Deliveroo (part of DoorDash)
- Global food delivery platform
- 4,000 employees across 10 markets
- Relevant technology stack: Slack
Key outcomes over five months
- 5,000 employee queries resolved through self-serve automation
- 71% of requests meeting SLA targets through an AI-first entry point
- Every new joiner onboarded automatically, with no manual coordination
A manual model that couldn't scale
Deliveroo connects consumers with restaurants and grocery providers across 10 markets, and since joining DoorDash it has kept growing fast. Its global people services team supports nearly 4,000 employees, each market carrying its own employment laws, languages, and ways of working.
The support model underneath that scale was entirely manual. Every query needed a person to pick it up and route it. There was no automation and no self-serve, so employees navigated a clunky service desk and sometimes waited three to four weeks for an answer as requests moved between teams.
The bottleneck wasn't the size of the team. It was the structure: fragmented handoffs and a ticket-style queue that slowed everything down and hid the data leaders needed.
Without reporting, Harriet Dowsett, who leads global people services, had no reliable way to see where her team's time was going or where to focus next.
"Every query required that manual intervention. We had no automation, no self-serve. Employees navigated a clunky service desk, sometimes waiting three to four weeks for responses. Without that reporting piece, it was really difficult for me to hone in on where we needed to focus."
Harriet Dowsett, Global People Services, Deliveroo
Why Deliveroo chose Kinfolk
There was a clear problem and a conviction that the tools already on the market weren't good enough to solve it.
Deliveroo is a Slack-native business, and Kinfolk meets employees exactly where they already work rather than sending them to another portal to learn. Three things made the decision:
- Purpose-built for the complexity of HR across 10 markets, where the right answer depends on someone's location and local policy
- Request handling, knowledge, and onboarding automation in one platform, not another tool bolted onto the stack
- A partner that shaped the rollout around how Deliveroo works
That combination let the team strip out the transactional work and put the human back into HR.
Implementation: personalized, not a lengthy rollout
The rollout avoided the long, complex implementation Harriet had braced for.
Kinfolk partnered closely with the team throughout, and the setup was personalized to the needs of the business rather than forced through a rigid template.
Change was tangible almost immediately.
Results speak for themselves
AI is resolving thousands of requests employees used to wait weeks for
In its first five months, Kinfolk resolved 5,000 employee queries through self-serve automation, all through an AI-first entry point in Slack. Work that once sat in a three to four week queue now gets answered in the flow of the working day, and the team is freed from the routine intervention that used to consume it.
Consistent service the team can finally measure
Deliveroo met 71% of SLAs through that same entry point. For the first time, Harriet has the reporting to see workload and service levels clearly, turning a model she couldn't measure into one she can manage and improve.
"We're already seeing faster response times, higher customer satisfaction, and a team who have got the space to breathe and add real value in their work."
Harriet Dowsett, Global People Services, Deliveroo
Onboarding that runs itself
Every new joiner is now onboarded automatically. The workflow runs straight through Kinfolk and reaches the manager, the employee, and the buddy without anyone lifting a finger, standardizing a moment that used to depend on manual coordination.
The result: capacity redirected to human work
Time saved only creates value if the work is rebuilt around it, and that is what Deliveroo is doing. With the transactional load handled by AI, the team has the space to do the human work that matters. Next in line for automation are the cyclical tasks that still take manual effort: PTO requests, simple job changes, and reference letters.
"Obviously we've just touched the surface. We're already seeing so much value, and I just can't wait to see what we achieve moving forward."
Harriet Dowsett, Global People Services, Deliveroo
