Bridging the Global Gap

Oyster HR was founded in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic with a mission to connect global talent with companies looking to hire across the world, removing geographical barriers to employment. They connect people with their dream careers, regardless of location, using their own entities (or local entities in new territories) to provide employment solutions for global companies. Since 2020, they’ve received 3 rounds of funding – Series A funding in early 2021, Series B funding in the summer of 2021, and £150m in Series C funding in 2022. Safe to say, they’re not showing any signs of slowing down...

Key results

• What was the challenge?

  Oyster HR was founded in 2020 to bridge the gap between companies looking to hire globally, and global talent facing barriers to access these jobs. Due to the huge levels of investment Oyster HR have received in the past 2 years, there’s been a level of pressure to continue growing at the rapid pace they’ve themselves set so far.

   

  As they were a start-up company, there was a level of support needed from us in terms of shaping the assessment and hiring processes. The war on talent and candidate-driven market made recruiting at pace a challenge, especially given the niche roles they were looking to fill. They needed Ruby Developers and were struggling to find talent at the right levels and volume in a short timeframe.

• Characteristics of our solution

  Our partnership with Oyster HR has evolved as quickly as their scale-up – we’re now an important part of their hiring efforts and have become their exclusive UK-based recruitment partner.

  We worked with their internal hiring team to review the entire recruitment process, from updating their interview and assessment stages through to integrated and actioned candidate feedback. Our processes are founded in a deep-rooted understanding of the niches we work in, and the insight we have into candidate experiences and journeys that clients don’t always have access to.

  We were integrated into the company’s Slack, meaning we were able to maintain a level of communication that ensured things moved at pace. We’ve been introduced to every new hire they’ve made within their internal technical recruiting team, highlighting the value of our presence as a partner, not just a provider.

  Their HR team was growing at the same time as the rest of the company, enabling us to support them with additional elements of the recruitment process beyond transactional hiring. This involved advising on contracts, time to hire, value fits, and their screening, interviewing, and assessment processes.

  Oyster HR isn’t UK-based – thanks to our global presence, we’ve been able to hire without geographical limitations, meaning they’ve had access to the best candidates, not just the talent pool local to their offices. We’ve been able to offer location-specific market advice due to our 9 global offices – we have access to experts within the Opus group across the globe, allowing us to navigate overseas recruitment processes with ease, and in a timely manner.

• Outcomes and benefits

  The dedicated delivery team we set up with Oyster HR is genuinely passionate about Ruby – and we’ve got the talent pool to back it up. Due to our expertise in the area, and our understanding of the niche, we have great relationships with Ruby Developers who are both actively and passively open to new roles. In fact, we’ve placed 40% of all their developers since we started working with them in June 2021.

  We’ve placed an additional 7 Front-End Developers with Oyster HR, along with senior hires in the form of their Director of Engineering and Engineering Manager. We’ve also placed seniors into their Lead Developer vacancies, structuring each ‘squad’ with our addition of Ruby Developers. Our relationship with our candidates ensures we’re only putting forward individuals that have the necessary skill set, as well as the cultural element needed to truly thrive and contribute to the company. Because we’ve made such a high percentage of their Ruby placements, we have a deep understanding of the team culture, dynamics, and hierarchy.

  This level of oversight allows us to put forward candidates that we already know will be a great fit. It also allows us to really sell Oyster HR to prospective candidates, ensuring that any offers are more likely to be accepted because candidates are essentially pre-closed from the very beginning. Having placed so many people at Oyster HR already, we can share an accurate depiction of the style of work, the team cultures, and the overall company with our candidates – knowing people on the ground has been a big part of enhancing our candidates’ experiences and has had a hugely positive impact on Oyster HR’s onboarding process.

• Client testimonial

  “Working with Clare has transformed our engineering hiring at Oyster - basically strapped rocker boosters to it. She’s worked incredibly hard finding us candidates and helping get them closed, and beyond that she’s helped us refine our process to be more efficient and effective. Based on this experience I’d definitely choose Opus for future engagements.”

  Dan Lucraft - Head of Engineering, Oyster

• Candidate testimonial

  First, Clare is a really communicative, understanding and supportive person. She always took care of all my questions promptly, our exchanges were very fluid and clear. What I appreciate also in Clare is that she takes time to discuss for other topics outside of the interview process, making it really pleasant. She managed all throughout the interview process, everything is clear and every doubts I had were answered. I felt I can trust her fully and I am not mistaken. Finally, I am very happy to have joined the company she presented me. She described it the way I am living from the inside. Thank you Clare!

  Hery Ramihajamalala - Lead Ruby Developer at Oyster

• Contact Us

  Interested in finding out how we can help you? Please contact us at CLIENTSOLUTIONS@OPUSTALENTSOLUTIONS.COM and a member of our Global Client Solutions team will be in touch shortly.