International HR Business Partner - Employee Relations (Canada)

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One platform, a whole world of opportunity

Right now, the best jobs are limited to people in a handful of the world’s wealthiest cities, yet brilliant people are everywhere. Driven to overturn the status quo and distribute opportunities equally around the world, Oyster launched its global employment platform to help companies hire, pay, and care for talent anywhere.

When it comes to global employment, we walk the walk. We’re proof that companies don't need an office to create a highly-engaged culture. Since the company’s inception in January 2020, Oyster has:

Created a fully-distributed, vibrant team of 500+ employees across 60+ countries Established a diverse leadership team and an employee base that’s 60% female Achieved one of the highest employee engagement scores in its class Raised $150 million in Series C funding at a valuation of over $1 billion!

Our momentum speaks to the power of global employment—and we’re just getting started! If you want to change the world with Oyster and be empowered to work remotely while doing so, we’d love for you to apply!

The Role

Location: While this position is posted in a specific location, all of Oyster’s positions are fully remote and you can work from home. Forever. The person in this role needs to be located within UTC -04:00 to - 08:00.

The People Services team provides HR expertise and services on a country-by-country basis to our customers and the team members who provide services to them. We also partner, enable and support our internal Oyster teams by providing well-rounded, pragmatic information on a variety of HR topics. Your global HR experience, pragmatic approach, and customer-focused outlook will help make this happen!

We’re not your traditional People Services team and this is not your traditional HRBP role!

What you'll do

  • You will solve even the most complex HR matters - lots of ER experience, specifically around terminations, investigations, and tricky situations will be important
  • You will deliver amazing HR services to our customers and the team members who provide services to them (customer-centricity is key here)
  • You will primarily support provinces in Canada - but partnership and collaboration with your fellow People Services teammates is important (we thrive together)
  • Your HR advice is pragmatic and you like to problem-solve. You’ll be able to deep dive into different scenarios and present solutions to our stakeholders (including customers)
  • Your approach to all things HR - even the trickiest of situations - will make our customers wish they had our HR for all their matters, even beyond distributed workers
  • We’re external facing & customer focused so you should be comfortable in presenting ideas and solutions in a compelling way
  • You should be focused on making the complex simple!

On a day-to-day basis you will work on …

Country HR information and knowledge

  • Draft country specific information on a wide range of HR topics in our team format
  • Answer questions (in the form of tickets) on HR topics which are unable to be resolved by our first line teams
  • Provide internal Oyster teams with training (or other methods of increasing their knowledge) on HR topics as needs arise
  • Look for opportunities to proactively improve country specific HR information
  • Attend customer calls from time to time when there are questions on country specific HR information
  • Work with other teams (e.g. Customer Support, Sales, Product, Legal) to problem solve country specific issues with your HR knowledge

Complex employee relations (ER) matters

  • Manage the full breadth of complex ER matters which arise from time to time (performance, behaviors, potential terminations, investigations etc.) in allocated countries
  • Work with customers to present solutions when complex people scenarios arise

Projects

  • Contribute to People Services and cross team projects as we work towards our Mission to enable companies to hire anyone, anywhere!

What we're looking for

  • 6+ years of Canadian complex employee relations experience
  • You have provided HR support across multiple countries
  • You have dealt with the most tricky HR situations before including PIPs, investigations and terminations in Canada and/or USA
  • You have an understanding of local cultural norms in North America in relation to HR and employment
  • You are a clear communicator who can simply explain complex topics both verbally and in written form
  • You are confident in your HR knowledge and will provide options and recommendations on courses of action when we are facing problems we need to solve
  • You are experienced and confident presenting to a wide range of stakeholders
  • You are excited to build and challenge the status quo
  • You are Customer, Team Member and Employee focused in everything you do!
  • [BONUS] You have additional language skills in French.
  • [BONUS] You have worked in a fast growing start up company before.

You'll also need...

  • A reliable home internet connection (or be able to get one)
  • Fluent English language skills

How we work together at Oyster

Our values guide the work we do, the decisions we make, and the culture that makes us special. We elevate talent. We build trust. We thrive together.

Our mission is to create a more equal world—one global hire at a time. Everything we do ladders up to our mission—and that doesn’t just mean building software. We develop programs, participate in workshops, and create dedicated teams to ensure we successfully support companies and knowledge workers in this new world of work.

We embrace asynchronous communication and collaborative work—and we share how we work in the Oyster Public HQ —to help other global teams learn from our experiences.

How YOU work

Different countries have different statutory benefits, different cultures have different norms, and different people have different needs! In order to best support and encourage our diverse team, we’ve created How YOU Work; a program of policies, practices, and perks to support your whole human experience as an employee at Oyster.

  • Work from anywhere: Oyster is a borderless, HQ-less company. As long as your work gets done on time, your team has the support they need, and you're authorized to work where you live, the world is truly your Oyster.
  • Paid time off: We’re all about taking breaks—we all need it. Oyster provides employees with 40 days off each year, which includes public/bank holidays and vacation/holiday leave (unless your country mandates more).
  • Mental health support: We consider your mental health a top priority. We offer access to Plumm, a mental well-being service, to support your mental health.
  • Wellbeing allowance: Each month, Oyster will top up your Juno wallet with a wellbeing allowance. Juno Points can be applied to anything that helps you show up to work as your best self, whether that’s your internet bill, a class, gym membership, or houseplants. The choices are endless!
  • Flexible parental leave: Families are created in lots of different ways. Our parental leave policy applies to all employees who are becoming parents, regardless of how they become a parent. Oysters are eligible for a minimum of three months of paid parental leave and your job will be held for 12 months (or longer if required by local jurisdiction).
  • WFH stipend: $3000 stipend to spend on your laptop and any other equipment you need for your home office; we'll get you up and running in no time!

The best jobs should be available to everyone

At Oyster, we celebrate a variety of perspectives and experiences and we’ve intentionally built our product and our company with an inclusive, global mindset. We know from experience that people from underrepresented groups often don’t apply for roles they don’t feel they meet all the criteria for. We’re committed to elevating talent by creating a trust-based environment where we can all thrive together. So if you think you have what it takes, but don’t necessarily check every single box, please consider applying. We’d love to hear how you might contribute to our mission and our team.

Oyster is committed to ensuring equal opportunity of employment for qualified persons with disabilities and actively fosters an inclusive work environment. Please email jobs@oysterhr.com with the subject line: Interview Accommodations if you require any reasonable accommodations throughout the recruiting process.

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