Recruitment & Candidate Sourcing for European Scale-Ups
Your First Hires in a New Country Need a Local Network and Local Rules. We Bring Both.
Your team hires well at home. Referrals come in, candidates know your name and everyone knows the process. In a new European market, none of that comes with you: there is no network to tap, your brand is unknown, candidates may expect the local language, and the hiring rules change at the border, from what goes in the job ad to what you can ask in the interview.
Europe HR Solutions finds the candidates and runs a compliant hiring process in the country you are entering, from role scoping to a signed offer, so your first hires land and stay.
WHO WE ARE
Recruiters Who Already Know the Market You Are Entering
Most recruiters hand over a CV and move on to the next brief. We are an HR partner first, so the search sits next to the rest of your market entry: how the new hire will be employed, what a competitive local package looks like and which rules apply from the job ad to the contract. One senior team based in Belgium, in-country specialists across Europe, and the same method for every new market.
WHAT DOES NOT TRAVEL
What Hiring at Home Gives You That a New Market Does Not
Founders often assume hiring works the same way across the EU. The rules share a common floor, but almost everything that makes hiring easy at home stays behind when you cross the border.
LOCAL HIRING RULES
The Hiring Rules to Check Before Your First Job Ad
A short checklist for the first ad, the first interview and the first offer in a new EU country. Each point comes from EU law; the details come from the country.
- Starting pay or range, shared in time to negotiate
Candidates receive the starting pay or its range, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria, for example in the job ad or before the interview.
Source: Directive (EU) 2023/970, Article 5(1) - No questions about pay history
You cannot ask candidates what they earn now or earned in previous jobs.
Source: Directive (EU) 2023/970, Article 5(2) - Gender-neutral job ads and titles
Vacancy notices, job titles and the recruitment process itself must be neutral and free of bias.
Source: Directive (EU) 2023/970, Article 5(3) - Care with AI hiring tools
AI used to target job ads, filter applications or evaluate candidates is high-risk under the AI Act. Data protection rules on automated decisions already apply today.
Source: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Annex III, point 4
Each Country Writes Its Own Version
These rules start in EU law, but each Member State puts them into its own national law, on its own timeline and with its own details. We check the current rule in the country you are hiring in before the first ad goes live.
- When and how the pay range must be shared
- What a compliant job ad has to say, and in which language
- Who enforces the rules and what a breach costs
Rules summarized as of October 2026. National laws can add to them, so the country you hire in decides the final checklist.
THE HIRING JOURNEY
From Role Scoping to a Signed Offer, Run to Local Rules
Every first hire in a new market goes through the same six stages. The local rules sit inside them, so we build them into the process instead of checking at the end.
What the role must achieve, the level, the location and a pay range built on objective criteria.
Local checkRange and criteria set before the adLocal networks, direct approach and the channels candidates in that market actually use.
Local checkGender-neutral ad and job titleCVs read with local context: degrees, titles and career paths that look different from home.
Local checkNo pay-history questionsA shortlist interviewed with your team, in the format local candidates expect.
Local checkPay range shared before the interviewA package that competes locally, negotiated with the notice period in mind.
Local checkContract and written terms under local lawThe signed hire handed to onboarding, with payroll and first-day paperwork lined up.
Local checkReady for day oneWHAT EUROPE HR SOLUTIONS HANDLES
Recruitment Support for Your First Hires in a New Market
From the person who opens the country to the roles that keep it running, each search is run by recruiters who work in that market.
Country Lead & First Manager Search
The person who opens the market for you, found through local leadership networks and assessed for a role with no team around it yet.
Go-to-Market Hiring
Sales, partnerships and customer success people who know the local buyers and can work in their language from week one.
Technical & Specialist Recruitment
Engineers, product people and specialists sourced where that talent actually spends its time, not only on job boards.
Operations, Finance & Support Roles
Office, finance, HR and operations hires who keep the new market running while your home team stays focused.
Employer Positioning in a New Market
A clear answer to why a strong local candidate should join a company they may not know yet, backed by a package that competes.
