Transcript

Christina:

But what we see in terms of people going into a specific kind of new role at other companies. That’s great because we can also start to think, okay, well that’s been super successful and how do we kind of tailor more. So I think it’s a learning process as well and that’s where being able to kind of see data and understand that in a lot more detail is really important.

 

Sylvie:

Hi, I’m Sylvie Milverton, CEO of Lynx Educate. This is Talent is Everywhere. We’re here to talk about how to keep talent and how to develop talent in order to build a strong business. We’ll interview leaders to hear their best experiences of how they invested in people. Our guest today is Christina Lewis, who is head of Global Rider Experience and Partnerships at Deliveroo. As someone passionate about equity and championing women in their career, she is also the Gender Equity Employee Resource Group Lead at Deliveroo, and was named the Woman to Watch in the Hospitality, Travel and Leisure Index this year. Welcome to the podcast!

 

Christina:

Thank you so much Sylvie, it’s great to be here! Thanks for having me on. So, yeah I’m Chrissy, hi, and that’s quite the intro. As you said that, I’m really passionate about the kind of equity space and I work in kind of global rider experience here at Deliveroo as well. But originally I’m from a small midland town in the UK, and, outside of work, I love running. I’ve done several ultramarathons, which people often think I’m absolutely mad to do. So yes, that’s a little bit about me. Great to be here.

 

Sylvie:

Yeah, thanks for joining us and yeah, it’s super impressive – the ultramarathons. I might join the people who think you’re maybe a little bit mad.

 

But today we’re going to talk about the Deliveroo Academy. So this is a perk offered to all Deliveroo riders globally, where they have access to a range of educational courses for them and their family members, which I think is really special. From short courses and digital skills to languages to longer certificate courses, in topics like business, coding and cooking, to really broaden their learning and upskill for future careers while they continue to work for Deliveroo.

 

You launched this perk around five years ago, and since 2024 you’ve partnered with Lynx, and it’s just been our honor and pleasure to partner with you as you’ve expanded this benefit. So maybe we can start at the beginning: Why did Deliveroo, you know, originally decide to build this kind of initiative to invest in riders and their families? And why have you continued to invest in it, for all these years?

 

Christina:

Yeah! Well, Sylvie is I mean, it’s amazing to have this in place and to work with Lynx on this, but, I guess we know that riders work with our platform for many different reasons. We have some riders who primarily work to earn money and support themselves and their families. And then we have other riders who ride with those whilst they build perhaps a side business or pursue other opportunities as well. And we are fundamentally really proud that we offer such flexible working opportunities for riders. And the Rider Academy that you just mentioned was really an extension of that – flexible working opportunity. It enables riders to learn new skills and development opportunities, whilst they also earn money on the platform.

 

And ultimately we wanted riders to have the option to study, to set up a business or pursue their dream, whatever that might be. Using Deliveroo at times as a stepping stone but often working, kind of flexibly whilst they study and kind of support those dreams as well. So yeah, so we work with Lynx. We offer, a full range of online short courses, as well as accredited courses and vocational opportunities.

 

And ultimately, to answer that second part of your question, we’ve continued to invest because it really does give riders that fully funded learning opportunity, but it’s also supported riders to go into their roles in kind of other companies that they might want to grow into. And it’s really allowed them to continue pursuing their dreams and riding.

 

So we’ve seen riders go on to do some incredible things that we’ll talk about soon. But it’s also worth noting that not only is this opportunity available to riders, it is also available to a family member or a substitute rider as well. So, that kind of enables riders to support those closest to them too.

 

Sylvie:

Yeah no, that’s really good. And it’s one thing that I’ve always admired about the Rider Academy. It’s like the commitment, yeah, to riders, to workers as they develop themselves. And I suppose it’s part of, like, you know, the deliveroo model. It’s really like the entrepreneurial spirit of the kind of people that are going to become a rider. And I guess in that vein of ideas, like, how has the vision of the academy evolved just in terms of the content, the program offering the scope, like since the beginning? How have you – have you thought about it differently?

