How Oyster HR Works
In short, Oyster HR provides one centralized platform for managing recruitment. It’s a one-stop repository for all your hiring documents, onboarding info, and pay-related documentation. You can also organize payroll, and employee benefits and set transparent audits for compliance regulations.
Oyster aims to simplify international employment law and taxes – topics often fraught with complications. In addition, they ensure global compliance, including intellectual property protection, employment liability insurance, and privacy compliance, including GDPR and country-specific security requirements.
Oyster HR also permits you to pay anyone from anywhere, thanks to Oyster’s multi-country global payroll services benefitting from some of the best exchange rates around. Put simply, Oyster HR takes care of the legal side of things to make it easier for you to scale your team members internationally.
Oyster HR Features
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s delve into the nitty-gritty of Oyster HR’s features:
Osyter HR Hiring and Onboarding
Hiring with Oyster HR starts by browsing the list of countries in which they operate. Then, you can choose to hire contractors or salaried employees. Oyster even has a worker classification analyzer to help you to determine which type of hire is best for you. This tool also enables you to understand the potential risks, fines, and penalties of improperly classifying workers.
You can get a quote by simply entering your desired:
- Employee location
- Salary
- Number of hires
You are then given information about the costs involved in hiring someone from your chosen country. For example, suppose you’re looking to hire someone in Germany and pay them €50,000 pa. In that case, Oyster HR will calculate their gross monthly salary minus local taxes, social security, and Oyster’s fee.
At this point, it’s worth noting that Oyster HR offers to hire guides for different countries. These come in especially handy if you’re uncertain about salary. In addition, Oyster has tools for calculating hiring expenses and the estimated living expenses for workers.
You can also speak directly with Oyster HR’s hiring experts to help you set up your account and establish your hiring goals. The fee for this varies according to the country you reside in. For example, for Bangladesh, it’s $499, whereas, for Australia, it is $699. It’s not clear why these fees vary from country to country.
When it comes to onboarding new employees, they’ll automatically receive an offer letter. They’ll also be asked to create an account with Oyster HR to set them up on payroll. From there, you can generate a contract to get them started. New team members can get support from Oyster HR via live chat, email, and zoom.
Compensation and Employee Benefits
When offering attractive compensation, Oyster HR can guide you on competitive salaries, health care plans, relocation plans, and expense reimbursements. In addition, the oyster has a self-serve global benefits tool that allows you to calculate employee benefits in each of the 180+ countries Oyster HR operates in.
However, if you take out insurance cover from Oyster HR, they’ll manage your outgoing fees too.
Oyster HR Payroll
Oyster HR allows you to manage cross-border payroll with minimal paperwork and expense. You can manage aggregated invoices for all global teammates from one location. Not to mention, Oyster HR automatically sorts local deductions, taxes, and contributions, so you know precisely what has to be paid to ensure international compliance.
Oyster HR also relies on built-in protocols to ensure employees and contractors get paid on time and in their local currencies to avoid hefty transaction fees.
Oyster HR Compliance
One of Oyster HR’s best features is its watertight compliance management to protect you against unexpected issues with premium liability coverage.
Oyster HR’s platform is fully compliant with international security and privacy protocols, including GDPR. It’s also worth noting that Oyster HR provides some of the most rigorous data management standards on the market. In addition, their platform is fully encrypted and protected with SSL security. They’re also currently working on getting further security certifications, such as ISO 27001 and NIST CSF.
Additionally, you can set up contract preferences to generate contracts that honor local employment and labor laws, so you can get onboard your team members with confidence. Finally, Oyster HR offers legal advice for both you and your employees.
Oyster HR’s Partners
Oyster HR partners with 38 third parties to make distributed work easier to manage – for instance:
Firstbase – This is a hardware product company designed to make remote work easier. They offer branded IT gear, furniture, and equipment designed with remote teams in mind.
Wework – This is an excellent option for providing remote teams with flexible workspaces. They have various offices around the world you can offer your team.
Teamtailor – This is a recruitment and branding application tracking system. You can create branded career pages to attract and manage new candidates.
