The situation
The first hire in a newly formed subsidiary
A Belgian e-commerce group in Antwerp has just registered a Spanish company in Madrid and a Dutch company in Utrecht. Each will hire a country manager in January on a salary around €85,000, and neither company has employed anyone before. The CFO needs a checklist per country: what to register, what the contract must contain and what the company takes on as an employer.
Hiring is routine at home. In a new country, the first employee sets off registrations and duties nobody in the group has handled before, from social security and payroll tax to time recording and sickness. The hours go on assembling each list in the right order.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Register as an employer before day one
- In Spain the company must register with the social security system as an employer and register the employee before work starts. In the Netherlands it must register with the tax authority for payroll taxes before the first salary is paid.
- The contract and the information duty
- Under the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive, the employee must receive the essential terms in writing, most of them within the first week. In Spain the open-ended contract is the default, and fixed terms need a specific cause.
- Spain: record working time
- Spanish employers must keep a daily record of each employee’s working hours, including start and finish times. Whether that applies to a country manager depends on the contract type, which the research confirms.
- Netherlands: sickness sits with the employer
- A Dutch employer generally continues to pay at least 70% of salary for up to two years of sickness and must arrange occupational health support for reintegration. Many employers insure the risk.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
New Spanish S.L. and Dutch B.V., both with no employees yet. Each hires a country manager from January at about EUR 85,000. What employer registrations are needed before the start date, what must the contract and written information contain, and what ongoing employer duties apply?
You start with
The first hire in a newly formed subsidiary
- 01
Describe the hire
Give the company, the role, the salary and the start date. azta researches employer registration, contract rules and employer duties in Spain and the Netherlands.
Cited research· Free - 02
Read the key provisions
Open the Spanish and Dutch provisions in the original, with in-force status.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Build the checklist
Ask for a checklist per country ordered by deadline, with who does each step. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 04
Reuse it for the next country
On Enterprise, save the checklist as a template so the next market entry starts from the same structure.
Firm templates· Enterprise You send
An employer set-up checklist per country
What you get
An employer set-up checklist per country
Employer checklist · draft
First hires in Madrid and Utrecht: employer set-up
Spain, before the start date. Register the company as an employer with the social security system and register the country manager before the first working day. Decide whether the role is an ordinary employment contract or a senior management contract, as several duties depend on it.
Netherlands, before the first payroll. Register the B.V. as an employer for payroll taxes. Give the employee written information on the essential terms within the first week. Arrange an occupational health service and decide whether to insure the sickness risk.
Both countries. Check whether a collective agreement applies to the company’s sector, and engage a local payroll provider before the first month ends.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
14 minutes a month
At €120 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 20
- Capacity at your rate
- €2,376
- More employer set-up checklists a quarter
- 0.8
- Return on Pro
- 7.3×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoSources azta searches here
- BOE
- wetten.overheid.nl
- Belastingdienst
- EUR-Lex · Curia
What stays with you
- The offer, the salary and the negotiation with the candidate.
- Payroll, which runs in your payroll provider’s system.
- Signing the contract and each registration.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta run payroll?
- No. It researches the employer duties and drafts the checklist. Payroll stays with your payroll provider.
- Can it draft the employment contract?
- It can draft a first version in Canvas from the facts you give, with the required terms cited. Check it against any applicable collective agreement.
- Does it cover sector collective agreements?
- Upload the agreement and azta reads it alongside the law, referring back to the clause it relied on.
