“Why should your relationship with your place of work be different from any other relationship in your life? The best and most rewarding are always based on mutual trust and respect.”
Part Two: Chapter 13
People are Your Purpose
By Holly Branson
Teambuilding 2.0: engaging your people in the Weconomy
It was like an episode of the The Twilight Zone and The Stepford Wives rolled into one.
Suits and ties as far as the eye could see. Every desk occupied by 9 a.m. sharp but the presence of 130 people produced only deafening silence. No music, no shouting across desks over the sound of the cappuccino machine or the crunching of toast. Glum faces abounded as curt emails were sent to any staff member caught checking Facebook or not wearing the appropriate office attire. Lunch kept to a strict 30 minutes. Teabags rationed to 1.4 per member of staff.
At 5 p.m. the office emptied and only the deafening silence remained.
I cringe writing the above because I'm aware that for some of you this is a typical day at the office . . . welcome to your world, right?
For Virgin Management Limited (VML), our “Corporate Day” was a novel experiment to raise money for charity and give us all a new appreciation for how “uncorporate” we usually are at the office. It also resulted in a telling-off for my brother Sam, who forgot and turned up in jeans and trainers. The following morning, we returned to normal (well, our standard of normal) with flexible working, unlimited leave, an endless supply of tea and coffee, lunches, and snacks. We were back in full force, with a soundtrack of sporadic singalongs, usually led by my wonderful E.A. Louise, to whatever music was on shuffle.
After my first few weeks at Virgin I quickly learned to keep my mouth shut when a couple of my unluckier friends were talking about their working conditions. They were expected to leave their personalities at the door and not to call on them again until they clocked out at the end of the day. Simply put, their employers didn't trust them to be themselves and still do a great day's work. As a result, my friends didn't trust that their employers valued them at all. So apart from putting in the bare minimum, what was the point?
A lot has been written in the past few years about beanbags and ping-pong tables, bring your dog to work days, sleep pods, in-office massages, and yoga being the only ways to keep millennials happy at work. That's all very well in Silicon Valley, or for the hipsters in Shoreditch, London. But for the majority of professions, these toys and perks just won't fly. A colorful bean bag and free tea are great added benefits, if you are in a position to provide them. None of these things need to eat up your yearly budget or turn your place of business into an unruly party.
But even the mighty teabag means nothing if your company is not built on a culture of mutual respect. Build a people-first culture. Your business will be better off for it.
Employees today value trust, transparency, and a sense of purpose above all over things when choosing and, most important, staying with a company.
Who Are Your People? The Biggest Workforce in the World
By 2025, millennials will make up 75 percent of the global workforce. Of course, these are not your only employees. But in less than 10 years, the vast majority of the workforce will be made up of a single age grouping for the first time in history. To enable our companies and our economies to thrive, we need to understand and nurture this unique and diverse generation. There are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of research reports, consumer surveys, and work audits available to explain what makes millennials tick, but I'll draw from two in particular in this chapter: Gallup's 2016 report “How Millennials Want to Work and Live” and our own research through an initiative called 100% Human at Work.
The Bottom Line on Employee Engagement1
 Employees who feel enthusiastic about their work are 50 percent more likely to exceed their bosses' expectations than those who are less engaged. |
 According to Target Training International, more than 60 percent of all customers stop dealing with a company because of perceived indifference on the part of an employee. |
 Employee engagement can be improved by aligning the goals of the business with the goals of the individual, including pay and compensation, but also by ensuring they see opportunities for personal growth and that they're working for a common cause. |
 Companies with highly engaged workers out-perform those with unengaged employees by 54 percent in retention, 89 percent in customer satisfaction, and by 400 percent in revenue growth. |
Dispelling the Millennial Myths
From the outside, the millennial generation—or the selfie generation, as we've all heard it called—has been labeled shallow, apathetic, coddled, discontent, always distracted, and permanently attached to their technology. Sounds a bit harsh, doesn't it? I'm a millennial, but even I find these criticisms hardly surprising. We were the first generation to truly grow up in the age of the Internet, and many of us do spend a lot of time attached to our smart devices. Remember though, this cohort was also severely affected by the global recession that started in 2007—with the oldest among us entering the job market when the full force of it hit.
