Deel PEO: Up-And-Coming Co-Employment Choice

Deel's PEO Services at a Glance

Deel introduced their Professional Employer Organization (PEO) in September 2023 as a service that streamlines your workforce management needs in the United States instead of globally. It is meant to serve the specific needs of local companies as well as international ones looking to expand in the US and handles everything from payroll and taxes to compliance, hiring, risk mitigation, training, benefits, and so on.

If you hire Deel PEO, you would share the employment of the worker under a co-employment agreement. While your company performs daily operations, Deel PEO oversees benefits, payroll, and HR-related procedures. Deel strives to handle it all with their user-friendly interface and dedicated customer support, allowing smaller businesses to focus on their core operations. If your business should grow to the point of expanding to different regions or new countries, Deel's global HR services can support you with their global hiring toolkit, immigration support, contractor management tools, and Employer of Record (EOR) services.

With their company and PEO services being extremely young, Deel has not yet accrued any awards or accolades. However, even before they began operating their national PEO services, they joined the National Association of Professional Employer Organization (NAPEO) as members. They are not, as yet, certified by the IRS, nor are they accredited by the Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC). As a payroll services company, they are not accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and receive a B- rating from them.

Industries & Business Sizes Served by Deel PEO

Their PEO targets small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), although as a company, they claim that they serve everything from small startups to large global enterprises. They do not give specific employee number ranges or limits for businesses that may apply as their prospective clients. In the case of industries, the company serves those of gaming, marketing and advertising, financial technology, educational technology, IT services, e-sports, computer software, crypto, and consumer goods.

Key Features of Deel PEO

They strive to provide services that cover all the administrative requirements of smaller businesses while keeping them on a level playing field with larger companies. As such, they offer the following features:

• Technological platform: They manage all their services in one clear and intuitive platform, meant to streamline tasks and allow access from anywhere. It offers GDPR-compliant solutions, is SOC2 and ISO 27001 certified, and integrates with various SSO providers
• Payroll: Their platform automates payroll processing and ensures compliance with local tax regulations. They offer support in all states, calculating deductions immediately and handling tax filings and payments. Their services incorporate direct deposits and payroll information from your current accounting software
• HR management: Their HR solution deals with and automates all aspects of your workforce's management and human resource administration, including HR workflows, expense management, time off requests, hiring and onboarding, and HR policies. As an added bonus, they claim that Deel HR is free for businesses with less than 200 employees, although it is not clear if that's only the case for their global services
• Risk management: They take care of risk mitigation processes, including training, offer workers' compensation coverage, handle the claims and paperwork, and assist your business in moving forward afterward
• Benefits administration: They offer to administer a wide variety of health and insurance coverage, including medical, dental, critical illness, vision, accident, telehealth, hospital indemnity, 401(k), disability, life insurance, hospital indemnity, and gap insurance plans— all which compete with those of large enterprises. If you have existing plans, they offer to bring them all into the same system to reduce processing time and errors and allow for more comprehensive analytics. Their system allows employees to access the system to sign up for benefits, manage personal and family details, and decline options. However, the benefits feature may be an add-on based on what the company says on their website
• Compliance: Through their thorough payroll and tax management, HR administration, localized contracts, reporting, and benefits services, they are able to ensure full tax, workplace regulation, ACA, FMLA, COBRA administration, and data security compliance
• Training and support: They offer a suite of locally compliant digital training and employee handbooks. They also state that they provide speedy, 24/7 support via chat that connects you with in-house representatives; but they also may communicate with users by phone, email, WhatsApp, Slack, or video calls. Interestingly, they also have their own AI tool, Deel IQ, that is meant to provide quick, easily accessible answers; although it might be a more specialized global employment tool at the moment
• Software integrations: They offer advanced integrations with other software, including those for accounting, HR, hiring, and so on, with more integrations being added every month

Deel PEO Costs

The company lists their introductory pricing for many of their separate services online, along with a description of what features those services entail, but does not display this information for their PEO package. You have to request a quote by requesting a product demo, during which you can ask their representatives about costs and included features.

Keep in mind that Deel may offer their Deel HR services for free if your business employs under 200 people, promising no set-up fees, monthly costs, or hidden extras.

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Advantages of Using Deel PEO

There may be many perks to choosing Deel to handle your HR and payroll workflow automation needs. Some of those advantages include:

• Top-level benefits: They promote their health insurance options as coming from the best providers, and they bring you a wide variety of quality benefit plans to attract top talent to your business
• Expert guidance: They have many in-house guides that are specially equipped to expertly support you through issues concerning payroll taxes, labor, payment schedules, and all state and local regulatory compliance issues
• Highly responsive support: Their support representatives operate in-house, not through a third party, which allows them to offer you quicker and more personalized responses through 24/7 chat, as well as via many other methods like phone, email, and a variety of messaging apps
• All-in-one automation: They offer a comprehensive software solution that streamlines many administrative tasks like HR reporting, expense management, employee scheduling, time off requests, and everything to do with the hiring process
• Full-featured employee dashboard: Your employees and contractors can access their own dashboard, wherein they enroll in benefits, manage payments, and time off requests, access support, and so on
• High data security: Their application is highly guarded against cyber threats, as it is GDPR-compliant as well as SOC2 and ISO 27001-certified, thus ensuring the safety of your data
• Highly scalable services: The vast types and levels of additional services they offer means that they can serve you regardless of how your business grows and evolves--- locally and internationally
• Affordable, upfront pricing: They list their pricing models for many of their services, which are similar to industry competitors or sometimes more affordable. In fact, their HR services may come at no extra cost under some circumstances. That being said, they do display prices for their PEO services in particular, so you'd have to contact them to find those out

