Two people in business attire sit at a desk. One person is holding a clipboard with documents, possibly reviewing them. The other person has their hands crossed on the desk. A resume and succulent plant are visible in the background. The text reads "BIZLATIN HUB: Recruitment outsourcing in Panama.

Overview: Recruitment Outsourcing in Panama?

As you prepare to expand your business, you have made the decision to expand into the Panamanian market. This expansion may involve hiring local employees to handle various aspects such as sales, marketing, accounting and payroll, regulatory compliance and human resources tasks. Hiring can be a daunting task for entrepreneurs, especially in unfamiliar territories with different work cultures and languages. However, don’t worry, there are recruitment outsourcing resources in Panama available to streamline the hiring process. Taking advantage of recruitment outsourcing in Panama can alleviate the challenges associated with hiring in a new jurisdiction, ensuring a smoother transition and allowing your business to thrive in the Panamanian market.

What is recruitment outsourcing in Panama?

What is recruitment outsourcing in Panama and how does it differ from traditional hiring and recruitment? 

  • In-house hiring/recruitment – If you’re fortunate enough to have a team in place that understands Panama’s work culture and talent/labor pools well, then it’s possible to perform talent acquisition in-house. But businesses entering an unfamiliar market are unlikely to know where the ideal talent is located – and without remedying this knowledge gap – are likely to cast too wide a net with job postings on social media or job boards.
  • Recruitment outsourcing in Panama – Essentially, this is when a business outsources the hiring process to a third party, either an individual recruiter/headhunter or a recruitment solutions provider with local knowledge and experience sifting through the slush-pile of CVs to find top talent. Recruitment firms can assume varying levels of involvement in the process, from managing the entire hiring and onboarding lifecycle to finding promising candidates and forwarding their CVs to a hiring manager.

Whichever method a business decides to go with, it’s important to get a sense of the intricacies of Panamanian culture and labor norms. Another specialized service that a company will want to consider is that of an employer of record in Panama. Like recruitment outsourcing in Panama, an employer for record (EOR) is a professional third party that takes responsibility for the legal, immigration, and employment needs of a company.

A graphic titled "Six Latin American nations have been named among the top 10 countries in the world to retire to. Can you name the top 3?" shows results from a LinkedIn poll: 48% chose Panama, 26% chose Costa Rica, 20% chose Mexico, and 6% chose other. The correct answers are Panama, Costa Rica, and Mexico. Fun fact
The best country to retire to in Latin America is Panama. Important when thinking of recruitment outsourcing in Panama.

5 Benefits of Outsourcing in Panama

The 5 benefits in of outsourcing in Panama:

  1. Help with crafting the ideal job description. 
  2. Reduced employee training/onboarding time.
  3. Greater chance at hiring the best available talent.
  4. Recruitment is one less thing to worry about.
  5. Business can expand/scale rapidly.

Top 5 advantages that outsourcing in Panama has over in-house hiring

An infographic titled "5 Benefits of Recruitment Outsourcing in Panama" with a Panama flag icon. The benefits listed are: help with crafting the ideal job description, reduced employee training/onboarding time, greater chance at hiring the best talent, easier recruitment, and rapid business scale. Contact information and website for Biz Latin Hub are included at the bottom.
5 Benefits of Outsourcing in Panama

The 5 advantages that outsourcing in Panama has over in-house hiring are the following:

  1. Help with crafting the ideal job description.
  2. Reduced employee training/onboarding time.
  3. Greater chance at hiring the best available talent.
  4. Recruitment is one less thing to worry about.
  5. Business is able to expand/scale rapidly.

1. Help with crafting the ideal job description

Some companies treat job descriptions more like a wish list than an accurate portrayal of what kind of employee they’re really looking for. So, it’s no surprise that candidates who are under-experienced and/or under-qualified will fire off a résumé anyway. The result is often a large pile of applications with little or no ideal candidates. A professional recruiter can help businesses tighten up their job descriptions so it’s clear to job seekers that they shouldn’t bother applying if they don’t have experience X or qualification Y. 

2. Reduced employee training/onboarding time

Businesses, in Panama and elsewhere, must spend time and resources bringing a new hire up to speed. But by outsourcing your recruitment process to a professional, companies have a better chance of finding a person who is not only a good fit, but also brings enough experience to be well acquainted with the position – meaning that onboarding time is kept to a minimum.

3. Greater chance at hiring the best available talent

To invoke a fishing analogy, casting too wide a net when recruitment outsourcing in Panama will mean that you’ll end up with a pile of CVs and few, if any qualified candidates. But if you cast a fishing line with the right bait, you’ll attract a certain type of ‘fish’ (i.e., candidate). Recruiters who use focused searches will increase the company’s chances of finding a high-quality candidate who is among the top in their field.

4. Recruitment is one less thing to worry about 

Delays in filling vacant positions at a small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) can cause businesses to become stagnant or even contract. But finding qualified personnel is time consuming and downright stressful. Recruitment outsourcing for newly domiciled businesses in Panama makes sense a good recruiter will assure management that they are doing everything they can to help the business thrive. Partnering with the right recruiter makes finding the right people for the job one less thing for managers to worry about.

5. Business can expand/scale rapidly

All companies want to be more productive and increase sales, but hiring the people needed in order to scale the business can be difficult, especially in a place like Panama. The country’s relatively small population (around 4.3 million) poses a problem. The population of the capital, Panama City, is less than 500,000 people. This means that the local talent pool is much smaller than in other jurisdictions. But with the right recruitment outsourcing in Panama partner – and with the right incentives – businesses can find the best people for the roles that need to be filled, allowing them to expand at a more rapid pace than if they had tackled the hiring process alone.

Infographic titled "Recruitment Outsourcing in Panama" with the BizLatinHub logo. It details steps in hiring processes, including hiring strategies, proficiency requirements, candidate backgrounds, contract types, and knowing the recruitment region. Contact info provided.
Learn about Recruitment outsourcing in Panama

Biz Latin Hub can help you with recruitment and outsourcing in Panama

At Biz Latin Hub, we provide integrated market entry and back office services throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, with offices in 17 major cities around the region.

As well as knowledge about recruitment outsourcing in Panama, our portfolio of services includes hiring & PEO, accounting & taxation, company formation, bank account opening, and corporate legal services.

Contact us today to find out more about how we can assist you in finding top talent, or otherwise do business in Latin America and the Caribbean.

If this article on recruitment and outsourcing in Panama was of interest to you, check out the rest of our coverage of the region. Or read about our team and expert authors.

A BLH infogrpahic showing key services offered by the company
Key services offered by Biz Latin Hub in the outsourcing of personnel in Panama.

David Wright
David Wright

David spent 22 years working for the British Diplomatic Service serving in various Latin American countries. He served twice in Colombia including acting as an advisor on regional security matters to the President of Colombia. Currently, he acts as a consultant for companies and governments on risk management, security and technology.

David is also involved in mining related companies, both in Executive and Non-Executive roles. Together with Craig Dempsey he set up Biz Latin Hub and now acts as its Non-Executive Chairman. David holds a Bachelors Degree in Astrophysics from Birmingham University and also studied at Brown University.

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