What’s Inside the Hiring Process Checklist for Your First Global Hire
Hiring your first international employee is an exciting milestone that signals your company is ready to grow beyond borders. This checklist simplifies the essential steps of global hiring into a clear, practical guide, so founders, HR, and People teams can move fast with confidence while staying compliant.
Follow along to sanity-check your approach before, during, and after your first global hire.
Strategic Planning & Role Definition
Before you think about countries or candidates, get aligned internally.
- Confirm whether the role should be an employee or contractor
- Review local labour laws (termination, notice, probation rules)
- Understand statutory benefits requirements (PTO, pension, parental leave)
- Validate payroll currency and pay frequency norms
- Confirm time zone overlap works for collaboration
Country Selection & Hiring Feasibility
Not all countries are equally easy (or smart) to hire in.
- Confirm whether the role should be an employee or contractor
- Review local labour laws (termination, notice, probation rules)
- Understand statutory benefits requirements (PTO, pension, parental leave)
- Validate payroll currency and pay frequency norms
- Confirm time zone overlap works for collaboration
Choosing the Right Employment Model
Your employment model influences everything from compliance to employee experience. Choosing the right approach early creates stability, reduces friction, and supports sustainable global growth.
Finding the Right EOR or Global Employment Provider
- Assess entity setup vs Employer of Record (EOR)
- Rule out worker misclassification risk
- Define who is responsible for contracts, payroll, taxes, statutory benefits, labour law monitoring, and employee documentation across each country
- Document the ongoing admin process
A strong provider offers local employment infrastructure, compliance monitoring, and operational support that make global hiring feel manageable and secure.
- Confirm the provider is legally authorized in the target country
- Understand whether they own entities or rely on third-party partners
- Clarify compliance ownership and liability
- Review the EOR’s onboarding timelines and speed to hire
- Confirm payroll funding timelines and supported currencies
- Ask how labour law changes are monitored and applied
- Evaluate support model (ticket-based vs concierge-service)
- Review termination and offboarding support
Offer & Compensation Review
Pay structures, benefits, and compensation norms vary widely by country, and getting them right is key to building trust, staying compliant, and making global hires feel supported from day one. A thoughtful review ensures your offers are competitive locally and aligned with regional requirements, so everyone starts on solid ground.
- Ensure the offer structure complies with local law
- Benchmark compensation to the local market
- Confirm statutory and competitive benefits coverage
- Validate probation terms (if allowed in the specific country)
- Review equity, bonuses, and tax implications
→ Want hands-on help? Speak to a Borderless AI expert about our white-glove support.
Employment Contracts & Payroll Setup
Borderless AI brings contracts, payroll, and compliance into one streamlined onboarding flow, so everything is set up correctly before the employee’s first day.
Here’s how setting up contracts and payroll works with Borderless AI:
- Verify your business and employment setup to ensure everything meets local requirements
- Confirm the legal employment structure and role classification in the employee’s country
- Set up your payment method inside the platform
- Confirm payroll currency, pay schedule, and funding timelines so payroll runs smoothly from day one
Employee Invitation & Pay Readiness
Borderless AI makes platform onboarding clear and predictable for both employers and employees.
- Invite the employee to the Borderless AI platform
- Collect required employee details after the employee accepts the invite
- Issue the first pay estimate invoice
- Allow funds to settle before payroll runs
Employment Agreement & Go-Live
Borderless AI finalizes employment and prepares payroll before day one, so new hires can focus on their role while everything behind the scenes runs accurately and on time.
- Deliver a locally compliant employment agreement tailored to the employee’s country
- Align job title, responsibilities, termination terms, and IP clauses with local labor laws
- Collect and validate the signed agreement inside the platform
- Confirm payroll schedule and payslip format based on local requirements
- Clearly communicate when and how the employee will be paid before their start date
Onboarding & First-Day Readiness
Thoughtful onboarding helps people feel welcomed, supported, and confident in their role.
Here’s how to best set up genuine engagement from day one:
- Send a welcome email (before Day 1) with start time, access details, first-day agenda, key contacts, and any setup instructions
- Clearly outline the expectations for the first-week
- Introduce your global hire to your manager, and assign them a go-to person for any questions they may have
- Make sure they have all the tools, access, and equipment they need
- Ensure your onboarding schedule respects their time zone
Expectations, Performance & Growth
Set your global hire up for success with clear communication, defined expectations, and consistent follow-through, especially during onboarding.
- Define working hours and availability expectations
- Establish clear communication channels
- Explain performance expectations early
- Schedule regular feedback check-ins
- Discuss growth and development paths from the start
Ongoing Compliance & Risk Management
Employment laws, payroll requirements, and people’s needs evolve over time. Ongoing review, local awareness, and regular check-ins help ensure your global team stays compliant, supported, and set up for long-term success.
- Stay informed by working with local experts, subscribing to trusted legal updates, or setting up Google Alerts for the country where you hire.
- Update contracts as regulations evolve
- Review payroll audits regularly
- Maintain clear documentation for audits or disputes
Process Review & Scale Readiness
The right foundation, clear processes, compliant contracts, and reliable payroll, turns early experience into repeatable momentum instead of one-off effort.
- Document the process so it’s repeatable (and download this guide so you always have it on hand)
- Assess the lessons learned
- Maintain predictable and transparent costs
- Give your team confidence to hire globally again
How This Checklist Helps Teams Succeed
This checklist helps teams avoid common first-hire mistakes, reduce compliance risk, and create a repeatable global hiring process. By consolidating strategy, legal, payroll, and onboarding considerations into one resource, teams gain clarity at every step.
What This Checklist Means for Your Organization
Hiring globally doesn’t have to feel risky or overwhelming. With the right preparation, and the right employment partner, companies can work with global talent while staying compliant and efficient.
