From Hiring Fluidity to Building an HR Environment

Q: What is Deel’s commercial proposition and what is behind the breakneck growth of its solutions portfolio?

A: Deel is the result of a multinational academic and early professional development career. My co-founder and I met highly skilled talent from all over the world who, despite their demonstrated capacity, would effectively be shut out of the best job opportunities unless they were willing to relocate to competitive business hubs. This potentially disqualifying incentive had and has continued to motivate skilled talent to emigrate from their home countries, an effect infamously known as “brain drain.” This barrier to entry consequently excluded talent with legal or personal mobility limitations, creating a missed opportunity for multinational companies. 

Deel aims to facilitate companies' access to international talent so they can expand globally. In short, we want to serve as a discovery conduit for companies and talent irrespective of their fixed or mobile geographic location. We have assisted companies of all sizes, from SMEs to multinationals, to easily and legally hire skilled international talent in compliance with national laws through our global digital infrastructure. We offer onboarding, payroll and other features to build the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) platform of tomorrow so companies can provide associates with the experience they would expect when hired locally. 

Q: Most of the services Deel offers are the result of several acquisitions. How have these acquisitions led Deel to modify its business model?

A: The acquisitions have not changed our business model as most of them have been in the service of strengthening our core infrastructure. For example, HR departments had to outsource the work that fell outside of their infrastructure capabilities. This inspired us to develop a complete digital infrastructure and establish entities across many countries to have complete oversight of people’s experience with Deel. To do so, we needed to integrate key competencies of international hiring, such as work-visa processing and global payroll capacity, which led to the acquisition of Legalpad and PayGroup. 

Bringing these companies on board for their specialization and best business practices was natural and strategic. To continue strengthening our offer, we will continue to pursue the incorporation of more key HR processes, either through strategic acquisitions or in-house development. 

Q: Have national labor markets become globalized and what challenges has this generated for companies?

A: The greatest challenge is that up until recently companies and HR departments were accustomed to hiring locally and therefore lacked the know-how and infrastructure to hire international talent. Moreover, each country has different and constantly evolving legal compliance standards and regulations, which create an urgent need for fluidity on behalf of companies that are struggling to retain and hire domestic talent. Deel addressed this market need by establishing local entities with local specialists to bridge this gap as labor markets grow increasingly globalized. Consequently, we are legally liable for employing and terminating talent in accordance with domestic national laws, which is an important subject for companies that are looking to scale and downsize in the coming months. 

Q: What objectives will be guiding Deel’s strategic roadmap in 2023?

A: We are working on a couple of projects in preparation for 2023, including the launch of a new product in January that aims to transform Deel. The goal is to expand our capacities and tools to establish ourselves as a true core HR environment platform for CHROs. Ultimately, the goal is to afford our clients the ability to recruit, onboard and manage talent all over the world from one centralized HR environment. 

Moreover, we are doubling down in Latin America, specifically in Mexico, due to the significant inflow of investment. We also plan to scale our team as we continue to grow in parallel to Mexico’s economic growth. 

Deel, created in 2019, is a global payroll solution that helps businesses hire anyone, anywhere. Using a tech-enabled self-service process, companies can hire independent contractors or full-time employees in over 150 countries.