Employer of Record in India: your team, hired in weeks, no entity required
An Employer of Record (EOR) lets you build a team in India before you have any legal presence there. We become the legal employer of your people in India: the employment contracts, payroll, taxes, benefits, and statutory compliance sit with us. You decide who to hire, what they work on, and how they perform. They are your team in every way that matters; the regulatory weight is ours.
It is the fastest legitimate way to start in India, and for many of our clients, the first step toward a centre of their own.
In plain language
How an Employer of Record actually works
Employing someone in India requires a registered Indian entity, statutory registrations, payroll infrastructure, and ongoing compliance with Indian employment, tax, and social security law. Building all of that takes months. An EOR removes the requirement entirely.
Here is the arrangement:
ATG is the legal employer.
Your people are employed by our Indian entity, on compliant local contracts, enrolled in every statutory scheme, paid correctly and on time.
You are the practical employer.
You select the candidates, set the compensation, direct the work, manage performance, and own everything the team produces.
One monthly flow.
You receive a single consolidated invoice covering salaries, statutory contributions, and our fee. Your team in India experiences a professional, fully compliant employer.
This is not a staffing agency and not contracting. Your people are proper employees with full statutory benefits and protections, dedicated to your company. They are simply employed through our entity instead of one you would have to build first.
An honest comparison
EOR or your own entity: an honest comparison
Both routes are legitimate. The right one depends on how fast you need people working, how many, and how central India is to your plans.
Time to first hire
EOR
Weeks
Own entity
Months (incorporation and registrations come first)
Upfront investment
EOR
None beyond hiring itself
Own entity
Incorporation, registrations, and setup costs
Ongoing cost structure
EOR
Per-employee monthly fee
Own entity
Fixed entity running costs; lower cost per employee as you scale
Statutory compliance burden
EOR
Carried by ATG
Own entity
Yours, managed by ATG if engaged
Employment risk
EOR
Sits with ATG
Own entity
Sits with your entity
Best suited for
EOR
First hires, testing India, urgent talent needs, small teams
Own entity
Larger teams, long-term commitment, full ownership economics
Path onward
EOR
Graduate to your own entity when the case is proven
Own entity
You are already there
The honest crossover: EOR wins on speed and simplicity; an entity wins on economics at scale. Somewhere as your headcount grows, the per-employee fee overtakes the cost of running your own entity. Where exactly that point falls depends on your numbers, and mapping it is part of our first conversation.
What ATG handles
Everything employment touches, handled
Under our EOR service, ATG is responsible for:
Compliant employment contracts
locally correct terms, offer management, and onboarding paperwork for every hire.
Payroll, run correctly
monthly payroll processing, payslips, tax withholding, and year-end documentation for every employee.
Statutory contributions and filings
provident fund, state insurance where applicable, professional tax, gratuity provisioning, and every deadline in between.
Benefits administration
statutory benefits as required by law, plus supplementary benefits such as group health insurance where you choose to offer them.
HR administration
leave records, letters, verifications, and the day-to-day employment paperwork your people will need.
Exits, done properly
notice periods, final settlements, and statutory obligations handled correctly when someone moves on.
And because GCCs are our only business, our EOR is built for teams meant to grow into centres, not as a payroll product. Talent acquisition support, workspace, and IT assets for your team can all sit under the same engagement, one partner from the start.
You manage the work. We manage the employment. Nothing falls between.
The timeline
From decision to first day, in weeks
Because no entity, registration, or infrastructure has to be created on your side, the EOR timeline is driven by only two things: how quickly candidates are selected, and their notice periods with current employers.
Once you have chosen a candidate, we issue a compliant offer and employment contract, complete onboarding and statutory enrolments, and have them working, equipped, and on payroll from day one. For a candidate who can start promptly, the gap between your decision and their first day is measured in weeks. Contrast that with the months an entity requires before it can employ anyone at all.
- Step 01
You select the candidate
- Step 02
We issue the compliant offer and contract
- Step 03
Onboarding and statutory enrolments
- Step 04
Day one, working and on payroll
From EOR to your own centre
EOR is a first step, not a ceiling
Most EOR providers want you to stay on EOR forever; their revenue depends on it. Ours does not, because we build across the whole ownership spectrum. For us, EOR is often chapter one of a GCC story: hire five people, prove the talent case, then incorporate and move the team into your own captive centre.
When you are ready, the graduation is a planned project: we set up your entity, transfer your people onto its payroll with continuity handled properly, and carry every process across. Your team keeps working; the logo on their employment contract changes. Because both sides of the move are run by the same partner, nothing is lost in translation between an EOR vendor and an incorporation firm.
Tell us on day one that a centre is the ambition, and we will structure the EOR engagement with that destination in mind.
FAQ
Common questions about Employer of Record in India
Is using an Employer of Record legal in India?
Yes. Your employees are hired on compliant Indian employment contracts by a registered Indian entity, enrolled in all statutory schemes, and afforded every protection of Indian employment law. The structure is well established; what matters is that the EOR operates it correctly, which is why ours is run by a Chartered Accountant-led team.
What does an EOR cost in India?
The structure is simple: the employee's salary and statutory contributions, plus a monthly fee per employee. Your total cost is transparent and consolidated into one invoice. The specific fee depends on team size and the scope you want under the engagement, which we will set out plainly in a consultation. No unverified number belongs on a website; a clear quote belongs in a conversation.
How is an EOR different from a staffing agency or hiring contractors?
A staffing agency supplies its people to work on your tasks. Contractors are self-employed, with real misclassification risk if they work like employees. Under an EOR, the people are your chosen hires, dedicated to your company, employed as proper full-time employees with statutory benefits. Only the legal employer of record differs.
Who owns the work product and intellectual property?
You do. The engagement is structured so that everything your team creates belongs to your company, with confidentiality and IP assignment built into the employment framework.
Can employees hired under EOR later move to our own entity?
Yes, and this is one of the most common paths we run. When you incorporate, your team transfers onto your entity's payroll with service continuity handled properly. We plan the EOR engagement for that destination from the start if you tell us it is the ambition.
What statutory benefits do employees in India receive?
Indian law mandates provident fund contributions, gratuity entitlement after qualifying service, paid leave, and state insurance where applicable, among other protections. We enrol every employee correctly and administer all of it; many clients also add supplementary benefits such as group health insurance to compete for talent.
How many employees can we hire under EOR?
There is no fixed cap, but there is an honest answer: EOR economics suit smaller teams, and as headcount grows, your own entity becomes the better structure. If your plan starts at meaningful scale, we may recommend BOT or a captive from the outset. We will tell you plainly which side of the line your plan falls on.
Which cities can our EOR employees be based in?
Anywhere in India your talent strategy points: Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, NCR, or beyond. Remote, hybrid, and office-based arrangements are all supported, and workspace can be arranged under the same engagement where you want your team together.
Ready to talk about your centre in India?
Tell us where you are in your thinking. We respond within one business day and work across US, UK, and European time zones.