A Portuguese company needs a machine learning engineer from UK. A German scaleup wants to bring a product designer on board in Brazil. An American startup has found its ideal CTO in Lisbon.

Each one of these companies faces the same barrier

To hire compliantly, they would need to set up a legal entity in a new country. That process can take months and cost far more than most organisations anticipate. For many, that cost and complexity could mean in most of the cases losing the hire.

It’s this problem that made Employer of Record (EOR) an essential recruitment service for international hiring. With EOR, you have a dedicated provider handling all the local employment legalities (contract, payroll, tax compliance, benefits, among others) allowing companies to hire anywhere in the world without opening a local entity.

Surpassing this legal mater, companies can access more highly qualified profiles, build more diverse teams, scale faster and enter new markets without risks, geographical limitations and administrative burden.

The right person, in the right role, without the local complex bureaucracy that used to come with it.

How can companies ensure that EOR employees feel part of the organisation?

Hiring has become simpler through EOR services and the partners that provide them, but building teams remains complex.

In the case of EOR, that complexity seems greater, as there is a formal intermediary in the employment relationship, which can result in challenges such as:

• A more impersonal onboarding experience
• A weaker connection to company culture
• Important moments going unnoticed
• A reduced sense of belonging

What makes this particularly difficult to manage is that it rarely announces itself. Employees can appear engaged in meetings while quietly disconnecting from the team and its mission. The goal must be to retain and develop talent.

For years, the focus of international hiring has been on efficiency, simplifying processes, ensuring compliance, and reducing legal barriers. These pillars remain essential, but they are starting to prove insufficient.

As remote work matures, companies are facing a new reality. It’s no longer enough to hire anywhere in the world, organisations must be able to integrate, engage, and support these employees consistently. The question we have to start making is if employees, once on board, feels like they genuinely belong.

The solution for employee emotional distance through EOR Care

This new reality requires a change in how companies view the solutions that support international hiring.

Nowadays, it’s not sufficient to just facilitate contracts, the EOR intermediary need to act as an extension of the company on the ground, present not just at the point of hire, but throughout the entire employee lifecycle.

In practice, this means:

• Ensuring continuous support throughout the employee lifecycle
• Creating moments of connection, even at a distance
• Recognising key events and milestones
• Supporting employee development and wellbeing

The difference between a distributed team that works and one that doesn’t rarely lies in how people were hired, but in how they are continuously supported.

Landing.Jobs, for example, has built EOR CARE to address exactly this gap, with plans designed not just around compliance and payroll, but around the full employee experience. If you want to know how much an EOR plan costs for your company, simulate here or contact us directly to get all your questions answered.

EOR Basic provides the operational foundation, but EOR CARE adds an active layer of engagement, support, and human presence throughout the employee’s journey, and for teams with more specific needs, tailored builds the solution from the ground up.

International hiring through EOR has already proven its value, but the real challenge ahead is human. Even at a distance, teams retain what has always made them effective: connection, culture and a sense of belonging.

Because hiring globally is easy, building global teams is continuously the focus.

Recruiting globally is easy, and building global teams is always our priority.