EOR vs staffing agency in Vietnam

Recruitment agency, staffing agency, EOR and outsourcing — what's the difference?

The four models differ on one decisive question: who signs the labour contract and carries the employer's duties?

• Recruitment agency (headhunter). Introduces candidates for a one-off fee. It is not an employer: once you hire, the contract and contributions are yours — and you need a Vietnamese entity to complete the hire.
• Staffing / labour-dispatch agency (cho thuê lại lao động). Vietnam's real “staffing” category: licensed labour sub-leasing. A licensed company employs the worker and places them under your direction while staying the legal employer.1 See how labour outsourcing and dispatch are licensed in Vietnam.
• Employer of record (EOR). A Vietnam-registered entity directly employs the worker on an ordinary labour contract — running payroll, tax and social insurance as the legal employer — and invoices your company under a B2B agreement.1 Being ordinary employment, it is not bound by the 12-month cap. Start with what an EOR is and how it works in Vietnam.
• Payroll / HR outsourcing. For companies that already have a Vietnamese entity and want someone to run payroll and filings — see payroll and HR outsourcing in Vietnam. It is not an employment model.

A PEO is a fifth label, built on a US co-employment idea that does not map cleanly onto Vietnamese law; see EOR vs PEO in Vietnam.

The legal difference: licensed sub-leasing vs direct employment

A staffing agency and an EOR reach a similar outcome through two very different legal routes, and the route decides the limits.

A staffing / dispatch agency uses licensed labour sub-leasing

Labour sub-leasing is a licensed, regulated activity under the Labour Code 2019 (Art. 52) and Decree 145/2020/ND-CP.12 A provider must hold a licence backed by a refundable VND 2 billion deposit and a representative with at least three years' experience.2 Three limits matter most against an EOR:

• A 12-month cap per worker. A sub-leased worker can be placed with the same client for a maximum of 12 months — the single biggest legal constraint on a long-term arrangement this way.1
• Only 20 permitted occupations. Sub-leasing is allowed solely for a closed list of 20 jobs (Decree 145/2020, Appendix II), such as translation, secretarial work, programming and customer care; use outside that list is unlawful.2
• Restricted purposes and equal pay. It may cover demand spikes, absences or specialist needs, but not replace strikers or staff laid off for economic reasons; the worker must be paid no less than your comparable employees.1

An EOR uses direct employment

Most EOR services in Vietnam do not rely on the sub-leasing cap. A licensed Vietnamese company directly employs the worker on a standard labour contract — handling payroll, personal income tax and social insurance as the legal employer — and bills your company under a B2B service agreement.1 Because this is ordinary employment rather than sub-leasing, it is not subject to the 12-month ceiling and is not confined to the 20-occupation list. It is a structuring approach built on ordinary Labour Code employment, not a special “EOR law” — read why an EOR is lawful in Vietnam and the two routes providers use.

Who is the legal employer in each?

This decides who owes wages, contributions, severance and compliance duties, and it answers differently for each model.

• Recruitment agency: you are, once the candidate is hired; the agency's job ends at introduction.
• Staffing / dispatch agency: the licensed agency remains the legal employer throughout the placement; you direct the work but do not hold the contract.1
• EOR: the EOR's Vietnam-registered entity is the legal employer, named on the contract and on every filing.1

Vietnamese law looks at substance, not labels: under Labour Code Art. 13, any arrangement involving paid work, wages and one party directing the worker is treated as employment, whatever the paperwork calls it.1 So naming the real legal employer up front matters in every model.

Side-by-side comparison

The three employment-adjacent models, against the factors that decide which you need:

When a staffing agency is right, and when you need an EOR

Neither model is better in the abstract; match it to the shape of the hire.

A staffing / dispatch agency fits when…

• the need is genuinely temporary — under 12 months with the same client — such as a seasonal spike or a fixed project;
• you are covering an absence (maternity, accident or military service);
• the role sits on the list of 20 permitted occupations and the agency holds a valid licence.2

An EOR fits when…

• the hire is permanent or open-ended, so the 12-month cap would force an awkward, legally unsettled renewal;1
• the role is not on the 20-occupation dispatch list — most engineering, management and finance roles are not;
• you want continuity of seniority, benefits and the social-insurance record under one legal employer. A support team is a common case — see BPO and call-centre hiring in Vietnam.

How EOR Vietnam fits

EOR Vietnam is an EOR, not a staffing or dispatch agency. We employ your chosen worker through a Vietnam-registered entity on an ordinary labour contract, so there is no 12-month cap and no restriction to the 20 dispatch occupations: any lawful role, long-term, with no entity of your own.1 As the legal employer we run the contract, payroll, personal income tax, the employer's roughly 23.5% statutory contributions (21.5% insurance plus the 2% trade-union fee) and the employee's 10.5%, payslips, onboarding, offboarding and work-permit support for foreign hires — all as of October 2026.34

Our service fee is a flat US$149 per employee per month for Vietnamese nationals — the same fee regardless of salary, seniority, role, location or headcount, and not a percentage of payroll (as of October 2026). Foreign nationals who need a Vietnamese work permit are quoted separately. A refundable security deposit equal to two months of the employee's employment cost (gross salary plus the statutory employer contributions) is held for the engagement and returned at the end, less any unpaid amounts. There are no setup, onboarding, offboarding, contract or payslip fees and no hidden fees; salary, the statutory contributions and any statutory or agreed employment payments are passed through at cost. The wider rules for employing people in Vietnam run across our Vietnam employer guides, and EOR Vietnam provides the employer-of-record service in Vietnam directly, as the single legal employer. See what an EOR actually costs in Vietnam, or request a costed EOR Vietnam quote.