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How to hire remote employees in
Laws about hiring are complicated. Zimbabwe’s no different. But there are ways to sidestep the headaches—if your company hasn’t already established a physical presence in Zimbabwe, you have two real options when it comes to hiring. We’ll detail both below.
If you want to successfully hire in
Zimbabwe
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
Zimbabwe
. Onboarding talent takes days, not weeks or months. Both you, the company, and your talent have more flexibility. And in many cases, since you’re remote, the talent you’re hiring is better classified as a contractor, anyway. Of course, it’s not possible in every case, but it’s what we built Thera for.
This is the long route. You can either establish a physical presence with an entity and register as an employer, or you can use an Employer-of-Record (EOR) solution. Odds are, you’ll find using an EOR to be the easier route. Still, using an EOR in
Zimbabwe
is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.
Hiring contractors is normally the easier, faster, more flexible choice—but don’t just take it from us. Below are the specific benefits and drawbacks to hiring contractors in
Zimbabwe
.
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera's locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Hiring contractors in
Zimbabwe
means you’re generally not on the hook for things like health insurance and paid time off. This makes hiring flexible for you, and it gives your talent more options.
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
If you’re hiring contractors in
Zimbabwe
, you can pay them with Thera in a single click. You won’t need to worry about complicated wire transfers, fees, or currency conversions. We’ll take care of it all. Just make a click and your contractor will get paid in their currency of choice. This is a valuable bonus for talent in countries where the local currency is particularly weak—most people appreciate the ability to receive their payment in stronger currencies.
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Zimbabwe than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in Zimbabwe.
Employees are entitled to a rate of 30 days or one-month leave after a continuous employment period of one year. Weekends and public holidays are counted as part of the vacation leave days.
There are 17 public holidays.
Sick leave is only granted by a duly registered medical practitioner.
An employee may enjoy 90 days of sick leave in a year on full pay (before the employer can consider medical termination)
If the employee has exhausted the 90 days of sick leave in any one-year period of service, they may request a further 90 days of sick leave at half pay. Again the request needs to be accompanied by a signed certificate from a registered medical practitioner.
During any one-year period of service, if the sick leave exceeds 90 days of full pay and 180 days of full and half pay, the employer may terminate the employment of the employee concerned.
Female employees are protected under law and are entitled to 98 working days’ leave on full earnings. (There is a compulsory entitlement of 21 days before confinement included in the 98 days.)
A female employee may proceed on maternity leave not earlier than the forty-fifth day and not later than the twenty-first day prior to the expected date of delivery.
There is no paternity leave.
There is no parental leave.
In Zimbabwe it is managed under Section 14B of the Labour Act 28:01
The maximum number of days each employee MAY proceed on this type of leave is twelve (12) days per year.
These days cannot be demanded or enjoyed unless the following circumstances obtain:
-when an employee has been authorized by a registered medical practitioner to be away from work due to an infectious disease.
-when an employee has been subpoenaed to attend court proceedings ONLY as a witness.
-when an appointed employee is attending trade union meetings.
-when an employee has been detained by the police ONLY for the purposes of questioning.
None.
In Zimbabwe it is managed under Section 14B of the Labour Act 28:01, the employer may grant the special leave when an employee has lost a spouse, parent, child or legal dependent. The duty to prove the existence of the circumstances rests on the affected employee.
According to the Code of Conduct, a contract of employment can be terminated if the employer and employee mutually agree to it in writing.
This is also the case if an employee is engaged in a fixed-term contract or for performance of a specific task and the
contract has expired after the mandated period or the task is completed.
Employers CAN terminate contracts on the following grounds:
If an employee:
The notice period in Zimbabwe is:
Notice of termination of the contract of employment to be given by either party shall be:
Employers may be required to pay severance pursuant to a collective agreement or employees dismissed due to redundancy. Severance generally is one month of salary for every two years of service to the employer.
In Zimbabwe, the contract includes a probationary period, it may not last longer than three months, except for casual or seasonal work, for which the probationary period may be only one day.
The standards working hours are 8.5 hours a day and 44 hours a week.
Overtime may be regulated under Collective Bargaining Agreement. No such regulation could be located. In accordance with the Labour Act, Minister for Labour may issue regulations regarding overtime, shift work and night work.
The minimum overtime rate is 150% of the normal salary/wage rate when employees are required to work beyond the normal working hours. When an employee works on a public holiday, then a premium of 200% of the normal salary/wage is normally paid.
For breakdown, continuous work, emergency and for every hour or part thereof worked by an employee in excess of his/her ordinary hours of work, the employer shall pay the employee not less than one and a half times his/her ordinary rate.
For every hour or part thereof worked by an employee between midnight on Saturday and midnight on Sunday, or midnight of the day before their day off, the employer shall pay the employee not less than twice their ordinary rate.
An employee can only be required to work a maximum of 10 hours per day.
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