Staffing a New HTP Company: Who to Hire Before Admission and What Can Wait

Founders who plan to join the High-Tech Park usually face the same question within the first few weeks: how many people should be on the payroll before the application goes in? The park is large and busy, with more than 1,000 resident companies and over 60,000 employees, and getting in takes time.

The question matters because of money. Until a company is admitted, it pays social contributions on full salaries, like any other Belarusian employer, so every person hired during the review adds to the bill. If the team is too small, though, the Supervisory Board has little reason to believe the plan.

Below we cover what the application asks about staff, the people worth hiring early, the roles you can leave for later, and ways to keep the work going in the meantime. For a general overview of residency, see our HTP page.

How admission works

A company has to exist before it can apply, so the starting point is registering a Belarusian legal entity. Next comes the business project, a long document in a format set by the government. It goes to the Secretariat of the HTP Supervisory Board together with an application and the company’s founding documents. The Secretariat checks the package and passes it on with its opinion, and the board decides whether the project matters enough for the development of new and high technologies.

Some founders hire a consultant to write the business project. That’s optional. The park says outside help has no effect on the decision, though a good consultant can save you a few rounds of corrections.

Plan for the review to take several months. Demand is steady: in February 2026, the park reported that more than 60 applications had arrived since the start of the year and were still under review. Anyone you employ during that time costs you the standard rate.

What the business project asks about your team

The rules don’t set a minimum number of employees or a minimum revenue. Even so, a good part of the business project is about people.

It starts with your current headcount, split into IT specialists, engineers and administrative staff. Part-timers whose main job is elsewhere go on a separate line.

Next come the key personnel. Each person is listed by name, with their role and experience. Founders who aren’t among the key staff still have to describe their experience in information and communications technology.

Contractors are listed separately from employees. If you work with individual entrepreneurs, the project also asks why you use them, how often, and what share of the work they do.

The financial section adds yearly projections for average headcount, new jobs and average salary. Be careful with these numbers, because they come back after admission, as we explain further down.

In our experience, the board responds better to a company with a named technical lead and a few people already on the payroll than to one that is still entirely a plan. A team made up mostly of contractors usually prompts questions.

Who to hire before you apply

Keep the early team small and experienced. At this stage, it needs to make the business project credible and get the product started. Most of the roadmap will be built by people you hire later.

A director

A Belarusian company can’t be registered or run without a director, and in most startups one of the founders takes the job. If your director is a foreign national, find out early which permits they need, so the paperwork doesn’t hold up registration.

A technical lead and a small core team

In most applications, the technical lead is the key person the board looks at most closely. Someone with a solid track record in the relevant field makes it easier to believe the company can build what it describes. A specialized IT recruitment partner can help you find senior people who are used to starting from scratch.

With one to three core engineers alongside the lead, the board can see that work has already begun. These people will also shape the architecture and interview the next group of hires, so it’s worth taking your time over them.

An accountant

Tax and social insurance reporting begins as soon as the company is registered, whether or not it has applied to the park. Plenty of new companies outsource it. A payroll provider can handle salaries and reports from the first month and switch to the park’s rules once you’re admitted.

What can wait until admission

Most engineering hiring can wait, and so can HR, in-house recruiters and office staff. Marketing and sales depend on where the product is: if you don’t have customers yet, they can wait too. You can also hold off on a full benefits package, although health insurance is worth offering early if you’re competing for senior engineers.

Waiting to hire doesn’t mean waiting to recruit. Sourcing and interviews for the next group can run while the application is under review, with start dates set shortly after the expected decision. The team then grows as soon as the cap applies.

A typical hiring order looks like this:

Role	When to hire	Why
Director	Before you apply	Needed to register and run the company. Often one of the founders.
Technical lead or CTO	Before you apply	Listed as key personnel. The board looks at this person closely.
One to three core engineers	Before you apply	Shows the Supervisory Board a real team on payroll.
Accountant (in-house or outsourced)	Before you apply	Reporting obligations start when the company is registered.
Most of the engineering team	After admission	Social contributions are capped only from the date residency is granted.
HR and in-house recruiting	After admission	Little work for them until hiring picks up.
Office, marketing and sales	After admission	Depends on how far along the product is.

What hiring early costs

A resident pays social contributions only on the part of each salary up to the national average wage, a figure Belstat publishes every month. The cap starts on the date the company is registered as a resident. Before that date, the employer pays the standard 34% on the full salary.

