# Kadraa > Kadraa places South African digital marketing and technology professionals > into UK teams as full-time, dedicated colleagues. The consultant contracts > with Kadraa, not with the client, so the client carries no employment > relationship, no employer's National Insurance and no pension duty. Website: https://kadraa.com Contact: hello@kadraa.com | 020 3923 6680 Book a call: https://calendly.com/haaken-kadraa/30mins Legal entity: Kadraa Recruitment Limited (United Kingdom) ## What Kadraa is, precisely Kadraa is NOT a recruitment agency and NOT an Employer of Record. Those two labels are the ones people reach for, and both are wrong. - A recruitment agency finds someone, charges a one-off placement fee, and leaves. The client then carries the contract, payments and all the risk. - An Employer of Record legally employs a worker abroad and rents that employment to the client for a platform fee on top of salary. - Kadraa contracts directly with the consultant in South Africa and places them into the client's team. The client directs the work day to day. Kadraa carries the contract, the payroll, the foreign transactions, the administration and the HR. The client pays one monthly fee. Kadraa began as a recruitment agency, which is what its older client reviews describe, and built this model from what it learned doing that. ## Pricing - A hire through Kadraa costs about 40% less than the TRUE cost of the same UK hire. True cost means salary plus employer's National Insurance plus the employer pension minimum, not salary alone. - One monthly fee. No recruitment fee, no setup fee, no platform fee, no charge for moving money internationally. - Pricing is INDICATIVE, not a fixed rate card. Each consultant sets their own asking price and the exact fee is agreed before the client commits. - There is a savings calculator at https://kadraa.com/#calculator ### What the monthly fee includes - The entire search: Sourcing, vetting and shortlisting, run against your brief. No upfront recruitment fee. - The contract: Your consultant signs with us, not with you. No employment relationship ever touches your business. - Monthly payroll: We run your consultant's payroll every month and handle the foreign transactions end to end. - All administration: Every piece of admin behind the hire is ours, from day one. - HR, handled: Any HR concern, including ending a contract, is handled by us, not you. - Replacement, forever: If it stops working out, at any point and for any reason, give one month's notice and we start looking for a replacement the same day. No time limit. No replacement fee. ### Alternative: standard recruitment Kadraa also does conventional contingency recruitment for clients who prefer to contract with the person directly: a 20% fee payable when the hire starts, with 3-month replacement terms. ## The guarantee If it stops working out, at any point and for any reason, give one month's notice and we start looking for a replacement the same day. No time limit. No replacement fee. This is materially stronger than the category norm, where replacement windows run three to twelve months and a new hire means a new fee. ## Track record - 500+ candidates placed - 200+ UK clients - Typically 21 days from brief to a signed contract with a start date - 12 client video testimonials, plus five-star Google reviews from named UK companies Named clients who have left public reviews include: Visualsoft, Checkboard.com, Push Group, Sharp Ahead, Herdl, Learna, Driftrock, Q Content, CommVersion, Solved Marketing, Altair Media, The Marketing Practice, Bigfoot Digital, Itineris, Whizz Digital, Fibre Marketing, Somebody Digital, Marketable Media, Chillibyte, Tree Frog Design, Kwery. ## Why South Africa South Africa sits almost directly south of the UK. Cape Town is one hour ahead of London in British summer and two in winter, so a consultant works the same day as the client's team, in real time. English is a first language for South Africa's professional class, and the business culture follows UK and Commonwealth lines. The cost difference comes from local cost of living, not from a lower standard of work. ## Compliance position The following describes how the arrangement is structured. It is general information, not tax or legal advice. ### No employment relationship Your consultant contracts with Kadraa, not with you. You direct their day-to-day work, and the contractual relationship and its obligations sit with us. Under the Kadraa model, we contract directly with your consultant in South Africa. You get a full-time, dedicated professional embedded in your team, working your hours, in your tools, on your priorities. The contract that governs their engagement is between them and Kadraa. You do not become their employer, in the UK or in South Africa, and you do not need to set up a South African entity or engage an Employer of Record. ### No employer's National Insurance Your consultant is not on your UK payroll, so employer's NI does not arise on your monthly fee. For a UK employee, employer's National Insurance adds 15% of everything above £5,000 to your wage bill. On a £40,000 salary that is £5,250 a year before anything else. Because your Kadraa consultant is not your employee and is not paid through your payroll, there is no employer's NI on the arrangement. You pay one monthly fee to Kadraa, and that is the whole cost. ### No pension auto-enrolment Auto-enrolment duties attach to your UK workers. Your Kadraa consultant is not one, so no employer pension contributions arise. UK employers must auto-enrol qualifying staff and contribute a minimum of 3% on qualifying earnings (£6,240 to £50,270 in 2025/26). These duties apply to workers working in the UK under a UK employment relationship. Your Kadraa consultant works in South Africa under contract with Kadraa, so the duty does not attach to you. ### No UK employment-law exposure UK employment