Terminating an Employee

The process of terminating an employee (without cause) is pretty formal.   (the process of terminating an employee FOR cause may also be formal,  I just have not run into the situation.

Basically,   you would have already signed an agreement with the employee which stated that you would have hired him for a 12 month contract,  which is what you are breaking at this point.  

My understanding is that the government has the ability to tell you that you must rehire the employee.  In my case though I was able to speak to the employee and we set a final termination date,  and he actually helped me to come up with the formal agreement that we executed in order to make it official.

	CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM
Số: 002.2016/MATRAEX	Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc
	Hà Nội, ngày 23 tháng 02 năm 2016

QUYẾT ĐỊNH

V/v: Chấm dứt Hợp đồng lao động đối với Ông Nguyễn Thế Mạnh

DECISION

On Termination of employment contract for xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

______________________

• Căn Bộ luật luật lao động năm 2012 và các văn bản hướng dẫn thi hành;
• Căn cứ Nội quy lao động của Công ty Matraex;
• Xét theo đơn xin thôi việc của Ông xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

• Based 2012 Labor Law and the documents guiding the implementation;
• Pursuant to the Office Regulation of Matraex;
• Considering the resignation of xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

QUYẾT ĐỊNH

DECISION

Điều 1: Chấm dứt Hợp đồng lao động đối với Ông xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, sinh ngày xx/xx/xxxx – Chức danh: Trưởng phòng Hành chính nhân sự - Văn phòng đại diện MATRAEX, INC tại Hà Nội.

Article 1: Terminate the Employment contract with Mr. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, born on xx/xx/xxxx - Position: the Office Manager of the representative office MATRAEX, INC Hanoi.

Điều 2: Người lao động có trách nhiệm bạn giao công việc, bạn giao mọi tài sản được giao, thanh toán đầy đủ mọi nghĩa vụ tài chính và các nghĩa vụ có liên quan khác đối với Matraex Inc.

Article 2: The employee shall have resposibilities to hand over all the assigned assets, fulfill all financial obligations and other obligations related to Matraex Inc.

Điều 3: Người lao động được hưởng lương và các khoản trợ cấp, phụ cấp theo Hợp đồng lao động đã ký đến hết ngày xx/xx/xxxx

Article 3: The employee is entitled to salary and benefits, allowances under the labor contract signed by the end of the day xx/xx/xxxx

Điều 4: Quyết định này có hiệu lực kể từ ngày xx/xx/xxxx Người lao động, các đơn vị và cá nhân liên quan chịu trách nhiệm thi hành Quyết định này.

Article 4: This decision takes effect from the date of xx/xx/xxxx. Employees, units and individuals concerned shall be responsible for implementing this Decision.

	CÔNG TY MATRAEX
	CHỦ TỊCH/PRESIDENT

Help in Terminating the Office

I don't cover all of the reasons we decided to wind down the business in Vietnam. The execution was ... more expensive than expected and the timing for the expense was not correct for us.  Perhaps another time....

There are several things that have to be done to wind down the business,   we have to file with the government and we have to cancel existing employment and vendor contracts,  and clean out / vacate our offices.

As we are winding down the office we found that the cancellation of accounts is more difficult for an employee to do. The opening of the account was just a signature and a stamp from the owner,  but now an employee without a stamp and signature is attempting to close the account.  This Letter of Authorization is one that we came up with in order to help give the employee the authority to close accounts and to submit the government forms to close the business.
   

	CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM
Số: 003.2016/MATRAEX	Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc
	Hà Nội, ngày 23 tháng 02 năm 2016

GIẤY ỦY QUYỀN / LETTER OF AUTHORIZATION

V/v thực hiện các thủ tục liên quan đến chấm dứt hoạt động Văn phòng đại diện Matraex, Inc tại Hà Nội / Execute the procedures related to the termination of operation of The Representative Office Matraex in Ha Noi

• Căn cứ Bộ Luật Dân Sự nước Cộng Hòa Xã Hội Chủ Nghĩa Việt Nam ban hành năm 2005;
• Pursuant to the Civil Code of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam issued on 2005;
• Căn cứ vào các văn bản pháp luật hiện hành.
• Pursuant to current Laws.

