Even before the Coronavirus pandemic spread uncertainty and transformation across most industry sectors globally, cases of companies looking to engage skilled workers in Switzerland without having to establish their own legal structure here were growing.
Today, as companies look at international expansion as one route for post Covid expansion, Accurity has seen a marked increase in the number of enquiries from foreign based companies, wanting to engage workers in the Swiss market. So what support is available from Accurity for these clients, what are the options available, the benefits and how does the process work?
Why?
Every enquiry our team receives from foreign company clients differs in detail, but the reasons for the enquiry are typically similar. Our service offer enables foreign based companies to:
- expand to Switzerland rapidly and in a cost effective and legally compliant manner, and without the need to establish an own branch office here.
- target Swiss based clients that are a good fit for their products or services and in doing so, be legally compliant with both employment – and Swiss tax laws.
- scale up the business remotely and with minimum risk by engaging more than one skilled worker and without the need for establishing an own entity in Switzerland. This agile risk averse HR strategy makes team expansion easy.
- work with a licensed, reputable and trustworthy partner in Accurity. We advise on all HR matters and with our partners offer tax and insurance advice.
Options Available?
By partnering with The Accurity Group, the foreign company client gains access to a range of employment services. We are a SECO licensed (Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs), and as professional employment organisation (PEO) are able to offer a range of Swiss employment services such as EOR (employer of Record) as well ANobAG. Both of these work status’ make it easy for a foreign company to engage workers in Switzerland. And with 20+ years of experience, out team motto is “we make Switzerland easy for you”.
Process / Benefits?
There are a number of benefits for each option.
Employer of Record (EOR)
- This is where the client company sources a candidate for the open position and agrees terms directly with them (compensation and duration of engagement).
- The candidate then signs an employment contract with Accurity, which in turn then signs a supply contract with the client company partner.
- This trip-partite agreement is referred to as “labour leasing” and the worker is in effect a contractor for the client company with a Swiss employment contract.
- Two sub-models available:
- Client Account model where client company handles employee social deductions.
- Gross payment model where client company pays the contractor a gross rate per hour/week/month and they are responsible for paying employer deductions.
- The benefits of EOR for the Client Company are:
- No legal entity requirement. Full legal compliancy guaranteed.
- Employee/ worker mandatory social , insurance and pension cover compliant.
- Suited for short / long-term contracts, try-before-hire, scaling up skilled workers rapidly etc.
- Bonuses, share options and other benefit-in-kind payments also possible.
ANobAG
This German anagram stands for Arbeitnehmende ohne beitragspflichtigen Arbeitgeber. Encrypted it means that the employer is not responsible for the social contributions of the employee. Rather the employee has 100% responsibility for paying both the employer and employee deductions.
This model is used by foreign companies looking to employ skilled workers in Switzerland. The reasons for this could be that the person in question is a senior executive with ownership in the company and they may wish to have longevity of an employment contract for example. The basic parameters for ANobAG are:
- The client company employs the worker and agrees compensation.
- The skilled worker registers as an ANobAG worker in the canton/town where they live in Switzerland.
- Under ANobAG the worker is 100% responsible for arranging and paying all the employer and employee social deductions. However, most companies agree to participate in the payment of these with the worker.
- Accurity can advise on all the various mandatory insurances, social cover and pension plans that need to be arranged and paid (as part of our “set up” fee).
- We can then manage the monthly payment of all the social funds, insurances and pension payments to ensure full compliance.
- We can also manage the salary calculation and payment – which is also possible in various currencies including USD. This is all part of our “monthly management fee”.
Although small in population numbers, Switzerland is one of the world’s most advanced and highly-developed free-market economies. Switzerland’s GDP target for 2022 stands at US$900 billion (nominal, 2022) and this ranks 18th globally. There are several important and leading industry sectors based in Switzerland including, Finance/Banking, Pharmaceutical /Biotech, Engineering, Aerospace and Computer Science and with an excellent start-up eco-system and two of the worlds top universities with the EPFL (Lausanne) and the ETH Zurich, Switzerland is a fantastic environment for foreign companies to target.
If your company is looking at expansion options, or if you have a skilled worker looking to relocate to Switzerland for personal reasons, please contact our team for a free non-binding consultation.
Accurity GmbH is a professional employer organisation (PEO) based in Zurich. We are SECO licensed with a 20+ year enviable reputation as a trustworthy, reliable and transparent partner for companies of all sizes including SMEs, contractors and recruitment agents. Our core services include EOR and ANobAG. Contact our team for a non-binding consultation on sales@accurity.ch to see how we can help your company.
