HR administration that holds up in every country you hire in.
HSP Group runs the administrative half of your employee lifecycle across 62 standard markets and delivers in 100+ countries. Onboarding, benefits, documentation and compliance checks are handled by people who know the local rules, to one process and one reporting format, so your HR team can spend its time on the work only it can do.
FranceCSE in place
GermanyHandbook filed
JapanWork rules
United KingdomEnrollment 6thNew hire onboarding · GermanyHR administration for
Hiring somewhere long before it justifies an HR presence.
Two out of three companies come to HSP at exactly this point, entering a new country without the scale or the in-house expertise to staff it. Three things change when the administration sits with one team.
An extension of your HR team, in markets you have no one in
Onboarding paperwork, statutory documentation, benefits coordination and employee queries handled in-country, with your HR lead still owning the relationship.
The local rules, applied without a local hire
The people doing the work in each market know which rules apply to you, and the compliance checks happen inside the process, at the point the work is done.
One process, however many countries
Onboarding in Japan and onboarding in Germany produce the same documentation trail, the same data in the same system and the same escalation path.
Exempt and non-exempt does not travel. Nor does at-will.
Porting a US classification into a non-US contract is a common and avoidable error. So is assuming a threshold has not been crossed yet, because the threshold usually arrives before anyone is watching for it.
- France requires a Social and Economic Committee once you pass eleven employees, and consultation on policies, pay and conditions after that
- Germany’s rules require informing or consulting a works council, where one exists, before a termination
- Some countries require work rules to be filed with the labor authority before they take effect, so writing them is not enough
CSE at 11 employeesWorking Time Act appliesFiling requiredStatutory minimums applied per employee, not looked up.
GateWay HR imports statutory minimums for every country and applies the right rule to each employee based on tenure, seniority and dependents, so carryover limits in Germany and maternity leave in Canada are handled without anyone on your team having to know them.
- Time-off requests and approvals across every location, with carryover and accrual rules applied per country
- Auditable leave reporting that exports to payroll, rather than a parallel spreadsheet somebody reconciles later
- Role-based access, document management and audit trails, with a direct line to the specialists running your account
Carryover capped automatically
You decide whether we sit behind your HR team or in front of employees.
The default keeps HSP behind your HR team, handling coordination and documentation while HR stays the face to employees. The extended scope puts defined administrative support in front of them. It is a decision you make at the start, in step 02.
- Behind: offer and contract coordination, mandatory documentation, benefits coordination with payroll, compliance checks
- In front: welcome packs, HR and benefits briefings, employment verification certificates and query handling
- Local language support where English is not enough in the market you are hiring into
Five steps, from first conversation to a running operation.
How HR runs in each market today: who handles onboarding, where employee data lives, which documents exist, and which statutory obligations are currently being met by nobody in particular.
The Master Services Agreement and KYC complete, and we agree where the line sits between your team and ours.
Documentation templates, compliance checkpoints, benefits coordination and the escalation path, with existing employee data validated against what each jurisdiction requires.
Data loads into GateWay HR, managers and HR are trained, and leave balances, statutory entitlements and policy rules are configured per country.
Lifecycle administration runs. Complex cases escalate to HSP's HR advisory specialists in the same team, without a new engagement.
Ingersoll Rand runs employment administration across three markets with one point of contact.
HSP supports Ingersoll Rand’s employment operations in Greece, Portugal and Turkey, three markets with materially different labor regimes. The administration model was built to absorb high-speed hiring throughput without a proportional increase in coordination effort.
3
markets, materially different labor regimes
1
point of contact across all of them
“Their centralised management approach, with a single point of contact, has integrated our employment processes. Especially HSP's flexibility regarding Ingersoll Rand's high speed processing of hirings is an absolute win for us.”
Markus Wührer, LL.M., Senior Manager Payroll, Compensation and Benefits EMEIA, Ingersoll Rand
What the solution covers.
Hiring and onboarding
Coordinating offer letters and contract signatures, mandatory new-hire documentation, background and medical checks, right-to-work verification, social security enrollment and welcome communications. Drafting of customized offer letters and locally compliant, bilingual where required, employment contracts.
