Can we help ?

EXPERTISE

What makes us different from other firms?

Founded 2001, 140 countries covered, international PEO “Umbrella” and Payroll Admin services; fast, flexible legally compliant cost effective, customized professional service.

Solidity –we have been around for 16 years: founded March 2001
Client Service: Compandben gives clients a personal service: we don’t expect clients to just take a standard product.
Coverage -- we provide at this moment payroll administration services and employment services for clients in 87 countries and have the capability to provide these services in 146 countries.
Economy- We will offer the service that is most economical for the client. We wont pretend that a more expensive solution is required.
Experience- The service is run by experienced HR and payroll specialists. For instance we provide draft employment contracts free and will customize our contracts to suit the client –within legal guidelines.
Speed - We can usually implement services in 2 – 3 weeks.
Honesty - Unlike a lot of competitors we don’t make any money out of exchange rates..
Client Focus The client’s wishes are paramount. If the client wishes to deal wholly and directly with our local provider –no problem:if the client wishes Compandben to be the single point f contact and have us do the invoicing as well as providing services though our network – No problem.
Multi Language –English, French, Spanish.

It is sometimes useful for HR Managers to have an independent source of expertise available in order to be able to evaluate demands that come from the “field” or in order to develop better HR practices.

We have offices worldwide ready to help you with your HR and Payroll needs – e-mail info@compandben.com describing your problem or ideas.

Review the list below – it may give you some ideas.

Let us help YOU

What is the level of salary required for a Sales Manager based in Amsterdam but remotely reporting to Brazil in the food industry? The office in Amsterdam has 6 staff covering Europe.

We did a quick salary survey, and contacted an advisor is Amsterdam. We decided the base salary was OK, even a little generous but that the bonus plan needed serious revision.

Do you know of a good recruitment consultancy specialising in networks/technical/ desktop to desktop staff in UK?

We recommended three such agencies.

Can you provide a salary program for our staff in 6 European countries, plus Australia?

This was a major project: we provided a salary program with a unified grade structure but different levels of salary in each country. Plus a breakdown of social charges plus a spreadsheet of legal and market practice, employment regulations, and benefits.

Are there any good online recruitment sites in UK?

We advised the answer to this but with some scepticism as we don’t think any of them are particularly good.

Can you provide Employee Handbooks for USA, Denmark and Netherlands?

We provided these to a template given to us by the company.

What is the lease price of a car suitable for an executive in France type – Citroen Xantia, BMW 3 series, Audi 400 Peugeot 406?

We provided a spreadsheet of the type of cars given to various types of executives in 6 countries in Europe. We supplemented this with information about the level of car allowance given.

Do you have details of cost efficient health care providers –medical/dental in South Africa?

We provided the names of two insurance companies who deal in private health insurance in Johannesburg and engaged in correspondence to the point of subscription..

Our Country Managers in Brazil/ Mexico/UK are grumbling about their salaries. Can you do a check on the salary levels ?

We provided a salary review from published sources and from our own database.

We are recruiting a Country Manager in Germany and he wants a car allowance instead of a car. Can you tell me the levels applicable to this sort of job ?

We provided this information from our database.

We have a small tech office in Paris. Twice the staff have complained in writing about their salary levels which do look extremely low: but our Country manager in France insists that the salaries are benchmarked and correct.

We spent a day there, interviewed all the French workshop staff and issed a report which gave a modest rise in salaries but had other recommendations which met the employees requirements.

We want to hire an employee in Hong Kong . Please can you fix him up with the relevant insurances and arrange for an outsourced payroll administration

This was done using a Hong Kong based broker for the insurance and a local payroll administrator.

We want to employ an employee in France. We have sent him a job offer on our UK model. Can you fix up insurance and payroll provision.

We have done this and in fact changed the job offer into a French base one.

We employ staff in several European countries. They all pay social charges in Switzerland but are often taxable in the countries where they are based. Can you arrange for payroll deductions to be done in all these countries.

We are in the process of arranging this.

We are looking for a payroll company to which to outsource our payroll in Philippines We are presently charged too much (in our opinion) for payroll services from one of the big accountants.

We recommended a payroll provider in Philippines, and have had excellent success.

I have a small unquoted company and want to give shares to my senior staff.

We are in the process of developing an employee share plan which will use a Jersey based Trust.

We have recently taken over a company and I have to make a fair number of senior staff redundant in Europe. What are their rights, what do other companies do and what are the pitfalls ?

We have developed a document which shows legal and market related severance payments throughout the world.

If I give you a list of staff , job titles and salaries can you do a benchmarking exercise ?

We are in telecommunications.We undertook a benchmark study from our own database, and will monitor permanently the salary market for this company.

