Opportunities for staff to advance and team-building key to Deliveroo’s growth

Brian Lo, General Manager, Deliveroo Hong Kong shares with cpjobs.com the company’s recruitment strategy to hire and retain best talents.

What differentiates Deliveroo from other employers?

We are a start-up, and that means the general team are younger and are a lot less tied to the idea of what a normal organisation structure might be. That’s why we have a much flatter, less hierarchical, working model. As for working hours, we have a lot more flexibility regarding when you start and finish, so long as the work gets done. From a culture perspective, I think our people spend much more time together inside and outside their work, than might be the case at other companies. The actual general interest and love of working with one another create people who are more into working together and mutually enjoying their companionship. This is why every month we spend one Friday afternoon taking part in a different activity together, be it indoors like at a shooting range or pink ball or at a sports event. On top of this, every single employee receives staff options to become a shareholder, and this applies to current and future hires (full-time employees).

What kind of talents did you look for when recruiting the Hong Kong team?

As the company is driven by big data we need people of high analytical capability who can dive into a massive data table, or spreadsheet, and be able to find patterns and so help us achieve good decision-making. Secondly, we needed superb communication skills from applicants who are able to look at data and communicate relevant details in a clear manner over the phone or by email. They must possess the ability to quickly and accurately inform people and communicate with other stakeholders. Thanks to our very aggressive expansion plans headcount will be doubled by hiring 40 more people in the next nine months. There will be more staff across the board, from sales, account manager to the marketing team and so on.

What challenges have you faced when hiring in Hong Kong and how did you overcome them? For instance, a delivery job here is always perceived as a low-skill occupation.

As a brand with zero recognition in town, at first it was hard to convince people to work for or with us. It was hard to attract talent, especially when we were not yet an employer or partner with a good reputation. Another challenge is that Hong Kong people generally have a greater natural inclination to work where there is already an established career path. When you have a less-established brand and a company new to the e-commerce industry it’s also challenging. However, that situation is now behind us and we have improved and changed as we progress.

How much has your team grown since day one? What are your HR plans to convince more people, i.e. millennials and young people, to join?

I was employee number one, and we grew from zero to one and then to our current 80 full-timers and 20 part-timers. From a HR perspective, we’d like to attract more talent to join this business, like fresh graduates who might start on the customer service support team or partner service centre. In fact, of our full-time staff, more than 10 per cent originally joined from either the customer service centre or partner service centre. After proving their passion for the business, they took up additional challenges by moving to a different role.

What catalysts have you adopted to attract and engage short-term or freelance runner/walkers/motorbike drivers? How successful have they been so far?

We are trying to work hard on this. One problem we realise is the general reluctance of university students to consider taking a side job on top of their studies to earn extra pocket money. That’s something that we don’t see in Hong Kong and I think it’s a cultural thing. In addition to flexible work hours, our pay is also attractive when compared with the Hong Kong minimum wage. As a result, we are trying to find different ways to make it attractive, like coming up with partnerships with consumer brands across Hong Kong. The delivery fleet has grown to some 1,500 to 1,600 contractors, who act as self-employed deliverymen and women.

What new employment opportunities can Deliveroo offer in future?

One of our areas of growth is Deliveroo Editions, a concept brought from London where Deliveroo takes out rental agreements with landlords and then partners with different restaurant groups who don’t want to put in capital or operating costs, but want to run a restaurant concept on a low-risk basis. We currently have a kitchen in Wan Chai and work with partners to offer a take-away service. So, we expect to be hiring a lot on this area.