Employer of Record (EOR) Services in Sierra Leone

Employer of Record

From
$249/month

Contractor  Management

$49/month

Talent Sourcing

2% of gross salary / month

Start hiring in Sierra Leone

Simple, compliant hiring with Horizons EOR & PEO

Hire in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is a small, coastal West African country bordered by Guinea and Liberia with a population of 8.655 million. Over the past decade, the nation’s GDP has grown from $1.25 billion to $4.56 billion, and growth is expected to continue at 4% in 2024. Unemployment was down to just 3.2% in 2023 and seems stable for the near future.

For companies looking to hire employees in Sierra Leone, Horizons’ Sierra Leone Employer of Record (EOR) offers a cost-effective and quick hiring solution.

Facts & Stats

hire employees in Sierra Leone

What Is a Sierra Leone EOR?

If you try to hire workers in Sierra Leone without the help of an EOR or employer of record, chances are good that you’ll struggle. Normally, you’ll need to register a legal entity in the country first before you hire local workers, and this can take a long time. Then recruiting Sierra Leonians can also take ages if you don’t know the labor market.

Companies that work with EORs, however, can hire employees in Sierra Leone much more quickly and efficiently. EORs can recruit and hire workers on their behalf. They then take care of these workers long term, providing for their human resources (HR) needs like preparing contracts, payroll, benefits administration, and leave scheduling. The client company pays the EOR a fee for these services, and the EOR pays the rest.

Note, a Sierra Leone EOR can also be referred to as a Sierra Leone PEO or Professional Employment Organization.

Save Money And Time with A Sierra Leone EOR

What Are the Benefits of a Sierra Leone EOR?

Working with an EOR in Sierra Leone confers multiple advantages upon client companies. Among these are:

Not needing an entity: Typically, foreign-based enterprises need to register legal entities to hire workers in other countries. An EOR, however, is able to hire people in Sierra Leone on your behalf. While employees sign contracts with the EOR, they state that the employees will work directly for your company. This can save you lots of time, effort, and cost compared with registering an entity in Sierra Leone.
Fast recruitment and onboarding: For a company that doesn’t have local connections or an understanding of the labor market in Sierra Leone, finding great staff can take months. With an EOR, however, this time period can be greatly reduced. EORs typically already have labor pools to draw from or can connect with new applicants quickly through target recruitment strategies. This means you can have Sierra Leonian workers on board with your company in a matter of days to a few weeks.
Cost-effectiveness: Sierra Leone is a low-income country with very low salaries. Employers also pay only 10% of contributions to social security programs. This means that Sierra Leonian workers can be very affordable for international businesses.
Ongoing compliance: When an EOR hires workers on your behalf, it becomes their sole legal employer in Sierra Leone. This means that it’s also responsible for maintaining compliance with all relevant labor laws in the country. The EOR prepares legal contracts and monitors working conditions consistently to ensure they’re fair and equitable at all times.

Horizons is Best IN Class

Why Choose Horizons?

Horizons stands out as a Sierra Leone EOR through:

A strong regional presence in Africa, meaning senior management are on the ground to deal with any issues.
Client-focused infrastructure. Horizons won’t oversell you on products and services you don’t need. Horizons offers the easiest platform to compliantly hire and pay people worldwide.
Cost-effective solutions. At $499 per employee, per month, no EOR in Sierra Leone is more affordable. The cost is 100% transparent (onboarding, offboarding, deposit, no extra charges).
A customer-first culture. Horizons is an efficient bootstrapped company. It is not an externally-funded company burning investor cash to aggressively acquire new clients. Horizons is the only EOR that grows with its customer, reflecting the level of care and personal attention provided to each customer. Horizons will carefully advise on the best setup in each country: the type of contract needed, how to structure your benefits, and how to offboard a person while minimizing the risk of conflicts and extra cost
A long-term partnership. Horizons is the only EOR platform with a recruitment arm — a direct response to client demand. If any employee is leaving, or if our clients want to explore a new country, Horizons can recruit new candidates directly for the client. Horizons is:
- The only EOR doing this in-house — no subcontracting
- The only EOR doing this without a retainer — clients are only charged upon success
- The only EOR charging just a 2% fee per month.