Offer & Onboarding Handover
Local pay benchmarks, offer negotiation and a clean handover to contracts, payroll and onboarding once the candidate says yes.
HOW IT WORKS
Scope. Source. Select. Offer.
Four steps per role, run in parallel when you are hiring several people at once. You stay in every decision that matters.
We agree the roles, the order to hire them, the profile and the pay range, and check the local rules that apply to each.
You getA hiring plan for every roleWe search through local networks and direct approach, and place the ad where it reaches the right people.
You getQualified candidates and weekly updatesYou meet a short, screened shortlist. We coordinate the interviews, the feedback and the references.
You getA shortlist with our notes on each candidateWe help you shape and negotiate the offer, then hand the new hire over to contracts, payroll and onboarding.
You getA signed hire, ready to startRELATED PAGES
Set Up the Market, Then Fill the Roles
Market Entry HR Setup for European Scale-Ups
Before the first hire starts: the employment route, contracts, payroll, benefits and policies in the new country.
Read more →Service overviewRecruitment Support in Europe
How our recruitment support works across European markets, from a single critical search to a full hiring plan.
Read more →WHAT FOUNDERS ASK US
Hiring in a New European Market: Your Questions Answered
1. We hire well at home. Why is hiring in a new European country so different?
Because almost everything that makes hiring easy at home stays there. Your referral network, your employer brand and your sense of what a good candidate and a fair offer look like are all local. So are the rules: EU law sets common minimums, but each country adds its own requirements on job ads, candidate data, contracts and notice. A process that works in your home market usually needs rebuilding for the next one.
2. What does recruitment and candidate sourcing support include?
Recruitment and candidate sourcing support means a partner finds, screens and helps you hire candidates in a market where you have no recruiting reach of your own. With us it covers the whole journey for each role: scoping, sourcing, screening, interviews, the offer and the handover to onboarding, all run to the rules of the country you are hiring in.
3. Do we need a local entity before we can hire in the new country?
Not necessarily, but you need to know how the person will be employed before you make an offer. The common routes are a local entity, registering as a foreign employer, or an employer of record. The choice affects the contract, payroll and the start date, so we settle it during scoping. If the setup is not in place yet, our market entry HR setup for scale-ups runs alongside the search.
4. What do the EU pay transparency rules change for our job ads and interviews?
Under Article 5 of the EU Pay Transparency Directive, candidates must receive the starting pay or its range in time to negotiate, for example in the job ad or before the interview. You also cannot ask about their current or past pay, and job ads and titles must be gender-neutral. Each Member State writes these rules into its own national law, and the details differ, so we check the current rule in the country you are hiring in before the ad goes live.
5. Can we use AI tools to screen applicants in Europe?
Yes, with care. AI used to target job ads, filter applications or evaluate candidates is classed as high-risk under the EU AI Act, and the obligations for those systems now apply from 2 December 2027. Data protection law already applies today, including limits on decisions made solely by automated means. We keep a person in every screening decision and can tell you what to ask your tool provider.
6. How long does it take to make a first hire in a new country?
It depends on the role, the market and above all the candidate’s notice period, which often takes longer than the search itself. Senior candidates in many European countries are bound by notice periods of one to three months or more. We start as early as your plan allows, confirm each candidate’s notice period and any contractual restrictions at the start, and plan the start date around them.
7. Do you replace our internal recruiters or the founders doing the hiring?
No. Most scale-ups use us for the market where they have no reach, while their own team keeps hiring at home. Founders and hiring managers still meet the shortlist and make the final call; we take on the search, the local process and the support on the offer.
Make Your First Hires in the New Market the Right Ones.
Get a hiring plan for your first roles in the new market
Tell us your home market, the country you are entering and the roles you need first: a country lead in Spain, an account executive in Germany, an engineer in Poland.
We come back with how we would source them, the local rules that apply from the job ad to the offer, and a realistic timeline.
No commitment required. Just a clear view of what hiring in that market takes.