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We build Legendary teams in South Africa. We are a one-stop shop for global businesses looking for cost-effective, diverse, well-educated, and native English-speaking staff.

We are the best in-country provider of recruitment and Employer of Record services in South Africa.

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Employer of Record
Recruitment
International Support

We are an Employer of Record (EOR)

We are an SA-based, SA-focused business that provides the local employment infrastructure and compliance that enables businesses in the UK & Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to hire and employ Legendary South African staff. Our staff conduct local or global business without their employer having to set up in South Africa.

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Let our Legends find and recruit your Legends

With the local expertise and a network to match, we can save you the time, effort, and pain of candidate sourcing and hiring in South Africa.

Our team is not just focused on Employer of Record, but also highly skilled at The Legends Agency as well.

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We can do more than you might expect

We know hiring abroad is not as simple as finding a person and riding off into the sunset together.

Recruitment, onboarding, payroll, HR support, IT sourcing and support, office space, Medical Aid & full benefits programme, legal support, and a dedicated on-the-ground agent - it's all part of the Legendary service.

You weren't expecting that, were you? 

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Here to help - get in touch with a Legend

Why South Africa?

5/5 of the top 5 unis in Africa are in South Africa

Average 50% salary cost saving London to South Africa

Native English Speaking

Great Time Zone  (GMT+2)

ATTENTION!

This may well be the best "Hire in South Africa" guide you've EVER set eyes on.

We are often asked - How hard is it to become Legendary?

Not so hard. Promise. Check out our "Hire in South Africa" guide to make this daunting mission feel a little less...well...daunting.

We took on the task of picking the brains of some Legendary UK entrepreneurs, business owners, and company managers, all of whom have remote staff with our Employer of Record service in South Africa.

So, what are you waiting for? Get ready to build your team of Legends today.

Why use an Employer of Record?

Compliance

Adhering to compliance and mitigating risks is essential in any employment relationship. South Africa's employment sector is regulated by numerous labor laws and regulations, which must be followed to avoid legal complications and penalties. Utilising an EOR in South Africa offers access to professionals with expertise in local compliance requirements, ensuring that employment practices align with legal standards.

Our Legends oversee employment contracts and payroll, ensuring compliance and safeguarding the interests of both employers and employees. Beyond the formal compliance, we have a highly skilled in-house HR manager dedicated to every client and are here to help HR teams and management navigate both the formalities and idiosyncrasies of hiring in South Africa.

Local knowledge and expertise

We are based in South Africa, we have South African expertise, and we are very willing to share it.

To effectively source, hire, and onboard local talent, you need access to experts with deep local insights. Our Employer of Record service in South Africa provides every single one of our clients with direct line to a dedicated team of skilled representatives who are well-versed in the local labor market and employment laws.

We know that the employee/employer relationship is so much deeper than the formalities. The cultural alignment, the expectation setting, and the day-to-day realities of work are equally as important as what the contract says. Our team will make it their primary priority to understand your business, how it operates, and how you want your employees on our employer of record service to operate. This will enable us to support you most effectively in in-sourcing, hiring, and negotiating contracts with the best staff for your business, and then during the course of employment, how to manage the team, eliminating the formal risks and minimising the cultural ones.

Simple payroll and tax

Handling payroll and managing tax compliance in a foreign country can be challenging and painful. By using an Employer of Record, these processes are simplified fully. Our team will take full care of payroll processing and tax remittance, all while ensuring adherence to local tax laws.

You confirm the compensation, and we manage salary processing, tax deductions, and contributions to statutory benefits. Lifting the administrative load from employers and minimizing the risk of errors or penalties related to these significant responsibilities.

We even take a single monthly payment in your local currency. Your role in payroll can be as simple as confirming amounts and then sitting back and concentrating on what is important.  

Legal and setup cost saving

For anyone with experience of setting up a business bank account in their own country, try setting one up in another jurisdiction.

Bank accounts are the tip of the iceberg, so until your business has reached scale in South Africa, it makes no financial or administrative sense not to use an Employer of Record. At the price point on offer, we think the inflection point comes at 100-150 in-country staff, so until then, concentrate on core business activities and strategic goals.

