In partnership with Deel
The world’s largest fully remote company operates using the same systems its customers rely on to hire, pay and manage staff worldwide.
“We are doing all of that on our own platform,” says Alice Burks, Deel’s director of people success. “That idea of being ‘customer zero’ – putting pressure on our own product, understanding the pain points that we experience as a global scaling remote business, and feeding that into our own product development – all of that is very much part of our DNA.”
A global problem sparking a global solution
Deel’s founders, Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang, met while studying in the United States. What they saw among their international classmates stuck with them.
“After leaving university, it was not an equitable experience – who could get visas, who could easily access roles, who could stay, who had to leave, who wanted to move to a different country but still wanted access to great jobs – the idea of Deel was born as a way of making it easier for people to hire people wherever they were in the world,” Burks tells SmartCompany.
Smarter business news. Straight to your inbox.
For startup founders, small businesses and leaders. Build sharper instincts and better strategy by learning from Australia’s smartest business minds. Sign up for free.
By continuing, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
This vision became the company’s foundation. Delivering on it has given Deel a bird’s-eye view of the realities and requirements of acquiring and managing talent from anywhere in the world. That perspective has shaped both Deel’s expertise and product offering.
Built from its own growing pains
From its beginnings as a contractor-management tool, Deel has continued to build its product suite hand-in-hand with both its customers’ and its own growing needs.
“For example, a couple of years ago, Deel reached the next natural step in its product journey,” Burks says. “You’ve now got an established team, so how do you performance-manage them? How do you survey and check in on engagement? How do you set goals and manage all of that in the same place as your contract-management or team-member-management platform?”
To meet these requirements, Burks says they acquired an organisation called Zavvy, an employee-engagement and development platform that has since become Deel Engage, covering performance, reviews, surveys and goals.
Today, Deel’s own HR processes run entirely through the system. “Our performance cycle runs through the performance module. We host all of our company objectives and key results (OKRs) there. We’re running an all-company engagement survey next week, also using that part of the platform,” Burks says. “If it can work for us, it can work for our customers.”
Avoiding common and costly “you don’t know what you don’t know” mistakes
Hiring internationally opens businesses up to a wealth of localised talent, but it also brings additional risks around meeting responsibilities. At the centre of Deel’s offering is its Employer of Record (EOR) model, a practical entry point for businesses testing new markets.
“EOR means that Deel, or your partner, will employ your team members for you in a particular geography,” Burks explains. “So instead of needing to set up your own local entity and all that that entails, you can use an EOR partner to make those first hires. It simplifies the process.”
Deel’s scale means it can offer expertise behind the scenes across every local market where it operates.
“It’s important to make sure that whatever information you’re serving up, whether that’s to me as an internal customer or to our external customers, is accurate,” she says.
“You would be shocked at how frequently the minimum wage changes in a certain country, or a leave requirement or a benefit requirement changes, for example. Real-time compliance information and alerts are very much part of the product.”
It’s fair to say experience managing a global workforce across multiple regions has become one of Deel’s biggest assets.
“Our customer base is much more varied than people think. We work with large enterprises like Klarna right through to startups, and fully remote to hybrid workplaces. What’s consistent is that we want to grow with them – wherever they are in the journey.”
Need help with your scaling journey? Find out more about Deel’s all-in-one global people platform here.
About our partner
Deel is the all-in-one payroll and HR platform for global teams. Built for the way the world works today, Deel combines HRIS, payroll, compliance, benefits, performance, IT asset equipment management into one seamless platform. With AI-powered tools and a fully owned payroll infrastructure, Deel supports every worker type in 150+ countries, helping businesses scale smarter, faster, and more compliantly. Discover how Deel makes global work simple at deel.com.