1. BÊN ỦY QUYỀN/Mandator (“hereinafter referred to as “Party A”):

• Họ và tên/Full Name: xxxxxxxxxx
• Số Hộ chiếu/CMND: xxxxxxxxxx.
• Chức vụ/Position: Người đứng đầu Văn phòng đại diện
• Ngày cấp / Dated: Nơicấp / Issued at: xx/xx/xxxx
• Quốc tịch/Nationality: Hoa Kỳ

2. BÊN ĐƯỢC ỦY QUYỀN (Bên B)/ Authorized Party (hereinafter referred to as “Party B”):

• Họ và tên/Full Name:xxxxxxxxxx
• Chức vụ/Position: Trưởng phòng Hành chính Nhân sự (Office Manager)
• Số Hộ chiếu/CMND: xxxxxxxxxx
• Ngày cấp / Dated: Nơicấp / Issued at: xx/xx/xxxx tại Hà Nội
• Quốc tịch/Nationality: Việt Nam
• Địa chỉ thường trú/ermanent Address: Số xxxxxxxxxx,xxxxxxxxxx,xxxxxxxxxx
• , Hà Nội

3. NỘI DUNG ỦY QUYỀN / Content of Authorization:

• Bên A ủy quyền cho Bên B thực hiện các thủ tục chấm dứt hoạt động Văn phòng đại diện Matraex Inc tại Hà Nội/ Party A to authorizes Party B to execute the procedures related to the termination of operation of The Representative Office Matraex in Ha Noi.
• Bên B không được ủy quyền lại/ Party B is not allowed to re-authorized;
• Ủy quyền này sẽ tự động hết hiệu lực khi các thủ tục chấm dứt Văn phòng đại diện Matraex Inc tại Hà Nội hoàn thành/ This authorization will automatically expire upon termination procedures Matraex Inc. Representative Office in Hanoi completed.

BÊN ĐƯỢC ỦY QUYỀN/AUTHORIZED PARTY	BÊN ỦY QUYỀN/MANDATOR
NGUYỄN THẾ MẠNH	JANAE KAY BLOOD

Notice of Operations - within 45 days

Something that I had not realized when I first started the process was that within 45 days of receiving a business license the entity is required to publish a notice of operation.

The notice requires you to fill out details of your employees, office location, bank account number and more.  Then you must publish the notice in three newspapers.

This requirement should have been driving the timeline for most of what I did. While I set up the entity as soon as possible it set in motion a 45 day time clock during which time I had several things that I had to accomplish. I needed to change my cheap ro, I needed to set up a bank account which I had to be there in person for, I needed to change my address from the temporary address to the permanent address and I had to figure out what newspapers I could publish things in and in what form.

While I did not No exactly what would happen if I missed that 45 day time. My thought was that I would need to start over. Since I had not yet hired any employees the portion where I notified the government of my employees was very easy I also did not yet have a bank account so I was able to mark it as blank. However I did need to the same time I had to have my chief Ro changed to my permanent ro. With only 45 days there was very little slack between the time frames and for mailing purposes I basically have to get all my documents to my attorney in Vietnam within about a month of the company starting and then they only had a week or so to file everything all the changes and get the notices into three consecutive newspapers over the course of a week. If I were to do this again I would delay the entity set up until I had the ability to take the chief are all to Vietnam so that all of the signatures could be taken care of at once when the entity was set up. I would also before setting up the entities I would have made the office selection so that I would never have to change the office. I would also set up a bank account during that first week when I was there in Vietnam with the chief ro.

All of these decisions are based on the fact that there is no time savings benefit from doing some portion ahead of time because in the end the additional trips and documents that go back and forth make it so there is a longer delay during the setup of the company.  And a trip is still required to Vietnam for the chief ro