Oyster HR’s Customer Support and Resources
In addition to an expert team of hiring and onboarding advisors, Oyster HR provides many tools and resources to help supercharge your global team.
Such as:
- Oyster Library: Here, you’ll find blogs on talent acquisition, payroll, and benefits. The library also has a small video collection on current HR topics and podcasts on various topics, including upskilling, training, and managing managers.
- Oyster Academy: This is where you’ll find remote courses for human resources professionals and job seekers.
- Global Hiring Guides: These are country-specific hiring guides concerning the best hiring practices worldwide.
A new resource is a recording of a one-off Oyster event that addresses the Great Resignation and how to build thriving teams during this particularly challenging period for HR professionals. As we’ve already touched upon, they also have calculators for different expenses, risks, and fees. They also have a comprehensive list of country profiles to help you to better understand the expected local employee experience.
Customer support is offered Monday to Friday through email, in-app chat, and Zoom. Oyster HR also offers virtual events and webinars with training on best global employment practices.
Oyster HR Calculator
Oyster offers a very helpful calculator to play with various assumptions about foreign hires. For example, you can input a salary in your local currency + the country and the calculator provides an estimate of what the compliance costs are.
Oyster HR Pricing Plans
Now, let’s take a look at how much Oyster HR will set you back:
Lite – Free Plan
The Lite plan is designed for small teams or those who want to test out Oyster HR’s features before spending their hard-earned cash. With this package, you can employ up to two global contractors and:
- Access Oyster HR – a platform that lets you set up fully compliant payroll, employee benefits, and contracts.
- Access hiring tools – this includes Oyster HR’s employment cost calculator, hiring profiles, and contactor classification assessment.
- A Hiring starter pack – this provides templates for employment contracts, GDPR agreements and confidentiality, competition, and intellectual property agreements.
The Lite plan also grants access to Oyster HR’s training academy.
Business – $599 + a month, per employee
The pricing for this plan varies depending on the country you are hiring in. However, this plan’s maximum flat monthly rate is $699 per employee per month. You can find everything in the Lite plan, plus:
- Hiring and compliant payroll in 180+ countries.
- Employment liability and health insurance.
- Dedicated legal and HR support.
Enterprise – Custom pricing (reach out directly)
This plan is designed for larger remote teams with specialist HR and legal needs. You get everything in the Business plan, plus support and guidance for country transfers, legal documentation, immigration, and visas.
Oyster HR Pros
- There’s a free plan available.
- You benefit from one centralized location where you and your team can access HR documentation.
- Legal and compliance protection.
- It’s easy to scale your business with a global team.
- Access to comprehensive self-help resources and customer support.
- You’re not charged payroll transaction fees.
Oyster HR Cons
- Pricing can be hefty for small businesses.
- Oyster HR doesn’t offer advanced analytics or reporting.
- Oyster HR doesn’t provide role-specific salary guidelines.
- Some customers complain about slow customer service and incorrect invoices
- The Oyster website is somewhat light on detail unless you sign up for an (albeit free) account
Oyster HR Alternatives
If Oyster HR isn’t for you, that’s no problem. There are a lot of alternatives on the market to choose from. Below are some of our top picks:
Workday HCM
Workday HCM is a human capital management system. It uses a cloud-based repository to store all HR data in one centralized location. It provides comprehensive global hiring and team management tools and offers market-based guides and analytics on local and global salaries, compensation, and hiring demographics.
You also get tools to track your hiring performance and opt for extra features like finance and spending management to optimize your business operations as a whole. It’s also worth noting that they have an in-depth library of self-help guides, webinars, and eBooks to help you improve your HR strategy.
Pricing: Must enquire
Best for:
Workday is an excellent choice for larger businesses and enterprises that need a comprehensive hiring suite. With in-depth analytics and finance features, it’s a great way to empower your HR department with the tools they need to optimize their performance.