rights like unfair dismissal, redundancy and tribunal claims belong to employment relationships. You do not have one with your consultant. The rights that make ending a UK employment slow and hazardous (unfair dismissal, statutory redundancy, tribunal claims) arise from an employment relationship. Your consultant's contractual relationship is with Kadraa. If the engagement needs to end, you give one month's notice to us and we handle the rest, including the human side. That is our job, not yours. ### IR35: outside its target The off-payroll rules exist to catch disguised UK employment through intermediaries. This is a South African professional, contracted and paid in South Africa, with no UK tax presence. IR35 and the off-payroll working rules address UK workers supplying services through their own intermediaries to avoid employment taxes. A South African resident, living and working in South Africa, contracted by Kadraa and with no UK tax presence, is a different arrangement. As with anything touching tax, satisfy yourself with your own adviser. We will happily walk them through the structure. ### Your IP, assigned Everything your consultant creates for you is assigned to you through the contractual chain. The contract between Kadraa and your consultant assigns the intellectual property they create in the course of the engagement, and our agreement with you passes it through. Work product, code, creative, accounts, documents: all yours. ### GDPR-compatible South Africa's POPIA is a comprehensive data-protection regime, and UK GDPR transfer mechanisms are put in place in the engagement terms. Your consultant will usually need access to some of your systems and data. South Africa has its own comprehensive data-protection law (POPIA), and the engagement is papered with the standard UK GDPR international-transfer safeguards so your compliance position is documented, not assumed. Your DPO or adviser can review the terms. ## How it works 01. Discovery call (30 minutes): You tell us about the role and what it would pay in the UK. We tell you honestly whether the model fits, and give you an indicative monthly fee on the call. 02. Search and shortlist (your time cost: interviews only): We source, vet and shortlist against your brief, and adjust as your picture of the role sharpens. You meet only candidates worth your time. 03. Contract signed (typically day 21): You choose. Your consultant signs with Kadraa, never with you, and a start date is agreed. No placement fee changes hands, because there isn't one. 04. Deployed into your team (from day one): They work your hours, in your tools, under your direction. We run payroll, foreign transactions, admin and HR behind the scenes. You pay one monthly fee. ## Frequently asked questions ### How is this different from using a recruitment agency? A recruitment agency finds you a candidate, charges a placement fee (usually 15 to 25% of the first year's salary, up front) and steps away. The person becomes your employee, with everything that entails: payroll, employer's NI, pension auto-enrolment, HR, and all the risk if it doesn't work out. Kadraa runs the search the same way a good recruiter would. That is where we started, and it is what our reviews are about. But the model changes from the moment you choose someone. There is no placement fee. Your consultant contracts with Kadraa, not with you. We run their payroll, handle the foreign transactions, absorb the admin and any HR concerns, and you pay a single monthly fee. And where a recruiter's replacement guarantee runs out after three to twelve months, ours never does. If it stops working out, at any point and for any reason, you give one month's notice and we start the search for a replacement the same day. ### Is Kadraa an Employer of Record (EOR)? No. An EOR is a company that legally employs your worker in their country and then rents that employment to you, usually for a platform fee on top of salary. It is a fine tool for big companies hiring their own employees abroad. It is also a lot of machinery for a UK business that just wants one good marketer. With Kadraa there is no employment being rented to you at all. We contract directly with your consultant in South Africa, place them in your team full time, and charge you one monthly fee that covers everything: their pay, our management of payroll and foreign transactions, all administration, and replacement forever. You never touch an employment relationship in either country, and you don't need an EOR, a South African entity or a global employment platform to make it work. Some providers in this market claim to be a contractor marketplace and your EOR at the same time. Those are different legal structures. We would rather explain ours precisely. ### Do I pay employer's National Insurance or pension contributions? No. Both attach to UK employment relationships, and you do not have one with your consultant. For a UK employee on £40,000, employer's NI adds £5,250 a year (15% above the £5,000 threshold) and auto-enrolment adds £1,013 at the 3% employer minimum. That is around £6,250 of cost sitting on top of the salary before overheads. With Kadraa, the monthly fee is the entire cost. That is why our calculator itemises the UK side: the honest comparison is not salary against fee, it is the full employer cost against the fee. As with anything touching tax, your own adviser should confirm your position. We are glad to walk them through the structure. ### What happens if the person isn't right, or it stops working later? You are never locked in. Give one month's notice, the same notice you would give any employee, without the process, risk or cost of a UK dismissal, and we begin the search for a replacement immediately. If it stops working out, at any point and for any reason, give one month's notice and we start looking for a replacement the same day. No time limit. No replacement