3 Steps to Setting Up Your Recruitment Firm in Hong Kong

As more clients move onto using boutique recruitment firms, more consultants are considering to start their own recruitment firms.

Lucky for recruiters in Hong Kong, it is relatively easy to start your own firm. Here are a quick guide to help you get set up easily.

1 Set-up business registration and bank account

Business registration is relatively easy, there are a couple of ways to do it. The easiest is to hire companies to incorporate the company on your behalf; FastLane, Intellegend, and many others can help with this. If you want to do it yourself, you can also submit your documents directly to the HKSAR Government: click here to get all the information you need to know!

Due to increasing compliance and KYC requirements, it’s traditionally very difficult to start a business bank account in Hong Kong without a strong business history. Because of the recent emphasis on entrepreneurship, financial institutions like HSBC or Neat have favourable solutions to start-ups trying to open their bank accounts.

2 Decide on your agency name!

This one is important! Not only will you need to decide on a catchy name that helps your brand, but you will also need to email the Labour Department to make sure there aren’t any duplications with other recruitment firms.

Once the name is approved by the Labour Department, then you can fill in the rest of the application to secure the agency name. (Tip: the department will reserve the approved agency name for 30 days, so it’s crucial to act fast!)

3 Choose a CRM/ATS (that works for you!)

The options are plenty for CRM’s but it’s really important to decide what you want to achieve with a CRM/ATS. Some people only want a system that can keep all the communication in one place and some want to have a comprehensive view of the candidate and client.

Popular options are usually Bullhorn, Microdec, and SalesForce for full recruitment functionality, while simple/free CRM’s such as HubSpot can help with daily client communication, too.

It’s smart to deploy a system and a process that works for you in the long run so take some time to explore different options before committing; the last thing you want is to switch systems 6 months into your business.

I hope this helps with setting up your very own recruitment firm! If you have any comments or questions about this article, you can always reach me at howard@findrecruiter.com.

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