Illustrative planning example. Consider a UK marketing agency assessing two customer support hires and one content writer in South Africa. This example shows how to define the work, compare budgets and assess delivery. It does not report a client’s measured results.
Start with the work the agency needs covered
Suppose the agency’s existing team is spending too much time answering routine client questions and preparing content. Before opening three vacancies, the manager should record the workload, identify tasks that can be delegated and decide who will supervise each role. The proposed team is a starting assumption; the workload may justify fewer hires or a different mix.
- Customer support hire one: manage incoming email and helpdesk requests, maintain account notes and escalate issues outside the agreed authority.
- Customer support hire two: cover the remaining agreed service hours, follow up unresolved requests and document recurring questions. Define how the two people share queues and handovers.
- Content writer: prepare drafts from approved briefs, check sources and revise work against the agency’s style guide. Keep final client approval with a named editor.
Specify working hours, channels, software, language requirements and expected experience for each vacancy. Check candidates against those requirements through interviews and proportionate work samples. Country of residence alone does not establish communication skills, service quality or readiness for a particular client account.
Build a comparable budget before deciding
Compare the same duties, experience, working hours and employment period in the UK and South Africa. Obtain current salary evidence and a written service quotation. Record what each figure includes: a South African cost-to-company package cannot automatically be treated as basic salary with every benefit added again.
For each route, collect these inputs:
- Salary and applicable employer contributions, with the earnings basis and relevant period.
- Contractual benefits, provider fees and any applicable taxes.
- Recruitment, equipment, software and onboarding costs.
- Internal management time, payroll administration and any planned absence cover.
- Exchange-rate date, conversion direction, transfer charges and the provider’s FX terms.
- Exit or transfer costs for the scenario being assessed.
Keep refundable deposits in a separate cash-requirement line. Distinguish one-off setup costs from recurring monthly charges. Leave unresolved items marked as unknown rather than silently entering zero.
Use the UK versus South Africa cost comparison to understand the calculation structure and its illustrative assumptions. The salary source guide explains why different pay definitions and unmatched roles cannot establish a saving. This agency example makes no saving-percentage claim.
Agree the employment route and responsibilities
If the agency considers an Employer of Record, ask for the named employing entity, employment and service agreements, fee schedule and responsibility split. Establish who handles payroll, employee questions, leave, performance concerns and any eventual termination. Give the UK manager a clear escalation route.
Read the EOR guide and due-diligence worksheet, together with the legal hiring guide. An EOR arrangement still needs scrutiny of the actual contracts and circumstances. For a longer-term operation, the EOR-versus-entity calculator can help compare explicitly chosen cost assumptions.
Prepare the team for everyday delivery
Before anyone starts, assign a manager and prepare account access, permission levels, equipment arrangements and a connectivity contingency. Document the support escalation rules and the content approval process. Agree availability and meeting times with each person rather than assuming that remote work means constant availability.
During onboarding, review a sample of responses or drafts together. Record what needs changing, provide examples of acceptable work and make it easy to ask for help. Add lessons to the shared guide so the next hire can use them.
Measure whether the plan is working
The agency could record a baseline before hiring, then review progress after 30, 60 and 90 days. These are suggested review points, not promised hiring or improvement times.
- Support: track request volume, response and resolution times, reopened tickets and a consistent quality sample.
- Content: track completed briefs, delivery against agreed dates, revisions and editorial quality.
- Management: record supervision time and unresolved handovers alongside the team’s output.
- Cost: reconcile actual invoices, payroll inputs and FX charges against the budget, including setup and management costs.
Compare like periods and explain changes in workload, task complexity or service hours. More tickets closed is not automatically better service, and a lower salary bill is not the same as a lower total operating cost. Use the evidence to decide whether to expand, adjust the role or improve the process.
Turn the example into your own hiring brief
Write down the role, required hours, manager, budget and success measures before choosing a provider. Start with how the introduction process works, or discuss a specific hiring brief.
Updated 10 September 2026: clarified the illustrative scenario and replaced unsupported savings, delivery improvements and hiring timelines with a planning and measurement approach.
