We’re starting 2024 strong with a range of updates across onboarding, time off, equity, contract amendments, and more while keeping you bulletproof compliant. This month’s highlights include time off updates that enable you to carry over leaves based on each country’s calendar year, contracts that can be customized and updated in a few minutes, and more. Let’s dive in.
Here’s our roundup for the month:
🌐 A new guided onboarding experience for your new hires
🕰️ Manage time off for team members in countries with different calendar years
🤖 Make changes to contracts within a few minutes
📢 Equity events, customize contracts, and more
Offer a smooth onboarding experience to your new hires
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/601d611d601043ab3e22931b/65c79f35a0b7328f39b4fa7b_Prod%20Newsletter%20-%20Jan%20-%201%20Team%20Member%20Onboarding_2x.avif)
We've listened to feedback from team members worldwide and revamped the onboarding experience to make it simpler and more user-friendly for companies looking to onboard global talent. Here is what we've recently updated:
- Better visibility on the process through an onboarding progress bar
- Guided onboarding via a checklist of items that need to be completed
- 1:1 assistance if your team members want to get in touch with their Hiring Success Manager
Manage time off easily with automated carryover of vacation days
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/601d611d601043ab3e22931b/65c79f97772f7b7856e8dc07_Prod%20Newsletter%20-%20Jan%20-%202%20Automatic%20Vacation_2x.avif)
Did you know that not all countries follow a Jan 1–Dec 31 vacation calendar year? France, for example, follows a June 1–May 31 vacation calendar year.
Oyster’s automated vacation carryover feature enables you to manage time off across different vacation calendar years with ease. Both you and your team member can see the unused days which are automatically carried over (after deducting any upcoming approved time off), when the vacation days expire, and a history of transactions that make up the vacation balance.
Amend team member contracts within minutes
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/601d611d601043ab3e22931b/65c79feda0b7328f39b57d07_Prod%20Newsletter%20-%20Jan%20-%203%20Self%20Serve%20Contract%20Changes_2x.avif)
We understand that things change! At Oyster, our self-serve contract amendment feature allows you to easily modify contracts. You can preview the changes, send the updated contract to your team member for their signature, receive notifications once they've signed, and then add your own signature to complete the amendment.
This feature is available for team members in over 10 countries, including Spain, France, Portugal, the U.K., the U.S., India, and more!
What else is new?
📝 Customize contracts: Say hello to greater flexibility in creating contractor agreements. You can now add your own additional clause during the hiring process and avoid manual back and forth. Start hiring contractors.
💰 Handle equity events easily: Do your team members want to exercise their equity? You can register equity events in your Oyster account to gain rapid insights into tax implications and to allow us to process the necessary tax withholdings. Better yet, you can automate this workflow with our Carta Integration. Learn more here.
⚙️ Automated employment agreements: When hiring in Germany, the employment agreements will be auto-generated and available for review in the last step of the hiring flow. This feature will help you generate compliant agreements in as fast as 5 minutes—now available in Germany, in addition to 10+ other previously supported countries. Learn how it works.
Can’t wait to see these new features in action? Log into Oyster to try them out yourself!