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New research from Everest Group, released today by Oyster®, demonstrates that automation alone cannot address the complexities of global employment. The whitepaper, “Evolving Employer of Record (EOR): From Tactical Enabler to Strategic Workforce Partner,” emphasizes the need for integrated human expertise alongside technology to effectively manage compliance, employee experience, and workforce strategy in distributed teams.
The findings arrive as Oyster launches People Partner Services, a new advisory offering that provides customers with access to senior HR professionals for guidance, strategy, and execution across their entire global workforce—not limited to employees hired through Oyster's EOR platform.
"The global employment industry has spent the past five years selling a myth: that you can automate away the complexity of hiring across borders," said Tony Jamous, Executive Chairman of Oyster. "The reality is that when labor laws change across multiple jurisdictions, when employees face sensitive HR situations requiring cultural context, when companies need strategic guidance on where to expand—these moments demand judgment, not just algorithms. In my new role as Executive Chairman, I'm focused on advancing this conversation industry-wide and ensuring Oyster continues to set the standard for ethical, human-centered global employment."
Organizations face structural workforce challenges that pure technology solutions cannot fully resolve, including AI-driven skill shortages, increasingly strict regulatory environments, and geopolitical instability. While the EOR market has evolved, providers vary significantly in maturity.
Everest Group outlines three tiers: transactional providers focused on basic compliance, operational enablers that improve efficiency and scalability, and strategic partners that embed advisory expertise, analytics, and governance into broader workforce strategy.
“As the EOR market matures, organizations are increasingly moving beyond transactional use cases toward more strategic workforce models,” said Priyanka Mitra, Vice President at Everest Group. “Everest Group’s research highlights how organizations, particularly small and mid-sized organizations, are leveraging EOR to build resilience, manage regulatory complexity, and access global talent while building enterprise-grade workforce capability.”
Strategic partners transform compliance into a competitive edge by proactively managing risks and owning employment obligations. They enhance employee retention through localized support, mobility guidance, and equitable benefits. They also provide expert advisory on market entry, cost optimization, and organizational design to inform critical business decisions.
Oyster’s People Partner Services directly applies the research findings by offering flexible, project-based access to senior HR professionals. This extends beyond standard EOR operations to support challenges across a company’s full global footprint.
"Our customers told us they needed access to HR expertise for challenges beyond day-to-day EOR operations," said Bianca Burke, Senior Director, Expert Operations at Oyster. "A company might use Oyster for EOR in some countries but have their own legal entities in others. With People Partner Services, organizations can now access our compliance knowledge and strategic consultation across their entire footprint, whether they need help assessing where to expand next, designing global parental leave policies that respect local norms, or managing a sensitive employee case."
"Building and managing a global workforce is essential to companies of all sizes, and this is a complex challenge,” said Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company. “Oyster has pioneered the use of advanced technology coupled with global in-country HR and leadership support to redefine the value of an EOR, helping companies grow and scale, not only meet compliance needs."
This launch reinforces Oyster's commitment to ethical, human-centered global employment, combining modern technology with expert support to help companies hire confidently anywhere while treating talent equitably everywhere.
About Oyster
Oyster is a global employment platform that helps companies hire the best people anywhere and treat them right everywhere. As the only B Corp-certified Employer of Record, we give companies both modern technology and in-house expert support so they can navigate international hiring with confidence, clarity, and speed.
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