 

Christina:

Yeah. I mean, I think for anyone, when they’re first looking at like a learning program, it is, you know, it is a bit of trial and error and, it is important to kind of relook at what the data is telling you in terms of popularity, listen to that feedback and build and continue to build. Because when we first offered this to our rider fleet, we weren’t exactly sure we know what the most popular courses would be. And so we started with a wide range. And then we’ve kind of honed in over time on some of the most popular courses. And, generally speaking, they are courses such as program management and marketing. But we’ve also seen our language courses. So learning a new language is a really, really popular course. And so we lean more into them in terms of our promotion of them and our case studies around them too, but the other thing we’ve noticed is that our vocational courses have performed really well. So, for example, we previously did a mechanics course or cooking or baking courses. So we’ve been able to think about how we can offer more of those opportunities over time.

 

Sylvie:

Yeah. Interesting. And also, you know, one thing that’s interesting, especially when you have like a huge fleet of workers, like, we have an imagination of maybe what they would be interested in or what would work, but in fact, people surprise you, like, you know, you never know who’s going to be someone like, passionate about baking or, you know, passionate about learning a language.

 

It’s nice to offer it. and there’s something about the nature of flexible work. Again, I was saying before like this, like entrepreneurial spirit and that the kind of person, you know, not always, but sometimes that’s, working in this kind of, you know, it’s like a Deliveroo, it’s really like a stepping stone for how they’re going to build their own life and hungry for new opportunities. And of course, you know, they’re not people who are sitting at a desk all day. And a lot of learning is sort of structured like that. yeah. How has this informed the way you’ve structured the academy, structured the perk, you know, and communicated it and continue to offer it to riders?

 

Christina:

Yeah. I mean, that’s exactly right. We’ve seen so many incredibly inspiring and entrepreneurial riders with big dreams and big ambitions. And often riders love that flexibility I mentioned, and it lends itself to that kind of certain way of working that you mentioned, and I’ve met so many riders who’ve owned a business, perhaps in the past, or who want to engage in these courses because they’re thinking about opening a business and it’s been kind of a lifelong dream. And so really, it’s for that reason that we’ve offered some of those vocational courses that I mentioned or courses that ultimately have a direct link to supporting riders who want to open their own business. We’ve also run something separately called the Big Pitch, which is where riders can pitch for some cash prize money, which supports them to kind of set up a business idea that they might have.

 

And, we can kind of take them through that process. And that’s been amazing as well, to be able to see riders come up with an idea and then be able to kind of support them in making that happen. And a good example of this actually is a few years ago, we had a couple of riders, Katherine and Jamie, who won the big pitch. So they went on to kind of get some of this prize money. We were able to support them to create their own vegan chocolate business idea, called Katherine’s Originals. And today they have a factory and a small team, and they’re in a full production line. And, I actually went to visit their factory quite recently and it was just amazing to be able to see them having set that up as a direct result of the big pitch. So combining opportunities like the Big Pitch with this really strong course offering with Lynx, supports that kind of strong entrepreneurial spirit that we see.

 

Sylvie:

Right. And probably really aligns also with the values of Deliveroo. Like I think sometimes we get an idea that, you know, companies aren’t supporting workers. But of course it’s all, you know, aligned so the, you know, the mission and the vision of, you know, of the company. And so what about the diversity of riders themselves, like your backgrounds and needs? Obviously, you have a huge fleet of riders across ten countries. One thing that we were happy at Lynx is that we were able, you know, to offer programs and not just in English and French, but, you know, some different other languages for different markets, how, you know, and you’re running this whole academy, like centrally, you know, how do you think about global versus local versus individual? And this is, you know, a problem that lots of companies have, you know, multinational companies where you’ve got, you know, workers across, you know, many geographies and many profiles.

 

Christina:

Yeah, absolutely. It is a problem that – not problem, an opportunity – that many different global businesses have and, yeah, I think we so I guess we start with kind of a set offering that’s available to all, we know based on kind of what’s popular around what the data is telling goes what we should be kind of offering more of or less of.

 

So that’s kind of like how we structured kind of a set offering. And then we think about kind of the needs like a local market level and like an individual level. So we, for example, have introduced language courses in Hong Kong because we recognize that that was something in terms of a Cantonese learning provider that that market really wants to see.