Changing the office address -forms

As part of the overall plan for setting up the representative office entity at a temporary attorneys address. An important next step is to change the address to be final office space that we rent. However the process is not Temple Run since we are the most we need help with an attorney to do this for the actual submission and we also need approval from the home office. Until we had 10 different forms. We had to fill out a corporate resolutio. in English and Vietnamese, A decision to change the address in English and in Vietnamese we had to fill out the application to the hanoi authority in Vietnamese and English.  We filled out an expla atiom of the address change in vietnamese and english (to describe to the authority why we are changing so quickly. We filled out a form 80 in Vietnamese only We filled out a power of attorney which was a single form with both English and Vietnamese.  For this particular filling,  I was heading to Vietnam for a week to open the office and welcome my new employees for their first day so I am just going to schedule an appointment with the Hanoi authority and my attorney and my office manager so we can do our own filings in the future.     It also saves my 65$ shipping. (Combined with the other form I would have had to send the shipping savings are almost 10% of the flight)

Notes on office space

Selecting and office space in Hanoi was rather easy.  I am a small company looking to enter the Vietnam market rather quickly and inexpensively.  So ideally I would be able to find an office space that is already built out. Even better would be if it has furniture in it.
As you may have seen in several of my other posts, that is exactly what I found. It turned out that the one i selected was the only one that a realtor search found so this might be somewhat rare.  As I was talking noncommittally. The building manager evaluating the space she did say that she would repaint the space at no cost and give us the first month free so that we could do our office fitting out.    Once I agreed however we had to work remotely in order to put the deal together. Where the quick turnaround time starts to become an issue. We talked about a start time about 7 days in the future with a one month period for a fitout.
This seems like plenty of time to implement t.  However we had to deal with a 150 page agreement,  the first original came from hanoi via some 6 day mail,  then I had to had to have time to review sign and return.  Next it takes about 3 business days for a check to clear. So realistically the lease dates started well before payment had been made and the agent is willing to turn over the keys.

Since I was not there but my office manager was he received the "handover" document.  Apparently this document is very important as the realtor was hesitant when I called her about meeting to pick up the keys.  I will be anxious to see what it is.

Once the office had been painted I asked the lard lord for a suggestion for an Internet contact.  Previously I had requested a couple of contacts in the landlord forwarded them to me. However my attempts to contact them via email and no one ever responded. Each of the Contacts also have a phone number however when I attempted to call the phone number they did not speak English so we could not get anywhere with any kind of order. Sorry I asked the landlord pearl pearl again this time she did a warm and nice and sent an email conversation that she was having with him.  I was able to respond to both of them and jump into the middle of the conversation and they very quickly forwarded Oracle. Internet speeds are interesting in that I can buy 100 mags for about $90 however only 2% of that speed is for international. That means that the majority of traffic we would be doing is severely restricted. It will be interesting to see how much speed we actually get.

Importance of Selecting a Chief RO in a Representative Office

Selecting and hiring the Chief RO of a representative in Vietnam is important.

As you may have seen in some of my other posts,  I (as the owner of Matraex, Inc) am not allowed by Vietnam statute to be the Chief RO of the entity in Vietnam,  however I must have a Chief RO

Some of the factors to consider.

