting up a full local entity. It is particularly useful for a first hire or small team in a new market, where the overhead of opening a legal entity outweighs the benefits at that stage.
Use multiple sources in parallel: start with international job boards like Indeed and Glassdoor for a general range, then validate with paid databases such as Mercer or Hays for function-specific data. Speak with local distributors or business partners, they often have practical, real-world salary knowledge. And triangulate with candidates themselves during the active search. No single source is reliable on its own.
You can, but check with your lawyers if it’s your option. If a person classified as a freelancer is working full-time hours and scope equivalent to an employee, local authorities can reclassify the relationship as employment and impose penalties (€45,000 or more depending on the jurisdiction). Always engage a local employment lawyer before choosing a freelance engagement model in a new market.
Focus on your company’s DNA, mission, and growth story rather than brand recognition. Be transparent and consistent in every candidate touchpoint. Ensure your digital footprint (website, LinkedIn profile, job descriptions) is present and localised in the target language, validated by a native professional. Inconsistency between what a recruiter communicates and what the CEO says in an interview will destroy candidate trust immediately.
Before the hire even starts, agree internally on what success looks like at 30, 90, and 180 days. If possible, invite the new employee to your home office or travel to them to build a personal connection with your product, team, and culture. Schedule regular check-ins. The onboarding period is where most international hires succeed or fail, and it receives far too little deliberate investment from most companies.
