How Deel hires

Key Takeaways:

• Deel holds firm to their hiring philosophy around breaking down borders to access the best talent globally. Deel hires the best, regardless of borders, which opens up a much wider talent pool.
• Hiring processes are built around supporting business needs. Everything from TA team roles to interview structure to types of questions asked is oriented around finding the right people and skills to meet business needs.
• AI is a key component to leveling-up quality and efficiency: At the speed Deel is hiring, experimentation with and commitment to AI-powered processes helps them raise the bar without letting up the pace.

Deel, the global payment and compliance platform, is one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in history. And they’ve been able to achieve that meteoric growth fueled by their efficient, scalable recruiting machine.

We wanted a peek behind the curtain at how the best do it, so we had Nolan Church of the HR Heretics podcast sit down with Deel’s Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Alan Price, to get the full scoop on the playbook Deel has used to hire 2,000+ team members across 100+ countries in the past year and a half alone. You can check out their full conversation here. Read on for the highlights!

Deel breaks down borders to access the best talent

In Alan’s 18 months as Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Deel, the company has more than doubled its headcount. No small feat.

Deel’s super-charged growth comes down to the TA team’s carefully-crafted process for efficiently identifying and attracting top-tier talent.

It starts with a firmly-held hiring philosophy. For Deel, that means breaking down borders to access high-quality talent no matter where they are — and ensuring the jobs they have are equally high quality. 

By tapping into this globally-distributed talent pool, Deel can hire the best fit for each role. The team isn’t limited to the best salespeople in San Francisco, for instance — they can find the best salespeople in the world.

As a bonus, this strategy also provides built-in access to a diverse workforce. 

Beyond the “halo resume”

In a "halo resume," a candidate emphasizes the well-known, reputable companies they've worked for, rather than focusing on accomplishments or core skills. The idea is that the "halo effect" of these name-brand organizations casts the candidate in a favorable light.

But Deel’s TA team believes that top talent isn’t limited to people who have worked at big-name companies or attended top-tier universities.

Instead, they look beyond the "halo resume" effect to uncover the real potential in each candidate through situational and behaviorial-based questions. By focusing on practical skills and problem-solving abilities rather than just previous job titles, Deel works to remove biases and hire the best candidate for each role.

As Alan points out, real talent can emerge from unexpected places, which is why Deel is working to de-emphasize these superficial markers of success in their interviewing process.

Deel strategically aligns hiring goals with business objectives

The north star of Deel’s hiring process is: How can we better serve the business and its needs, both in terms of the right skills and the high volume of roles to fill?

Here’s how they do it:

They focus on skills-based hiring

Deel considers four main pillars when assessing candidates: functional skills, behaviors, achievements, and motivation. And the TA team is constantly assessing when, how, and who should assess those skills, depending on the role to be filled.

Throughout the hiring process, they’re thinking about why the role exists, the business objective it’s meant to fill, and any future needs that might arise for the team.

Every step in the assessment process ladders back to what the business needs to succeed.

The TA team is structured to meet different hiring needs

Since Deel’s recruiting targets are to make about 250 new hires each month, their team structure needs to support that velocity. That led them to create specialized recruiting roles based on the position to be hired.

First they have your typical “full-stack” recruiters who work on the full recruitment cycle. They do sourcing, interviews, pipeline management, and stakeholder collaboration. This is the typical recruitment approach for revenue roles, like salespeople, for example. 

On the other hand, some team members are outbound sourcers. They’re more focused on top of the funnel for high-volume roles, often in engineering. It’s their job to reach out to candidates and have the initial conversation, then pass them on to the hiring manager to continue the process. They have to manage an efficient pipeline to meet aggressive volume targets.

Finally, Deel has recruiting generalists. They don’t do sourcing themselves but they’re coordinating the funnel of candidates coming through.

This kind of structure allows Deel to keep their process efficient, while filling different needs for different roles.

Everyone is a recruiter

Though Deel has invested heavily in its talent acquisition team, the company sees everyone as a recruiter, and that ladders all the way up to the exec suite. The TA team, of course, facilitates coordination and performs its own outbound sourcing. But the key is that sourcing doesn’t start and stop with just the TA team — the whole company is bought in.

When the organization’s needs dictate high hiring volumes for sales folks or engineers, for example, Deel quickly adjusts its process to accommodate. Sometimes, that means the hiring manager plays a bigger role in sourcing or does the screening themselves.

To help enable the rest of the team for success, Deel’s TA team makes sure the proper training is in place on best-in-class interviewing techniques, recommended questions, and more. 

They maintain high standards

Deel holds itself to high standards. As Alan says, “if it's a soft yes, it’s a no.” He even goes so far as to tell his team that he’d rather they not hit hiring targets than make the wrong hires.

Deel’s CEO also signs off on all new hire decisions. While this can lead to potential bottlenecking, Alan says an engaged CEO who cares makes a big difference. It’s an effective calibration tool that keeps the bar high.

This approach doesn’t mean there are no mistakes made in the hiring process, but it does provide another layer of accountability that keeps the quality of talent high.

Plus, AI tools like Metaview allow Deel to get much deeper visibility into what’s going on in the hiring process and maximize efficiency as well as quality (more on AI in the next section).

3 Ways Deel uses AI to hire quality candidates more efficiently

Moving at such a high speed has its challenges — especially when you process 1.5 million applications a year like Deel does. Because that applicant pool will eventually be whittled down to a few thousand hires, Deel has to prioritize efficiency in the recruitment process. That's where AI comes into play.

Here are three ways Deel leverages AI to hire fast while maintaining top-notch standards:

Elevating the hiring process with Metaview

Deel has a future-forward mindset. They’re constantly looking at what’s next in the talent landscape, including Metaview’s AI-powered recruiting platform. Alan and his team were initially hooked by Metaview’s AI-generated interview notes, but they’re excited about what that unlocks for full-scale process elevation.  

They're using Metaview to help level up their entire recruiting program. With Metaview's recordings and AI-powered summaries, they're able to open up the "black box" of recruitment and refer back to consistently high-quality data on candidates. Metaview is also powering more robust interviewer training so that Deel can implement quality control in the process.

Metaview opens up much more visibility into how the team is assessing skills, which not only helps Deel refine their process for identifying the best talent now, but also helps them make more informed decisions about what to do differently in the future.

AI filtering, sourcing, and interviewing

Deel is constantly testing new AI tools to help with sourcing and filtering candidates at the top of the funnel.

Alan sees AI playing a role in CV review by filtering out candidates, as well as filtering in candidates who may have applied for one role but are a better fit for another. He and his team are also experimenting with AI for proactive outreach to potential fits on LinkedIn and other platforms.

And once the conversation has begun, Deel is experimenting with AI for skill-based video evaluation. The candidate records themselves answering a few questions, then the AI analyzes the response to help inform next steps.

Use time freed by AI to focus on the human touch

Alan believes the hiring team’s primary focus should be on building relationships with candidates — and AI frees up time to do that. Modern technology is great for improving hiring efficiency and growing headcount at scale, but it’s important not to lose that human touch.

As Alan says, “Recruiting is still a human contact sport at the end of the day. You still need to have recruiters managing those relationships and bringing candidates through that stressful time.” 

Alan and his team are using AI as a natural extension rather than a replacement. For Deel, it’s a continuous process of testing tools to see which achieve the best results and have the most future potential.

Want to hire like Deel?

Deel’s recruitment playbook is a masterclass in scaling headcount quickly to meet business needs, without sacrificing quality. By using AI-driven tools like Metaview and constantly optimizing their process, Deel has built a diverse, high-performing team that supports their rapid growth.