Why Austria keeps showing up
Austria is tidy, on time, and serious about quality. Vienna brings senior talent, Graz and Linz have deep engineering, Salzburg is strong in ops and sales. Interviews are not your problem. The risky part is the first 30 to 60 days of setup, where a good candidate can slip away because a contract looked wierd or payroll details were fuzzy. If you are new, the phrase employer of record austria will pop up a lot, usually as the middle path between “go all in” and “move fast”.
Your basic hiring paths
- Open a local company. Full control, also full admin: banking, registrations, filings, payroll tools.
- Contracting (B2B). Fast for short projects and seniors. Not every role fits this model.
- Use an employer of record austria You manage work, they are the legal employer, payroll and benefits land on time.
Practical notes that matter
- Collective agreements (Kollektivvertrag) set floors for pay and some rules by industry.
- 13th and 14th payments are normal. Budget with 14 not 12.
- Vacation is 5 weeks, plus public holidays. Sick pay is generous.
- Bilingual contracts help. German for clarity, English for speed.
- Benefits count. Private health add ons, learning budget, clear travel or home office policy.
Onboarding is a process, not a day
- Register social insurance before day one.
- File payroll through local systems, monthly and clean.
- Give a real induction: tools, security basics, who to ping for approvals.
- Put a 90 day plan on paper so managers dont improvise.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Sending a contractor deal for a role that is clearly employed work.
- Forgetting the 13th and 14th in the comp math.
- Copy pasting a Vienna salary to Linz without adjusting.
- Telling a candidate you will “sort payroll later”, then losing them next week.
- Skipping the German contract version when a works council is in the picture.
Where an employer of record austria partner helps
- Clean, industry matched contracts under the right Kollektivvertrag.
- Social insurance registration and monthly filings done on time.
- Payroll with the 14-pay structure handled correctly.
- Quiet guardrails on permanent establishment risk, GDPR, time tracking rules.
- Advice on when B2B is fine and when it is not.
If you want a name that does this without drama, look at Acvian. They handle the legal employer role, run payroll, set up benefits, and nudge you when a “temporary freelancer” starts to look like a hidden employee. You keep the culture and delivery, they handle the boring parts so your teammate feels fully employed on day one.
A simple hiring playbook
- Scope the role and pick contract type first.
- Price with 14 payments included, not as an after thought.
- List benefits up front: health add ons, learning budget, flexible hours.
- Share the 90 day plan during offer stage.
- For long term or customer facing roles, prefer umowa style employment equivalents in Austria, not ad hoc contracting.
- When speed matters and you want to stay compliant, use an employer of record austria setup with a partner like Acvian, then open your own entity once headcount really justifies it.
Do the boring things early, talk to candidates like adults, and keep paperwork tidy. That is how you hire in Austria without turning your quarter into a paperwork marathon.