Offboarding
Validating resignation letters, coordinating leaver checklists with HR and line managers, notifying payroll and benefits providers, confirming PTO balances and final steps, and calculating unused leave. Guidance and documentation for complex resignations, terminations and redundancies.
Benefits administration
Day-to-day benefits administration and coordination with payroll, employee changes, open enrollment facilitation, claims and utilization reviews, third-party broker coordination, and benefits benchmarking and setup in new markets.
Leave and absence management
Time-off requests and approvals across every location, statutory holiday and entitlement guidance, carryover and accrual rules applied per country, and auditable leave reporting that exports to payroll.
HR documentation and compliance
Documentation collection and management, compliance checks against local regulations, employee handbooks, work rules and individual HR policies either localized from your existing documents or drafted from scratch, and employment verification certificates.
GateWay HR
A centralized real-time dashboard for the global workforce: leave and absence tracking, statutory minimums imported per country and applied per employee, role-based access, document management, audit trails, and a direct line to the HSP specialists running your account.
More on HR across borders.
Questions we get asked.
Which countries can HSP Group support HR administration in?
Our standard supported list covers 62 markets across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa, with over 100 countries delivered in overall. Coverage is confirmed against the markets you employ in before an engagement starts.
Does HSP deal with our employees directly, or only with our HR team?
Either, and it is a decision you make at the start. The default keeps HSP behind your HR team, handling coordination and documentation while HR stays the face to employees. The extended scope puts defined administrative support in front of employees: welcome packs, HR and benefits briefings, verification certificates and query handling, with local language support where English is not enough.
Do we need a works council, and at what point?
It depends on the country, the industry and your headcount. In France, companies with at least eleven employees must establish a Social and Economic Committee, which the employer is then required to consult on workplace policies, compensation and working conditions. Other jurisdictions set different thresholds or none at all. The threshold usually arrives before anyone is watching for it, which is why we track it as part of ongoing compliance.
Can we dismiss an employee at will outside the US?
Generally no. At-will employment is specific to the US. Most countries require just cause, notice periods or severance, and the conditions vary. Germany’s rules require informing or consulting a works council, where one exists, before termination. France requires a valid justification and a specific procedure. Disputes over termination are the leading cause of employment tribunal claims, so this is the area where getting the process wrong is most expensive.
Do other countries use exempt and non-exempt classifications?
Only the US uses that framing. Other countries classify roles differently: the UK applies Working Time Regulations to determine hours and overtime, and Germany’s Working Time Act regulates the same ground while exempting certain senior employees. Porting a US classification into a non-US contract is a common and avoidable error.
What documentation does a new hire need beyond an offer letter?
In most countries an offer letter alone is not sufficient. A formal employment contract setting out salary, benefits, working hours and conditions is typically required, alongside tax forms, right-to-work verification, social security enrollment, country-specific compliance paperwork and, in the EU, privacy notices required under GDPR.
Do we need a country-specific employee handbook?
We recommend one in every market you employ in. Many jurisdictions mandate specific policies covering anti-harassment, health and safety, working hours, grievance procedures and data protection. Some require work rules or internal regulations that must be filed with the local authority or produced on demand during a labor inspection, which means writing them is not enough on its own.
Do we have to offer benefits, and how do we know what is competitive?
Most jurisdictions mandate some form of health insurance, pension or paid leave, and the statutory floor is rarely where the market sits. What attracts talent also differs: a US package often leads with healthcare, while in Germany social insurance already covers it and the same emphasis does not land. We benchmark against local practice for your industry and level in each market you hire in.
Do you replace our HRIS?
No. HR administration runs through GateWay HR, which covers leave, reporting and compliance, and we maintain data in your existing HRIS where you have one. Which system is the record of truth is agreed during scoping.
What happens when something needs more than administration?
It escalates to HSP’s HR advisory specialists in the same team: complex terminations and redundancies, works council and collective bargaining matters, benefits sourcing and benchmarking, HR audits, performance management guidance, share and equity compensation, and policy design. There is also an informal route for the question that does not warrant a project, which our clients use more than anything else on this list.
62
markets on the standard supported list, 100+ countries delivered in
1,000+
clients served
20yrs
average leadership experience in global operations
Tell us which countries you employ in and where your HR team is losing its week.
We will map what the administration looks like handled centrally and what stays with you.
An HR director replies within one business day. No sales sequence.