Underdeveloped processes and low people management culture - Anonymous employee Deel Employee Review

2.0
Jul 26, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Friendly colleagues, growing market with exciting opportunities, some elements of corporate culture and employee care like the all hands call, deel swag shipped to your home, stipends for learning and wellness.

Cons

HR processes (except for hiring) and people management culture are grossly underdeveloped. Promotion criteria seem to be determined by your manager and most often are quite abstract, no clarity on levels for progression in roles. I tried asking my manager about the promotion criteria for my role but they never got back. Not only that, but in some cases there's no commitment to course-correcting feedback or growth mindset in company culture. My contract was terminated seemingly out of the blue without any related feedback prior. I was completely blindsided. In contrast, I received positive feedback from the team I worked with in the past 4 months. We also had regular 1-1 check-ins with my manager, and I had a conversation around promotion criteria (for the 6-12 months perspective) with them 3 weeks earlier - the feedback I recieved from them was generally positive, and it's hard to believe they didn't feel the need to share that they saw 'room for improvement' at any earlier point. I would expect if an employee is missing the mark the company response should be to communicate it to them with specific expectations and give a chance to grow. I can't believe there was no better resolution course, given how determined I was. I was told the reason was they expected someone more senior but I feel this is something to be easily corrected through feedback by addressing specific examples. Knowledge sharing (at least in this particular team) was not working either, so there's no way to compare yourself to others, you pretty much have to rely on feedback or team KPIs (and ours seemed to be doing well). All of this happened outside the performance review cycle, which I find odd - isn't assessing the results from multiple people's perspective (360 review) and determining course-corrective measures if needed pretty much one of the objectives of performance review? My termination occured less then 5 days before the the first deadline for the review was set. You could say startups operate fast and are scrappy in ways, but this is something else.

avatar
Deel Response
3y
Yes, we must design, build, implement, then manage the foundational policies and programs around performance management to include promotion cycles and compensation reviews (we're in our first holistic cycle under the new program now and will conduct twice per year in July and EOY). But to your point, we must ensure that we've not only communicated it, or even run a cycle, but rather we must engage, train, and support managers and team members in the how we do it and why its so important. Deel is in its infancy (product to market, customer surge, and extreme headcount growth) in the last 12 months and whilst some companies don't begin to establish or focus on these areas until later, its incredibly critical for us to build this culture and associated programs and support now because we have 1100+ people sitting in 78 countries around the world and we're obsessed with delivering an amazing product and experience for customers. So yes, absolutely agree that we must do more. We must also not wait for feedback until the formal cycle. That would be too late. I agree that the 360 degree feedback is important and it should be an input into overall performance, but daily, regularly, in an ongoing fashion we must get comfortable and confident in giving and receiving feedback. We simply move too fast to wait. I hear you on ensuring that managers are prepared and authentic and respectful in delivering feedback - good and bad - all along the way as well. Thanks for this one. We can impact this for the better.

Explore other reviews about Deel

5.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Fully Remote - Global team - Best talent in the world - People genuinely care, not only about customers but also the team mates - Deel speed is real - Real collaborative environment where you are valued - Amazing team culture with work life balance

Cons

No negotiation route for compensation during promotions

2.0
May 25, 2026
Anonymous contractor
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Fully remote - Mostly nice and talented people, you can learn a bunch and the atmosphere is good in the beginning - Once you realize you're not ever getting a raise you can get by doing bare minimum - You can write the ceo on slack and he will respond, which is actually insane considering its such a huge company

Cons

- Everyone is underpaid, even the senior directors. They present employee equity as extra compensation, but make it very difficult to sell shares at secondaries. - Raise/promotion policies are set up in a way where most ppl will never get it. I've seen superstar employees get 2% annual raise. The rest got 1%. - Pay is localized, so you can do the same exact job but get pay half of the compensation if you're not based in the US. - It's either employee contract for less money, and you have some employee rights given to you by your country, or more money but you're getting misclassified on a b2b contract and using vaction days when you get sick. The actual work requirements and responsibilities are the same in both cases. - If you're not drinking the koolaid you better fall in line and keep any opinions challenging the status quo to yourself - Manager can get pretty manipulative, they'll say anything to appease you, but will not act in your interest unless it aligns with their internal politics play

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