Step-by-step Sierra Leone EOR

How Does a Sierra Leone EOR Work?

Your company can work with an EOR in Sierra Leone to help you recruit, hire, and maintain your local staff. These are the services an EOR typically provides:

Hiring your employees: Once you let the EOR know how many employees you need as well as the positions that need to be filled and the requirements for them, the EOR gets to work. It uses its talent pool, networks, and local recruitment strategies to find you appropriate candidates. If you accept the candidates it puts forward, the EOR will hire them directly and thus become their sole legal employer in Sierra Leone.
Managing employment contracts and onboarding: The candidates that the EOR selects are normally given the opportunity to negotiate the terms of their contracts directly with you. Once you’ve agreed on these terms, the EOR will write them up in contracts that follow the employment regulations set out in Sierra Leone. While the EOR will sign these contracts with the employees, it’s made clear in them that they’ll work for your company directly, and you’ll handle their day-to-day management. The EOR will onboard your new employees by collecting their information, entering them into employee databases, and registering them with the local tax and social security authorities.
Processing payroll and handling employment taxes: Because payroll processing requires an in-depth knowledge of local tax and employment statutes, the EOR will normally handle this function on your behalf as well. Each pay period it will ask you for days worked data and use that to calculate gross salaries for your Sierra Leonian workers. It will deduct taxes and remit these payments, plus calculate and pay social security contributions from both you and the employee. Your company will need to provide all of these funds, the remainder of which, the workers’ net salaries, will be dispersed to them by the EOR.
Administering benefits: If you offer any additional benefits to your workers as part of their compensation packages, the EOR can also manage their administration. It can help to sign workers up for programs such as private insurance or pension funds and then manage regular contributions to them.
Taking care of exit procedures: While you can let the EOR’s staff know when you need to terminate workers, it’s up to them to work through the proper exit procedures. You can let them know your reasons, and they’ll assess the legality of the termination. After that, they’ll decide what notice periods and severance pay might be necessary, if any, and take care of these for you.

stay compliant with Sierra Leone labor laws

Labor Laws

Despite decades of strife in the country, Sierra Leone has extensive laws that protect the interests of both employees and employers. While the Sierra Leone Employment Act of 2023 has done well in consolidating laws related to labor, there are still many other statutes to know about, including social security and tax laws in the country. The EOR’s experts will be charged with handling compliance with all of these laws on your behalf. However, it’s still useful for you to know some of the major points of the law so you’ll know what you must provide for your Sierra Leonian workers.

Employment contract types

Contracts in Sierra Leone can be oral or written. They should normally be permanent or continuing contracts. However, in some cases, fixed-term contracts are allowed. These are limited to six months in length and may only be renewed once. Contracts must include the names and addresses of the parties, start date, job title, and description, place of work, wages and overtime rate, hours, leave allowance, provisions for sick pay, notice period, any relevant collective agreement, and any disciplinary rules applicable to the worker.

Project-based

Fixed-term

Indefinite

Working hours in Sierra Leone

Normal working hours in Sierra Leone are eight hours a day, five days a week. However, workers can legally work up to ten hours a day or 48 hours a week using overtime hours.

Overtime must be compensated in the following way:

Holiday Schedule in Sierra Leone [2025]

Sierra Leone has ten public holidays each year. These are a mixture of national days and Islamic and Christian religious observances.

Date	Holiday name
1 Jan 2025	New Year’s Day
18 Feb 2025	Armed Forces Day
8 Mar 2025	International Women’s Day
30 Mar – 31 Mar 2025	Korité
18 Apr 2025	Good Friday
21 Apr 2025	Easter Monday
27 Apr 2025	Independence Day
1 May 2025	International Workers’ Day
7 Jun 2025	Tabaski (Tentative Date)
4 Sep 2025	The Prophet’s Birthday (Mawlid)
25 Dec 2025	Christmas Day
26 Dec 2025	Boxing Day

Paid time off

Employees who work a normal eight hours a day are entitled to one 30-minute break during the day. This break is not paid. Workers are also not allowed to work for more than five days consecutive without a day’s rest unless temporary exemptions are made for the business.

