Job offer in hand, everything sounds normal — same interview process, same manager, same desk. Then the actual employment contract arrives, and the company name on it isn’t the one you interviewed with. It’s a name you’ve never heard of.
That’s an Employer of Record (EOR) arrangement, and it’s increasingly common in Singapore — especially when the company you’re actually going to work for doesn’t have a legal entity here. If this is you, here’s what’s genuinely worth understanding before you sign.
1. Your Legal Employer Isn’t Who You Report To
Day-to-day, you take instructions from the company you interviewed with — your manager, your team, your actual work. But legally, your employer is the EOR named on your contract. That’s who pays your salary, makes your CPF contributions, and is responsible for your statutory leave and benefits under the Employment Act.
This matters in practical terms: if there’s a payslip error, a CPF question, or a dispute about your leave balance, the EOR — not the company you work for day-to-day — is who’s actually accountable. Save their HR contact, not just your manager’s.
2. Ask About Your Work Pass, If You’re Not a Singapore Citizen or PR
This is the one with real personal stakes. Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower has stated plainly: work passes are for foreigners to work for Singapore-based companies. If the company you’re actually working for has no legal presence in Singapore, and your EOR is holding your work pass on that basis, that’s an arrangement MOM has specifically flagged as not allowed.
You’re not the one who applied for the pass or structured the arrangement — but you’re the one whose ability to legally stay and work in Singapore depends on it. It’s a fair, reasonable question to ask your EOR directly: does the company I’m working for have a registered presence in Singapore? If the answer is no, it’s worth understanding what that means for your pass before you’re relying on it.
3. “End of Assignment” Isn’t Always the Same as “End of Job”
In a conventional job, if the company decides to end your role, that’s a termination, full stop. In an EOR arrangement, it can be more layered: the client company might end its arrangement with the EOR for your position, without that automatically ending your employment with the EOR itself.
Depending on your EOR’s other business, this can cut either way. Some EORs will actively try to place you with another client if your original assignment ends, since you’re still their employee and still their cost to carry. Others won’t have another role to offer, and the practical result is the same as a termination — just routed through a different process, with notice periods and terms governed by your contract with the EOR, not by whatever policy the client company you worked for actually follows.
Either way, it’s worth knowing upfront: what does my EOR do when a client relationship ends? Do they try to redeploy me, or is my contract with them tied specifically to this one assignment?
The Bottom Line
None of this means an EOR arrangement is a bad deal — for a lot of people, it’s simply how a great role at an overseas company becomes possible while staying based in Singapore. But you’re entering a three-way relationship, not a two-way one, and knowing which of the three you actually go to for which problem is what keeps a good arrangement from becoming a confusing one.
Considering a role offered through an EOR, or trying to make sense of one you’re already in? Get in touch — we’re happy to help you think through the questions worth asking.
