Cross-border placement doesn’t have to be complicated
Akvile Andri works with companies and recruitment partners entering Sweden and Norway every day. She knows where projects usually slow down, what companies underestimate, and what makes cross-border placements much simpler than most expect.
Akvile Andri | Business Development Director, Cool Company
Cool Company – helping companies place talents across borders since 2009
Most companies that come to us aren’t sure they need an Employer of Record (EOR). They’re trying to get a project moving – and somewhere along the way they’ve hit a wall.
Tax registrations. Employment contracts. Social contributions they didn’t budget for. The question is always the same: is there a simpler way to do this?
PART 1
Where companies usually get stuck
1. The real cost is rarely the day rate
In Sweden, employer social contributions are 31.42% on top of gross salary. So if you’ve agreed a gross monthly salary with someone, the actual cost to you is that figure plus 31.42%.
Most companies know a number like that exists, but they haven’t done the maths yet.
2. Most companies underestimate the setup time
The admin involved in getting registered. Setting up a legal entity takes months in Sweden — you need a board, a registered address, a bank account that Swedish banks will actually open for a foreign company, and then the tax registrations on top.
Companies assume two or three weeks. It’s usually three to six months, minimum. If you have a project starting in September, you needed to start this process in March.
3. The first delays usually starts here
Unclear employment terms. A company has agreed a day rate with a contractor and assumes that’s the contract. But Swedish employment law requires a written agreement covering notice periods, working hours, vacation entitlement, and sick pay — before the person starts.
When that hasn’t been prepared, the first week becomes a legal scramble. We see this regularly with companies that have onboarded people in other markets and assume the same process works here.
4. Misclassification is where the real risk begins
Misclassification is the big one. If someone is working exclusively for you, on your premises, using your equipment, for months at a time — Swedish authorities may classify them as an employee regardless of what the contract says. The tax liability that follows can be significant.
Companies worry about getting this wrong, and they’re right to. It’s not a technicality; it’s a real exposure.
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PART 3
What separates a smooth setup from a stressful one?
8. Experience matters more than companies think
That situations are always a little different, but the underlying questions — and often the solutions — are the same. Proven, time-tested approaches beat creative but uncertain ones every time. When you’ve seen a situation fifty times, you know how it plays out.
Each jurisdiction is different, and having a local partner who is genuinely on top of current employment law is the key thing. Not someone who knows the rules from two years ago — someone tracking what’s changed, what’s being enforced, what the courts have said recently. Cool Company has been doing this since 2009. That history matters. We’ve seen the edge cases. We know what Swedish and Norwegian employment law actually requires in practice, not just in theory.
And we’re not another supplier. We’re an extension of your team. When a project gets complicated, we’re in it with you.
9. When companies choose a local partner instead
Usually after they’ve tried to handle it internally and got stuck. Or because someone in finance looked at the timeline for setting up a legal entity and decided there had to be a simpler way. The other reason is accountability.
If something goes wrong in a foreign market, with a local EOR you have someone who knows that market and is legally responsible for getting it right.
10. The difference shows up when something unexpected happens
Transparency about costs, speed, and what they actually cover. The difference shows up when something unexpected happens — a sick leave situation, injury, a notice period dispute, a collective agreement question or tax authority audit. A good partner has dealt with those situations before, picks up the phone and has people locally who know how to handle them.
For me personally, it also comes down to whether the partnership feels sustainable. I’m not interested in closing a deal and disappearing. I want to be the person clients and candidates come back to — for the next project, the next market, the next complex situation.
PART 2
What happens when the right setup is already in place?
5. Speed is what surprises companies most
How fast it can move when the structure is in place. Once we have what we need — the person’s details, the agreed terms, the start date — we can have a contract ready the same day and someone onboarded shortly after. That surprises people who’ve been told cross-border employment takes months. It does, if you’re setting up your own entity. With an EOR, you’re using infrastructure that already exists.
What also surprises people is how the relationship develops. I genuinely enjoy building long-term partnerships — with clients and with candidates. You go through a project together, sometimes across different countries, solving complex setups. You’re on the same rollercoaster. And when it works, when the project lands, you celebrate it together. That’s what keeps this work interesting.
6. What companies no longer need to handle themselves
You tell us what you need. We set up the employment. The person starts. You receive one invoice each month covering salary, contributions, and our fee. You don’t open a bank account in Sweden. You don’t register with Skatteverket. You don’t handle sick pay calculations or vacation payments. That’s all on us, because we’re the legal employer. You manage the work. We manage the employment.
And it’s worth saying — EOR isn’t only for companies testing a new market. It makes just as much sense on project-based work where a direct hire simply isn’t optimal for anyone. The project has a timeline. The skills are specific. EOR fits that reality.
7. The fastest projects are usually the clearest ones
Having the employment terms agreed before we start. The companies that move fastest come to us with a clear brief: this is the person, this is the role, this is the rate, this is the start date. From that point, everything happens in parallel.
What slows things down is going back and forth on terms after the process has already started. The more decided you are, the faster we move.
THREE THINGS WORTH KNOWING
1.
You don’t need a Swedish or Norwegian entity to place competence there. That’s exactly what EOR is for.
2.
EOR works for project-based hiring too — not just market testing. When a direct hire isn’t optimal, this is the answer.
3.
The differens between a smooth market entry and a stressful one is almost always how early you sorted the employment structure.
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“I work with clients and agencies every day who have found exactly the right person — and then hit a wall because of where that person is from.
A passport should never be the reason a project doesn’t move forward.”
— Akvile Andri, Business Development Director, Cool Company
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