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HOUSEKEEPING 📨

Howdy folks, welcome back! Today, we have a super nice one for you. As someone who runs a startup that hires global teams, which has its own team in 12 countries, this stuff is fascinating to me.

After living in South America for nearly four years until recently, I’m excited to be heading back to Argentina, Brazil and Peru for a few weddings through October and November. It’s a brilliant part of the world, and if you haven't seen that side of the world, you should. Anyway, enjoy today’s post!

INTERVIEW 🎙️

Jessica Pillow, Head of Total Rewards at Deel

Jessica Pillow is the Global Head of Total Rewards at Deel, where she oversees compensation, benefits, equity, and reward programs across more than 100 countries. With over 15 years of experience in designing equitable and scalable pay systems, she has led global compensation efforts at companies including HubSpot, WeWork, and Gartner.

She is a certified compensation professional and global remuneration professional, and is known for her ability to combine operational precision with strategic vision. Often described as a ‘compensation economist,’ Jessica brings deep expertise in aligning total rewards with business goals while ensuring fairness, compliance, and adaptability for a global workforce.

Why should comp be viewed strategically rather than just operationally?

When I zoom out and think about total rewards, many people immediately focus on their paycheck—what they receive in their monthly or biweekly pay. But strategically, total rewards encompass pay, benefits, equity, and any other form of compensation, and they represent one of the biggest line items in a company’s budget. As a total rewards or compensation practitioner, you’re ultimately responsible for that line item. You’re not just processing payments or determining salaries, you have a direct impact on company profitability. For example, lowering compensation costs by even one or two basis points can significantly affect profitability.

Of course, accuracy in pay, benefits, and pension contributions is critical, but being a strategic partner also gives you a seat at the leadership table. You can shape discussions and decisions that influence not just operations but the company’s overall success.

How has compensation evolved with the shift to a global workforce?

I feel like the pandemic really pushed us into a world we’d never seen before. Suddenly, you had people working from very distributed locations, which completely changed where talent could sit. That shift meant people started moving permanently because they no longer had to be in one physical location. With this distributed workforce came a lot more flexibility; flexibility that employees are now demanding. And that has a direct impact on how you compensate people, not just in terms of salary but also in benefits and other offerings they may be eligible for. It also means you can tap into talent in locations where you might not have looked before.

Take high-volume cities as an example—Silicon Valley, New York City, London—where talent is dense but the cost of living and salaries are extremely high. Now, you’re finding the same caliber of talent in lower-cost locations. You might not need to hire one person in San Francisco, you could potentially get three people for that cost elsewhere.

We’re seeing this migration out of the major, expensive hubs into more affordable places, which opens up the world for companies to find great talent. And for the workforce, this flexibility is quickly becoming the norm, especially with Gen Z entering the job market. People want to live where they want, work from there, and still be able to perform at a high level. For example, you might be in one continent today and another tomorrow, and it doesn’t slow your work down. You’re still doing what you love, just in a different location.

How do you decide between location-agnostic and localized pay?

For example, we recently hired someone in Cameroon, and there’s no reliable market data for that location.

Traditional salary surveys like Mercer, Aon Radford, or even localized ones are fine, but they update too slowly, often only once a year. By the time the data is published, the market has already shifted. That’s why I take a highly localized approach, speaking directly with our teams to understand economic conditions, cost of labor, and anything else that might affect pay.

It’s a lot of research, but keeping a constant pulse on what’s happening is essential. Static survey data alone doesn’t give the full picture. With people relocating—whether internationally or out of large cities—the cost of labor in big hubs is decreasing, while it’s rising in other areas.

At Deel, most roles are location-agnostic. If I post a job, I don’t care where the person is based. Once I identify the right candidate, I localize their compensation to their country, usually anchoring to a major city. This involves ongoing discussions with finance and recruiters to align on what candidates are seeing and expecting. Whether you’re in two countries or a hundred, the principle is the same: actively monitor local realities, not just static benchmarks, to keep compensation competitive and fair.

How should early stage companies think about it?

If I were at a startup, I’d start by asking where I can get the best talent for my budget. I’d run talent capacity studies to understand where specific skills are concentrated and how accessible they are.

The idea is to be strategic about what talent you need and where to find it. Sometimes geo-arbitrage makes sense, getting three people for the price of one in a high-cost market, but other times you may need to prioritize specialized skills over cost savings. It really comes down to workforce planning and location strategy first, then layering in the numbers.

I’d look not just at base pay but at fully loaded costs, including benefits, pensions, and other expenses. Those factors can significantly impact total compensation beyond just salary. Starting with a clear strategy and understanding the true total cost is what sets you up to keep the team happy while still using location advantages to your benefit.