Take a senior engineer on 15,000 BYN a month. Without the cap, the employer pays about 4,000 BYN more in contributions for that person every month. Six engineers hired four months before admission add up to roughly 97,000 BYN, which is about what another engineer earns in a year.

The cap doesn’t start automatically for people already on the payroll, either. Many accountants ask each employee for written consent before applying it, so prepare the forms in advance. Explain the change to the team as well. It affects how sick pay and pensions are calculated, and people will ask about it. Our HR consulting team can help you prepare for that conversation.

Residency has running costs of its own. Residents pay 1% of revenue to the park administration and go through an annual audit. For most IT companies, the savings on contributions are much larger, but both items belong in the budget.

Bridging the gap while you wait

Putting all hiring on hold for several months isn’t realistic for most companies. Two arrangements are common during the review.

An HTP-resident EOR

An employer of record that is already a resident of the park can employ engineers for you straight away, and their contributions are calculated under the park’s rules. After your company is admitted, they can move to your own entity. Each employee has to agree to the move and sign a new employment contract with you, so plan it with a lawyer and tell people about it when you hire them.

Our EOR service works under HTP residency and handles this kind of transfer.

Contractors and part-timers

Contractors work well for clearly defined tasks during the review. The business project asks about them separately, though, and a high share of contractor work has to be explained. Part-time employees are also listed on their own line, so they won’t make the core team look bigger.

Describe whatever arrangement you use clearly in the business project. The board is used to young companies combining employees, contractors and EOR staff. A short explanation of how people will move onto your own payroll carries more weight than a headcount figure with nothing behind it.

Scaling after admission

After admission, hire senior people first. Mid-level and junior engineers learn faster with experienced colleagues around them. Then follow the projections in your business project. Our IT salary benchmarks for Belarus show what each level costs in 2026.

If you’re moving people over from an EOR at the same time, give them a firm date and keep their salary and benefits the same. That way the move feels like a change of paperwork rather than a new job.

Residency also makes it simpler to hire foreign nationals. HTP residents don’t need special permits to employ them, which helps if some of your team is relocating to Belarus.

Keep track of the figures you promised. Residents are audited every year, and serious or repeated failure to meet the key indicators in the business project can cost a company its status, although minor deviations are accepted. The park itself is growing, with new residents outnumbering the companies that leave, so it has little reason to relax its requirements.

Where founders go wrong

The mistake we see most often is inflated headcount projections. They may look good in the application, but they become the benchmark after admission, and falling far short of them causes trouble.

Another is naming key people who haven’t committed yet. If a technical lead listed in the business project changes their mind during the review, the application becomes much weaker.

A quieter mistake is leaving the accounting until later. Reports are due from the day the company is registered, and catching up on missed filings while the application is under review is a distraction nobody needs.

Some founders go the other way and hire the whole team before applying, paying full contributions for months. Others rely almost entirely on contractors and then have to justify it in the business project. And a few forget to collect employee consents after admission, which delays the savings.

FAQ

Is there a minimum headcount for HTP admission?

No. The rules don’t require a minimum number of employees or a minimum revenue. The business project does ask about your current team and key personnel, so having a few people on the payroll helps.

Can a company apply with no employees?

It can, but the application will be weaker. The Supervisory Board considers whether the company is able to deliver its project, and a technical lead on the payroll is one of the clearest signs that it is.

Does the contribution cap apply to people hired before admission?

Yes, from the date of residency onward. It doesn’t apply retroactively, so contributions for the months before admission stay at the standard rate.

How long does admission take?

Usually several months from submitting the business project to the Supervisory Board’s decision. Preparing the business project takes time on top of that.

Can we hire through an EOR and move people over later?

Yes, and many companies do. The employees agree to the move and sign a new employment contract with your company under the Labour Code. A lawyer can help you choose the simplest route.

What happens if we hire fewer people than we projected?

Minor deviations are accepted. Serious or repeated failure to meet the key indicators in your business project can put your residency at risk.

Planning your first hires

You can apply to the park with a director, a strong technical lead, a few core engineers and an accountant. Most other hires are cheaper after admission, and the money saved by waiting can come close to the cost of an extra engineer.

If the work can’t wait, hire through an HTP-resident EOR and move people across once you’re admitted. Plan the order of hiring with the same care you put into the business project.

If you’re setting up a company in Belarus and would like help with your first hires or the months before admission, talk to our team.