IQ Interview: Expedia Canada Corp.'s Managing Director, Sean Shannon
By Bruce Powell
Not many companies can claim to have a perfect record of past hires, something Expedia Canada is proud to mention when they speak of their success in hiring and retaining top talent. With their Toronto office having gone from 1 to 45 in just 7 short years, they’ve yet to have a bad hire. We sit down with Sean Shannon, Managing Director of Expedia Canada to find out what their keys to success have been.
Questions:
IQ: Does Expedia Canada have an overriding strategy when it comes to talent and hiring?
Expedia: We definitely recognize that our people are one of our biggest strengths. As soon as you walk into our office, on the wall are our Mission and Value statements and hiring and retaining the best people are an integral part of those. Our saying here is that “we’re only as good as the people we bring in the door”.
IQ: You have an impressive 45 for 45 record with hiring, can you describe your hiring process in a little more detail?
Expedia: We’re a recognized brand now and considered an attractive place to work (who doesn’t love travel!) but that wasn’t always the case. In the early days we worked with a recruitment firm to help attract top talent and we still engage them today to help with the hiring most positions. And while we now receive lots of resumes, often times it’s a case of quantity over quality. We use recruiters to qualify and distill our applicants and for their expertise in sourcing passive candidates into the mix.
Being a relatively small company, and thus having a small HR department, our HR team has to handle a wide range of various tasks and just doesn’t have the time nor the same level of expertise that specialized recruiters have in terms of initial candidate screening and qualification.
Beyond this initial stage, our own management team starts to play a more pivotal role in the process. No one will ever be able to accurately assess fit or have insight into your company like your own people will – and our management team collectively participates in our hiring process to ensure we make the right decisions.
IQ: What is the most important step in your hiring process?
Expedia: The most important step in our hiring process would have to be what we refer to as The ‘Loop’. The Loop is the name we’ve given to our exhaustive second round interview process and it plays a critical role in determining who we ultimately hire.
We chose the name the Loop because it involves a candidate spending a good part of the day in an interview room while multiple senior people take their turns coming through to interview them. The process usually takes about three quarters of a day, and by the end we’ve enabled many members of senior management to meet and interact with a candidate each questioning them from a different point of view. It’s a great way to see how they handle different or unexpected questions – and it gives them exposure to all parts of our business. We don’t expect detailed, technical answers in areas they’re not as familiar with, but how they view other functions of the business and the way they come together is very important. We share feedback throughout the day as well, so if one person has a concern of some sort, we might have the next person probe that same topic from a different angle.
One of the most valuable steps in the Loop is the deliberation and discussion that takes place afterwards between the multiple interviewers. As mentioned, because each person is usually from a different department, they’re each able to question and view the candidate in a different light. Some things might have come up in one interview that our other interviewers missed. During this session, trends typically start to appear along with any inconsistencies in what candidates have told our interviewers.
In the end, we leave the final decision up to the Hiring Manager for that role, but the input from the team process is invaluable in making that decision.
IQ: In addition to your strong hiring practices, you also maintain an extremely low turnover level – what do you attribute this to?
Expedia: Quite simply, it’s because we place an emphasis on keeping employees engaged and try hard to provide an enjoyable place to work for everyone.
We work in a fun industry which always helps with retention. Beyond that though, we try and do lots of other things that are great for team-building and just plain fun at the same time. We have frequent excursions and trips for the entire office – we’ve been to Blue Mountain, Deerhurst Resort and we’ve even just gone over to Centre Island for a day of volleyball and fun in the sun.
Finally, you can tell a lot simply by observing people on a day to day basis. Are they challenged? Are they smiling? Taking the time and effort to observe people as they naturally go about their day can provide valuable insight.
IQ: Besides your great track record, what other indicators allow you to ensure you continue maintaining an enjoyable work environment?
Expedia: Our alumni actually provide us with really great feedback and help to reinforce that we seem to be doing things right in creating a place where our employees love to work. We’ve had many former employees let us know that they realized they left something great in moving on, and that they felt a little regret in doing so. Stuff like that is always nice to hear because the things you’re setting out to do are having their desired effect.
And we always make a point of monitoring employee morale on a continual basis. It doesn’t have to consist of any elaborate surveys or questioning – it can be done by just keeping your eyes and ears open every day.
Finally listening is very important. Paying attention to what our employees want and what truly motivates them. Some people absolutely love our team excursions, while others tell us it’s more about the work they do and the satisfaction they receive as a result of it. We’re constantly listening to what our employees have to say, and make adjustments to what we’re giving back to them based on that.
IQ: What effect has your size had on hiring and retention?
Expedia: I think our relatively small size has helped with our hiring and retention - being smaller simply allows you to be that much more connected and involved.
Our size gives most people in senior management the opportunity to weigh in and play a much larger role in the hiring process and have greater control over the new people we add to the team. With larger companies, sometimes there is a disconnect between senior management and the hiring effort simply because there’s so much more going on – they’re not able to be as involved in the process, and in turn, aren’t able to provide input on new hires before they happen.
In regards to retention, our size once again allows us to more closely monitor employee satisfaction and just what the general atmosphere in the office is overall. If someone is feeling unhappy and disconnected from their work, we notice. If the vibe around the office is lacking, we notice. In turn, we’re able to address those issues quickly and get things back on track. We take pride though in being proactive instead of reactive. We’re constantly trying to do things that help keep our employees motivated and engaged.
Expedia Canada’s Top 3 Best Practices in Hiring and Retaining Top Talent
- A strong employment brand helps attract top talent – We had to work ten times harder when starting out to ‘sell’ our company to candidates, compared to now where candidates seek us out. Building a strong employment brand does that.
- A detailed, multi-person interview process makes for better hires. The more time and effort you put into the hiring process, the better the result you’ll achieve in the end.
- Employee engagement is critical to employee retention – Engaged employees are happy employees. Pay attention on a daily basis to ensure you’re providing fun, challenging, and engaging work.
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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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