Webinar Recap: 5 Hiring Mistakes Companies Make When Expanding to Europe
A company decides to enter Germany after building a successful business in the UK. It approves a budget, adapts an existing job description and starts searching for a sales leader. The expectation is straightforward: find someone with a strong track record who can repeat that success in a new country.
A few months later, the search is taking longer than expected. Candidates are asking questions about the employment setup, the compensation package needs adjusting, and the preferred hire cannot start within the original timeline.
These were among the challenges explored in Avomind’s webinar with Oyster, The 5 Mistakes Companies Make When Expanding to Europe. The discussion brought together recruitment and global employment perspectives on what businesses need to get right when building teams across European markets.
For founders, commercial leaders and HR teams planning European expansion, the hiring decisions made before launch can shape everything that follows. Here are five common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Mistake 1: Treating Europe as One Hiring Market
A European expansion strategy needs to account for the individual countries, cities and talent pools where the business intends to operate. A successful approach in London may need substantial changes before it works in Munich, Paris or Madrid.
During the webinar, the speakers highlighted how candidate expectations can differ across markets. Work-life balance, seniority, autonomy and organisational structure can all influence how someone evaluates an opportunity. The importance of each factor also varies by individual, role and career stage.
Employers need to understand what their target candidates value and reflect that understanding in the role, the offer and the recruitment process.
Benchmark the whole compensation package
Salary expectations need to be assessed locally. Even within the same country, the budget required for a particular role can vary by city, industry and the availability of relevant experience.
For commercial positions, the balance between base salary and variable pay deserves particular attention. Candidates will also assess how achievable the targets are, especially when joining a company with limited local brand recognition or an undeveloped pipeline.
A package that looks attractive at headquarters may raise concerns for someone expected to build a new market with little existing support. Benchmarking should cover the full offer, including benefits, working arrangements and the assumptions behind commission.
Plan backwards from the intended start date
Interview scheduling, internal approvals, candidate notice periods and onboarding all affect when a new employee can realistically begin.
Notice periods were a recurring point in the webinar, particularly for businesses accustomed to faster transitions between jobs. Confirm each candidate’s contractual position early and build it into the launch plan.
If the commercial strategy depends on having someone in place by a particular month, recruitment needs to begin early enough to accommodate the search and the transition. Adding interview rounds without a clear purpose can make that timeline harder to achieve.
Mistake 2: Hiring a Profile that does not Fit the Market Entry Stage
An impressive sales record tells you what someone achieved. Understanding how they achieved it is essential when assessing whether they can succeed in your expansion.
The webinar explored a familiar hiring instinct: recruit someone who has already performed well at a recognised company in the same industry. Their experience can be valuable, but their results may have depended on an established brand, inbound demand, a mature sales operation and a substantial support team.
A first hire in a new country may have to build those foundations themselves.
Assess experience of building from the ground up
Before approaching candidates, define the environment they will be joining. Will they inherit customer relationships? Is there a local marketing budget? Who will support proposals, implementation and customer service? How much authority will they have to adapt the approach?
These details determine what kind of experience matters most.
For a business making its first commercial hire in Europe, useful interview questions include:
What did the market look like when you joined your previous company?
Which parts of the sales process did you build yourself?
How did you win customers before the brand was established locally?
What support did you need from headquarters to make progress?
How did you respond when the initial approach failed to generate results?
The answers help distinguish personal contribution from the advantages of an existing business.
Motivation matters as well. Some candidates enjoy creating structure and working through uncertainty. Others do their best work within an established organisation. Be clear about how much is already in place so both sides can assess the fit.
Set targets around the actual starting position
The discussion also highlighted the risks of copying sales quotas between countries.
A team selling into an established market may benefit from years of brand awareness and customer references. A new hire entering an unfamiliar territory may first need to validate the customer profile, develop relationships and establish credibility.
Set expectations around the work required to create those conditions. Early milestones might include customer discovery, qualified pipeline development and testing the sales approach, alongside revenue objectives.
Mistake 3: Leaving the Employment Structure Until the End
Finding a strong candidate can take weeks or months. Uncertainty about how that person will be employed can put the offer at risk just as the search reaches its final stage.
In the webinar, employment structure emerged as a signal of preparedness. Candidates want clear answers about their contract, payroll, benefits and the organisation responsible for employing them.
A vague explanation can weaken confidence in the opportunity, particularly when the business is new to the country.
Decide how the hire will be employed before making an offer
Employment requirements need to be reviewed country by country. Within the EU, employers must provide required information about the employment relationship, while national rules and applicable collective agreements shape the relevant terms.
