If you have already found the person you want to hire in Indonesia, an Employer of Record (EOR) lets you employ them legally without setting up a company there. The EOR issues a permanent Indonesian employment contract, registers your hire with BPJS, runs monthly payroll with PPh 21 income tax withheld, and pays the annual THR. You keep choosing the person, setting their goals and directing their day-to-day work. With MixWork EOR, the contract, BPJS registration and payroll setup can be completed in as little as 24 hours once your candidate accepts the offer, and nothing in the agreement ties you in afterwards: no transfer fee on a person you bring, and no contractual lock-in beyond two months’ notice.
In one line: you bring the candidate and the job; the EOR brings the legal employer, the payroll and the HR team in Indonesia.
Is an EOR the right route for a candidate you have already found?
Yes, if the role is permanent and full-time and you do not have your own company in Indonesia. Many clients come to us with a person already chosen: an engineer met through a referral, a former colleague who has moved back to Jakarta, a LinkedIn conversation that turned into an offer, or a freelancer who is ready to join properly. What they need is an employer in Indonesia that will put that person on a proper contract quickly, look after them well, and not tie them in.
MixWork employs professionals in Indonesia for international companies, from startups and SMEs to enterprise teams, and this guide follows the process we take those clients through. Two scope notes: MixWork EOR employs people on permanent, full-time contracts only, so it is not the route for a short project or a part-time role. And this guide assumes your hire is an Indonesian citizen.
What an EOR does when you bring the candidate
The EOR becomes the legal employer and carries the employer’s obligations under Indonesian law. You keep the working relationship.
You | The EOR | |
|---|---|---|
Choose the person | Yes | Vets and runs background checks |
Agree salary and role | Yes, with the candidate | Checks it against the local minimum wage and models your full cost |
Employment contract | Approve the terms | Issues the permanent contract in Bahasa Indonesia |
Payroll and tax | Fund it each month | Runs payroll in rupiah, withholds and files PPh 21 |
BPJS health and employment cover | Nothing to do | Registers your hire and pays contributions |
THR and leave | Approve leave as a manager would | Pays THR and keeps leave records |
Day-to-day work | Direct it, set goals, review performance | Answers HR questions |
Ending the employment | Decide | Runs a compliant exit and final settlement |
Everything your hire experiences at work, from their manager to their team channel, stays with you. If you want to understand how the model works legally, our guide on whether an EOR is legal in Indonesia explains it.
From “yes” to day one: the steps
Seven steps take you from an accepted offer to day one. Most of the time goes on two of them that you control: agreeing the offer and waiting out the candidate’s notice period.
Step | What happens | Timing |
|---|---|---|
1. Agree the offer | You agree salary, title, start date, location and benefits with the candidate | Your pace |
2. Get your cost | The EOR models salary, employer contributions, THR, benefits and its fee for that person | Before you sign |
3. Sign with the EOR | You sign and send the hire’s details through the client portal; the EOR starts vetting and background checks | When you are ready; checks depend on the candidate |
4. Contract | The EOR issues the permanent contract and your hire signs it | As little as 24 hours, with step 5 |
5. BPJS and payroll | The EOR completes BPJS registration and sets up payroll before the monthly cut-off | Alongside step 4 |
6. Notice period | Your hire resigns from their current job and works their notice | Typically 30 days |
7. Day one | Employment starts, with laptop, desk and accounts ready if you ordered them | Start date |
If your candidate is between jobs, they can start almost immediately; if they are employed, plan around their notice. What happens in the first two weeks after signature is laid out in the first 14 days with an EOR in Indonesia.
What to agree with your candidate before you hand over
Agree these five points in writing with your candidate first, so the EOR can issue a contract that matches what you promised.
Gross monthly salary in rupiah. Indonesian contracts state a gross figure. If you discussed take-home pay or a figure in another currency, convert it before the contract is drafted, or ask the EOR to work backwards from the take-home figure. The salary must meet the minimum wage for the city where your hire works; our guide to Indonesian minimum wages has the 2026 figures.
Job title and scope. A clear title and a short description of the role go into the contract. Keep them accurate.
Start date. Ask when their notice ends, and whether their current employer expects the full period to be worked.
Work location. Home, a coworking desk or a dedicated office. Location decides which minimum wage applies, and whether you need a workspace.
Benefits you are adding. Statutory cover comes as standard. Anything on top is optional: with MixWork Flex Benefits you choose how much to give, and it is billed at cost alongside the EOR fee.
Do not send the candidate a contract of your own. Two documents with different terms create confusion about who owes what. Send a clear offer letter or email, and let the EOR issue the employment contract.
When you send your hire’s details, share only what the contract and payroll need. MixWork collects identity documents from the hire directly for BPJS registration and tax, so your team does not need to hold copies.
What it costs to employ someone you found yourself
Your monthly cost is the gross salary, plus the employer’s statutory contributions and THR, plus any benefits you choose to add at cost, plus the EOR’s fee. None of it should pay for recruitment you did not use.
Gross salary: what you agreed with the candidate.
Employer contributions and THR: BPJS health and employment contributions plus the THR religious holiday allowance of up to one month’s salary a year typically add roughly 15 to 19% to gross salary, depending on pay level (indicative as at November 2026). Our guides to BPJS employer costs and THR break this down.
Benefits, if you add them: MixWork Flex Benefits is optional, you set the amount, and it is billed at cost on the same invoice. We highly recommend it for employee well-being and retention.
