The challenges of working overseas as a contractor
While there can be lots of advantages to being a contractor, there can be many challenges too, especially when working overseas.
The world today offers a global workplace: for someone willing to travel, especially someone who is skilled, work is available almost anywhere.
But the challenges of working overseas aren’t to be underestimated, particularly for those new to contracting. Without the right help and support, it’s easy for a contractor to be overwhelmed by legal, logistical or social issues.
Finding accommodation
Top of most people’s checklist before working overseas will be finding somewhere to live. Those used to contracting in their own country will perhaps be forgiven for thinking that it’s just as easy to find digs overseas. In practice, there are some serious considerations.
Location, location, location is, as we all know, vital. Clearly, when searching from another country, it’s hard to differentiate between a ‘good area’ and a ‘bad area’. But there are other factors too. Contractors who just want to focus on the job may want to live close to the client. Those who want to absorb the culture may want to be near the night life, theatres or recreation centres. Most will want value for money.
Sadly, it’s quite normal for contracting companies to leave the task of finding somewhere to live to the contractor. This isn’t easy – finding accommodation, or navigating rental legislation is challenging in some countries, such as (for example) Sweden and Switzerland. Other countries can be challenging because the difference in culture (or the distance) is so great – China, for example.
Quanta doesn’t work in this way – we see helping contractors find suitable living accommodation is a key part of our service. To do this, we use a mixture of local knowledge (our own, our clients’ or perhaps an accommodation partner) to find something that’s the right price and in the right place. We also provide people with location guides, with information on airlines, transport, hotels, doctors, schools, emergency numbers and so on.
Tax
There can’t be many people who are at ease with organising payment of taxes when overseas – yet it’s another area where many contracting companies leave contractors to sort things out for themselves.
Tax isn’t something you can afford to get wrong – and, despite the notion that everywhere across the EU has the same taxation and employment regulations, the truth is somewhat different. Switzerland’s taxation can be quite complex, for example; China’s is actually simple by comparison. Getting tax wrong creates a liability for everyone – primarily the contractor, but also the contracting company and the client (who can be fined if the contractor doesn’t pay correctly). Tax can be a particular nightmare for those visiting and working in a country for the first time.
So again, Quanta takes the view that our role is to help contractors – we do this by having a fully working and compliant tax solution for the countries in which we operate. Since we’re working with these countries each and every day, it makes sense for our contractors to exploit our expertise.
This can have dual benefits – in Holland, for example, organising accommodation and tax can go hand-in-hand; to have anything other than temporary accommodation, a contractor needs a BSN/SOFI number – which is part of the process of organising a tax solution.
Prior-work visits
It’s sometimes necessary for a contractor to visit a client overseas before the project starts. A primary example of this would be to attend an interview, but it could also be to find accommodation or to arrange a work visa.
Again, most contracting companies leave contractors to fend for themselves – both financially and in terms of making arrangements.
Quanta tries to help out – both by advancing the required costs of travel, accommodation and living expenses and organising the logistics. We then reclaim it back from the contractor, once he or she is in place, earning money.
Personal and family issues
Where the contractor works away from the family, it’s possible that something could go wrong – for either party. Perhaps the contractor’s partner can’t get hold of him/her, or there’s a sudden and serious illness at home. What happens if this occurs out of hours?
Sadly, it’s usual for many contractors to find themselves on their own – without much-needed support during a time of crisis.
Quanta always maintains contact, proactively, with its contractors. Indeed, we can be contacted by either party - contractor or family – 24 hours a day. If something should go wrong, we try to help as much as we can and provide whatever support is needed.
Local knowledge
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges is one of the most obvious - local knowledge. If you don’t live in a particular place, there are so many things you may not understand – from how you buy a train ticket to where you can meet others of your own nationality for a drink. We’ve already said that we put together guides for people – we don’t want them to feel that they’re on their own.
In contrast to most contracting companies, we don’t leave our contractors to sort everything for themselves. We talk to the contractor, to find what he/she wants from the stay – perhaps to integrate with the local culture, or be near other people of their nationality, or just live in the most efficient way. This helps us to find the most suitable place to live for contractors – and for them to relax when they’re not working.
We also try to get contractors to help each other in the early days. We put ourselves in the shoes of our contractors, so we can understand what they’ll need when working away. And when we say that we don’t leave them to fend for themselves, we mean it – we’re in contact regularly and we visit them, too. Our contractors have 24-hour contact numbers should they need help.
Our ethos is that we do all of this for all of our contractors, wherever they are working: we strive to provide the same help when they’re working overseas as when they’re working in their own country.
It’s in our interest to get things right – we want our contractors to be happy, so we work closely with them to make sure their contracting term is as hassle-free as it can be.