Congratulations on hiring a new employee with Plane! 🎉 We're excited to support you through the onboarding process to make it as smooth and successful as possible. We know that bringing on international employees can come with challenges, considerations, and concerns, and we’re here to help. In this guide, we outline our onboarding timeline and process, so you know what to expect as we embark on this journey together.

The length of time it takes to hire an employee compliantly varies from country to country. Timelines can also be affected by an employee’s right to work status in their country. If the employee needs to undergo a right to work check or requires visa support, their start date may need to be extended to accommodate these procedures. (You can view more info on right to work processes and visa support here.)

Below are our estimated timelines for onboarding an international employee, based on where they are located. Please keep in mind that these timelines are not guaranteed; onboarding may take more or less time depending on each employee’s unique circumstances.

Here’s an overview of the employee onboarding process and the tasks that the owner or admins of your Plane account will need to complete.

To kick off the onboarding process, the first step is to add your new employee to Plane.

Check out “How to hire and onboard an international employee” in our help center for a detailed, step-by-step breakdown of how to do so.

Once you’ve added the employee to Plane, you will receive a notification to approve the cost of employment and security deposit. (This notification is typically ready within one to two business days.) The cost of employment depends on the employee’s country, and the security deposit is equal to one month’s expected payroll and employer taxes.

As soon as you confirm this step in the platform, we will process your security deposit. This deposit, a one-time only payment, serves as a safeguard; if we’re ever unable to withdraw funds from your account, we can use this deposit to ensure that your employee still gets paid in a timely manner.

This security deposit is fully refundable when the employee is offboarded.

Next, within the Plane platform, check off all the tasks in your guided onboarding process. Make sure to address the following important to-dos:

Once the offer summary is approved and sent to the employee, they will need to review and accept the offer summary officially. We’ll send a request to the employee to complete their profile on Plane by logging into id.plane.com. This step allows us to receive necessary information and documentation to finalize their onboarding.

Plane creates the employment contract and sends it to you for approval. This is usually ready within five business days after the employee completes their profile on Plane, but this timeline may be subject to extension depending on changes or specific requirements.

Both you and the employee will need to review and approve the employment contract. We recommend that both parties complete this step as soon as possible to avoid any delays.

Once all parties have approved the contract, Plane will provide instructions to the employee to sign the employment contract.

We will request any necessary additional information and documents from the employee. These may include tax forms, proof of address, banking details, and other relevant paperwork.

Your work here is done! Once all the necessary steps have been completed, and we’ve collected all the required documentation, Plane will notify you that the employee has been successfully onboarded. Congrats! 🎉

Why does it take longer to onboard in some countries?

Some countries require new hire registration, medical exams, and wet signature contracts. Plane and our local team will assist the employee with the coordination and completion of these tasks.

What is the best date to onboard an employee?

We recommend that employees start on the first day of a new month. This ensures they will be added to payroll in time to receive their first paycheck at the end of the month.

When will employees be paid?

All employees can expect to be paid on the last working day of each month. There are some exceptions, such as the examples below:

What documents will employees need to provide?

All employees must provide the following documents and information at minimum:

I don’t know if my employee has the right to work. What should I do?

During the onboarding process, we ask employees to indicate their right to work status. If an employee is a non-national of the country they intend to work in, we are required to request proof of their right to work. It is best practice for your team to request these documents directly from the employee to ensure smooth onboarding.

Find more information on verifying right to work status here.

Background checks: What do you look for?

We use a partner background check provider. The employee is required to provide a copy of a government-provided photo identification, and provide information such as their current and previous home addresses. The background check provider investigates whether or not the employee has any criminal record. Once the background check is completed, a copy of the report will be available on Plane for your review.

What is the security deposit used for? When will I get it back?

The security deposit is the equivalent of one month of expected payroll and taxes. We withdraw the deposit and hold it for the duration of the employee's employment. As an employer of record, we have a contractual obligation to pay the employee their salary; if we’re ever unable to draw funds from your account, we can use this deposit to ensure we pay the employee in a timely manner.

Once the employee leaves (e.g. through resignation or termination), the security deposit will be refunded to you within 30 days of the employee's final payroll.

Can I pay my employee in USD?

We are required to pay employees in their local currency. If you enter the salary into Plane in USD, we’ll do a live conversion to get the equivalent in local currency on the day it was entered.

If an employee’s salary depreciates throughout their employment due to currency fluctuations, you may decide to offer a “bonus” to make up the difference. Just reach out to support@plane.com and let us know the amount of the bonus that you’d like to provide, in local currency.

The local salary value doesn’t match my employee’s expectations. Why is this and what can we do?

The exchange rate you may see on CurrencyRate, Bloomberg, or Google is the mid-market rate, which, in practice, is only available to central banks. As different currencies have different liquidity, you may see differences between the mid-market rate and the rate we’re able to convert at. In this case, what you’re seeing is the rate from the currency exchange partner we use for employee payroll.

Your cost in USD is subject to change each month; this is based on the actual exchange rate on the dates we process payrolls.

If you would like to reevaluate an employee’s salary, please contact us at support@pilot.co. Let us know what salary the employee expects in local currency, and we can tell you the live conversion.

Can an employee sign the contract electronically?

Most countries allow for and acknowledge the validity of electronic signatures. However, some jurisdictions will also require wet signatures. In jurisdictions where wet signatures are required, we will work with the employee to coordinate this.