Drawbacks of Deel PEO

While Deel PEO offers numerous advantages, there are some drawbacks that should be considered. It is important to carefully evaluate these drawbacks before deciding if Deel PEO is the right fit for your business. They are as follows:

• New, inexperienced PEO: Because they only launched their United States PEO in September 2023, it is as yet an unproven service and may come with limitations in local payroll, HR, and compliance support and functionality. Of course, many of their services already encompass those you'd expect to receive within the PEO, but with a greater focus on global payroll and employment concerns
• Many services come as add-ons: Though they are upfront online about their general pricing, they also mention that many of their services come as optional, paid add-ons. These include local employee benefits, running background checks on applicants, or paying global workforce
• Limited integrations: Although they are actively adding integrations, many HRIS and cloud computing application functionalities are yet to be introduced

User Experiences with Deel PEO

Deel receives overwhelmingly positive feedback online, although none of it has to do with their PEO services in particular, which is not surprising given that they have launched them quite recently. That being said, we can gauge a lot about the quality of Deel's PEO from how users perceived their HR and payroll services.

They have a review score of 4.6 out of 5 stars on G2, 4.7 out of 5 stars on GetApp, and 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot. They have a somewhat lower score of 7.3 out of 10 on TrustRadius, albeit from fewer reviews.

Usability

Users have consistently praised Deel for the ease of use of their platform and the uncomplicated nature of its set-up procedure. Many found the interface to be well-organized, with some singling out the cloud-based payroll functions as simple and intuitive, ensuring prompt and accurate payments with complete records.

When users are critical about the system's usability, it is usually for relatively minor issues such as the lack of a mobile app, missing third-party integrations, or the few customizable report options.

Support and guidance

Users generally have had positive experiences with the company's efficient payroll support and found the customer service team to genuinely care and provide timely assistance. One user stated that it took less than 10 minutes to receive a call back after requesting it, and many users thought that the support representatives were very knowledgeable, polite, and patient. Some users found the fact that there are many methods to contact their support representatives, including by WhatsApp, was very convenient and led to them getting their issues addressed more quickly.

However, not all feedback about customer service is good. One customer stated that they waited more than a month to get an issue with payslips resolved and had to contend with an insufficiently responsive AI chatbot and unhelpful emails in the meantime.

Is it worth it?

No reviewers had any issues with Deel's pricing, and in fact, some found them to be a more cost-effective option than similar PEOs. And given users' overall satisfaction with the company's PEO services, even in their capacity as an EOR, Deel presents as a very attractive co-employment option.

But, as previously mentioned, the picture is not all positive. Some critical reviewers have had issues with Deel's HR services, although mostly in other countries, with one reporting that they had to file the same immigration-related paperwork several times without any results. Another international client felt that their security measures went overboard and led the user to waste a lot of time and almost lose access to some services. Other clients report that Deel's payments and benefits coverages get delayed at times due to them losing documents and transaction records, which results in strained relationships with contractors and vendors. Experiences such as these, though relatively few, may be important for you to note as they indicate that some aspects of the company's services still need refining.

Deel responds to many of the reviews, though mostly the positive ones. However, when they reply to negative comments, they are courteous and professional and invite the reviewer to respond to private messages in order to resolve the issue at hand. We hope this represents their overall commitment and genuine care to providing an excellent user experience.

Deel Customer Support

Clients who require Deel support may do so by logging in to the company's system and using the chat option. They also have a support hub with lots of informative articles for businesses and employees.

While current clients are able to communicate with their assigned support personnel via phone, email, WhatsApp, and more, Deel does not make any such information available on their website.

Final Thoughts

Deel's PEO services offer several advantages for businesses looking to streamline their local workforce management. With features addressing US payroll and taxes, legal risk management, compliance support, and employee benefits management, Deel aims to provide the same level of comprehensive solutions for US-based companies as they do for international operations.

However, it's important to consider the potential limitations in localized support and services for such a new service as this. It's encouraging to see that most user experiences with Deel PEO have been largely positive, with users praising their support efficiency and technological conveniences. Still, only time will tell if PEO experiences will be consistent with that trend. Also, although they exhibit pricing transparency for their global services, they don't do so for their local PEO, which may be a potential drawback for you as a potential client.

Ultimately, choosing Deel PEO depends on your specific business needs and priorities. If you have a small business that needs a full-featured co-employment solution, a few companies may fit that bill for you. Whatever you decide, we recommend you read about the best PEOs thoroughly and compare between them to see which one addresses your needs best. We wish you great luck in your purchase decisions!

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