--- title: "Keep the engineer when she moves to Spain." description: "MyTutor used Teamed EOR to convert the move into a retention. The engineer kept her role and her institutional knowledge; MyTutor avoided the cost and timeline of either hiring a replacement or forming a Spanish entity. The model worked so well it became infrastructure: MyTutor now runs a documented working-abroad policy that lets employees work up to 80 days per year abroad on top of permanent relocations." canonical: https://www.teamed.global/case-study/mytutors-global-workforce-solution-with-teamed datePublished: 2026-05-14 dateModified: 2026-05-14 --- # Keep the engineer when she moves to Spain. **MyTutor · UK education technology · 1:1 and 3:1 online tutoring platform** > MyTutor used Teamed EOR to convert the move into a retention. The engineer kept her role and her institutional knowledge; MyTutor avoided the cost and timeline of either hiring a replacement or forming a Spanish entity. The model worked so well it became infrastructure: MyTutor now runs a documented working-abroad policy that lets employees work up to 80 days per year abroad on top of permanent relocations. ## A senior engineer with 4 years of institutional knowledge tells her UK employer she is moving to Spain. The traditional answer is: either she resigns, or you set up a Spanish entity. Is there a third option that does not lose the person or build a foreign subsidiary? MyTutor used Teamed EOR to convert the move into a retention. The engineer kept her role and her institutional knowledge; MyTutor avoided the cost and timeline of either hiring a replacement or forming a Spanish entity. The model worked so well it became infrastructure: MyTutor now runs a documented working-abroad policy that lets employees work up to 80 days per year abroad on top of permanent relocations. ## Outcomes - **Senior engineer retained through relocation:** 1 (4 years tenure preserved). - **Replacement-hire cost avoided:** Full senior-engineer recruitment + onboarding cycle. - **Local-entity setup required:** None: EOR only. - **Working-abroad policy launched:** Up to 80 days/year abroad while remaining UK-employed. - **Additional EOR hires (South Africa, pre-UK move):** 1 (with grace-period onboarding while visa finalised). ## The story **Challenge.** MyTutor, a UK-based platform connecting expert tutors with parents and students for 1:1 and 3:1 lessons, hit a retention crunch when a senior software engineer with four years of institutional knowledge announced she was moving to Spain. The default options were unpalatable: either lose the engineer and spend the cost of replacing senior platform expertise mid-growth, or build the legal and operational machinery (entity, payroll, statutory employer registration) of becoming a Spanish employer for one person. Neither was a defensible decision on either cost or speed. The platform was also feeling pressure from a broader pattern: post-pandemic, more employees wanted location flexibility, and "you can only work from the UK" was becoming a retention liability. **Approach.** A peer firm in MyTutor's network referred them to Teamed. MyTutor engaged Teamed for an EOR hire in Spain: Teamed's Spanish entity became the engineer's legal employer while MyTutor remained the operational employer. The platform interface compressed setup ("if a task takes more than 5 clicks, you've lost us", per MyTutor's own account). Encouraged by the model, MyTutor extended it: a subsequent South Africa-based engineer was hired pre-arrival in the UK, with Teamed handling employment-of-record in South Africa during the grace period while UK visa and travel arrangements finalised. The pattern hardened into infrastructure with a documented working-abroad policy allowing up to 80 days per year abroad, beyond which EOR converts the arrangement properly. **Result.** MyTutor retained the senior engineer through the Spain move with no loss of institutional knowledge and no spin-up of a Spanish subsidiary. The working-abroad policy reframed location as an expressed-flexibility benefit rather than an unmanaged risk: employees can sample living in a new country (up to 80 days/year) while staying on UK contracts, and Teamed converts cleanly for genuine relocations beyond that. The hiring net broadened: roles that previously required UK presence can now be opened to candidates anywhere Teamed operates. Retention and talent-pool expansion compound: same EOR infrastructure, two distinct strategic outcomes. ## Verified claims - **Retention outcome:** Senior engineer (4 years tenure) retained through international relocation - **Working-abroad policy:** Documented 80-days-per-year-abroad allowance, EOR-backed for moves that exceed it - **Pre-arrival onboarding:** Teamed enabled hire-before-arrival for a South Africa-based engineer who later moved to the UK - **Platform speed:** Same-platform onboarding compressed to under a working day per MyTutor's account ## What this means for your team - Audit the past 12 months of resignations: how many cited location-flexibility constraints as the reason for leaving? That number is the size of your retention-via-EOR opportunity. - Define the boundary between "working abroad temporarily" (stays on home contract) and "relocated" (converts to EOR in the new country). Most policies set the line at 60–90 days/year. - Pilot the conversion path with one employee who has actually given notice or signalled intent to leave for a foreign move, not a hypothetical. - Document the working-abroad policy publicly. It only retains employees if they know it exists before they accept a competing offer. - Re-evaluate at 5+ employees in any single country: if the population is concentrating, the entity-vs-EOR conversation can start; if it remains scattered, EOR is the right shape indefinitely. ## FAQ ### What is the legal difference between "working abroad temporarily" and "relocating"? Working temporarily abroad (up to 60–90 days/year typically) does not trigger tax residence change or PE risk. Crossing the local tax-residency threshold (183 days, or "centre of vital interests" in Spain/France/Germany) flips the analysis. EOR in the host country restores compliance. ### Why is hire-before-arrival useful? It collapses the dead-time between offer-accept and first-day-of-work. The candidate is onboarded under EOR in their current country during the visa/travel period and converted on UK arrival. Cost: 1–2 months of EOR fee. Upside: candidate never goes cold. ### How does the working-abroad policy interact with tax residency? 80 days/year sits well below the 183-day tax-residence threshold in most countries. Employees remain UK tax-resident, pay UK PAYE, and the employer has no PE exposure. Crossing into actual relocation converts to EOR. ### When would MyTutor switch from EOR to entity formation in Spain? For Spanish professional-services salaries, crossover lands around 8–12 employees. Below that, EOR is materially cheaper than a Spanish SL with gestoría and payroll. Individual relocations stay on EOR indefinitely. ## Sources - [MyTutor](https://www.mytutor.co.uk/) — MyTutor - [Spain: Ley del Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas (IRPF), residency rules](https://sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es/) — Agencia Tributaria - [UK statutory residency test (Schedule 45 Finance Act 2013)](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/residence-domicile-and-remittance-basis-manual) — HM Revenue & Customs - [Crossover Calculator methodology](/tools/crossover-calculator) — Teamed --- Last reviewed: 2026-05-14. Source: https://www.teamed.global/case-study/mytutors-global-workforce-solution-with-teamed