Remote work is beneficial for both employers and employees.

However, there are some challenges that come with it, including:

• Communication and collaboration difficulties,
• Talent acquisition challenges
• Payroll and compensation issues
• And global compliance bottlenecks.

Oyster is a global HR solutions provider building tools and resources to tackle these problems. 

In this post, we take you through what Oyster is all about, the features it offers, and how you can use it as a remote-first startup or team to stay compliant globally.

 

What is Oyster HR?

Oyster is a global employment and HR firm that helps companies hire, pay, and manage remote employees. As a startup in the future of work ecosystem, Oyster is tackling some of the most pressing issues facing remote-first startups: compensation, hiring, talent management, HR, Payroll, and compliance.

It allows any company of any size to tap into the global talent pool and solves the problems that come with hiring and managing full-time, part-time, contractor, or freelance talent anywhere around the world. 

With built-in legal, compliance, and tax support tools and systems, Oyster helps make hiring and managing remote talent and staying compliant easy. It also gives companies the power to work with people from anywhere in the world by offering them equity, medical benefits, and much more.

 

About Oyster – the company

As a startup, Oyster’s mission is to help companies build A+ teams. It does this by aiming to solve the biggest pain points for HR, legal, and finance teams (and any other company having workers in different countries) by providing all-in-one HR and payroll services. 

Founded in 2020 by Jack Mardack and Tony Jamous, Oyster’s team is fully-remote, working from 30 different countries around the world. The company has a solid leadership team and also backed by big name investors, including Automattic, Indeed, AVID Ventures, PayPal, Slack, and many more. 

 

Major Tools/Features of Oyster 

 

Global Payroll

Oyster Global Payroll is a robust, fully compliant payroll service for all your team members. This product manages all aspects of global payroll and compliance for teams, from tax reporting and compliance to payments. 

The company is fully compliant with all regulations in every country your team members are employed in, and handles timely payments, multiple invoices, and payroll administrative tasks.

Contractor management

This is Oyster’s product for remote teams to manage contractors, with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. It is a comprehensive contractor management software that helps you sign, onboard, and pay contractors and freelancers. It also offers:

•  Aggregated invoices, 
• Localized payments, 
• IP protection,
• Automated tax forms. 
• Hire contractors in 180+ countries.
• Automatically generate W9 and 1099 forms (For contractors in the US). 
• Expense reimbursement management for contractors

Global Employment

Oyster Global Employment provides a comprehensive set of tools for global employers. With its integrated services, employers can hire and manage employees around the world, pay them, and manage their time off. They can also track their employees’ expenses and invoices with Oyster’s dashboard. This means less paperwork and more time to focus on work.

Oyster Health

Healthcare is a huge expense for companies. This is Oyster’s solution for companies to provide health coverage for their employees anywhere in the world. With this, firms can offer their team access to affordable health insurance plans, with a wide range of options. This allows teams to find the hospital they want and provide them with quotes.

Oyster HR compliance

Oyster HR compliance tool is a comprehensive HR compliance solution that combines automated tools and a team of experts to help startups and remote-first teams stay compliant and manage their workforce. With this feature, teams and companies can easily stay up-to-date on the latest compliance requirements and hire faster with a streamlined onboarding process. It’s like having a compliance officer on your team.

 

Extra features, tools, and resources

Oyster has a lot of extra features, tools, and resources to help HR professionals make their work easier. 

The Oyster Academy

Oyster Academy provides courses in areas such as recruitment, employee engagement, leadership development, and more. There are a variety of courses, workshops, and certifications in human resources, hybrid and remote work. The courses are designed to help learners learn about the latest trends and technologies in HR and remote work.

Guides, podcast, and reports

Oyster also has a ton of reports, blog posts, podcasts, and guides to help remote managers, remote workers, hybrid teams, and HR professionals learn about the new world of work. 

Global HR Tools

Oyster has global HR tools to help teams solve some of the biggest problems facing hiring and managing remote teams. These tools include: 

Cost of Employment Calculator:

The Oyster Cost of Employment Calculator was created to help employers and employees understand the costs associated with hiring a remote employee, as well as what they will pay in taxes. The calculator takes into consideration the tax rates, wages, and benefits for both the employer and employee’s country. It also takes into account payroll deductions such as social security taxes and medicare taxes. 

Worker Misclassification Analyzer:

Oyster’s worker misclassification analyzer will help you determine if you should hire a person as a remote contractor or an employee. This helps employers determine how much tax they need to pay and what benefits they are legally obligated to provide.

Time Zone Crossover Calculator:

With TimeZone Crossover, you can work with remote teams as synchronously or asynchronously as you like. With a few clicks, plug in your location, and the minimal amount of crossover time you think you need, and discover a whole new pool of talent to choose from.

 

Oyster HR pricing and plans

Oyster HR pricing and plans are quite flexible, which makes it easy for the customer to start with their service. There are three different plans – Lite, Business, and Enterprise. 

The Lite plan, which is free, is for companies and startups that have just started to explore the global talent pool. 

There’s the Business Plan, which starts at $399/month/employee, up to $699/month/employee depending on the country you’re employing from. This ias ideal for teams and companies operating a fully remote workforce. 

Oyster also offers an Enterprise Plan for remote-first teams and companies that want to customize their packages with special features, tools, and support. These plans offer a lot of features, such as automated payrolls, compliance, support, local guidance, hiring starter pack, distributed hiring tools, and Oyster Health as an add-on, just to mention a few.

 

Special Offers: for startups and nonprofits

 

Oyster for Impact

This is Oyster’s program for nonprofits and B Corporations looking to hire remotely or work with distributed teams, including employees, contractors, and volunteers.

Oyster for Impact is designed to help nonprofits and B Corporations unlock the benefits of distributed work. With Oyster, you can get discounts on outsourced work while also helping your nonprofit or B Corporation grow in the future of work.

 

Oyster for Startups

You’re a startup founder and your head is spinning. You’re hiring, growing and scaling your business, but you don’t have the time or resources to manage payroll, benefits, compliance and more.

Oyster for startups help you take care of your global team. Oyster is the best way to hire, pay and take care of your growing team. Hire your first employee for free for a year as a startup and use the Platform to automate the complexities of scaling a global team. 

 

About Ascent By Oyster

Ascent is Oyster’s global remote conference where participants learn and network with industry leaders as well as discuss how organizations are evolving to embrace the benefits of geographic diversity. Participants will also get to explore the opportunities and challenges that come with remote work, chat about how to build a virtual career in a globally-minded organization, and share best practices for cultivating a diverse workforce. 

 

HIRE REMOTELY, STAY COMPLIANT, AND FACE THE FUTURE OF WORK, CONFIDENTLY.