• The Chief RO,  must be present to pickup the seal.  When they pick it up,  they must sign the official papers and registers to start the entity.  As they are signing they actually must use the stamp as well to stamp next to their signature on the official records at the Police headquarters.
• The Chief RO must make a decent wage.  When I wanted to add the responsibility of being the Chief RO to my wife's monthly responsibilities,  the added duties were not much.   Review the books monthly,   perform any signatures as directed by the company through corporate resolution.  These requirements would be minimal and would require at most 5 to 10 hours per month.  So I suggested that I would increase her yearly wage by $5000 for the added responsibilities.  It turned out that our Vietnam attorney thought that idea would not pass scrutiny by the Hanoi Authority.   They suggested an income of $2000 / month and they indicated that this would be one of the lowest incomes of any of the Representative Office companies already in Hanoi.
• The Chief RO must be the one to sign official contracts in Vietnam.  As a Representative Office in Hanoi,  our company will not be allowed to make agreements between the Hanoi entity and another Vietnam entity,  the Vietname Representative Office is not recognized as its own entity.   Instead Matraex must make the agreement between Matraex headquarters and any other company in Hanoi.  However,  in at least one case we found that a Vietnamese company was only willing to accept a signature from the Chief RO on a contract.  It appears that this is because the Chief RO is the only 'localized' signature that is allowed to represent the company in vietnam.  This makes sense because we had to legalize the Chief RO's passport and submit it with the application.  Even though I am the president of the company they are making an agreement with.  the only locally recognized agent,  with a legal local signature,  is the Chief RO. 
• Because of the last point,  the Chief RO of the company holds all of the power of the company; it will likely be worth while to investigate a way that I might be able to register myself (the president) as a locally approved agent of the company.  However in the mean time,  you must  have ultimate trust in the Chief RO.
• The way that I decided to get my Representative Office started in Hanoi,  coincided with an education trip to Hanoi,  so my Chief RO was a trusted school class mate.  However this meant that I had to file a change to the Chief RO soon after to the long term RO.  This meant that while I was in Hanoi the first time,  I had to either 
• prepare my interim Chief RO to sign agreements as the temporary stand in or
• wait until the Change of Chief RO was processed.
• Changing the Chief RO does not take cost any money with the Hanoi Authority and the form to do it is online here.  
• http://english.hanoi.gov.vn/documents/10180/30802/845.doc?version=1.0
• The form allows for many changes however it indicates some complexities for changing the Chief RO, which imply some items which need consideration when selecting a Chief RO.
• The amount of PIT (Personal Income Tax) that was paid by the previous Chief RO.  The form also requires a certification that the PIT was paid.
• A reason that the Chief RO is being changed is required - so basically the decision to change the Chief RO will be scrutinized and it should not be taken lightly.
• The company office location change form is included with the template to change the Chief RO,  which indicates that it may be somewhat common for the ChiefRO and the address to change at the same time
• When changing the Chief RO,  I have to certify that the previous person filed and paid all PIT. This issue somewhat explains why it was important to make a larger salary for the Chief RO.   Because this may allow the government to collect a higher tax on the salary.  I am not positive whether there will be a requirement for the payment to the Chief RO to be made subject to Vietnam payroll taxes and roles.  However because of this,  an important factor to consider when selecting a Chief RO,  is whether to select a local,  or an ExPat.  In the case that an ExPat is selected,  then a whole slew of tax relates issues becomes an issue.
• Is the Chief RO allowed to collect the income in the US since the though the services are all performed from the US?
• If the taxes must be paid to the Hanoi Authority, are taxes paid in Vietnam retaxable in the US?
• How does the company account for and report salary paid to the same individual using two different methods and tax rates.
• Each of these issues potentially creates complexity for the company that selecting a local may not.

Making a job offer - Pay - Employees request a formal offer and need between 30 to 45 days

Employment is a much more formally contracted affair in Vietnam than it is in the USA.

Most professional positions require a contract,  which addresses some very specific points.  If you are hiring an employee away from an existing job,   their existing contract requires either 45 days (if they were hired on a PERManent position) or 30 days if they were hired on a fixed length contract.

Employees seem to want an official job offer which details the terms of a new position before they are willing to give notice (this seems reasonable even for a US employee) however it seems that a formal job offer may have some 'teeth' behind it. Once a job offer is made,  an formal employment contract must be filled out and address:

• Length of Contract
• PERManent contract will require some severe errors by the employee to fire.
• Fixed Length will also require some severe errors to fire,  but will work well for a startup which is unsure of the duration while getting things moving
• Pay Rate - The pay rate and frequency of pay should be documented
• Bonuses -  a 13th month bonus is customary (and possibly mandatory)
• Pension - a pension fund should be calculated at the rate of 1 month salary per year
• Raises - the contract should dictate when reviews and raises are considered (i am not positive if this is required, or just happens to be customary in all of the ones I have seen)
• Job Description - The job description shsould be spelled out closely.  If you have any problems with the employee and need to write them up or let them go,  the Government (or union) authority will use this Job Description in evaluating whether the person was doing their job.

When calculating the Pay Rate,  an interesting conversation has come up that I didn't expect.  It appears that there is term called Gross and Net pay.   Gross is the amount that the employee is paid,  prior to their Government Deductions.  Net is the amount they receive after their deductions.

The interesting thing is that,  when I posted some job descriptions on websites and put a salary / pay rate.  I did not specify whether it was Gross or Net (I did not notice anyone else doing it either), however I received a request from one candidate that when I make a job offer,  that I make the rate a 'Net' rate.  Basically the candidate was just negotiating with me,  which is completely acceptable,  however with out a little research I did not understand what he was really saying.

