Recruiting people takes a huge amount of time. In order to help employers, recruitment companies are set with the purpose of finding the right people to apply for the employers’ jobs, without demanding any payment from the recruited persons.
In Thailand recruitment companies involved in domestic or outbound recruitment services must obtain a Recruitment License from the Department of Employment, Ministry of Labor. A recruitment company cannot operate both domestic and outbound recruitment services.
The company must be a private or public limited company having paid-up capital of at least 1 million Baht for an outbound recruitment activity (no special requirements for domestic recruitment activity) and must have a majority of Thai shareholders (51% of the capital for domestic recruitment activity and 75% of the capital for outbound recruitment activity). The director of the company must to be Thai citizen and must provide a blank criminal report.
The recruitment company’s office must have at least 16 square meters, be separated from other offices, and must display a signboard with the full company name at the entrance. Virtual or serviced offices cannot be used as a place to operate a recruitment business. A letter of consent from the landlord confirming the use of the address for this purpose is required. The official will inspect the office before issuing the approval and will perform yearly inspections without prior notice.
In order to obtain the Recruitment License, a security fee (100,000 Baht for domestic recruitment activity and 5 million Baht for outbound recruitment activity) must be deposited at the Department of Employment. This security fee is used as a proof that the company has enough funds to pay any penalty and will be retained until the Recruitment License is no longer required.
Upon submission of all documents, the Recruitment License should be issued within 15 working days and is valid for a period of 2 years. The cost of the License is 5,000 Baht for domestic recruitment and 10,000 Baht for outbound recruitment.
After the license is obtained, the company should change its name and business objectives to include the words “recruitment”, “manpower,” or any word having the same meaning.
In case of non-compliance, recruitment companies may face both civil and criminal penalties, which the maximum imprisonment term is 3 years.