Let your Employer of Record navigate complex labor laws, ensure employment compliance, manage payroll, and handle tax obligations, so you can reallocate internal resources to more valuable areas.

And we didn't even mention setting up a local bank account. And yes, we do have one

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Why The Legends Agency?

Because we are Legends recruitment agency

Hover on the below to see why

No, Seriously

We actually are Legends.

Our team has over 100 years of combined experience with recruiting South Africans into UK businesses. We have the medals and the battle scars that tell you that we bring the best service you will find in South Africa.

Dynamic and bespoke

Every business is different. Obviously.

We provide a comprehensive range of recruitment and employer of record services (and a load more support services if you want them). Each service provision is tailored to the needs of each of our clients. You can engage us for the full suite of services or just select what you need - we're flexible.

Seamless digital service

We make your life as easy as possible.

We have digitalised all our processes. From setting up your master services agreement through to offboarding a staff member, it is all digitalised. In addition, we self-bill, manage the FX risk, and even collect your staff payments in your local currency automatically on pay day. It is seamless!

In South Africa and only South Africa

We are not resellers. Resellers use us. We are the best in-country South African partner.

We have a global client base (local South African, British, Australian, New Zealanders, Canadian, and American), but we are solely focused on the South African market. We know our niche and know it well. We are not the jack of all; we are the master LEGENDS of one.

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Our clients think we're Legends too

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10 benefits of using an Employer of Record

10 benefits of using an Employer of Record

Why are South African Employer of Record services so beneficial to companies across the UK & Europe, Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand.

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FAQs and need to knows

What is an Employer of Record?

An Employer of Record is the legal employer of a worker in a certain country. As such, the Employer of Record takes care of all compliance aspects of employment, including payroll, taxes, statutory benefits, employment contracts, and more.

Who can use an Employer of Record?

Any business can use an Employer of Record service. Our most common use cases are; you are a Global PEO looking for a local South African Employer of Record partner; you are a business based in an expensive jurisdiction trying to save money on staff that are non-workplace-essential (eg. call centre, digital marketing, virtual assistant, IT support, SDRs) and/or you are a business looking to test the South African market before committing to it fully.

Why use an Employer of Record?

Using an Employer of Records allows companies to legally and efficiently engage with overseas workers, either in a new country or state, without having to set up a local entity or risk violating local employment laws. It is a turnkey and cost-effective solution to enter a market or to utilise the workforce of a more cost-effective market without having the hassle of a full-blown legal and organisational presence. 

Who finds the staff?

Either you can find your own staff, or our recruitment services team can do it for you. It is totally up to you, and it can be flexible from role to role.

Because unemployment rates are so high in South Africa, there are plenty of staff available in the vast majority of fields. Our clients who hire directly often provide feedback that the issue is not finding the staff, it is finding the quality of staff and finding the right skills and cultural fit.

We think the art of South African recruitment is in understanding the educational system and the myriad cultural elements, and matching it to the management team and expectations of the specific international client. The vast majority of our clients start by using us for recruitment and then feel more comfortable hiring for 'repeat roles' (eg, call centre agents) via their existing staff's referral network and use us for specialist hires and new functions.

Are you a South African business?

We are a South African business (The Legends Agency (pty) Ltd (T/as The Legends Agency)). We also have a business in the UK (Smarter Hiring Limited (T/as The Legends Agency)).

Naturally, it is the South African business that is the employer of record in South Africa, and the vast majority of our staff are based in South Africa (well, it wouldn't be right if they weren't). The UK business manages the digital, FX, and billing infrastructure.

Our CEO, Anthony, is a South African living in South Africa (Melkbosstrand, just north of Cape Town) and has been working on recruitment and employer of record services in South Africa for (whisper it) 25 years. Our other director, Alex, is from the UK. Alex started as a client of Anthony's and has had a large operation in South Africa since 2019.

We have found that having a foot on either side of the equator really stands us apart in both the infrastructure we can put in place and the service we can provide.

How long does it take to get set up?

Today. Seriously.

If you come to us with a South African member of staff ready to go, we will turn everything (employment contract, references, compliance documents, payroll setup, etc) around immediately they can start today. We are ready to go.

The usual turnaround time for setting everything up on the employer of record side (very speedy) and time to placement on recruitment (very variable) is 2-4 weeks.

 

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