Here are the basics of it

• An employer / employee contract establishs the Gross Pay Rate
• An employer pays an additional 22% in SMUI Taxes on top of that (Social, Medical and Unemployment Insurance)
• The employee has about 10.5% deducted from their Gross Pay Rate for their portion of SMUI Taxes.  This is the Net Rate (100-10.5 = 89.5% of Gross)
• The employee then has to pay PIT (personal income tax) which is calculated based on a formula that I have not figured out yet.  Most likely it is very complex like the US IRS calc.  I know that it does have some minimum level of income,  possibly a head of household and individual dependendant deductions

Representative office in Hanoi - Beginning Operations

After filing and receiving your seal in Hanoi,  you have 45 days to begin operations.
This is a formal process which requires filling out some documents and filing them with the Departments of Industry and Trade.

Vietname / Hanoi maintains a website for this process,  which does not have a lot of clear instruction.  However they have a template form,  which helps to identify a couple of important steps that need to be followed

• You must submit a form describing the details of beginning operations.  The form has the name of the person doing business,  the bank account,  the date you started,etc
• There are additional portions of the form which can help you to:
• change the head of the Representative Office
• register employees
• change the address of the headquarters

When I started to discuss the need to make several of these changes,  my attorney was quoting $200 for each form,  but it turns out that they can all really be done at the same time,  almost in the same form.

I will be looking for an attorney,  that will be able to review my work in filling out the forms , confirm that they are filled correctly,  receive them by fedEx and then submit them to the authority for me and scan the results to me.

Employee Interviews - Hilton Garden Inn

I received several job applications from the different websites that I submitted jobs postings too.    most of the applicants were quick to reply,   I requested an 'introduction video' so I could evaluate their interest and English Communication skills.
Once I found the people I wanted to interview,  I tentatively scheduled the day for interviews and identified the morning or afternoon.  It seems that more notice is better for employees that already have a job.  
When I showed up in Hanoi at the Garden Inn Hilton,  I evaluated the facilities that they could offer for having an interview.    The only options were some nice offices which required that they had to walk through the eating area,  or a $400 for the afternoon.   I opted for the offices in the back of the room since they were offered complimentary.

The space was nice,  and the staff had water, pens and paper.   It was nice that I had a female helping me interview with the room being tucked into the back of the hotel as I am sure it helped he be more at ease.  When answering questions,  she often felt more comfortable making eye contact with my female associate.

The interviews went very well in that all applicants spoke english well enough that I was could understand them,   they all had (what sounded to me like) a similar Vietnamese accent,  and I was able to understand better after conversing with Vietnamese more (I describe this,  because I imagine an interview will go better,  if the interviewer gains more experience conversing with Vietnamese first)

Driving in Hanoi.   Driving and Traffic are horrendous and I dont know how I would ever be on time.  In one case (one of my best applicants) was 15 minutes late.  I know that she had to take the afternoon off of her normal job to come to the interview,  however she did not mention it,  and I was unsure of how it would flavor the interview if I were to bring it up at the beginning of the interview.  The position I was asking about was for the office manager,  so I asked her about how she would deal with a tardy employee and she said that she would follow the procedure and policy,  which would most likely be to write up the employee.  So it seemed she feels punctuality is important but she was just unable to be punctual.  A way that I should have / could have set an expectation of how important it would be to be right on time.

Another issue that could have been related to traffic,  was that several employees showed up early (one employee 20 minutes early)  In these cases,  the front desk at the hilton,  graciously asked them to wait (the hotel has a comfortable waiting room) and then even showed them up to restaurant floor when needed.

Overall,  the interview location worked out,  however if I had a better understanding of the city and possibly what executive suites were available.  I likely would have tried to find a space such as a more executive board room that may have had a more professional entrance and a bit warmer office.



Some notes about Vietnamese culture,   they are very focused on team and process.  It seems reasonable that if one individual steps of line,   They should bet back into line if they are simply reminded about how it affects the team.

Dhl out - FedEx in.

Finally!