Sick leave in Sierra Leone

Employees are entitled to sick leave in accordance with the terms of their contracts or collective agreements. The employer may require a medical certificate to allow sick leave.

Less than 6 months of sick leave

Over 6 months of sick leave

In order for employees to receive the full wages due to them, workers must present a valid medical certificate from a certified doctor to their employer.

Maternity leave in Sierra Leone

Expecting mothers are entitled to 14 weeks of fully paid maternity leave. Female employees cannot be dismissed while pregnant or on maternity leave.

Fathers are entitled to two weeks of fully paid paternity leave per year. They must give seven days’ notice to request this leave.

Annual leave in Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, paid annual leave is one month’s working days for each year of service to the employer.

Termination & severance in Sierra Leone

Employers can terminate contracts for just cause. Except for cases of gross misconduct, the employer should give the employee one month’s notice of termination in writing. Severance must also be paid, but the amount depends on the worker’s contract or collective agreement.

Sierra Leone's compulsory social security contributions

Compulsory social security contributions are managed by National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT), requiring a combined total of 15% of gross monthly earnings, with 5% contributed by the employee and 10% by the employer. These contributions provide essential benefits such as pensions, disability, and survivor benefits.

Sierra Leone social security for foreigners

Foreign employees are generally required to participate in the compulsory social security contributions managed by NASSIT, similar to local employees. This includes a 5% contribution from the employee and a 10% contribution from the employer. However, specific exemptions or modifications may apply based on international agreements or specific employment conditions.

Individual income tax

Individual income tax in Sierra Leone is progressive, with rates ranging from 0% to 30% depending on the income level. Taxable income includes various forms of compensation, and there are specific deductions and allowances available.

Health insurance

Sierra Leone has a public health system that aims to provide basic health services to its citizens. The government has implemented initiatives such as the Free Healthcare Initiative (FHI) which provides free healthcare services to pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under five years old.

Private health insurance is also available in Sierra Leone, but it is not widespread. It is typically provided by international insurance companies or local insurance providers.

Health insurance in Sierra Leone is an emerging area, and the system is still developing to provide comprehensive coverage for its citizens.

hassle-free Sierra Leonean compensation & benefits

Compensation & Benefits

Sierra Leone compensation laws

Since 2020, the minimum wage in Sierra Leone has been set at 600 SLE (Sierra Leonian leones)/month (about 27 USD). Skilled workers make more and may expect salaries of around 6000 SLE (about $270/month).

Overtime must be paid at a rate of at least 150% of normal wages for the first four hours over the regular 40-hour week. Any hours after 44 are paid at a rate of 200% of normal wages, and so are any hours worked on weekends and holidays.

13 month salary in Sierra Leone

A 13th-month annual bonus is not mandatory in Sierra Leone but may be used as an incentive by some employers.

Social security for Sierra Leonean nationals

Employers in Sierra Leone pay contributions equal to 10% of a worker’s salary for old age, invalidity, and survivor’s benefits. Employees are deducted 5% of their salaries toward these benefits for a total contribution of 15%.

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Frequently asked questions

How does an EOR in Sierra Leone handle compliance with local labor laws?

When you hire workers through an EOR, it becomes the sole legal employer of your workers in Sierra Leone. This means it is the party responsible for ensuring compliance with all tax and employment laws. It does this by creating legal contracts, monitoring hours and working conditions, and paying appropriate taxes and social security contributions on your behalf.

What are the benefits of using an EOR for hiring in Sierra Leone?

The biggest benefit of working with an EOR is the ability to hire workers in Sierra Leone without having to own an entity there. This represents a huge savings in time and money. EORs can also recruit and hire workers very quickly and take care of their needs appropriately, ensuring compliance with the law at all times.

Employer of Record (EOR) Services in Sierra Leone