Botswana EOR & PEO

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Hire in Botswana

Botswana is a large country in southern Africa, landlocked by South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Though large, the country has a relatively small population of just 2.72 million inhabitants. At the same time, its relatively high human development index of 0.708 and natural resource wealth have helped the quality of life in Botswana steadily improve since its independence from the UK in 1966. The country has a GDP of over $54 billion, and this is expected to grow by a substantial 3.6% in 2024. At the same time, inflation has been steadily dropping since the pandemic and is now sitting at 4.4%.

With strong economic growth and robust labor market, Botswana is an excellent destination for companies looking to hire an Africa-based team.

Learn how an Africa Employer of Record like Horizons can enable you to hire employees in Botswana, quickly and cost-effectively.

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What Is a Botswana EOR?

A Botswana Employer of Record, or EOR, is an organization that works in Botswana to recruit, hire, and manage employees on behalf of other companies. If you have a company located in a foreign country yet wish to hire Botswana-based workers, an EOR can make this possible without you needing to register a legal entity in the country. Instead, the EOR can recruit and hire workers on behalf of your company and then manage their human resources (HR) needs long-term including payroll, taxes, benefits, and schedule management. While the workers work for your company, their sole legal employer in Botswana is the EOR.

A Botswana EOR is also known as a Botswana Professional Employer Organization or ‘PEO’.

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What Are the Benefits of a Botswana EOR?

Working with a Botswana EOR can produce a lot of benefits for foreign-based companies that want to hire Botswana workers. The main advantages they gain include:

Not needing an entity: The most obvious and valuable benefit of working with a Botswana EOR is that it can hire local workers on behalf of a country that has no registered entity in the country. This can save foreign firms huge amounts of time, money, and effort that they’d otherwise have to spend on the registration process.
Fast recruitment and onboarding: A foreign company trying to enter the Botswana job market to hire workers there will meet numerous hurdles. Working with an EOR, however, can make the hiring process much faster. EORs can choose workers from their talent pools or search adeptly for top talent to fill openings in a matter of days, not months.
Affordability: Using an EOR solution to hire in Botswana will save you up to 80 percent of the cost of opening an entity and hiring employees in Botswana directly.
Controlled compliance: When you work with an EOR in Botswana, it assumes the role of sole legal employer and the responsibility to maintain legal compliance with all tax and labor laws. The expert staff of the EOR have extensive knowledge of local laws and experience maintaining compliance with them. This helps them treat workers fairly and equitably and avoid penalties for non-compliance.

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Why Choose Horizons?

Horizons stands out as a Botswana EOR through:

Strong presence throughout Africa, meaning knowledgeable staff 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 a straightforward and efficient platform to compliantly hire and pay people worldwide.
Cost-effective solutions. At $499 per employee, per month, the Horizons Botswana EOR in an affordable hiring option. 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 for you in Botswana: 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 companies want to explore a new country for the first time, 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 Botswana EOR

How Does a Botswana EOR Work?

When you engage a Botswana EOR, it will:

Hire your Botswana employees. The Botswana EOR becomes the legal employer of your employees in Botswana, managing legal and HR responsibilities. This allows you to concentrate on day-to-day company operations.
Manage employment contracts and onboarding. The EOR helps draft compliant Botswana labor contracts, covering salary, benefits, working hours, and termination procedures. They also manage the onboarding process, ensuring employees are legally registered and understand their employment terms.
Process payroll and handle employment taxes. The Botswana EOR manages payroll processing, ensuring accurate calculation of wages, social benefits, and taxes in accordance with Botswana regulations. They also handle tax filings and ensure compliance with local tax laws, reducing the risk of penalties for non-compliance.
Administer benefits. The Botswana EOR can offer employees access to competitive benefits packages, including health insurance, pension schemes, and other perks. By pooling employees from multiple companies, EORs often negotiate better rates for these benefits.
Take care of exit procedures. If an employment relationship needs to end, the EOR handles the termination process in line with Botswana labor law, including severance payments and final settlement.

stay compliant with Botswana labor laws

Labor Laws

The laws that govern employment in Botswawa are written in English, and that can make them easier to locate, read, and understand. However, they’re spread over several pieces of legislation, including the Employment Act, Trade Union and Employers’ Organisations Act, Factories Act of 1979, Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1980, and more. Working with an EOR in Botswana helps ensure compliance with all of them by making this the EOR’s responsibility. As the client company, though, it’s still important to be familiar with the major points of these laws. This will help you understand what your workers expect and what you can expect from them.

