Glassdoor’s “Best Place to Work.” 6,000+ people across 119 countries. No office. How does a company like Deel actually pull that off and still move at hypergrowth speed?
On this week’s episode of What the FTE?, Certn’s Head of People & Culture, Melissa Marcelissen, sat down with Alice Burks, Director of People Success at Deel, for a behind-the-scenes look at how to make remote work actually work. The conversation covers hiring, burnout, Slack chaos, and the not-so-obvious perks (and pains) of a remote-first culture.
Here’s what I’m taking away from the conversation, and what I think HR leaders can steal, stress-test, or straight-up copy.
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Big Idea #1: Hybrid Isn’t a Middle Ground—It’s a Minefield
“Hybrid often gets sold as the best of both worlds, but it can end up as lose-lose. You end up pleasing no one rather than pleasing everyone.” — Alice Burks
While many companies try to balance remote and in-office with a “choose-your-own-adventure” approach, Deel skips the mess and leans fully remote. As Melissa and Alice discuss, Deel began as an organization to support remote and globally-distributed work, so their choice to have a fully remote workforce is an obvious example of “practicing what you preach.”
Despite its flexibility, hybrid work creates a two-tier system, according to Alice. Some teams have access to hallway conversations and coffee-cue decisions. Others don’t. This concern for disparities between in-office and remote employees echoes what’s been written in articles since many orgs transitioned from pandemic-era remote work. Like Alice, some leaders are concerned that those physically present may have more opportunities for spontaneous interactions, networking, and visibility with management, potentially leading to preferential treatment, promotions, and a sense of inclusion. Conversely, remote workers might feel isolated, overlooked, or less engaged, fostering a divide within the workforce.
Deel’s remote-first model flattens that hierarchy. “There’s simplicity in designing for one experience,” Alice explains. Everyone, from São Paulo to Singapore, starts on the same footing.
Having said that, like Certn, Deel brings its leadership group together for in-person retreats centred around strategic planning, for example. Maya covers this in Return to Office: What HR Leaders Should Consider if you want to read more about how leaders are curating intentional in-person experiences.
Big Idea #2: Slack Is the Office. Make It Work Like One.
At Deel, Slack isn’t a chat tool, it’s their workplace. This means setting real rules.
Alice explains they’ve built two onboarding courses just for Slack:
- Slack 101 for complete beginners
- “Slack Is Our Office” for Deel’s own communication norms (e.g., project channel naming conventions, async updates, and… how not to accidentally archive the onboarding channel)
Async work isn’t just tolerated, it’s required, and that requires radically clear communication. “You’re writing for clarity, not flair. Slack messages are tight, outcome-driven, and assume no one has time to decode what you mean,” explains Alice.
This is a philosophy that more remote-first companies should adopt. At Certn, we already rely heavily on Slack, but we could likely benefit from codifying more of our “rules of engagement” for async work. Clear expectations around how we use channels, share updates, and tag teammates reduces ambiguity, boosts accountability, and helps new hires ramp faster—especially across time zones. This is what the Slack team has to say on Asynchronous Communication: Best Practices and Tips.
This crowdsourced guide by CultureBot calls out notification fatigue, work-life bleed, and unclear channel structures, then offers fixes (essential-channel list, OOO mutes). It’s another useful resource for benchmarking your company’s pain points. Because if Slack is the office, then it should run like a high-performing one.
Big Idea #3: Autonomy Isn’t a Perk. It’s a Cultural Backbone.
High autonomy cultures are dominating HR wish lists, but autonomy doesn’t mean chaos. It means trust, tools, and transparency, plus clear consequences when things go off track.
Deel’s approach:
- Burnout guardrails through flexible hours (pick up your kid, hit the gym—it’s about outcomes, not online time)
- “Green dot” culture ≠ productivity metric (but yes, ghosting does get flagged)
- Hyper clear performance expectations instead of micromanagement
And yet, they still move fast because they hire people who want that kind of intensity. Alice summed it up perfectly: “If there’s doubt, there’s no doubt. We’re not for everyone, and that’s OK.”
👉 Further Reading: Researchers for Harvard Business Review show how clear metrics and mutual trust outperform “green-dot” policing—useful proof when you pitch lightweight performance dashboards instead of time-trackers. If you want to read more on how employee autonomy needs “tech + mindset,” HR Magazine covers how leaders must swap hierarchy for trust grids, then upskill teams to own decisions has more advice.
Big Idea #4: Global Isn’t Just a Talent Pool. It’s a Cultural Superpower.
Deel’s value of “Together Everywhere” isn’t just a motto, it shows up in:
- Perks like a travel stipend to meet teammates IRL
- Photo contests spotlighting people working from beaches, mountains, and kitchen tables
- All-hands that actually feature employees from around the world
It’s not about recreating an office vibe, it’s about celebrating the freedom that remote unlocks.
Psst… We help companies hire across borders, too. Certn’s criminal record checks work in 190+ countries and territories, without red tape, delays, or lost candidates.
Big Idea #5: Don’t Wait for the Burnout. Screen for Fit, Early.
82% of employees are at risk of burnout and, as reported by The Interview Guys, the data confirms that burnout now costs firms $322 billion a year in lost productivity—prevention in hiring is cheaper than recovery.
Remote hypergrowth isn’t for everyone, and Deel doesn’t pretend otherwise.
They’ve built a final interview step called Elevate, a bar raiser program for hiring where “culture champions” assess alignment with core values like:
- Deel Speed
- Exceeding Expectations
- Genuine Care
Casey Bailey, Deel’s Head of People, announced the program on LinkedIn two months ago and Alice describes it like this: “I sell the nightmare in interviews. If their eyes light up? We’re good.” That’s radical clarity in hiring, and it’s working. Deel is onboarding 100+ people a week without breaking its culture.
For more on these types of initiatives, this “Life at AWS” blog post, “Raising the Bar: How Amazon Hires for Long-Term Growth and Innovation” shows a shows a mature blueprint for using independent “culture champions” to veto mis-aligned hires—exactly what Deel’s Elevate step echoes.
Final Word: Hire Grown-Ups. Give Them a Playbook. Then Get Out of the Way.
Alice’s advice to other HR leaders?
- Build for clarity. Every process, onboarding, Slack, leadership, benefits, should reinforce how your company actually works.
- Say the quiet part out loud. You’re not for everyone, and that’s a strength. Let your values drive decisions. Don’t let them collect dust on your Notion page. Use them to hire, fire, promote, and plan.
Final Word: Design for radical clarity: document how work happens, hire adults who love the pace, then get out of their way.
🎧 Tune in to the full episode here: certn.co/podcast
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