Ep 1: Strategic Talent Acquisition in Hypergrowth

Leaders in Talent Podcast: Alan Walker

Alan: One of the key lessons that I learned is to really have a vision and core values. We've just announced 500 million in ARR, so it's a very fast organization. We have to run very quickly to deliver hires and make sure that there's business continuity.

Adriaan: Alan, good to see you. Welcome to the Leaders in Talent podcast. Our audience is mainly senior recruitment leaders and leaders in talent. Given your role as Head of Talent at Deel, tell me a little bit more about your journey and how you ended up being the Head of Talent at Deel.

Alan: Great, thank you very much for inviting me. I'm Alan, the Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Deel. We operate in over a hundred countries where we have clients with various service offerings, from payroll through to EOR (Employer of Record). We have employees in over 105 countries and typically serve north of 2,000 new hires every year. Deel is a four-year-old organization, so it's pretty crazy in terms of the growth—both in revenue, people, and operations.

There are four main areas that we typically tend to recruit for. One is our Revenue teams (Sales, Account Management, SDRs, and RevOps). Then you've got our Operations team (Customer Success, Onboarding, Payroll implementation, and Support). You've then got our G&A functions (Finance, Legal, HR). And fourthly, our R&D teams (Tech, Product, and Data). Within my team, we also have TA Operations and Programs, and a Sourcing team. Prior to Deel, I was part of the founding team of a micro-mobility company called Dott. We grew that from zero to a thousand staff in four years across Europe.

Adriaan: Let's zoom in on your current role at Deel. It is one of the fastest-growing companies ever. What was the environment like when you started and what was the challenge you were facing?

Alan: Part of why I wanted to join Deel goes back to my time at Dott and Uber. In 2018, we were trying to figure out how to expand into new markets without entities or employment contracts, and it was a big problem. When I joined Deel, a lot of the mindset was: "Here’s a vacancy, how do I fill it as quickly as possible?" While speed is important, you have to think more broadly about the maturity of a TA function.

I split the function into categories:

1. People: Ensuring they have the right understanding of the roles and defining what success looks like.
2. Processes: Standardizing the workflow.
3. Architecture: Our technology stack—ATS, and tools like MetaView for AI in the interviewing process.
4. Strategy: Employee Value Proposition (EVP), employer branding, and DE&I initiatives.
5. Programs: How to bring it all together.A lot of that was there when I joined, but it wasn't necessarily mature. My work over the past year has been about maturing those categories.

Adriaan: Tell me more about the company growth and the core product.

Alan: Deel has grown so quickly. In the first year, we reached 5 million in ARR. Second year, 50 million. Then 300 million. As of March 2024, we’ve just announced 500 million in ARR. Our core product started as Employer of Record (EOR). This means if you want to hire an engineer in Poland but don't have a legal entity there, we provide the framework to hire them compliantly. We’ve since built a fintech and payments business, launched an HRIS, and recently acquired a learning management tool, Zavvy. We want to bring everything HR and TA leaders need into one platform.

Adriaan: You started at Deel when it was super fast-growing and fully remote. What did those first six months look like?

Alan: Volume has always been there because headcount equals quota and targets. In the first three to six months, we had to do a lot of work around functional skills and practices. For example, in software engineering, we evaluate Node.js or Java (functional skills) alongside Waterfall methodologies (practices) and pace. Then we look at behaviors and culture—the type of people who align with the organization. Fourthly, we look at business impact to ensure they are delivering real value.

Adriaan: Regarding the remote setup—how do you make sure everyone is aligned?

Alan: My perspective has changed over time. During the pandemic, I was running a people function and I was motivated to bring people back to the office for those "water cooler" moments. Now, I see the benefits of working fully distributed for talent access and objective hiring. Alignment starts with a clear purpose at the organizational level.

One big learning: Slack is your office. That is great for connectivity, but when you have employees in 105 countries, it’s "always on." You have to set boundaries. You can't leave Slack on all the time. You have to be clear with colleagues about your time zones and when you are away so you don't go fully immersed in work.

Adriaan: Looking back to a couple of years ago, what would you tell yourself in your first management role?

Alan: I made a lot of mistakes. Being "instructional"—telling someone how to do it exactly as you would—is lesson number one. People need to develop their own ways of working. Another key lesson is to have a vision and core values. My former CEO at Dott once asked me what my values were, and I couldn't reel them off. He told me to go away, think about them, and make decisions based on those values rather than individual circumstances. Values make you consistent. Inconsistency creates confusion, which stops innovation.

Adriaan: In this growth environment, what are the key metrics you look at?

Alan: Volume of hires is number one right now. We measure it via "Pace to Goal." If we have 300 hires a quarter, that's 100 a month. I look at conversion rates. If I need 300 hires and my conversion rate from recruiter screen to hire is 10%, I know I need 3,000 recruiter screens. We track recruiter activity, hiring manager screens, and team interviews to see where the funnel is ahead or behind. This allows us to tell a story of confidence to senior leaders. They don't just want to know if a role is filled; they want to know if we are on track to fill it within a certain time.

We also look at "Time to Hire" from two angles: when the role was opened versus hired, and when the candidate entered the funnel versus hired. If offer negotiations take two weeks, that should be disconnected from the core interviewing pace. Regarding "Quality of Hire," I don't believe TA can own that alone. We own "Quality of Process"—the skills we look for, how we evaluate them, and who evaluates them. When a hire doesn't work out, we deep dive into whether our interview process was off.

Adriaan: What is the biggest challenge you are currently facing as a leader?

Alan: Right now, it’s TA enablement and interviewer enablement. How do you build programs and resources around that where they haven't historically existed? We are also looking at how to connect recruiting operations data to insights on retention and where to double down on hiring—whether that is specific countries or industries. For example, we found success hiring people from "would-sell" product backgrounds versus "must-have" product backgrounds, because the complexity of the sale is different.

Adriaan: Any final thoughts for aspiring leaders?

Alan: Understand the fundamentals of the business first. You need that to have a strategic conversation and align people resources to business goals. Also, be curious and ask questions. I would encourage everyone to read Radical Candor. I love the concept of "Care Personally and Challenge Directly."

Adriaan: Alan, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate your insights.

Alan: Thank you very much. Cheers.