I got my documents back from DHL,  and so I talk to them on the phoen about how to get it back to Hanoi, quickly,  and they tell me.   well they tell me...   well they dont want to tell me.   that I should go to Fed Ex.   Because they say it will most likely be 3 days.

So I call Fed Ex.  and they say,   if I ship by 5:30 tonight (drop off at the airport)

Then it will get to Hanoi by the end of the business day Monday. (barring any customs issues)


So I say "Lets Go!!!"

I get on their site,  and find that with about 100 sheets of paper.  I am over the .5 lb limit. so I select a pack.

 Note that I selected that this is correspondence/no customs value.

cool thing was that it is cheaper to get it there sooner :)

So,   One more risk,   I will send it all through Fed Ex,   try and get it there soon enough that they will be able to get the application submitted in time. 

-------------------------------

Update,   the document got there by monday MORNING hanoi time.

Our attorney received it and within one day they reported that they had a scheduled date for when they would receive the approval from the government.

Unfortunately,  the approval was on the Wednesday when we were on site,  but then the official seal would not be available for one week after that.

I requested that the lawyer find a way to request that it is expedited,  for an additional fee for the extra services,  he said he would.

Hiring Vietnamese worker in Vietnam - feedback from a Payroll Company

Well,  I was on the fence about whether a payroll company would be worth it in vietnam after I did some research (which found that the cost of the company included 16M VND in setup,   6M VND / month minimum,  plus additional individual fees,  and that was the less expensive company Talentnet).

However,  I had no idea about vietnamese employment law.   I started recruiting employees by resume and the conversations I had with them included some very long job switching times (one said 45 days and another said 30 days).    I started to wonder about the logistics of how employment works and I asked the rep that has pitched a plan to me,  and here is what she came back with.

   - we will be a Representative Office so the agreement will be with Matraex, Inc Boise, Idaho, USA. We may take 30 to 60 days after we get make offers to get started.  Can you tell me when the monthly fees start? And when the one off fees are to be paid?TLN: The one-off fees will be charged in the first month of service after we complete all the set up. The first month of service starts when client has employee need to register with local statutory bodies and payroll processing. It means that even the service contract is effective from Nov 2015 but you do not have any employee on-board, we will not apply any  charge until the first employee on board. But most of the case, the chief Rep will need our assistance in tax registration and payroll.- in starting to post jobs and recruit. I have noticed differing amounts of time that some people individyals need before they leave another job and will be able to start. Can you tell me what I'd common (45 days seems long by USA standards, but is that reasonable by vietnamese standards? )TLN: The standard notice time in Vietnam is 30 days for definite term contract (1-3 years) and 45 days for indefinite term contract. It means that someone can start with you after they submit the resignation letter if their contract with current employer is definite contract.- for a job offer letter or contract you would be creating for us,  what terms are generally in the letter.  Compensation and benefits?  Number of days until start? Contract length?  (Basically I am trying to find out what is customary in Vietnam and what obligations I will have  as an employer to the employee)TLN: I attached herewith a standard labour contract template in billingual for your reference on the content.-if an employee is not working out, are there government regulations or contract requirements about firing that we have to think about?TLN: In VN, the Labour code in general is quite favor for the employee rather than the employer. Organization with more than 10 employees should have clear internal labour rules to define all cases of poor performance and other code of conduct breach for execution. Talentnet can help you to set up and register the Internal Labour rules with local authority before public to all employees. If your Rep. office is less than 10 persons, all your requirement should be mentioned clearly in the labour contract.Other than these questions, I am just looking for a timeline from you on how payments for the different services might go from you as we get started.  Can you help me with the order or timeline of these?- setup for you- TLN: within 4-5 weeks including regulatory registration- regulatory setup of payroll tax accounts- TLN: within 4-5 weeks including payroll system set up- write offer letter / contract- TLN: within 2 business days since the time we receive the request and employee personal data.- hire employee ( wait for employee start)- TLN: 30 days or 45 days.- employee start - TLN: all the information from new hire or termination should be informed to TLN on cut off date (pre-agreed between TLN and client) and then all the payroll set up and statutory registration for new hire will be carried out within that month or within an allowable by local regulation.- twice monthly payroll - TLN: Normally the twice monthly payroll only applicable for very few factory with blue colar workers. If your organization in VN is Rep. office with office staff, they prefer once monthly payroll. Please confirm that you still need twice monthly payroll so that we can revise the service fee accordingly.