 

Similarly, we know that riders in the Middle East are more focused, perhaps on supporting their families, whilst riding. So we’ve been able to sort of structure the courses more around with that purpose. But really, I think, in terms of the diversity of the fleet and needs, it’s an ever growing process. So being able to see how the fleets are responding to what we’re kind of being able to offer, both in terms of the engagement with the courses, but also what they go on to achieve, because those are two kinds of different success measures.

 

And so being able to kind of know, okay, well, this helps riders be able to understand more about this and riders seem to be, you know, absolutely loving language courses, for example. But what we see in terms of people going into a specific kind of new role at other companies, that’s great because we can also start to think, okay, well, that’s been super successful, and how do we kind of tailor more? So I think it’s a learning process as well. And that’s where being able to kind of see data and understand that in a lot more detail is really important.

 

Sylvie:

And that’s one thing that we’ve really enjoyed from Lynx, like working with your different teams and just seeing culturally how each market is different, what are the different kinds of learning needs, were the riders who, you know, reach out for a coach more, what kind of courses are they taking? And you know, how are we able to support them. And then, yeah, again, we’ve learned with you to see like, where should we offer more of this and how can we get, you know, what’s getting the most engagement, by market, you know, and globally like why I love education benefits, why I launched this company, you know, is the fact that a company has the opportunity to invest in workers’ personal aspirations and get them to explore new opportunities.

 

And one thing I hear a lot that actually drives me somewhat bonkers, if I can be honest, is that, you know, the people can be in disbelief that a company would want to invest in something that could eventually pull workers away from what they’re currently doing. Which, you know, of course, the Deliveroo model, you know, it’s a, you know, gig economy model.

 

But even in general, how do you think about that in the context of Deliveroo, of investing in something that, you know, by definition, if they’re successful in what we’re doing means that, you know, one day they’ll probably be doing something else.

 

Christina:

I mean, the business model is flexible so riders can pursue opportunities alongside riding. And, that means that they can ride when and how they want. And being able to support riders to study alongside riding is ultimately an experience enhancer for them. And, yes, we may see some riders who kind of go in to pursue opportunities and that’s brilliant. But we often also see many riders who continue to work with us because it’s so flexible, you can kind of pick up the app and work, when and where you desire. And therefore, it is a great way to be able to pursue something and continue to do that. So often we do see people, kind of keep coming back and working with the platform, which is amazing to see too. So, I think ultimately the way we think about it is it enhances our values, which is flexibility and what we know riders love too.

 

Sylvie:

So what have been the success factors, you know, over the years? What are the big lessons learned and what is your measure of success like for the success of this academy overall?

 

Christina:

Yeah. We measure success through rider engagement with the courses. But also we look at the impact on rider experience and an understanding to see the meaningful impact it’s been able to have on individuals.

 

So we kind of mix in the, combination of data as kind of levels of engagement as we’ve kind of spoken about a little bit in this, in this podcast, and then also the kind of real, live, tangible, kind of, opportunities that someone’s got into an impact it’s made on, on their life as well. But this year we’ve seen over 8000 riders sign up to study, probably more by the time that we’re recording this. So that’s a huge increase year on year. That’s over 50% compared to this time last year. And I think for me, well, you know, one of the things that I have learned from this, and the advice I would give about someone if someone was thinking about doing this themselves is: Start small and scale.

 

So ultimately, you really want to understand what your audience or learners really want to see in regards to learning and development. And I don’t think truly, you’re going to know that until you start, you might have some insights that, oh, good indications, but the data will lead you in terms of that. So being able to be agile is absolutely key to respond to how your learners are kind of engaging.

 

And then the other element I’d say is to not really be afraid to be creative in terms of courses, ultimately learning is a personal journey. And, your kind of, portfolio of courses should reflect that and give that kind of ability for people to kind of choose to dip in and out of those courses and what interests them.

 

And ultimately, you know, as we mentioned, the data will steer you. And so if you see learners are clearly leaning into a certain course, go with that. Think about how you can double down on that, promote it heavily, and showcase great case studies of learners of the back of the impact that it’s had. I think that’s one of my two takeaways, which is don’t underestimate how much you need to kind of shout about this. You know, like those learning and development courses and kind of proposition offering is so meaningful that often we do need to be reminded of those things. So being able to be creative with the communication things around that, really gives job opportunities to, to kind of continue to see engagement rise.

