You've finally made it. By this time you've probably heard the buzzwords like “Virtual Assistant,” “delegate your way to a 4-hour workweek,” or “hire overseas and save 80%.” It's true, hiring overseas talent is all the rage right now and for good reason. This guide covers everything a US, UK, or Australian employer needs to know before hiring their first South African remote workers.
If you follow this guide and do things right, you'll discover South African talent can do things in your business you never thought were possible. SA talent isn't just another Filipino VA, they're high-caliber talent that can run parts of your business, give you strategic advice, and close deals for you as good or even better than a US-based salesperson.
But in order to tap into that talent, there are some things you should know.
Why are business owners choosing South Africa over the Philippines and LatAm?
South Africa is now one of the fastest growing countries for remote talent. Business owners who've hired globally before are moving away from the Philippines and Southeast Asia and hiring in South Africa now for good reason. I've helped over 950 companies hire overseas talent, and SA talent is the underground secret. While you can actually hire for any remote role in SA, there are a few roles that stand out as the best anywhere in the world. Sales roles are simply incredible. Not just cold callers, but actual closers. For a former client of mine, we placed 4 new sales closers in his SEO agency business, they performed at the same caliber of his US closers for 70% less. At a US-based roofing company, we hired 2 new cold callers/customer service reps in SA that increased booked consultations by 20%. If you're hiring sales anywhere else, I would seriously rethink your strategy. If hiring in the Philippines or LatAm, the accent usually doesn't resonate well with Americans. If hiring in the US, you can find the same or better sales talent for a third of the cost. Beyond sales, I've been truly impressed by people doing marketing, accounting/bookkeeping, social media marketing, operations management, and executive assistance that can be the air traffic controller of your business.
Where to find great people?
HireSA is the #1 job board for hiring South African workers. It's the best, easiest way. HireSA actively targets the best talent pools in South Africa. It focuses on quality over quantity. You can find top talent recommendations on The Hotlist, or use AI to shortlist the best candidates for your job. It's more than a job board - it's an all-in-one platform empowering you to make the right hire for your business, fast. You can't hire for free. You'll need to upgrade to contact workers and use premium features like AI Match and the Hotlist. The good news is there's a 100% money-back guarantee if you don't find someone great, and you can cancel as soon as you hire someone - you don't have to keep paying HireSA.
People speak different levels of English in South Africa.
This is something I recently learned, but SA actually has 9 used languages, and there's a variety of different people and accents in South Africa. For the purpose of this guide, I'll cover only what matters to your business. If you're hiring for a customer-facing role, you'll probably want to find people who speak the best English with the easiest to understand accent. You'll find the best English-speaking people in Johannesburg and Cape Town, the two largest cities in South Africa. In these regions, English is often their first and only language. It will sound more like a British accent than anything else. This resonates really well with customers. Durban, SA is much more diversified, with a large migrant community (mainly from India). 80% of the people there speak English with a strong accent, the remaining 20% will speak perfect English. I include this so you understand that South Africa is not all the same. If you interview someone with a very strong accent, keep in mind they're not representative of the whole country. You just need to know where to look.
What are the tax implications?
I'm not an accountant, so I have no authority on this. But I have helped over 950 businesses hire overseas and I've picked up on what the most successful companies do best. Most US/UK/AU companies hiring South Africans remotely start them as independent contractors. It's the path of least resistance. There's no EOR fees, no entity setup, fast to onboard, and the worker gets paid monthly. This is the path I would follow for hiring your first worker in South Africa. Once you start building a team in South Africa of a few people, then things become a bit more complicated and it's best to hire an EOR or COR (contractor of record) service to streamline and organize things. I like Multiplier as an EOR and COR - they're easy to use and good value.
You can find people to literally manage your business in South Africa.
This is one of the unique value propositions of South Africa compared to the Philippines, and the biggest reason I started HireSA.com. The conventional wisdom was that you can hire overseas workers for 80% less, but they can't manage teams, run your business, or make strategic decisions. Well, this isn't true for South Africa. You can literally find a COO for your business with a master's degree, 10+ years of experience, who isn't afraid to speak their mind and make the hard choices, in South Africa. This is something you simply won't find in the Philippines (believe me, I've tried). Test it out. I'm not kidding when I say you can find someone to run your business for $16/hour in South Africa.
What should I realistically expect in the first 90 days?
Hopefully by now you're hyped up for what SA talent can do for your business. The good news is the hype is real. They're incredibly smart, well-educated, well-spoken, and have a wonderful attitude toward business and life. But they're still human, not robots. They have families, career goals, interests, etc. Don't expect to simply delegate your entire business to South Africans on week 1. You still need to set up proper SOPs, incentives, and a good company culture in order to win. With that being said, South Africans in my experience are much more adaptable to change than workers from the Philippines. Try not to create a dead-end job. Ask them about their work. Ask them how they like what they're doing. Ask them about their family. Make sure they know you care about them (if you don't then learn to care about them).
How do you run a great remote hiring process?
Do fewer interviews and more tests and trial work. I think interviews are overrated and time-consuming. After placing literally over one thousand overseas workers, I noticed a trend of practices that the most successful companies use. They have workers send a 1-2 minute video introduction of themselves, interview quickly, and give them a paid test and/or paid 2-week trial period. Yes, it's expected to be a paid test, but the cost of a paid test versus a bad hire is night and day. Lots of people can swing a good interview. But only the qualified candidates can hold up with real work.
It's payday! How do I pay my South African worker?
If you're only hiring 1 or 2 workers, I recommend paying them through Wise or Paypal. It's simple, easy, and quick. Once you start getting a few workers and manual payroll becomes a hassle, then I recommend switching to Multiplier's Contractor plan at a minimum, it costs $40 a month. You might find it's better to upgrade to the EOR or COR at this point too.
South Africans want to work for international employers.
For South Africans, working for a UK or US-based employer is a dream. It's remote work, higher pay than local offerings. This is really good for them and you! It's no secret the job market in South Africa is not good. Estimates say the unofficial unemployment rate is over 30%, with young workers at a 60% unemployment rate. For reference, the highest unemployment rate was 25% during the Great Depression in the US. With that being said, the high performers in South Africa have no shortage of job offers, so when you find someone good it's important to hire quickly and make a job offer that is competitive with incentives.
How much do I pay them?
Roughly $1,000–$4,000 per month is the general band for full-time work. On the low end you have younger, entry - mid level experienced people, typically recently graduated from college or doing non technical work. On the high end you have super experienced programmers, marketing managers, operations managers, or leadership positions. I would negotiate salary. If a salary feels high, ask them to justify it - maybe there is a good reason for their high salary. There's no need to deal with a middleman (like an agency) who charges you triple the worker's salary.
Get started!
This can be really good for your business. Delegating isn't just about freeing up your time, it's the point in your business where you need someone who knows what they are doing to help you grow. You've taken your business from 0 to 1. Now it's time to delegate and grow it with exceptional talent. I've been helping businesses hire overseas since 2023, and the most common regret founders have is not doing this sooner.
If you're ready to take the next step:
- Post your first job
- Use AI Match to find profiles
- Browse The Hotlist for our favorite picks of the week
- Need help finding great candidates? Email me at Mathew@hiresa.com