With the strong laws favouring employees,  I asked about probation periods

-  should I be considering a probationary period?  Is this even allowed? - Probation period should be applied. Maximum time for a probation period in VN is 60 days.

Very useful information,  all of it!   I also asked for an example job contract.   It turns out that all jobs need contracts so she attached one.   Everythign in it is pretty clear,   job termination is ONLY for cause.   I have not figured out about the ability to terminate the employee if you no longer need them.
Additionally,  in the contract it lists the insurance rates.   Which show that employers must pay 22.5% insurance (medical, social, other) on all employee wages.

Vietnam Employer - Employee insurance rates

Tung Shing Square - Hanoi Vietnam - Possible Office Space

There are many options in hanoi,  and it is difficult to track much of the research,  so I am doing this much in a blog.

In talking with my Savills contact in hanoi about possible office spaces.   we have looked at several  possible locations,  the came up with this awesome graphic of many offered buildings.

Even though this graphic looks complete,  there are are only a few buildings listed,  there are hundreds more which appear in every street view on google.

I have taken particular interest in Tung Shing Building just north of the CBD. 

The realtor said that it may be somewhat finished space and more ready to quickly move into.

The price is 26$ / meter and the space is 100 meters which is a 2600$ / month commitment,  perhaps more than I would like to otherwise spend.  (I have requested pictures of the interior.)

One thing that appears nice is that the building is only a few minutes away from the hotel I am already staying in

 It appears that an available space on the 10th froor in at the front of the building facing the river.   I am hoping that there are windows and a view of some sort of the city.































Google Street view shows some great features of the building

10th floor

a guard not looking worried,  a family on a bike complete with pollution protection and a strapped lady walking somewhere

Accross the street

These pictures were sent to me by the realtor,  who snapped a couple of pictures inside the office

Finding Hanoi Employee - Where to post jobs

More information on our journey to find the best places to list jobs.

A suggestion came up to try posting a job on Linked In.  I have used Linked In jobs before and I got a couple of resumes from it,  it is a US company and it is easy to use and only 199$.  I was considering it.

So I decided I would research it a little bit,  I went  to Linked in and searched for jobs in Vietnam.  It seemed to come up with many jobs for PHP developers.  Some in HCMC and some in Hanoi.  seemed kind of promissing,  but then I decided to find out how many of the jobs were in Hanoi.  So I search Linked in for PHP in "Hanoi Vietnam" instead of only "Vietnam" and.... No results.
Turns out,  the ONLY results you can find are for "Vietnam".   Not very useful (people do not travel across the whole country for jobs).  This reduced my confidence here, but then I noticed a little note next to the results that DID show up.  The note showed the the job listing was imported from  another site.

Basically this means that companies are NOT using linked in to post jobs in Vietnam.  So I connected to the most popular of these sites and looked at posting there.
http://tuyendung.com.vn/ had a free registration and it let me go through the process of setting up job postings with no expense - Once everything is entered,  it appears to be inthe 'pending' state.  I dont have any emails or anything saying there is another step.   Hopefully this means that a person will review the posting and accept.  Or maybe they will contact me and request payment.  Either way I wil update when I find out what it takes to get listed on the Linked In site in Vietnam.

ITViec - accepts job postings

After fussing around with some applications and turned down opportunities to post jobs,  I finally connected with ITViec and got signed up with their service.

The sent over an invoice for three jobs,  but then they turned down one of the jobs  since it is an office administrator and it doesn't really fit for the IT level of the site.

https://itviec.com/admin/jobs - here is where I go to administrate my jobs

http://matraex.com.vn/ - here is the site that I refer my jobs to

https://itviec.com/jobs/wordpress-html5-php-wordpress-project-manager-team-lead - project manager
https://itviec.com/jobs/wordpress-jquery-php-wordpress-developer - php developer



The invoice they sent the second time with only two jobs was less than 2/3rds of the first one,  so I had already converted the 4M VND to USD and overpadi by about $25.  If this turns into applications,  then this will be the best value for job sites in Vietnam I have seen.

