Oyster HR Named One of America's Greatest Startup Workplaces 2026 by Newsweek

What the Award Recognizes

Newsweek's America's Greatest Startup Workplaces ranking, produced in partnership with Plant-A Insights Group, identifies the best startups in the United States that demonstrate excellence in workplace culture, sustainable business growth, and long-term potential.

More than 26,000 startups were considered in the initial analysis. From that pool, companies were evaluated across more than 10 key performance indicators spanning employee satisfaction, operational growth, financial performance, and customer engagement. The final list recognizes startups that combine innovation, collaboration, and purpose—workplaces where employees can make meaningful contributions, develop new skills, and help shape the direction of the business.

Getting onto this list isn't a matter of submitting an application. The methodology is independent, data-driven, and includes a media screening process to exclude companies associated with significant regulatory or workplace misconduct issues. Plant-A Insights has a strict no-pay-to-play policy.

This recognition follows another one: Oyster was also named one of TIME's Top WorkTech Companies of 2026, also with a 4.5/5 rating. Together, the two awards say what Oyster is going for: strong technology, paired with an experience that treats the humans on the other end of it like humans.

Why This Matters to the People We Serve

If you're an HR leader or People Ops team evaluating global employment partners, you're not just buying software. You're choosing a company to trust with your employees' livelihoods—their contracts, their paychecks, their benefits, their experience of being employed somewhere new.

The kind of culture a company builds internally tends to show up in how it treats the people it serves externally. A team that feels trusted, valued, and supported delivers better guidance, more accountable service, and more genuine care for your employees—wherever in the world they are.

Oyster's mission is to create a more equal world of work by making it possible for companies everywhere to hire people anywhere. Living that mission starts with how we treat our own people. This recognition from Newsweek tells us we're getting that right.

Thank you to every member of the Oyster team whose work, integrity, and commitment to our mission made this recognition possible. And thank you to the customers who trust us with something that matters—the employment experience of your people, wherever they call home.

If you're ready to build a global team with a partner that holds itself to a high standard, start hiring globally.