fee. Typical time from brief to a signed contract with a start date is 21 days, and a replacement search starts from a much warmer position because we already know your business, your tools and exactly what the first person got right and wrong. Conventional recruiters give you a replacement window of three to twelve months and then charge you a fresh fee. We think that misprices the risk you are actually carrying. The cost of a mis-hire does not expire after month twelve, so our replacement terms don't either. ### How quickly can someone start? Typically we present candidates, you interview, and a contract is signed with an agreed start date within 21 days of the brief. Your time cost through that period is the interviews. We run the sourcing, vetting and shortlisting, and we adjust the brief as your picture of the role sharpens (several of our reviews describe exactly that). Start dates then depend on the individual's availability and any notice they are serving, which we confirm before you commit. ### What exactly does the monthly fee include? Everything. The search itself (sourcing, vetting, shortlisting) with no upfront recruitment fee. The contractual layer: we contract directly with your consultant in South Africa, so no employment relationship ever touches you. Their monthly payroll, run by us, including the foreign transactions. All of the administration behind the hire. Any HR concern, up to and including ending a contract, handled by us. And replacement forever: if it stops working out at any point, one month's notice and we begin the search for a replacement the same day, at no additional fee. The fee you agree up front is the whole cost. There is nothing else to pay: no setup fee, no placement fee, no platform fee, no charges for moving money. ### What about the time difference? There barely is one. South Africa sits almost directly south of the UK. Cape Town is one hour ahead of London in British summer, two in winter. Your consultant works your working day, in your stand-ups, answering in your Slack in real time. This is the structural difference between South Africa and the offshore destinations most businesses think of first: the Philippines is seven to eight hours ahead of London, and Latin America runs three to eight behind, oriented to US time. A South African consultant is simply a colleague whose office is further south. ### How strong is the talent, really? South Africa's professional class works in English as a first language, in a business culture built on UK and Commonwealth lines, with a deep pool of digital marketing and tech talent serving international clients. Rather than assert this, we would point you at the evidence. Twenty-plus named UK companies have left five-star reviews describing candidate quality: "the quality of the candidates has been exceptional", "we actually ended up making two hires rather than the one we had planned", "the candidate is amazing and we recently promoted him". A dozen founders have said it on camera too. The economics work not because the talent is worth less, but because UK salaries carry a cost-of-living premium that South Africa doesn't. ### Do I need a South African entity, a visa, or any local setup? No. Nothing about the model requires you to establish anything in South Africa, sponsor anything in the UK, or register anywhere. Your consultant lives and works in South Africa, contracted by Kadraa. You direct their work remotely, as you would any remote member of your team. Your setup effort is the same as adding a UK remote hire to your tools: an email address, your project management stack, your Slack. ### Who is this for, and who is it not for? It is for UK businesses hiring full-time digital marketing and tech roles (SEO, paid media, content, social, email, design, development, data) who want a dedicated person embedded in the team, not a freelancer or an agency retainer. It suits founders and marketing leaders who care what a hire actually costs, all in, and who want the option to change course without carrying employment risk. It is not for two-hour-a-week tasks (a VA marketplace will serve you better) and not for one-off projects (that is freelance work). And if what you actually want is to employ someone yourself, we can simply recruit for you the classic way. We would rather tell you that on the first call than place someone into the wrong structure. ## Pages - https://kadraa.com/ - everything above: the model, calculator, pricing, process, guarantee, compliance, reviews and FAQ - https://kadraa.com/hire - the roles Kadraa places most, with what each does and what to look for - https://kadraa.com/questions - the questions UK businesses actually ask on sales calls, answered in full - https://kadraa.com/testimonials - every written review and video testimonial, in full - https://kadraa.com/privacy - privacy policy ## Roles placed, with the titles they are also advertised under - SEO Specialist (also: SEO Executive, SEO Manager, Organic Search Specialist, Search Engine Optimisation Specialist) - https://kadraa.com/hire/seo-specialist - Paid Search Specialist (also: PPC Specialist, Google Ads Specialist, SEM Specialist, PPC Manager, Paid Search Executive) - https://kadraa.com/hire/paid-search-specialist - Paid Media Specialist (also: Paid Social Specialist, Performance Marketing Specialist, Media Buyer, Programmatic Specialist, Biddable Media Specialist) - https://kadraa.com/hire/paid-media-specialist - Digital Marketing Manager (also: Marketing Manager, Digital Marketing Lead, Growth Marketing Manager, Head of Digital, Digital Marketing Strategist) - https://kadraa.com/hire/digital-marketing-manager - Digital Account Manager (also: Account Manager, Client Services Manager, Senior Account Manager, Account Director, Client Success Manager) - https://kadraa.com/hire/digital-account-manager - Web Developer (also: Front-End Developer, WordPress