In reality, this craving for connectivity and information has resulted in a workforce who want to be involved in all aspects of the company. Millennials are Participators. They want to shape the organizations they work for. Yes, they can be opinionated, self-confident, and questioning, but that also means they seek and offer input in order to be a meaningful part of growing your business.
Frighteningly, for the biggest workforce in history, polls and surveys put millennials' workplace engagement scores (on average) as low as 23 percent in 2016. Companies must be getting something very wrong. It might be that too many businesses are living in the past (stuck in a permanent “Corporate Day”). Millennials are the business leaders of the future, and it is in our best interest to get it right and engage them at work. (Feels strange writing about millennials in the third person—as I said, I am one!)
The Job Hunt
Seeking Purpose2
75 percent of millennials would take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company.
76 percent consider a company's social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work.
88 percent say their job is more fulfilling when they're provided opportunities to make a positive impact on social and environmental issues.
Virgin has always believed in the value of happy people first and foremost. The business was founded on the belief that our people should be valued; our team has always been considered family, not just staff. We have always believed that above all else in any business your workforce should be number 1. If your people are happy and engaged, customers will follow.
To be the best employer we can be, we have pledged to be 100% Human at Work, an initiative developed by an organization called the B Team.
In 2013, the team at Virgin Unite called together some of the most forward-thinking businesses in the world, with the hope that these responsible companies would help drive the same value systems in thousands of businesses worldwide. After a series of workshops and many meetings, the B Team was born.
B Team Purpose Statement
“Founded in the belief that the private sector can, and must, redefine both its responsibilities and its own terms of success, we are developing a Plan B—for concerted, positive action that will ensure business becomes a driving force for social, environmental, and economic benefit.
Plan A—where business has been motivated primarily by profit—is no longer an option.
We are focused on driving action to meet a set of challenges that underpin Plan B—by starting “at home” in our own companies, taking collective action to scale systemic solutions, and using our voice where we can make a difference.”
Co-chaired by my dad and Jochen Zeitz, former CEO of Puma, this global group of 24 leaders are working together to accelerate Plan B.
What Millennials Want3
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Millennials want a purpose, they don't just work for a paycheck. Of course they want fair compensation but beyond that, they want to work for a company that has purpose baked into its culture. |
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Millennials are pursuing development, they are not simply pursuing job satisfaction. They want to be involved in decision making. They want to learn what makes a business tick and not be treated as cogs in the wheel. |
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Millennials want coaches, they don't want bosses.Without doubt, if you don't provide mentorship programs, you should. It's also worth exploring the idea of reverse mentoring: pair the CEO with a more junior employee, who will have much to teach about day-to-day work on the frontlines. |
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Millennials want ongoing conversations, they don't want annual reviews. They enjoy giving feedback as much as receiving it. |
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Millennials want to flex their strengths, not fixate on their weaknesses. Look at your training and development programs. Millennials don't want to be force-fed workshops or seminars that expose their weaknesses, and they're less likely to engage in learning a skill that's foreign to them. They'd much rather use resources to maximize their strengths. |
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It's my life, not just my job. They want to know: Do you value me as a person and not view me as a payroll number? Can I bring my personality to work with me to prove that my company values me and my contributions? |
They have pledged to achieve a number of goals during the next decade, including getting more businesses on board. For now, I'll deal with one goal in particular: 100% Human at Work, based on the premise that the time has come for businesses to start thinking of people as human beings and not as resources.
The 100% Human initiative uses five elements to achieve this goal: respect, equality, growth, belonging, and purpose.
But what do these words actually mean in the workplace? What does it mean to be 100% Human at Work? Here's a look at how Virgin implements these ideas—some are groupwide, some are individual company examples. We have embraced these elements, as we believe every company needs to create a truly “human” organization. Feel free to adapt, use them to open a debate with your colleagues, or blatantly copy them.
Respect
We believe work is a place where different values and beliefs are respected, where there is respect for privacy, and where all workers are treated with dignity.
