Oyster HR is an all-in-one HR and employee management platform built for global teams. It is commonly used by HR professionals, recruiters, and people managers to support tasks like hiring, onboarding, payroll, benefits administration, and maintaining employee records. It provides a central system to manage HR processes and help businesses comply with local regulations across multiple countries.
Oyster HR addresses common pain points like managing international payroll services, providing localized benefits packages, and ensuring compliance with employment laws in different regions. Its best features are hiring compliantly in over 180 countries, automating payroll and payments in 120+ currencies, and providing country-specific benefits and perks to global team members. The automated payroll processing system provided by Oyster HR simplifies payroll across borders with ease.
Oyster HR Evaluation Summary
- From $29/contractor/month
- Free demo available
Why Trust Our Software Reviews
We’ve been testing and reviewing HR software systems since 2019. As HR experts ourselves, we know how critical and difficult it is to make the right decision when selecting software.
We invest in deep research to help our audience make better software purchasing decisions. We’ve tested more than 2,000 tools for different HR management use cases and written over 1,000 comprehensive software reviews. Learn how we stay transparent & our software review methodology.
Oyster HR Overview
In this review, I'm sharing my analysis and evaluation based on my hands-on experience with Oyster HR. But first, if you're beginning your search for the best EOR, check out my picks of the best employer of record services.
You probably already know Oyster HR is among the most popular employers of record, but you may need a better understanding of what's good and not so good about it. This in-depth Oyster HR review will walk you through the pros and cons, features, and functionality to help you better understand its capabilities and suitability for your needs.
pros
-
Onboarding: Oyster HR simplifies the onboarding of new hires with compliant employment contracts and digital signing.
-
Benefits management: Oyster HR provides localized benefits packages that are customized for each employee's country.
-
Payroll processing: Oyster HR handles all aspects of global payroll, including taxes, deductions, and payments made in local currencies.
cons
-
Limited countries: Oyster HR supports hiring employees in 180 countries, fewer than other global EOR providers.
-
No PEO option: Oyster HR only offers employer-of-record services and does not provide a professional employer organization (PEO) co-employment model.
-
Separate platform: Oyster HR is a standalone platform that does not directly integrate with some popular HR and payroll systems.
-
Deel Hire
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.8 -
Rippling
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.9 -
RemoFirst
Visit WebsiteThis is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.4.5
How We Test & Score Our Tools
We’ve spent years building, refining, and improving our software testing and scoring system. The rubric is designed to capture the nuances of software selection and what makes a tool effective, focusing on critical aspects of the decision-making process.
Below, you can see exactly how our testing and scoring works across seven criteria. It allows us to provide an unbiased evaluation of the software based on core functionality, standout features, ease of use, onboarding, customer support, integrations, customer reviews, and value for money.
Core Functionality (25% of final score)
The starting point of our evaluation is always the core functionality of the tool. Does it have the basic features and functions that a user would expect to see? Are any of those core features locked to higher-tiered pricing plans? At its core, we expect a tool to stand up against the baseline capabilities of its competitors.
Standout Features (25% of final score)
Next, we evaluate uncommon standout features that go above and beyond the core functionality typically found in tools of its kind. A high score reflects specialized or unique features that make the product faster, more efficient, or offer additional value to the user.
We also evaluate how easy it is to integrate with other tools typically found in the tech stack to expand the functionality and utility of the software. Tools offering plentiful native integrations, 3rd party connections, and API access to build custom integrations score best.
Ease of Use (10% of final score)
We consider how quick and easy it is to execute the tasks defined in the core functionality using the tool. High scoring software is well designed, intuitive to use, offers mobile apps, provides templates, and makes relatively complex tasks seem simple.
Onboarding (10% of final score)
We know how important rapid team adoption is for a new platform, so we evaluate how easy it is to learn and use a tool with minimal training. We evaluate how quickly a team member can get set up and start using the tool with no experience. High scoring solutions indicate little or no support is required.
Customer Support (10% of final score)
We review how quick and easy it is to get unstuck and find help by phone, live chat, or knowledge base. Tools and companies that provide real-time support score best, while chatbots score worst.
Customer Reviews (10% of final score)
Beyond our own testing and evaluation, we consider the net promoter score from current and past customers. We review their likelihood, given the option, to choose the tool again for the core functionality. A high scoring software reflects a high net promoter score from current or past customers.
Value for Money (10% of final score)
Lastly, in consideration of all the other criteria, we review the average price of entry level plans against the core features and consider the value of the other evaluation criteria. Software that delivers more, for less, will score higher.
Core Features
Employee onboarding
Oyster HR handles the onboarding process for new global talents, including generating localized employment contracts, collecting necessary documents, and setting up payroll. Their automated workflows and self-serve platform streamline the onboarding experience.
Global payroll
Oyster administers multi-country payroll, ensuring employees are paid accurately and on time in their local currency. They also handle complex tax withholdings, benefits deductions, and reporting requirements in each country.
Compliance management
Oyster keeps companies compliant with local employment laws and tax regulations in over 180 countries. Their localized contracts are drafted and updated regularly by in-house legal experts to mitigate compliance risks.
Benefits administration
Oyster offers country-specific health insurance plans and other statutory benefits, handles employee enrollments and ongoing administration, and allows employees to access benefits information and submit claims through the platform.
HR support
Oyster's in-country HR specialists guide international employees and their managers. They are available to answer questions, help with performance management, and advise on cultural norms and best practices.
Employee offboarding
When employment ends, Oyster handles the offboarding process, including terminating contracts and benefits, facilitating severance package calculations and reimbursements where applicable, and issuing proof of employment. This ensures that offboarding is adequately managed in each country.
Ease of Use
Oyster HR is highly intuitive for hiring managers and employees. It has a straightforward digital onboarding process and automated workflows that handle paperwork and country-specific requirements. The self-serve functionality empowers employees to access pay stubs, benefits information, and company policies, while HR tasks like time off requests and expenses are straightforward within the platform.
Integrations
Oyster HR integrates natively with BambooHR, Workday, Hibob, Greenhouse, Carta, Personio, and Okta.
Oyster also offers a Zapier integration to connect with additional third parties.
Oyster HR Specs
- API
- Application Tracking
- Batch Permissions & Access
- Compliance Tracking
- Contract Management
- Data Export
- Data Import
- Data Visualization
- Database Search
- Document Management
- Employee Database
- Employee Onboarding
- Employee Training
- External Integrations
- HRIS Integration
- Mobile App
- Multi-Currency
- Multi-User
- Notifications
- Password & Access Management
- Payroll
- Report & Compliance
- Risk Assessment
- Scheduling
- Tax Management
- Timesheets