 

Sylvie:

Yeah. That’s been one of the really fun things working with Deliveroo. Yeah. It’s like digging into the data, adapting what we give, hearing the learners stories and yeah, being able to offer more of what’s working and also questioning our assumption, right? Like at the beginning of this, we had some ideas of certain courses that would be really popular and then those haven’t. And then out of left field, you know something, you know, something really worked. And it’s been fun to be able to offer more of that.

 

So as we come to a close, like, what are you and the local teams most proud of when you think about your investment and riders futures and maybe you know, not you know, you offer the Rider Academy, but you also do lots of other things at Deliveroo to support your whole fleet, you know, how do you think about this?

 

Christina:

Yeah. I mean, we’ve been able to offer these learning and skills opportunities to thousands of riders now. And you know, that’s all over the world, which has been absolutely incredible. And for sure, for me, it’s the individual stories that we know of where people have kind of gone into, new opportunities and, new kind of jobs, job opportunities, which are just really inspiring.

 

So we’ve seen a rider from Dublin, for example, who went into a web developer role. or we’ve seen kind of, the riders from the big pitch that I mentioned go on to create that vegan chocolate factory. And I remember also an individual rider, in Edinburgh, who was a refugee, who was able to upskill and support his family as a result of a web developer course that we offered.

 

So that’s, for me, something to be incredibly proud of, but also that the, you know, those riders should be incredibly proud of, taking those opportunities, and kind of running with them, too. But, you know, outside of learning and development only, you mentioned, you know, we have a wider proposition offering and, and that kind of complements this. You know, we, invest in riders’ futures by offering things like free childcare in the UK through childcare provider app Bubble, and also things like free safety apps, for when riders are kind of out on the road. But, you know, we have hundreds of these proposition offerings for riders in place. So we kind of think about this as a real Hellenistic approach that we have learning development opportunities, all various kinds of proposition campaigns. And for us, we are really proud of it. But we’re also kind of always looking to the future to see what else we can offer and how else we can kind of enhance that experience.

 

But actually Sylvie, I would be really interested to also know your reflections in terms of working with Deliveroo. Obviously, this is a new community to work with. And did you have any kind of reflections on yeah, experience with the riders so far?

 

Sylvie:

Yeah, that’s a great question. I think my first, you know, overall experience has been just how committed, like you and your team is to rider experience and how engaged and, you know, the riders having, you know, a good experience on the platform and like your commitment to investing in them as people.So that’s been like super inspiring.

 

And then on the learning side, it’s just a joy. You know, we get lots of messages from them. You know, we offer coaching and support, and so when we’re helping them figure out what course to take, and then we’re able to send them an email to say, okay, you’ve gotten a spot, you are chosen. And then they’re really proud. And then sometimes, you know, they need some additional guidance, like what’s my next step? Should I, you know, so, you know, I’m so sorry for this meeting. so to do this, you know, assignment and they reach out and it’s like, yes, yes, go sign up. You can do it, you know, do you need help? You know, reach out. And so it’s just been really, you know, gratifying to, you know, it’s nice to look at the big numbers, hundred and thousand riders and 8000 signups and all this.

 

But you know, the one on one, when, you know, we can talk to the one person who’s doing the web developer certificate, you know, finished it and said, wow, this is the website that I was able to develop or, you know, start to learn this language, you know, that I think has been definitely, you know, the most gratifying part.

 

Christina:

Yeah, it’s those individual stories that are so inspiring.

 

Sylvie:

Yeah. And it’s just. Yeah, such an honor to be able to, you know, contribute and realize like, oh, we can make, you know, people’s lives better in this one way. And, you know, what a pleasure to be able to be part of that. So thanks so much for this conversation. And yeah, looking forward to seeing what we can continue to build in the future.

 

Christina:

Likewise. And thank you Sylvie, and the team!

 

Sylvie:
Thanks for listening to this episode of “Talent is Everywhere”. Make sure to subscribe if you like what you heard and give us a follow on LinkedIn to continue the conversation on all things career mobility and talent development.

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