Just for reference I am showing what the backend looks like.
The numbers are after the jobs have been posted for about 1 hour.

Job Posting Sites - some translations and some important things addressed with entity and benefits

I recently wanted to post some job listings on some Job Posting sites in Vietnam.

It was difficult to find the sites that were popular for my industry,  but I did find a job listing agregator called careerjet.vn.   I did a search for PHP Developer,  and it came up with many listings,  what I did was I went through each of the listings from the different sites and I counted them up.   And from the results I found that many of the sites had only one listing for PHP developer,  and some had 3 or 4,  but two of them had the most.

• itviec.vn - 14
• jobstreet - 15

I contact itviec and they quickly replied requesting some information about the company which I then told them,  and i linked them to each of the job listings for Matraex.com.vn.

Jobstreet was a bit more difficult,  and it required that I fill out an application form.   Since the application was in VN,  I had to translate it in order to figure out what to fill out.  I provide the translations below.  Once complete,  I emailed it to salesvn@jobstreet.com

-----------------------------------------------

After I made the application above,  I was quickly told by jobstreet,  that until I have my Representative office setup in Vietnam and I could provide the required id numbers issued by the vietnam authority I am not able to post on any of their sites.  This basically puts a stop on my plans to be able to post jobs prior to my visit,  since my application package is held up in customs

However ITViec has been very helpful,  they made some recommendations for a package to purchase,  and then they made an immediate discount (I did not ask).   And they sent me  an invoice for how to transfer money to them to get stated.

I am a bit concerned that once I pay ITViec they will also say that I can not make a post until after I have received confirmation from the Ministry of Industry and Trade with my "RO Number".    That is something that I will just have to risk,   at a cost of about 105$ per posting,  the price though is pretty inexpensive compared to the cost of other services.

ITViec really helped me out though in the advice they gave me when I just emailed them asking about whether the Jobs I am posting are competitive.

I asked how I could come up with a posting that woudl get lots of apps.  They describe that the position I am looking for is the most popular IT in Vietnam right now.  However they kindly included a couple of job descriptions that are getting alot of apps.

They explained that everyone looks at compensation and benefits as the most important part.

Here are the job descriptions included

number 1:

Example 1 from Japanese Company.

Featured benefits include: 

- Have opportunity to work with overseas clients and work in Japan
- Join the dynamic, young and friendly project team
- Attend project training before working with clients directly if need
- Have the stable career path
- Attractive salary, based on skill and experience
- 13-month bonus program
- Additional bonus performance based bonus in addition to 13-month bonus
- Monthly event with company employees (play tennis, football,... and party).

Number 2:

Example 2 about Umbala for their title jobs: 1) Crazy Senior Android (Up to $24000/year) 

->> It is very attractive candidates, they received a lot of CV for all last jobs.

(*) Umbala Labs, a crazy labs is based in Mountain View, CA, USA. But we believe in Vietnamese talents, who can work with us to disrupt the world challenges, so that we setup our production & operation center based in Saigon, Vietnam.

(**) Company Culture:

BE CRAZY
"We need you, crazy rock-stars, to make great innovations and contribute to the disruptive world."

BE FREE
"Freedom leads you to think outside the box and simplify our lives."

BE REVOLUTIONARY
”We have our own direction to discover this world. Challenge yourself by joining us to make the revolution.”

(***) What we offer you:
1. A crazy and challenges word-class startup environment. Where you and our talent software engineers can create something with Umbala to disrupt Silicon Valleys, and make magical thing to millions of people all around the world.
2. Benefit: Salary (software engineer up to $18,000/year; Senior software engineer up to $48,000/year) + Stock options (0.01% - 1%) + 100% salary during probation period + End-of-year Tet bonus + Excellent health insurance.
3. Onsite opportunities: short-term and long-term assignments in Silicon Valleys office.
4. Culture activities: football, badminton, yoga, and massage.

With these two job descriptions,  I was able to update my description to include some benefits I had planned by just had not included in the descriptions:

• Health Insurance
• 13 month bonus
• And Onsite opportunities (if the developer is good,  we would love to have the come onsite to the USA to work for 1 month or more!)