How Operations Nation hired their first international team member

A Global Community Run by a Lean, Borderless Team

Operations Nation is a professional community for senior operations leaders: Chief Operating Officers, Operations Directors, Heads of Operations, and anyone else carrying that responsibility at their organisation. Its two core offerings are peer-to-peer connection through a lively online forum, and learning and knowledge sharing through events and training programmes.

Everything at Operations Nation is member-led. Events, courses, and the annual conference are all shaped by the community itself: something the team is proud of. With a global membership, it was only natural that the team behind it would become global too. Aušrinė Keršanskaitė, co-founder and de facto Head of People, brings fifteen years of operations leadership experience across startups and scaleups to running the organisation.

When The Perfect Hire Is Abroad And Your EOR Only Complicates Things

Operations Nation never set out to build a distributed team. When Becca applied for the community manager role from Hungary, the decision to hire her was straightforward. She was the right person. The challenge was figuring out how to employ her compliantly from the UK: a country Operations Nation had never hired outside of before.

As co-founder, Aušrinė was already wearing a hundred hats. Being the de facto Head of People was one of them. Taking on the full complexity of international employment law, contracts, and payroll without dedicated HR support was not realistic. The team turned to an Employer of Record provider to handle it — but their first choice made things harder, not easier.

The first problem was financial. The previous EOR required three months of the employee's salary to be paid upfront, with no prior warning. For a small company with a sensitive cash flow, that was a serious burden. The second problem was more damaging to trust. Aušrinė had done her own research on what compliant employment in Hungary actually looked like. When the EOR's guidance didn't match what she knew to be accurate, she found herself correcting her own provider.

"I was finding answers that were not really aligned with what the real situation was, which really eroded my trust," Aušrinė explains. "I needed to prompt and correct the EOR team that I was working with." An EOR that requires its customer to verify and fix its compliance advice is not reducing risk — it is redistributing it. That experience prompted a full re-evaluation and a switch to Oyster.

"I was finding answers that were not really aligned with what the real situation was, which really eroded my trust… eventually I said enough is enough and I need to move away and find an EOR that is really going to support us as a business and wouldn't create overhead for me."

— Aušrinė Keršanskaitė, Co-founder, Operations Nation

How Oyster Removed the Compliance Burden and Gave a Small Team the Confidence to Hire Globally

The first conversation with Oyster set a different tone immediately. Questions were answered promptly, professionally, and in a way that felt genuinely helpful rather than transactional. For Aušrinė, that early interaction built the trust that the previous provider had failed to establish at all. It was the beginning of a relationship, not just a service transaction.

Oyster took on contracts, compliance, payroll, and all local employment requirements for Becca's hire in Hungary. That coverage removed a significant mental load from Aušrinė as founder. She no longer had to double check every decision or second guess whether the guidance she was receiving was accurate. "With Oyster, we were able to handle contracts, compliance, payroll, and any local requirements, which removed a huge mental load for me as a founder," she says.

The platform itself proved easy to use, even for someone without a dedicated HR background. It is well documented, practical, and keeps all contracts, billing, and documentation accessible in one place. Oyster's salary comparison calculators were particularly useful: helping Operations Nation make informed decisions on compensation, raises, and benefits without needing to source that data elsewhere.

One specific compliance challenge that Oyster helped navigate was Becca's frequent travel to the UK to visit her partner. That created real questions about employment compliance and tax implications. The Oyster team provided clear, practical guidance — the kind of nuanced, country-specific advice that the previous provider had failed to deliver. "Their advice was really, really helpful in helping us navigate that compliance," Aušrinė recalls.

The transition from the previous EOR to Oyster was smooth from start to finish. The Oyster team guided Operations Nation through platform setup, contracts, and compliance questions at every step. Aušrinė describes it plainly: "It was by far the best onboarding that I have experienced." For a founder managing a growing team without a dedicated people function, that kind of support is not a bonus — it is what makes international hiring sustainable.

"It was never transactional. There was some real effort to make sure things were done properly."

— Aušrinė Keršanskaitė, Co-founder, Operations Nation

Compliant Global Hiring And Positive Cash Flow

Becca's onboarding through Oyster was smooth, professional, and well-organised. She received a clear contract, timely payroll, and a platform she could navigate with confidence. The contrast with the previous EOR was stark. "As we switched from another EOR platform, it was like night and day," Aušrinė notes. Becca has complimented Oyster multiple times since making the switch.

For Aušrinė, the most immediate impact was peace of mind. She no longer has to verify compliance guidance or chase down billing documentation. Everything is accessible on the platform. When Becca has questions that Aušrinė cannot answer herself, the Oyster team steps in directly, removing the back-and-forth that had previously added to the administrative burden.

The financial impact has been equally tangible. Eliminating the large upfront salary deposit requirement freed up cash flow that a small company cannot afford to lock away. Monthly platform fees are significantly lower than those charged by the previous provider. There are no hidden charges. "With Oyster, everything is super transparent," Aušrinė says. "It's very common with a lot of platforms to put something here and there that you do not expect — and with Oyster that doesn't happen."

Beyond Operations Nation's own team, the impact extends into the community itself. Many Operations Nation members use Oyster in their own organisations and consistently report positive experiences, particularly around clarity, reliability, and support for distributed teams. That community-level validation reinforces what the Operations Nation team has experienced firsthand.

• Upfront salary deposit: Eliminated
• Employee onboarding experience: "Night and day" vs. previous EOR
• Monthly platform cost: Significantly lower than previous provider
• Hidden fees: None

"Oyster has enabled us to hire the right person in the right place at the right time."

— Aušrinė Keršanskaitė, Co-founder, Operations Nation

From One International Hire to a Fully Global Team: Operations Nation's Next Chapter

Operations Nation currently has several team members working as contractors across different countries. The plan is to bring them on as full-time employees, and Oyster is the intended platform for doing so. "I'm really excited about using Oyster for that in the coming months," Aušrinė says. As the team grows, Oyster will remain the go-to solution for international hiring, removing the need to build an internal people function before the organisation is ready for it.

For Aušrinė, the value of Oyster goes beyond any single hire. As an operations leader who has spent fifteen years evaluating tools and processes, she values solutions that reduce complexity rather than add to it. "If you're small and hiring internationally feels scary, Oyster makes it manageable by removing risk and saving time — it's exactly what you need at this stage." That is the standard Operations Nation will continue to hold its software to as it grows.