Employment contract types

Contracts in Botswana can be fixed-term or open-ended/permanent. They may or may not indicate notice periods. The contract can be oral or written but must specify the duties of the employee as well as the salary and benefits they will receive. Contracts can include any other terms that are not in opposition to the Employment Act and cannot give conditions that are less favorable than what the Act provides.

If an employee is required to work a probation period, this must be written into their contract.

Project-based

Fixed-term

Indefinite

Working hours in Botswana

Employees cannot work more than eight regular hours in one day or 48 hours in one week if they work six days. If they work five days a week, they can work up to nine hours a day. Any other hours worked are considered overtime. Employees must be given a 45-minute break for lunch. They’re also entitled to at least one period of 24 hours to rest per week, usually on Sunday.

If an employee works on a rest day, they must be paid at least double their normal wages. Other overtime hours must be paid at a rate of at least 1.5 times their normal wages. However, an employee cannot work more than 14 overtime hours per week. Note that managers, administrators, and executives are exempt from receiving overtime pay as the nature of their work requires them to work outside of normal hours.

Overtime must be compensated in the following way:

Holiday Schedule in Botswana [2024]

In a typical year, there are 12 public holidays in Botswana. These are a mix of national holidays and religious (largely Christian) holidays that may change dates annually. Employees are paid on these public holidays and receive replacement holidays if they fall on rest days. Any work performed on these holidays is paid at double normal wages.

Date	Holiday name
1 Jan, 2024	New Year’s Day
2 Jan, 2024	New Year Holiday
29 Mar, 2024	Good Friday
30 Mar, 2024	Holy Saturday
1 Apr, 2024	Easter Monday
1 May, 2024	Labour Day
9 May, 2024	Ascension Day
1 Jul, 2024	Sir Seretse Khama Day
15 Jul, 2024	President’s Day
16 Jul, 2024	President’s Day Holiday
30 Sep, 2024	Botswana Day
1 Oct, 2024	Botswana Day Holiday
25 Dec, 2024	Christmas Day
26 Dec, 2024	Boxing Day

Paid time off

The amount of paid time off employees are eligible to receive is based on how long they have been employed at their current company:

Sick leave in Botswana

Employees who have worked for 12 months are entitled to at least 20 days of paid sick leave. Employers provide the leave permission but the worker is paid, at a rate of 100% of normal wages, by the government so long as they have a medical certificate.

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 Botswana

Expecting mothers need medical certificates with expected delivery dates to claim maternity benefits. They are entitled to six weeks before and six weeks after delivering for a total of 12 weeks. An additional two weeks of maternity leave may be granted if the employee is not fit to return to work due to complications. This maternity leave is paid by the government, not the employer, at 50% of the worker’s normal wages.

There is currently no mandate for paternity leave in Botswana. Any paternity leave would, therefore, be at the discretion of the employer.

Annual leave in Botswana

Employees are entitled to 1.25 days of leave for every month worked, which comes to 15 days of leave per year.

Termination & severance in Botswana

Termination must have a reason and notification periods are decided between employers and employees on their contracts. Workers receive severance pay of one day’s wages for every month of service up to 60 months, and two days’ wages for each month after that.

Botswana's compulsory social security contributions

Compulsory social security contributions are managed by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). These include National Pension, Provident Fund, and Workers’ Compensation Fund.

Botswana social security for foreigners

Foreigners working in Botswana are generally required to participate in the country’s social security programs, similar to Botswana nationals. The main social security programs in Botswana include contributions to the National Pensions and Provident Funds and the Workers’ Compensation Fund.

