Benefits, and Whose They Are
The provider supplies the statutory floor; anything above it is bought, by somebody, and usually not by default.
Payroll and withholding
Statutory leave and sick pay
Amending the employment contract
Local filings and registrations
YoursThe provider'sCrosses the twoNeither contract
Four matters, and no share: what any one agreement covers differs by agreement. One crosses both, and the handoff is where these arrangements fail. The part you are actually paying for, and the part that is genuinely difficult.
The provider supplies whatever the country requires and nothing above it. Anything more — medical cover, pension above the mandatory level, life assurance, extra leave — is bought, by you, and does not happen by default.
The practical lesson in “Benefits, and Whose They Are” is that a third-party arrangement still leaves day-to-day management with the operating team. Used for task switching cost, explore the available workflow can make time and project context easier to review, provided the purpose is disclosed, access is limited and every consequential inference receives human review.
Buyers discover this when a candidate asks what the package includes and nobody has an answer.
A broader benchmark for “Benefits, and Whose They Are” is the ADP payroll and workforce resources. Read it alongside the service agreement and employment facts so that general guidance informs, rather than replaces, case-specific judgement.
The statutory floor
Mandatory pension or social insurance, statutory leave, statutory sick pay, whatever insurance the country compels. Administered by the provider, costed into your invoice, not optional.
It is a floor rather than a package, and in some countries it is generous enough that nothing needs adding.
What local candidates expect
Frequently above the floor, and specific to the market: private medical in one country, meal vouchers in another, a thirteenth month payment that is customary rather than legal in a third.
Ask the provider what a competitive package looks like there:
- What the statutory floor actually provides.
- What local candidates expect on top of it.
- What is customary rather than legal, and still expected.
- What a competitor at your size would offer.
They know, it costs nothing to ask, and it is the question that most improves your offer.
Buying through the provider
Many providers offer a benefits package per person per month. It is convenient, it appears on one invoice, and it is sometimes expensive relative to arranging it locally.
Get a quote and get one local comparison. For one or two people the convenience usually wins; past five it often does not.
Ask what happens to the cover when the service ends. A benefit that lapses the day the arrangement does is a different product from one the person can carry.
Buying it yourself
Possible in many countries and awkward in some, because the insurer expects a local employer. Your provider may need to be the policyholder even where you are paying.
Establish whether that is the case before negotiating with an insurer. It changes who can buy what.
Your own global policies
A group medical scheme, a global life policy, an employee assistance programme. Some extend to people employed by a third party and some do not.
Ask your own broker the question specifically. The usual answer is that it depends on the wording, and the wording was not written with this in mind.
Tax treatment
Every benefit has one locally, and it is rarely the same as at home. A benefit in kind may be taxable, partly taxable, or exempt up to a threshold.
Getting this wrong creates an underpayment that surfaces at year end and lands on the person's tax position rather than yours. Ask before offering.
The pension question
The mandatory scheme is handled. Anything above it, including anything resembling your own company scheme, usually is not available at all.
For senior hires this is the gap most likely to be raised, and the honest answer is frequently a salary adjustment rather than a scheme.
Equipment allowances and stipends
A home office allowance, an internet contribution, a wellbeing budget. All possible, all with a local tax treatment, all needing to run through payroll or an expense policy that the provider can support.
Decide the mechanism once per country rather than improvising per person.
Write the decision down. Two people in the same country on different arrangements, because two different managers improvised, is a conversation you will have to have eventually.
Consistency across countries
Offering the same thing everywhere is impossible, because the same thing does not exist everywhere. Offering nothing extra anywhere is consistent and uncompetitive.
The workable position is consistency of intent — a comparable standard of cover relative to each local market — stated openly so nobody feels singled out.
Telling the person what they have
A short summary at onboarding: what the statutory scheme provides, what you have added, how to use it, and who to ask.
Nobody does this, and people routinely do not know they have cover they are paying for through your invoice.
One page, written once per country, handed over at the start. It is the cheapest thing in this whole section and the one most reliably skipped.
Reviewing it
Annually, with the provider: has the statutory position changed, has market practice moved, is what you bought still being used.
Benefits bought once and never reviewed drift out of relevance, and the cost continues regardless.
Ask the person as well as the provider. Take-up is the only honest measure of whether something was worth buying.
What cannot be equalised
The experience of being the person on the different scheme. Colleagues compare, and somebody employed through a provider in another country will at some point work out that their package is constructed differently from everybody else's.
No amount of careful matching removes that, because the underlying systems are not the same. What is available is honesty about it: say what the differences are and why, rather than letting the person assemble the picture themselves from half-overheard conversations.