Deel
Deel is a global payroll solution. They offer services to help manage invoices, contracts, and compliance. You can automate your payroll to distribute wages to your international team in one go. With the bonus of automatic currency conversion and allowances for taxes, pensions, and other fees you need to pay to local governments.
All your data is stored in one localized repository for easy access. From there, you can manage employee expenses, benefits, insurance, and onboarding. In addition, they offer to hire tools for over 60 countries. As well as partnerships with 200+ local legal firms who regularly review Deel’s contracts and practices to protect your business.
Pricing:
Starts at $49 a month for contractor hiring and $599 a month for full-time employees.
Best for:
Deel is a good option for small to medium-size businesses that need tools to manage a remote workforce. This is especially true if you’re worried about the legal and administrative barriers when hiring international workers.
Pilot
Pilot is another great remote payroll solution that covers over 240 countries worldwide. In addition, they offer automatic local employment and IP law compliance for taxes, contracts, and statutory filing. With their streamlined payroll system, you can schedule bulk payments within minutes. You also benefit from automatic currency conversion and 0% transaction fees on your payroll.
Plus, all your documentation and resources are quick to access via their easy-to-use interface. In addition, Pilot can also help with complex legal problems such as immigration, visas, and work permits.
Pricing:
Starts at $29 a month for contract hirers and $499 a month for employee hires. Plans are billed monthly, but you can opt for annual billing for a discounted rate.
Best for:
Since Pilot specializes in managing payroll, it’s a great solution for growing companies with a global workforce but struggling to implement a comprehensive pay structure.
In addition, with so many countries available to hire from, Pilot is also a good choice for organizations looking to expand into new international markets.
FAQs
Why Oyster HR?
If you are like our company, a global team is a market reality. When it’s time to bring your team on full-time in a formal setting, complying with international HR practices is virtually impossible to do manually. Enter Oyster HR. Easily get HR compliant in 180+ countries.
How do I sign up and start hiring with Oyster HR?
The first step is to create an account. Then, you simply enter your details and select a payment plan. After signing up, to start the hiring process, you must:
Complete the new hire form. Oyster HR will ask you to provide details about the type of contract you want, employee benefits, compensation, and role.
Next, you can review your contracts.
When an employee found, you can start onboarding. Invite your new team member to Oyster HR to sign up for their account and complete the onboarding process.
Both parties will sign the employment contract.
Simple, right?
What are the benefits of remote recruiting?
Remote recruiting gives your business the best global talent pool. Get the most from a large and diverse talent pool. In addition, since workers don’t need to be working from a physical location, you can cut down on your overhead costs.
Remote working is increasingly becoming the new norm. Employees can benefit from better health and well-being. As well as better productivity for your company. A multiple time zone workforce also means expanding your operations and service times. It allows you to increase your flexibility while still improving your work/life balance.
What are the best practices for hiring and managing a remote workforce?
To get off to the best start with your team, introducing yourself virtually is a good idea. While Oyster HR can handle onboarding, it’s still wise to familiarize yourself with new candidates. This is crucial for making a good first impression, setting standards for the work culture, and helping integrate new hires with the rest of the team.
Even as a remote workforce, you can instill company culture. Just because a candidate fits the role doesn’t necessarily mean a good fit for your team. By clearly outlining what’s expected from the get-go, you’ll make it easier for yourself and your employees to get off to a good start.
Question: What are the best attributes to look for in remote workers?
Answer: The best remote employees need to be self-starters. They’ll probably be working independently from the get-go, so you want to ensure they’re motivated and confident enough to do the job without much hand-holding.
As well as being self-motivated, want to ensure your candidate the tech-savviness to manage their work and communications online. Again, they don’t need to be experts, but they need the basic skills to use software and fix simple problems independently.
Another important trait for remote workers is to have good communication skills. While this is a prerequisite for most jobs, this becomes even more important when working remotely. A skilled communicator will be direct, professional, and clear in their correspondence.
Lastly, remote working requires collaboration and teamwork skills. This is especially important if they’re expected to work on group projects. They’ll have to manage their deadlines and coordinate with team members to get the job done.
