IQ Interview: Andrew Black, President and CEO of Virgin Mobile Canada
By Bruce Powell
Starting from nothing 4 years ago, Virgin Mobile has managed to thrive in Canada’s crowded mobile market – and they’ve amassed an office filled with star performers in the process. They’ve done so by making their own employees their top priority - even ahead of their customers and shareholders. In this month’s IQ Interview, we sit down with Andrew Black, President and CEO of Virgin Mobile Canada to hear how they uniquely hire and retain top talent - and Virgin’s Top 5 Tips for doing so.
Questions:
IQ: Does Virgin have an underlying people strategy?
Virgin: We definitely have a strategy when it comes to our people, and it actually guides our business strategy as well. We believe in putting our employees first, customers second, and shareholders third. That’s not to say that we feel our customers or shareholders are less important, it’s just that focusing on getting the right people in place and supporting their success gives us the best chance to service our customers well, and in turn deliver maximum value to our shareholders. Richard Branson has built Virgin on this model since day one – and we’ve operated by the same credo in building Virgin in Canada. In fact, Richard once noted that Virgin Canada is one of the most ‘Virgin’ offices in the world.
IQ: Can you speak about Virgin’s unique culture and how it helps you attract top talent?
Virgin: Virgin is definitely one of the most unique cultures I’ve worked in because the Virgin brand itself is so unique and it carries over into every aspect of our business. We actually have a ‘brand book’ that details exactly what the Virgin brand is, what our values are, and the qualities our employees should possess. We admire people who are entrepreneurial, innovative, risk-takers, respectful, honest, cheeky, questioning, intelligent, restless….all qualities that are inherent in Virgin employees. If you take a look at the book, it really is the essence of Richard Branson’s personality. It's a good tool that acts as a guide, leaving it up to business leaders to work with it and interpret how best to put the values of the brand to work in the business in order to create success.
Our culture has helped in attracting top performers because people see the way we value our employees, the responsibility we give them, and the freedom we allow them to accomplish their goals with autonomy. Our strategy once we hire top performers is to give them the tools, set parameters, and then let them do their thing. Top performers appreciate, thrive, and are attracted to working in such environments. We don’t micro-manage or give people step-by-step instructions on how to do their jobs; we just hire the best and then get out of their way.
Finally, besides appreciating our culture of accomplishment, fun and teamwork, people recognize that we recruit the true elite and top performers want to work with other top performers. Just like elite athletes, the top talent in any given industry usually wants to work with other high achievers.
IQ: Can you describe your hiring process, and how you go about hiring top talent?
Virgin: We’re constantly looking for top talent and while we have an active employee referral program we actually engage recruiters to help us handle many of our hires. Because we’re extremely selective when hiring, recruiters help us find those passive top candidates that would never have applied to a traditional job posting. For a company of our size, we actually conduct more executive searches than most. And it’s important whenever using a recruitment firm that they really understand your brand and company so that they can be true ambassadors for you.
Typically the first rounds of interviews are done with the Hiring Manager and HR. As we start to narrow down the field, senior people become more involved in the process and we become more particular and in-depth with our interviewing. If we ever have doubts or second thoughts on a particular candidate, we’ll have another person interview them and weigh in to see if that had any of the same concerns.
Fit is huge for us as well because of our unique culture; up to eighty percent of the final hiring decision can be based on fit. I know it sounds like we place an extraordinary amount of emphasis on fit, but it’s because we truly believe that if the fit it even a little off, it will de-rail a person’s opportunity to succeed.
When we’re not in the process of hiring for a specific role, I try and meet with two or three people a week on a constant basis to build a pipeline of top talent. This way we’re not always starting from scratch; when a position opens up, ideally I’ll already know a few people that could be great candidates for that role.
IQ: How has your hiring process evolved over time?
Virgin: When I started there were way fewer processes in place and the hiring was much less structured. We didn’t know exactly the kind of people we needed and we made a lot of mistakes. But we learned as we went – and made changes to refine and adjust the team to best support the business. In the past I used to interview almost everyone, but as we’ve grown and hired people to assume various roles, I now only interview Director-level and above. Now we’re at a point where we have a very good hiring process in place.
As we go forward, we’re focusing more on HR planning and becoming more strategic in our hiring. Before we make any hire we ask ourselves why the position is needed, and probe deeper into the details of the role including identifying direct reports and accountability before setting out to hire the proper person. We’ve also started to include succession planning as a consideration when hiring. We’re not just evaluating candidates based on the role they’re currently stepping into; we also looking for people who will be suitable for more senior roles down the road.
Our hiring also evolved as a result of how our business evolved over time. When we first started in the Canadian market we were in a launch phase that required more entrepreneurial, risk-taker types to get things up and going. We then moved into our acceleration phase, and now find ourselves in a scaling phase. We now need experienced business operators who are comfortable managing a significant business and can help us take what we already have in place to that next level.
IQ: What hiring obstacles have you encountered along the way, and how have you dealt with them?
Virgin: In the beginning sometimes it was difficult to get great people on-board since we were a relatively new company in the Canadian market. People weren’t sure how successful we’d be, or even if we’d survive for very long. That has obviously all changed now, and our success and employment brand has played a large role in helping out with that.
Another challenge we’ve encountered relates to our culture and just being so different than the other mobile carriers in Canada. We’re much less bureaucratic than the other major players in our industry, so while we can usually find people with the proper skills sets, finding people that fit our culture can be challenging. Many candidates come from our competitors like Rogers, Bell, or Telus, and these companies operate much differently than we do. Sometimes it’s difficult for candidates to see and adapt to a very different way of conducting business. We do our best to explain the Virgin culture to people, and see if it’s something they can relate to. In some cases candidates actually do have that Virgin attitude inside – but it’s been suppressed at other companies.
IQ: Once you have top performers hired, what’s your approach as far as retaining them?
Virgin: Hiring is definitely only one part of the equation; ensuring your employees are engaged, constantly challenged and happy are all important factors in ensuring your top performers stay with you.
As a company that’s smaller than the other major players in our industry, often we’re required to work a little harder or get creative when it comes to retaining employees. We don’t have money to throw at people like some companies, or as many levels of middle management we can progress people into. As a result we have to come up with other ways of keeping people engaged and ensuring they know we appreciate and value the great work they do. Special projects and added responsibility are just a couple of the ways we’ll reward people who perform at a high level, and we have several individuals who have risen up in both responsibility and breadth within the company.
As well, there are lots of opportunities for top performers to move within the Virgin organization as we expand into other businesses in Canada – and around the world. In fact, several of our current employees came from Virgin organizations in other countries.
Virgin Mobile’s Top 5 Tips in Hiring and Retaining Top Talent
- Making your employees the top priority will in turn allow you to best service customers and deliver value to shareholders.
- Creating a great employment brand full of top performers will help attract top talent in the future – like attracts like.
- Fit is paramount – if fit is even a little off, it can de-rail a person’s opportunity to succeed.
- Keep your top employees engaged and growing – reward high performers with increasing responsibility and scope of work.
- Match your employees to the strategy and goals of your business – a growth phase requires different people than a scaling phase.
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Bruce Powell, Managing Partner, established IQ PARTNERS as an integrated HR services company - providing a broader range of services to help entrepreneurial companies better manage their people resources.
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