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From workplace environment to company culture: foodpanda’s winning formula
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From workplace environment to company culture: foodpanda’s winning formula

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This article is brought to you by foodpanda

A collaborative office, a flexible working model, comprehensive learning and development plans and a good work-life balance are all integral parts of foodpanda’s culture.

The best customer experience always comes from the best employee experience, and this winning formula has been well-demonstrated by leading on-demand delivery platform foodpanda.

Targeting to become the ‘employer of choice’, foodpanda never ceases to seek improvement in creating a better workplace for its ‘heroes’ or ‘pandas’, i.e. its employees, by fostering engagement and wellbeing, promoting an agile working environment and culture, as well as providing diverse career opportunities to empower its people to “Live Well, Work Well”.

A better workplace starts from a better office. This saw foodpanda relocating its Hong Kong headquarters, and reuniting three separate offices into a brand new consolidated one with two connected floors last year. The open and transparent office design enables a spacious working environment for effective cross-team collaboration.

Complemented with Hong Kong's traditional design elements, such as neon lights and iron gates as partition walls, as well as a range of recreational and inclusive facilities, such as a snooker table, table tennis, beer tap, and a nursery room, the new office creates a homecoming experience for all employees, as Cyrus Yu, Associate Talent Acquisition Manager, foodpanda Hong Kong, says, “to create an environment that fits best for our teams”.

foodpanda 2022 2

While enjoying the spaciousness, employees are further empowered with greater autonomy, trust, and flexibility at work. On top of the hot-desking system, foodpanda initiated a new working model in 2022: unlimited paid annual leave and a flexible working arrangement to cater to employees’ needs and encourage better work-life balance.

In addition to an engaging working environment, foodpanda has spared no effort to create a learning culture where people can learn in various ways, and take care of all employees’ leadership development as early as possible to prepare, equip, and empower current and future leaders at different levels.

Under its integrated support systems, all employees, from individual contributors to managers, have opportunities to learn and refine their leadership skills.

For example, its ‘Aspiring Leaders Programme’ and ‘Panda Leader Programme’ equip future leaders with essential skill sets for a successful transition into a leadership role and help them discover their leadership style and aspiration; ‘Executive Coaching’ programme offers a personalised approach to executive’s personal and career development by engaging with an external executive coach; ‘Director’s Team Coaching’ coaches the senior management in visionary thinking and effective leadership; and ‘Leadership Day’ invites business leaders from different industries to share business insights and exchange ideas.

These are supported by comprehensive learning and development measures, including a personal development plan (PDP), off-site cross-team training, managers’ networking sessions, a development resources library, bite-size learning tips, and hard and soft skills training.

Open communication plays an integral role in facilitating employee learning and development. Therefore, at foodpanda, employees can have one-on-one interviews with all directors and heads to gather information and suggestions on leadership development. They can also engage in biannual succession planning discussions to refine and adjust developmental opportunities. 

“Employees will be reassured that ideas can be shared freely with anyone, from peers to the management team, without judgement or consequences,” stresses Yu. “We have created regular touch points for our staff with our CEO/management team.”

As a company housing employees from different backgrounds, Yu reiterates the importance of embracing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. “We are proud of our diverse background and characteristics, and we will continue to offer diversity and unconscious bias training to our people,” Yu says.

An employee’s journey cannot be called complete without wellness. Weekly physical/virtual fitness classes, mental wellness support, team bonding, and CSR/volunteering events, monthly happy hour sessions and quarterly new joiner off-site events, and a fully-stocked pantry are well in place in foodpanda to take care of both the physical and mental needs of employees.

Looking forward, Yu reinforces the focus of the company: “We recognise the hard work of our people and incorporate personal development as continuous support to our employees. We will continue to strengthen our employee journey and make every effort to become the ‘employer of choice.”

*Disclaimer: All benefits listed above in this article are based on foodpanda's 2022 benefits and may be subject to change.


Photos / foodpanda

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