How can a great total rewards strategy help attract and retain top talent?

A well-executed total rewards strategy provides transparency, which is something people really value. Employees want to know what’s in it for them. Not many people come to work just to be paid in goodwill, so clearly outlining compensation, benefits, and other rewards helps set clear expectations. Especially in a global environment, it’s important to go back to basics. Get the foundation right and build something scalable for growth. Too often, companies bring in compensation or total rewards professionals when it’s already too late, which leaves you constantly playing catch-up. If you establish strong foundations early—aligned with your company’s maturity and growth plans—you set yourself up for success.

When employees see that clarity and consistency in rewards, it becomes a powerful tool for both attracting and retaining top talent.

What are the biggest mistakes companies make in global comp?

One of the biggest mistakes is assuming that what works in one country will work everywhere. It’s fine to have a global philosophy, but compensation, benefits, and equity strategies need to be localized. Purchasing power is different in every location, so applying the same pay everywhere can lead to overpaying in some markets and underpaying in others. Another common misstep is relying too heavily on location-agnostic pay as a one-size-fits-all solution. It sounds simple, but it often fails in practice because it ignores local realities. Without a localized approach, you risk creating inequities and missing the mark on competitiveness.

Even seemingly small events, like Romania transitioning to the Euro, can have a significant impact. Companies that overlook these local factors, especially if they’re based in one country and assume the same rules apply everywhere, are setting themselves up for problems.

You hire in 120 countries, why not use a hub approach?

A hub strategy is definitely easier from an administrative standpoint, and I’ve worked in those environments before. But I really like the global approach because it gives us a competitive edge. At Deel, we currently have team members in 120 countries, but we could easily expand to 150 because we already have entities in those places. That means we can support people wherever they are and offer true global flexibility.

It also connects to the personal side of work. People have lives outside the office, and if someone wants to move from London back to their family in Estonia, we can support that without disrupting their role. It’s part of what I see as the future of work, meeting people where they are and allowing them to live and work in the way that suits them best.

That said, I wouldn’t recommend this model to most companies unless they have the infrastructure to support it. Setting up and maintaining legal entities in so many countries is expensive and complex. For most organizations, especially those without global employment as part of their business model, a hub strategy makes more sense. It reduces compliance burdens and keeps operations more manageable, while still allowing for some level of international flexibility if needed.

💡 Are you hiring global AI engineers? If the answer is yes, great, Athyna can help. Reach out and let’s get started.

What is the best approach to maximize value without the complexity?

For most companies, a hub strategy is the most practical approach. Deel can operate in over 150+ countries because we already have the infrastructure, entities, and compliance support to manage that scale. But for a typical company, setting up legal entities in dozens of countries is costly, time-consuming, and administratively complex. With a hub model, you can choose a manageable number of strategic locations—whether that’s two, eight, or twenty—based on where your talent needs are and where you can efficiently operate. The key is to make sure you have the internal headcount and resources to support those hubs, or to work with a partner like Deel if you want to go beyond your own capacity.

The main point is to align your hiring footprint with what you can realistically support. A well-planned hub strategy allows you to tap into diverse talent pools, use geo-arbitrage strategically, and still keep compliance and operational complexity under control.

What KPIs show that a total rewards strategy is working?

For me, the key metric is retention. If people are staying, it’s a strong signal that your total rewards strategy is resonating. I look closely at what employees are saying through pulse checks, exit interviews, and anecdotal feedback. Sites like Glassdoor can also give useful insights into how the team perceives compensation and benefits. When people do leave, I analyze the data to see if rewards played a role in their decision.

How do you get the best out of yourself personally and professionally?

I take my work seriously, but I don’t take myself too seriously. After 20 years in this field, across different industries and through IPOs, there’s not much that surprises me. I keep a positive, optimistic, and calm mindset, and I remind myself that everyone comes to the table with their own perspective and agenda; it’s never personal.

I’m also a people person, and since this work directly impacts people, I find a lot of joy in conversations about how I can make a positive difference for them. That balance of staying relaxed, staying connected, and staying focused on impact is what helps me bring out my best both personally and professionally.

And that’s it! You can follow and connect with Jessica over on LinkedIn, and don’t forget to check out Deel’s website.

BRAIN FOOD 🧠 

TWEETS OF THE WEEK 🐣 

TOOLS WE USE 🛠️

Every week we highlight tools we actually use inside of our business and give them an honest review. Today we are highlighting Paddle—a merchant of record, managing payments, tax and compliance needs—we use their ProfitWell tool.

See the full set of tools we use inside of Athyna & Open Source CEO here.

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