National Pensions and Provident Funds is set at 5% of the employee’s gross salary, with an equal contribution from the employer, totaling 10% of the employee’s gross salary. Workers’ Compensation Fund are determined based on the nature of the work and the associated risks.

Individual income tax

Individual income tax is levied on the income earned by residents and non-residents who derive income from Botswana sources. The tax rates for individuals are progressive, meaning the tax rate increases with higher income levels.

Health insurance

Employers in Botswana may offer health benefits as part of their employee compensation packages. These benefits can vary widely depending on the employer’s policy, industry standards, and the size of the organization. Employees in Botswana have the option to purchase private health insurance on a voluntary basis.

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Compensation & Benefits

Botswana compensation laws

The minimum wage in Botswana is 7.34 BWP (Botswanan Pula) per hour, or about half a US dollar. Average salaries in Botswana are about 7000 BWP/month or about 500 USD/month.

13 month salary in Botswana

In Botswana, there is no legislation mandating an annual bonus or a 13th-month salary. Some employers may still offer this annual bonus to improve the attractiveness of their compensation packages. These bonuses are discretionary and are usually detailed in employment contracts.

Social security for Batswana nationals

There are no mandatory social security contributions for employees or employers in Botswana. Instead, universal social programs exist for disability, pension, old-age, and survivors’ benefits through government funding.

Botswana Employer Of Record Peo

Navigation

Hire in Botswana

What Is a Botswana EOR?

What Are the Benefits of a Botswana EOR?

Why Choose Horizons?

How Does a Botswana EOR Work?

Labor Laws

Employment contract types

Working hours in Botswana

Compensation & Benefits

Frequently asked questions

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Frequently asked questions

What are the advantages of using an Employer of Record in Botswana?

An EOR in Botswana can help companies find and hire top talent quickly. It will also maintain constant compliance with all labor laws to reduce the risk of fines or legal actions. However, the most important benefit of working with an EOR is that it allows a company to hire workers without owning an entity in Botswana.

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

When an EOR hires staff on your behalf, it becomes the sole legal employer of those workers. As such, it is responsible for ensuring compliance with all relevant labor laws. That’s why an EOR will employ experienced and knowledgeable HR and legal staff who are familiar with all the relevant statutes and, therefore, able to ensure constant compliance.

What's the difference between a Botswana EOR and a Botswana PEO?

Generally, the term Botswana PEO (Professional Employer Organization) is used interchangeably with the term Botswana EOR.

Botswana EOR & PEO

Start hiring in Botswana

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Hire in Botswana

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hire employees in Botswana

What Is a Botswana EOR?

Save Money And Time with A Botswana EOR

What Are the Benefits of a Botswana EOR?

Horizons is Best IN Class

Why Choose Horizons?

Step-by-step Botswana EOR

How Does a Botswana EOR Work?

stay compliant with Botswana labor laws

Labor Laws

Employment contract types

Project-based

Probationary period

Termination

Severance

Fixed-term

Probationary period

Termination notice period

Severance

Indefinite

Probationary period

Termination notice period

Severance

Working hours in Botswana

Overtime must be compensated in the following way:

For a regular workday:

For a rest day:

For a statutory holiday:

Paid time off

Under 1 year of employment

1-10 years of employment

10-20 years of employment

20+ years of employment

Sick leave in Botswana

Less than 6 months of sick leave:

Under 1 year of employment

1-10 years of employment

10-20 years of employment

20+ years of employment

Over 6 months of sick leave

Under 1 year of employment

1-3 years of employment

3+ years of employment

Maternity leave in Botswana

Annual leave in Botswana

Termination & severance in Botswana

Botswana's compulsory social security contributions

Botswana social security for foreigners

Individual income tax

Health insurance

hassle-free chinese compensation & benefits

Compensation & Benefits

Botswana compensation laws

13 month salary in Botswana

Social security for Batswana nationals

Hire in Botswana in 24h without your own local entity.

Frequently asked questions

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