Marketplace, EOR or Agency: How to Hire in the Philippines
Four routes, one structural decision
There are four common ways for a company in the UK, US, Europe or Australia to start working with Filipino professionals. They differ on four things that matter more than the headline price: who checks the person is who they say they are, who employs them, who pays them, and who is left holding the problem when it goes wrong.
PH Talents is one of the four routes, so read this with that in mind. Where one of the other three is the better answer, we have tried to say so plainly.
The four routes side by side
Providers vary within each model, so treat this as the shape of each route rather than a description of any particular firm.
| Criterion | Marketplace / job board | BPO or outsourcing firm | Employer of Record | Introduction and verification agency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who verifies | You do, entirely | The provider, to its own standard; what is checked, and how much you see, varies | The provider, for employment and payroll compliance; skills and background vetting is not usually part of it | The agency, before any profile reaches you |
| Who employs | Nobody in between — you engage a contractor, or employ them yourself | The provider | The provider | Nobody in between — you contract with the talent directly |
| Who pays the talent | You, usually through the platform | You pay the provider; it pays the staff | You fund the provider; it runs local payroll | You pay the talent directly, at a rate you agree together |
| Who carries the risk | You carry identity, credential, delivery and continuity risk | Provider carries employment; you carry delivery and any rotation of staff | Provider carries employment compliance; you carry sourcing, fit and performance | You carry the engagement; the agency stands behind the introduction and the checks, and replaces the hire under its guarantee |
| Cost structure | Little or nothing before you hire, then pay per hour or per project, plus any platform commission | Ongoing monthly fee per seat, covering employment, management and facilities as well as the work | Ongoing monthly fee per head on top of the pay itself | One-off fee at the point of hire, with an optional monthly care plan |
1. DIY marketplaces and job boards
You post the role, sift the applications, interview and hire. Nothing is due before you hire, and no supplier sits between you and the person doing the work, though platforms generally charge a commission on what you pay.
The trade-off is that every check is yours. A platform badge is not an identity check. Borrowed CVs, a different person sitting the interview, accounts that change hands, and claimed PRC or TESDA credentials that nobody has looked up on the registry are all yours to catch. None of that is peculiar to marketplaces — it is the risk in any hire nobody has verified — but on a marketplace there is no one else positioned to catch it. If you skip that work, you are not saving money, you are accepting a risk you have not priced.
Genuinely best for: short projects, tight budgets, and work you can judge on sight — a landing page, a data clean-up, a set of illustrations. If the engagement is short and the output speaks for itself, a marketplace is the sensible answer and hiring an agency would be over-engineering it.
2. BPO and outsourcing firms
The provider employs the staff and sells you a seat. You buy a managed function rather than a named person: supervision, shift cover and continuity are part of the product.
What you give up is control over who. Depending on the provider, you may not choose or interview the individual, staff can be rotated, and the per-seat fee covers employment, management and facilities as well as the work itself. If your work depends on one person knowing your product deeply over the long term, that model can fit badly.
Genuinely best for: volume, round-the-clock coverage, and processes you want run for you — a support queue that never closes, back-office processing, anything where the process matters more than the individual.
3. Employer of Record
An EOR employs the person in the Philippines on your behalf and handles local payroll and statutory obligations. You direct the work; they hold the employment relationship. The cost is typically an ongoing fee per head.
Worth knowing: sourcing and vetting are not usually part of what an EOR does — it employs whoever you bring to it — so check what any particular provider includes. Finding and verifying the person otherwise stays with you, or with another supplier, which is why an agency and an EOR can sit alongside each other.
Genuinely best for: when you want employment rather than contracting. If you need exclusivity, control over hours and working methods, notice periods, benefits and statutory protections, an EOR is a better answer than we are, and we will say so. Whether an arrangement counts as contracting or employment turns on how it works in practice rather than on what the paperwork calls it, and the degree of control you intend to exercise is part of that, so settle the question early and take advice on it.
4. Introduction and verification agency (what we do)
We source candidates and run five checks before you see anyone: government photo ID matched to a live selfie, NBI clearance (the Philippine police clearance) verified at source and paid for by us, PRC or TESDA credentials confirmed on the official government registry where applicable, employment history corroborated with documents, and two professional references contacted through their company. A profile that fails any check never reaches a client. You receive verification summaries, never raw documents.
Then you contract with and pay the talent directly, at a rate the two of you agree. We are never the employer and never sit in the payment chain. You get a shortlist of three to five verified candidates within five business days of a role brief, and there is nothing to pay until you hire — posting a role, receiving a shortlist and interviewing are free.
Our published fees: Direct Placement is a one-off fee of 25% of first-year pay. Placement plus Care Plan is 15% of first-year pay plus GBP 135 per talent per month, with a three-month minimum term and then rolling monthly, which adds free replacement within 10 working days and verification kept current. Every placement carries a six-month replacement guarantee. Talent are never charged anything — UK employment agency law prohibits charging work-seekers.
Genuinely best for: one or a few long-term people you choose, manage and pay yourself, verified before you meet them, without a supplier margin on the hours they work. It is the wrong route if you want someone else to hold the employment relationship, or if the work is a short one-off task.
A note on rates
We do not publish average salary figures for Philippine roles. Averages get quoted, repeated and stripped of context, and we cannot substantiate them. We publish the real range on each live role instead.
Which should you choose?
- Short task, output you can judge on sight — a marketplace. Do the identity check yourself before you hand over anything sensitive.
- A managed function, shift cover, many seats — a BPO. Accept that you are buying a service, not a person.
- You want an employment relationship in the Philippines — an EOR. Find and verify the person separately.
- One or a few long-term people, chosen and managed by you, contracted and paid directly — an introduction and verification agency.
- Still unsure whether you want a contractor or an employee — settle that question first. It determines the route, not the other way round.
PH Talents operates under UK employment agency regulations (the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003), handles personal data under UK GDPR, and provides NDAs, device policies and an IP assignment in the engagement pack. To brief a role, email [email protected].
This article is informational only and is not legal advice. It does not address your particular circumstances; take proper advice before choosing a structure.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an Employer of Record and an introduction agency?
An EOR becomes the legal employer of your hire in the Philippines and runs local payroll for an ongoing monthly fee per head, but it does not find or vet the person. An introduction and verification agency does the sourcing and the background checks, then steps out: you contract with and pay the talent directly. The two work together, and an EOR is the better answer on its own if you specifically want an employment relationship rather than a contracting one.
Does PH Talents employ the talent or handle the payments?
No. The client contracts with and pays the talent directly, at a rate they agree together. PH Talents is never the employer and never sits in the payment chain. We introduce and verify, and we provide a ready-to-sign contract pack.
What does it cost, and when do I pay?
Nothing until a hire is made — posting a role, receiving a shortlist and interviewing are all free. Direct Placement is a one-off fee of 25% of first-year pay. Placement plus Care Plan is 15% of first-year pay plus GBP 135 per talent per month, with a three-month minimum term then rolling monthly. Every placement carries a six-month replacement guarantee.
Why not just hire from a marketplace myself?
For short projects with output you can judge on sight, that is often the right call and we will say so. The risk shifts to you on longer engagements: identity fraud, borrowed CVs, unverified PRC or TESDA credentials and uncorroborated employment history all become yours to catch. We run five checks — ID matched to a live selfie, NBI clearance verified at source, registry credential checks, documented employment history and two references contacted through their company — before a profile reaches a client.