Client

Onboarding an International Consultant via a Statement of Work for Lloyds Banking Group PLC

See how Adecco supported a UK financial services group to onboard a specialist international consultant under a compliant Statement of Work (SOW), simplifying onboarding, reducing risk, and building a hiring model suited to future needs.

About the Client

The client is a leading UK-based financial services group.

The Challenge

Lloyds Banking Group PLC needed support to onboard and manage a specialist international candidate who would provide consultancy services. While Adecco had previously supported the client as a trusted recruitment partner, this was a new initiative focused on international consultancy onboarding, with added complexity concerning global employment regulations and cross-border payments.

The client’s internal teams faced several challenges:

Understanding country-specific rules for engaging international workers.
Ensuring compliant pre-employment screening and vetting.
Managing cross-border consultancy and payments in a way that was efficient and low risk.

A Statement of Work model was identified as the most effective framework, providing clear deliverables, timelines, responsibilities, and governance while ensuring compliance with international regulations.

Lloyds needed a recruitment partner with experience in international onboarding and compliance to manage the end-to-end SOW.

Lloyds chose to work with Adecco, recognising our ability to deliver a compliant and efficient solution, including expertise in international recruitment compliance, navigating complex onboarding, and building strong client relationships.

Our Solution

Once Lloyds had identified the consultant, the Adecco team spoke with the client to understand the nature of the challenge, the associated risks, and the required controls.

A detailed briefing call, a formal offer, and clarification on the engagement type followed. The team also agreed on the engagement of the one-year SOW, setting out clear deliverables, milestones, and responsibilities. This structured approach ensured all parties had a shared understanding from day one.

End-to-end International Onboarding

Working through a multi-disciplinary team – including Operations, ACC Onboarding and the International Team – Adecco managed the full onboarding lifecycle.

Key steps included:

Sharing and validating all onboarding documentation with the International Team.
Confirming the engagement type (Ltd, sole trader or employee) and the corresponding vetting and screening requirements.
Implementing Adecco’s established onboarding process, including pre-employment and compliance checks.
Issuing contracts and conducting welcome calls and emails.
Setting up the worker profile in Adecco’s systems, with ongoing management to maintain accurate, auditable records.

Adecco acted as a single point of coordination throughout, providing the client with a single, integrated process rather than multiple disjointed workflows.

Managing Complexity

International onboarding introduced geographical considerations, including insurance, documentation and adherence to local employment practices.

Where standard processes did not fully align with local requirements, the team responded by:

Creating tailored onboarding packs and templates for the engagement.
Producing waiver documents for insurance where appropriate.
Adapting process steps to accommodate jurisdiction-specific checks and documentation.

This flexibility ensured that the engagement remained compliant and efficient, without introducing unnecessary complexity for the client.

Improving the Model

As the engagement progressed, Adecco identified opportunities to enhance and standardise the process, including:

New templates and documentation to streamline future international SOWs. Refinements to the risk and decision framework for cross-border engagements. Clearer guidelines for when and how to involve specialist international teams. These improvements not only benefited the client but also laid the foundations for a scalable international onboarding model in future.

The project's success led the client to ask Adecco to onboard three additional international workers, turning a standalone SOW into an evolving partnership.

Key Results

Delivered the onboarding and management of an international worker under a one-year SOW contract.
A compliant payment model enabled the consultant to be paid in their local currency, with the client invoiced in pound sterling.
Streamlined processes and reduced time to hire achieved through clear milestones, tools, and coordinated teamwork.
The SOW model has laid the foundation for a long-term partnership, with the client now considering us for additional international projects.

Enhance Your Recruitment with Adecco

As economic pressures and regulatory change reshape how organisations access specialist skills, many employers are rethinking how they engage international workers.

Adecco can help you stay compliant and competitive. From SOW-led consultancy to global contractor onboarding, we design solutions that reduce risk, simplify processes and keep critical projects moving.

Build a compliant international workforce model that works for you. Speak to an expert today: