I’ve hired freelance developers before, but now I look to hire an employee who would be much more involved in the business. They’re based in Germany, would work with us as a standard employee, and handle ongoing development rather than being hired on a project basis. My first thought was to keep them as a contractor since it’s obviously a simple way to do it when you don’t have a company in their country. The more I’ve looked into it, though, the less clear that seems. I came across this article while trying to find out which setup is more convenient, and it made me question whether the contractor route really fits what I planned. I’m thinking about using an employer of record, which is a reasonable option where a dev can be employed properly in their own country without me having to set up a company there for one person. Has anyone here used this kind of setup for their first international hire? Was using an EOR worth it, or did you find a simpler way to handle it as a regular employment setup?
I’m outside Germany, but this sounds interesting. What kind of work are you looking for the developer to handle?