Developer, Full-Stack Web Developer, Shopify Developer, Web Designer and Developer) - https://kadraa.com/hire/web-developer - Software Engineer (also: Software Developer, Backend Developer, Full-Stack Engineer, Application Developer, Senior Software Engineer) - https://kadraa.com/hire/software-engineer - Solution Architect (also: Solutions Architect, Technical Architect, Enterprise Architect, Cloud Architect, Integration Architect) - https://kadraa.com/hire/solution-architect - Business Analyst (also: BA, Technical Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Product Analyst, Business Systems Analyst) - https://kadraa.com/hire/business-analyst - Product Manager (also: Technical Product Manager, Product Owner, Senior Product Manager, Digital Product Manager, Product Lead) - https://kadraa.com/hire/product-manager ## Answers to specific questions Each page below answers one question completely in its opening paragraph. ### What happens if the person we hire doesn't work out? https://kadraa.com/questions/what-happens-if-it-doesnt-work-out You give notice, and we start looking for a replacement immediately. There is no replacement window that expires, no limit on how many times you can do it, and no new fee, because you never paid an upfront recruitment fee in the first place. That is the single biggest difference between this and standard recruitment. ### Do I keep paying if nobody is currently working for us? https://kadraa.com/questions/do-i-pay-when-nobody-is-working No. If there is no consultant working in your business, you are not billed for those days. That includes any gap while a replacement is being sourced after someone has left. ### How does billing actually work? https://kadraa.com/questions/how-billing-works Kadraa invoices you around the 25th of each month for the month ahead, from a UK registered company. It is a single monthly fee and there is nothing else to pay: no employer's National Insurance, no pension contributions, no separate payroll or administration charges. ### How is GDPR and our data handled with an overseas consultant? https://kadraa.com/questions/gdpr-and-data-protection Every Kadraa consultant is bound by data protection clauses in their consultant agreement, signs a separate international data transfer agreement governing how they handle your data, and completes GDPR training through an online portal. Those obligations are mirrored in the service level agreement you hold with us, so the chain is documented end to end. ### Will my consultant be working for other companies as well? https://kadraa.com/questions/will-my-consultant-work-for-other-clients In the vast majority of cases, no. Your consultant works full time for your business alone. If any other work were ever proposed, it has to be disclosed to both you and to Kadraa and agreed by both, so it never happens without your knowledge and consent. ### What is the quality of talent in South Africa really like? https://kadraa.com/questions/quality-of-south-african-talent For any role that can be done remotely, a South African professional is a one-to-one comparison with the UK equivalent. English is a first language, the business culture is closer to the UK than to any other offshore market, and many of the people we place already work for international clients at digital agencies. The cost difference comes from local cost of living, not from a lower standard of work. ### What is the time difference between the UK and South Africa? https://kadraa.com/questions/south-africa-uk-time-zone South Africa is one hour ahead of the UK during British Summer Time and two hours ahead in winter. In practice that means a near-total overlap with your working day: your consultant is in the morning stand-up and answering in Slack in real time, not overnight. ### How does the hiring process actually work? https://kadraa.com/questions/how-the-hiring-process-works It follows a standard recruitment process. We go to the candidate market, find the right people through our network and other channels, and build you a shortlist to interview. You run your own interview and selection process and choose who to hire, then we facilitate everything after that. Typically it is around 21 days from brief to a signed contract with an agreed start date. ### Is Kadraa the cheapest way to hire offshore? https://kadraa.com/questions/not-the-cheapest-option No, and we would rather be straight about that. Kadraa places exceptionally strong professionals at a good rate; we are not the cheapest offshore option available and we do not try to be. If your goal is the lowest possible number, there are cheaper routes and you should take one of them. ### Do I pay employer's National Insurance for someone based in South Africa? https://kadraa.com/questions/employers-national-insurance-south-africa No. Employer's National Insurance attaches to people employed and paid through a UK payroll. A Kadraa consultant contracts with Kadraa rather than with you and is not on your payroll, so no employer's NI arises on the monthly fee you pay us. ### Is Kadraa a recruitment agency or an Employer of Record? https://kadraa.com/questions/employer-of-record-or-recruiter Neither, and the distinction is the whole point. Kadraa does the recruitment, like an agency would, and also provides the vehicle you engage the person through, which an agency does not. The consultant contracts with Kadraa rather than with you, so no employment relationship ever reaches your business, and you pay one monthly fee rather than a placement fee plus everything that follows it. ### What does a UK employee actually cost beyond their salary? https://kadraa.com/questions/true-cost-of-a-uk-hire A £40,000 UK salary costs roughly £46,263 a year before you have bought a laptop or paid a recruiter. Employer's National Insurance adds £5,250 and pension auto-enrolment adds £1,013, and neither figure appears anywhere in the offer letter.