The EOR fee: a flat monthly fee per employee. MixWork’s rates are on our pricing page, and the cost calculator puts the pieces together for a given salary.
Because you sourced the candidate, look for any placement fee or recruitment percentage in the proposal and query it, and check for one-off charges to start. MixWork EOR has no placement fee, set-up fee or onboarding fee on a candidate you bring. The clauses that cost more over time sit further down the agreement, in the exit terms.
Transfer fees and lock-ins: what to check before you sign
An EOR transfer fee is a charge for moving your employee off the provider’s payroll, and a lock-in is a minimum term or a notice period long enough to work like one. Both sit in the service agreement you sign with the EOR, not in your employee’s contract, so they are easy to miss on the day you sign. If you later set up your own PT PMA or move to another provider, these clauses decide what that move will cost.
Clause | What it says | When it costs you |
|---|---|---|
Transfer or conversion fee | A charge if the employee moves to your own entity or to another provider | When you set up your own PT or switch providers |
Minimum term | You commit to a fixed period of fees per employee | If you leave or the role ends early |
Notice period | How long the agreement runs after you give notice | Every exit: you keep paying the monthly fee until it ends |
Exit or offboarding fee | A fixed charge to end the engagement | Every exit |
Fees of this kind are common in staffing and temp-to-perm agreements, where the agency’s business is finding people. Some EOR agreements carry their own versions, including month-to-month terms with a flat fee per employee whenever an employment ends. The test for each one is the same: does it pay for something you actually received?
When you found the candidate yourself, a fee for moving them away pays for nothing you received. A provider that ran a search for you has a cost to recover; a provider that only employed the person you brought has been paid for that every month in the service fee. A charge on the way out only makes leaving more expensive.
Ask every provider for written answers to four questions, and compare them on the answers as well as the monthly fee:
Is there any fee if I move this employee to my own company or to another EOR?
Is there a minimum term, per employee or for the agreement?
How much notice do I give, and is the notice period the same for both sides?
Are there set-up, onboarding or offboarding fees?
If a provider cannot answer each in a sentence, the terms are probably more complicated than the sales conversation suggested. Our guide to choosing an EOR in Indonesia covers the other red flags in an agreement.
Here is how MixWork EOR answers those questions:
Term | MixWork EOR |
|---|---|
Placement or recruitment fee, for a candidate you brought | None |
Set-up or onboarding fee | None |
Transfer fee to your own company or another EOR, for a candidate you brought | None |
Minimum term or contractual lock-in | None |
Notice period | Two months, either side |
Termination or offboarding fee | None; offboarding is included in the monthly fee |
Contract type | Permanent, full-time only |
Our monthly rates for EOR Essentials and EOR Professional are on the pricing page. Salary, statutory employer costs and benefits billed at cost come on top, as with any employer.
What you still owe your employee when you leave
Even with no provider fees, ending an employment relationship in Indonesia means settling what your employee is owed. That is the cost of being an employer, whoever holds the contract. Whether your employee moves to your own PT PMA or to another EOR, or the role ends, three things need to be accounted for:
Salary up to the last day of the EOR employment.
Unused annual leave, paid out or carried across in writing.
THR and length of service: how the current year’s religious holiday allowance is handled, whether service is recognised by the new employer, and any statutory payments that apply to how the employment ends.
A good EOR sets these amounts out before you give notice, so the cost of a move is known in advance, and the notice period itself is a cost, because the monthly fee runs until it ends. Our comparison of PT PMA and EOR covers when setting up your own company starts to make sense, our guide to switching EOR providers in Indonesia has the week-by-week timeline for a move between providers, and our guide to employee termination in Indonesia covers what happens if the role ends.
Why MixWork is the best choice when you have found the person yourself
In our view, MixWork is the best choice in Indonesia for a company that has already chosen its hire: we give that person a proper employer on the ground, and we give you terms you are free to leave. That is our view rather than an audited ranking. The terms are in the table above; the rest rests on this.
On EOR Professional, someone on the ground for your hire. Total Care 360 gives them a named HR manager in Jakarta, backed by a full HR team, with monthly check-in calls for your employee and separate monthly calls with you, and that manager runs any exit from notice to final settlement. When you have nobody else in Indonesia, that is who your hire calls.
Help when you outgrow us. When you set up your own PT, we agree the end date with you so your company can pick up pay and BPJS cover from the next day, with leave and length of service handled as agreed in writing. If we want to keep your business, we have to keep earning it.
A permanent contract with the right terms in it. Confidentiality, non-disclosure and data-protection clauses are built into every MixWork EOR contract.
One agreement for the rest. A desk in our own offices through MixWork Spaces and a managed laptop through MixWork Managed IT, with devices held in the region.
We specialise in one country, with offices in Singapore and Jakarta and clients from startups to enterprise. We employ on permanent full-time contracts only, so if your role suits a fixed-term, part-time or contractor arrangement better, we will tell you.
If your candidate already works for you as a freelancer or contractor, our guide to switching contractors to an EOR covers the salary conversion and the cut-over. Otherwise, book a call with the details of your hire and we will send you the full monthly cost before anything is signed.
Statutory figures in this guide are indicative as at November 2026 and are not legal advice. Entitlements on ending or transferring employment depend on the contract and the circumstances; your EOR, or local counsel for a specific case, confirms the position.
