How a diverse company culture fosters an inclusive and supportive workplace

10 questions with Ana Mitrasevic Senior Vice President, People at Delivery Hero

Ana, you’re Senior Vice President, People at Delivery Hero – what’s your mission?

Over the past two years, the company has grown into a formidable global player in the industry, setting the pace in both the platform marketplaces practices and employee experience. 

Within the People and Culture team, our mission is to be globally recognized as delivering an amazing growth experience for our Heroes and communities, as well as supercharge the growth of all our brands.

You recently joined Delivery Hero. What are some of the key topics you are looking into right now? 

I joined Delivery Hero four months ago today at a very interesting time of our growth. We started the year by setting the ambitious goal of being the employer of choice in all our key markets – this includes amplifying our unique culture and enabling our Heroes to do their best work in a hybrid working model. Additionally, we are continuing to build bold tech brands and make it easy for our talent to expand their careers through exciting internal mobility options. Finally, as Delivery Hero sets clear targets on our road to profitability, a critical topic is growing our talent base in our key domains, as well as equipping our managers with best-in-class tools to support their growing teams.

Delivery Hero brings together a global family of Heroes from different backgrounds and perspectives. What is your strategy for building a workplace that creates a sense of belonging for everyone?

Our quarterly employee surveys continue to showcase that the key reason why Heroes chose to join and stay at Delivery Hero is our culture. We are extremely proud of this and we do not take it for granted. This year, the People and Culture team is set to redefine the employee experience life cycle so that we can develop a sense of belonging and fairness at each step of the way. One of the first steps towards that is redefining our benefits offerings so that they support Heroes in important moments of their lives, such as planning for, starting, supporting a family, as well as some of the more inclusive benefits that enable our talent to live their best authentic lives and identities.

Hybrid work continues to be on everyone’s mind these days. What does the future workplace look like?

Hybrid work is a topic that continues to feature prominently. However, now we have more data, both from our Heroes who inform us on what the preferred way of working is, as well as external benchmarks of how hybrid work impacts work interactions, support networks, wellbeing, and performance. Just as we’re seeing the economy pick up and people reuniting with their families and friends, we too want to reconnect with our colleagues in person, while giving our Heroes the option to choose a more flexible setup.

Delivery Hero operates in around 50 countries across four continents. This brings about opportunities and challenges from a People perspective. What are your plans to drive global alignment in the future?

Our global footprint is one of our key strengths. Whatever challenges we are facing as part of our growth, are better faced through a combined set of diverse strengths that we have as a global People team. Our operating model is unique: the autonomous aspect of it enables speed and innovation, while the alignment of our key priorities ensures that we are all moving in the same direction, towards a common goal. It is a very exciting organization for global talent to grow their skills and leadership potential.

International Women’s Day is around the corner. Who are some women you find inspirational?

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege to work with some truly inspirational women. At Delivery Hero it is no different, so this year I have decided to use the occasion to honor the inspirational women that I get to work with every day. 
I am so excited for events like Women Connect, a yearly summit at Delivery Hero aimed at creating a space for women and allies to network, connect, and grow together. These kinds of initiatives are really important, and I’m excited to take part in this year’s summit and meet more great women who I have not yet had the chance to connect with.

Women are still underrepresented in the tech industry, as a woman in tech what changes would you like to see that would make the industry more inclusive?

At one point in my career, I took a leap of faith and spent three years in product management. What I realized years later is how unusual and out of a regular career path this was. I would like the industry to create leap of faith moments and normalize them.

What are the three biggest learnings/pieces of advice you would give to your female colleagues?

My three biggest learnings in my career are to shake the tree, the more different opinions in the room, the better the decisions that are made. That simplicity is the hardest skill to master and one of the most important to invest in, and that listening is an underrated human quality, it is a prerequisite to trust.

What motivates you?

I find that my motivation is best summed up by three things! Firstly, acts of extreme kindness, secondly, curiosity that makes the world a better place, and last but not least Yoda.

You’re an advocate of employee experience by design, could you elaborate on what this means and what does it look like in practice?

Now, that’s a question! Employee experience encapsulates what people encounter and observe over the course of their tenure at an organization. From the moment a candidate looks at a job opening, to the moment they leave your company, everything that the Hero learns, does, sees, and feels contributes to their employee experience. For Delivery Hero to master employee experience management, we must listen to our Heroes’ at each stage of the employee lifecycle, identify moments that matter most to them, and create bespoke experiences.