For companies considering contractors, the proposed arrangement also needs careful assessment. A contractor agreement should reflect a genuinely independent working relationship under the applicable local rules. Germany, for example, has a formal procedure for determining whether a relationship constitutes employment or self-employment.
These decisions should be addressed while the role is being planned. Doing so allows recruiters and hiring managers to explain the setup consistently throughout the search.
Consider where an employer of record may fit
Oyster discussed an employer of record, or EOR, as an option for businesses hiring internationally without establishing their own local entity.
Under an EOR arrangement, the provider acts as the legal employer and handles agreed employment administration, while the client company manages the employee’s daily work. Oyster’s offering includes employment contracts, payroll and benefits support.
The suitability of that model depends on the country, the role and the business’s plans. Review the arrangement locally, including any restrictions and responsibilities that remain with your company.
Whichever route you choose, the candidate should understand who will employ them and how the arrangement will work before accepting the offer.
Mistake 4: Applying the Same Commercial Approach Everywhere
Recruitment and market entry strategy are closely connected. The person you hire needs to work within the buying environment they will encounter.
During the webinar, the speakers discussed how sales processes and communication expectations can differ between European markets. Examples included the importance of stakeholder involvement and trust in German sales conversations, as well as differences in how direct feedback and relationship building are received.
These observations are useful starting points for market research. Validate them with customers and candidates in your specific sector rather than treating national characteristics as fixed rules.
Give local hires room to apply their knowledge
A candidate with relevant market experience brings insight into how customers buy, which objections are likely to arise and what helps establish credibility.
That knowledge has practical value when the company gives them room to act on it. If every message, sales sequence and decision must follow the headquarters approach, the business may struggle to benefit from the expertise it hired.
Agree where local adaptation is possible. That could include outreach language, customer references, partnership development, meeting formats or the sequence of the sales process.
Support the market before expecting consistent results
The speakers also raised an important question: how familiar is the market with your company before the first salesperson starts?
A new hire may be introducing both the product and the business. Relevant customer examples, clear local messaging and access to marketing support can help them build credibility.
Assess what the company needs to contribute to market development and include that work in the expansion budget. A recruitment plan becomes more realistic when it is connected to the resources needed to support the person doing the job.
Mistake 5: Treating the Accepted Offer as the Finish Line
The final mistake concerns what happens after the hire joins.
A first employee in a new country can quickly become isolated. They may be responsible for building a pipeline, explaining local conditions to headquarters and solving operational problems with limited support.
If expectations remain unclear or promised resources fail to appear, frustration can build even when the person has the skills to succeed.
Make the working environment clear during recruitment
Avomind’s contribution to the discussion highlighted how replacement searches can reveal an earlier mismatch between the candidate’s expectations and the company’s stage of development.
Someone may have understood the product and interviewed well, yet expected more structure than the business could provide. Others may discover that they are uncomfortable with the uncertainty involved in building a market.
Discuss these conditions openly during the search. Explain what is established, what still needs to be created and where the new hire will need to work independently.
Build support into the first months
A practical onboarding plan should give the employee access to the people, information and tools they need to make progress.
For a first commercial hire, this includes a clear reporting line, regular contact with headquarters, product training and agreement on early priorities. It should also establish how local feedback will influence decisions.
Review progress in the context of the market. If results are below expectations, examine the customer response, sales cycle, available resources and original assumptions alongside individual performance.
Compensation and development opportunities also need ongoing attention. Retention becomes easier to manage when conversations about support, expectations and growth happen regularly.
Building a stronger foundation for European expansion
The webinar’s five mistakes share a common thread: the need to connect hiring decisions with the reality of the market and the business.
Before launching a search, define the local opportunity, the employment setup and the conditions the new hire will face. Use those decisions to shape the candidate profile, compensation package and expectations for the first year.
Avomind supports international companies hiring commercial, strategy, analytics, leadership and niche technical talent across Europe, APAC and the Americas. Our recruitment approach examines the role alongside the market, the company’s stage of growth and the environment in which the person will need to succeed.
If you are planning your first hires in Europe or expanding an existing team, speak with Avomind about the talent your next stage of growth requires.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should companies consider before hiring in Europe?
Start with the specific country and role. Review talent availability, compensation expectations, recruitment timelines, employment arrangements and the resources the new hire will need. Connect the intended start date to the wider market launch plan.
What experience matters for a first commercial hire in a new market?
Look for evidence of building customer relationships, developing a pipeline and adapting a sales approach where the company had limited existing presence. Assess what the candidate personally created and how much support they had.
How can companies improve retention during European expansion?
Be clear about the working environment during recruitment, agree realistic early objectives and provide regular access to headquarters. Review whether the employee has the resources and authority needed to deliver the expected results.