We want a survey among our competitors in the luxury goods industry in 4 countries.

Unfortunately we didn’t get the job! But we had to help afterwards- much to our satisfaction.

Can you find us a training source for Microsoft Project, Prince2 training and Advanced Powerpoint Training in Beijing

We provided this source. The training for Microsoft Project was RMB2000 per day per employee.

We have 4 staff in a semiconductor sales office in UK . Please can you advise the market salary. ?

We provided this but the client wasn’t too happy with the result ! He would never tell us if the salaries we came up with wee wildly high or extremely low…

We want to terminate some employees in Belgium and Germany .

We advised the client throughout the process

We provided the data and reviewed the contracts, then set up the split payroll.

We are a high end luxury store. Our female sales staff in Paris are complaining because it costs them a lot to keep up appearances but they are on the same grade as the office staff who don’t have such constraints..

We did a survey which ended up with a “Prime de Coiffure” being offered to the sales staff for hairdressing , manicure etc – this of course had to then apply to male and female staff..

We pay a levy in France for a training fund. Now we have done some training I understand we can claim back some of it..

We advised the company on the correct procedure for claiming back the costs under the training levy regulations.

We want to transfer 2 employees to Spain and do tax equalisation.

We provided the data and reviewed the contracts, then set up the split payroll.

Other recent examples

Employment and consultant contract pro-formas
Pension Plan Implementation – Germany, Switzerland,UK
Employee handbooks Greece, Thailand. Singapore,UK
Salary survey for Corporate Lawyers in several countries.
Salary Survey betting industry-UK- not finally undertaken
Salary of a Sales Mgr UK –Software
Can we grant options to outsourced (PEO) employees? Option plan regulations for outsourced employees were described –short answer is “NO”.
Minor items- salary negotiations in Sweden, notice periods in Belgium, customising of Netherlands job offer, advice on consultancy contracts, recommendation of an executive search consultant in Paris, termination rules in China, fixed term contracts in China/.
How much should we raise salaries in the Baltics for 2009 ?Salary rises 2009 Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia were recommended(8%).
We are transferring someone to Oman: we provided Expatriate tax planning -Ireland/UK/Oman- which was ignored by the client in favour of a less legally compliant method!
We would like a German Employee Handbook : we provided this plus a translation
We want to demote someone in Italy . We provided Italian employment contract advice
We provided advice on Netherlands pension plans. The client finally decided it was too much of a commitment and provided a cash allowance instead.

What should we pay our employees in China ? We provided a China local salary survey
Can you advise us on Chile social charges ?We provided the data for Chile and several other countries.
We have provided assistance for expatriate management for UK clients including liaison with HMRC (UK Social Security) Hong Kong, Italy, Spain.
For several clients we are acting as an Ongoing HR support function -Germany, France, UK
We provided Polish employment contract customization
Is there any way of tweaking our salary packages to make them more tax efficient ? We provided tax efficient salary structure advice in various countries.
Our “Payroll Partners have assisted expat and local employees with Individual employee tax returns in various countries.
Participation in interviews with headhunters for General Manger recruitment in Paris: A search firm was eventually appointed and successfully completed a difficult assignment.
Explanation to an HR Manager of the “Big Mac Index” to help decide the salary of an employee in China for a job that was exactly the same as at the head office in USA.
We need guidance on setting up Personnel Representatives in France. We provided a proposal for using our Payroll Partner for this.
We want to terminate a poor performing employee in France. Such is the sensitivity of terminations in France that we had to refer this to our “legal services partner” a law firm in the Hi-Tech area near Nice.

We have a Social security inspection in France: can you help as we don’t have confidence in the payroll company and their English language levels are poor. Our “payroll partners in Paris stepped in to help this firm.
Our firm does not want to employ directly outside our home base and we do not want to set up a Branch or subsidiary in xxx country – we set up outsourced employment in Australia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Thailand, Singapore, Dubai, India, Italy, Japan, and Turkey.
We provided Expat meet and Greet, and accommodation finding services for a Danish executive coming to work in UK after a takeover.
Expatriate Transfer UK to Spain involving tax equalisation: we provided calculations showing how a “hypo tax” would work with the employee paying just the tax he would have paid on the same salary in UK
We want to withdraw cars from our Belgian sales staff and replace them with car allowances: we provided a report essentially telling the firm not to replace the cars as it would be too costly -cars are a very tax efficient benefit in Belgium
Expat transfer Netherlands to Belgium involving tax equalisation.
Advice on separation of responsibility “Payroll” versus “HR”—What aspects of payroll operation should an HR Manager be involved in
We provided an HR Audit alert a firm to probable HR issues arising from the purchase of a firm in HUNGARY.