A recruiter’s work ends when the offer is signed. That is not a criticism; it is the product. You pay for a match, and you get one.
The question is what happens next. For the first three months, usually not much. Everyone is new, the work is fresh, and small problems wait. Then the employment itself starts asking for attention. Call it day 91.
What arrives after the first three months
Payroll stops being a setup task and becomes a monthly one. Someone has to pay the right salary, with the right deductions and contributions, every month, under the law of the country the person lives in. If you hired directly, that someone is you.
Leave becomes real. The first sick day, the first holiday, the first family event. Who approves it, who covers the work, and what does the law require?
Equipment starts to age. A laptop fails, software needs licences, access needs changing. If the person is in another country, so is the problem.
The first review is due. The ramp is over, and now there should be feedback, goals and a conversation about how it is going. Without a structure, that conversation does not happen. Drift follows.
Retention becomes a question. Somewhere between month six and month twelve, a good person starts getting messages from other employers. Whether they stay depends on things a placement never touched: how they are managed, how they are paid against the market, and whether anyone notices them.
The question to ask before you pay a placement fee
When you talk to a recruiter, ask: what happens at month 4?
If the answer is “that’s up to you”, you are buying a match. That is fine if you have the infrastructure to run everything after it. Companies with their own entity, payroll and HR team in India use recruiters for exactly this reason. For them, the match is the only gap.
When placement is the right answer
- You have an entity in India, or an employer of record in place
- You have someone who runs HR, payroll and equipment there
- You need help finding people, and only that
Then a good recruiter is worth what they charge.
When it is not
If nobody on your side is going to run day 91, a placement hands you a person and the 42 touchpoints that come with employing them. In a satellite office, those touchpoints are ours from sourcing to exit:
- Find: we find the person and present a shortlist of around three.
- Set up: we set up the desk, the laptop and the contracts.
- Run: we run payroll and HR every month.
- Grow: we run reviews and salary benchmarking.
- Exit: we handle a clean exit if it comes to that.
If the fit is wrong, the SoTalented Office Guarantee covers a replacement within 30 days. You interview, approve and manage the work.
Day one is the easy part of a hire. Choose the model by what it does on day 91. See how it works, or talk to us.