Recruiting and hiring employees for your company’s new location in Greece is an exciting milestone, but the process doesn’t come without challenges. You need to learn all of Greece’s employment compliance laws, find the right candidates for your skilled positions, and continue to run your new location. Globalization Partners can help take some of the stress out of compliance and hiring through our Greece hiring outsourcing services. Using our Employer of Record solution, we’ll hire employees who work on your behalf and ensure you stay compliant throughout the process.
Recruiting in Greece
Your recruiting efforts in Greece will only be successful if you understand where to find local talent. The most popular job sites include kariera.gr, skywalker.gr, xe.gr, and Indeed.com. Employers should also notify Greece’s public employment service, the Greek Manpower Employment Organisation, of any vacancies.
Greece’s unemployment rate is high, which gives you a greater supply of labor. However, it can take a long time to comb through all the applications to find the most suitable candidate.
Greeks typically expect a short application process — approximately 22 days. Therefore, it’s important to provide an easy application and ensure all recruiters are accessible. While staffing your business in Greece, you may be eligible for a labor-cost subsidy program to help people under 25 or individuals who are unemployed long-term find work, thereby reducing your labor expenses.
Legal & Background Checks
Employers and any third-party processing companies are limited in how they can process personal data. You can only collect candidate data that is absolutely necessary to assess their suitability and skills for the job. For example, you are only allowed to process a person’s criminal prosecutions and convictions if it’s necessary for the job or for reaching a decision on recruitment. All data can only be collected directly from the candidate.
Laws Against Discrimination in Greece
The Constitution and Greek and European Law also provide provisions for eliminating discrimination. You cannot hire an employee based on their racial or ethnic origin, religion or beliefs, disability, age, or sexual orientation. Greek compliance laws also prohibit publishing vacancies that reflect an intention to discriminate. All criteria for hiring an employee must be clear and be relevant to the job.
Greek law also requires equal opportunities and treatment of men and women at work.
How to Hire Employees in Greece
To start an employment relationship, you need to legally register with the right social insurance foundation. Then, you need to complete a hiring document with the employee’s personal information and job information. Once you and the employee sign the document, you need to submit it to the authorities on or before the first day of employment.
Although it’s not required, you should draft a written employment contract for each individual you hire that outlines position, compensation, termination terms, working hours, and all other relevant information. Greece allows indefinite contracts and defined employment contracts that range from one month to one year.
Employers must provide a written statement of terms of employment outlining factors such as position, compensation, termination terms, and working hours, within two months of an employee’s start date. Once you and the employee sign the document, you need to submit it to the public employment service within eight days.
Greece Employment Laws
Greece employment compliance laws outline the typical workweek, which is 40 hours spread out over five or six days. Employees are allowed to work up to 10 hours per with the extra hours offset against another working day. Sunday work is generally not permitted. Employers are required to provide the Labour Inspectorate with a list of their employees and each of their schedules once a year (generally in October) as well as notify them before making any changes. Overtime is permitted but limited to 150 hours per year and paid at a rate of 140%.
Onboarding in Greece
After you hire employees in Greece, you need to onboard them in a way that is the most successful for your company. Greece employment compliance laws do not include any specific ways to onboard employees, but you can take certain steps to make them more comfortable. Try to go over the employment contract, company code of conduct, and any other important documents on the employee’s first day. You can even onboard multiple employees at one time to encourage team bonding.
Benefits of Hiring Outsourcing in Greece
Globalization Partners offers Greece hiring outsourcing services to help make your expansion easier. We’ll act as the Employer of Record to handle all matters of employment compliance. We’ll also hire employees through our existing Greece subsidiary, and they’ll work on your behalf. Our goal is to help make the process easier so that you can focus on running your company instead of worrying about staying compliant.
Work With Globalization Partners To Expand Globally
Globalization Partners wants to be your partner from the beginning of your expansion to Greece. With our help, you can find the right employees to fill your positions and feel confident that your company will stay compliant. Contact us today to learn more about our Greece hiring outsourcing services.