Across the Virgin Group, we have actively encouraged our people to be part of this discussion. Through workshops, surveys, and inter-departmental debates, we brought thousands of our people together to help define what respect means to them.
Together we determined that combining two concepts—diversity and inclusion—would provide the most powerful building bricks for a respectful people culture.
To our people, diversity means understanding that everyone is unique, and that we're all made up of multiple dimensions that create our personal identity. We refer to this as BE YOURSELF.
To our people, inclusion means being welcomed, valued, respected, and supported. It's about focusing on the needs of every individual, and ensuring the right conditions are in place for each person to thrive. We refer to this as GO TOGETHER.
Hear more about my views on diversity and inclusion: Click for video
Stephen Attenborough explains what inclusion means to Virgin Galactic: Click for video
We determined that combining two concepts—diversity and inclusion— would provide the most powerful building bricks for a respectful people culture.
Growth
We believe that through individual growth, workers can contribute to business growth.
The coming workforce is looking to build on their strengths in their professional lives and to continue to learn and develop in their personal lives. Take advantage of the wealth of development options available online; consider facilitating a portal and allowing your people to access courses as they choose.
Virgin has had great success with our Learning Lounge and Online Hub, a virtual space for both personal and professional development. Our team can choose from a wide range of online, self-taught courses—including An Introduction to Particle Physics! We believe that development isn't just related to your daily tasks at work. Allowing your people to satisfy their curiosity and interests proves that you value them as whole persons, not just employee numbers.
If your company doesn't have resources for a portal, seek more specific feedback from your team about what they're looking for. It may be a matter of allowing time off for your team to attend seminars or volunteer to use their professional skills for a good cause.
Equality
We believe that only through fairness and equality of opportunity can a business realize the true potential of the talent within it. We also believe that diversity is good for business.
At Virgin Management Limited (VML), we are very proud of two particular policies that foster and promote equality, parental leave and flexible working. As with many of you reading this, a few of the Virgin Group companies are unable to offer such policies, due to the nature of their industries. But we firmly believe that any industry can test and implement better people policies within the constraints of delivering core business objectives. Find out what “best in class” means for you.
In April 2015, shared parental leave launched across the UK. Available to eligible working parents in the first year following the birth or adoption of a child, it offers more flexibility to share statutory childcare and pay. Many UK companies chose to offer the minimum statutory pay (a small percentage of normal earnings) for anyone taking advantage of this legislation. We saw this as the perfect opportunity to take a more genderless, inclusive approach and add to our continually developing suite of family-friendly policies. At VML, all eligible parents who qualify for shared parental leave are entitled to an enhanced payment of up to 52 weeks' full pay. We believe we were one of the first, if not the first company in the UK to implement such a policy, supporting parents financially while they are away from their desks doing the most important job in the world.
When parents do return, they (and everyone who works within the company) benefit from our “flexible working for all” and our unlimited holiday leave.
Unlimited Leave is one policy, among many, you can adopt to help foster and promote a healthy work-life balance for your workforce (more on that later in the chapter). If you feel that for your business this is a step too far, why not give more paid time off? Why not start with one or two days extra a year? Encourage your staff to use it to do something fun, spend valuable time with family or friends, or explore a new hobby. The list is endless and so will the sense of being valued that it instills in your people. I can assure you there is a solid business case for going above and beyond the basic and setting yourself on the path to becoming an exceptional employer. You'll learn more about that later in the chapter.
Over decades, the British press has caught my dad on camera—first with his notebooks and more recently with his iPad—working away while swinging in his hammock at home. I am proud to say that his unconventional work style has changed the face of business and set an example for entrepreneurs the world over. Dad has never used (or believed in) a conventional office or nine-to-five rules. He has always believed that flexible working is smart working.
In 2014, we introduced flexible working for all our people at VML. Given my dad's philosophy, it would have been rude not to! Our people can work from anywhere—at home, at the coffee shop 'round the corner, or from a sofa in our office. The only exceptions are team meetings as they are invaluable bonding and creative sessions and are always held in the office and face to face. We have seen a marked increase in morale since this policy, and no downside at all in productivity. All we did was prove to our wonderful staff that we trust them to be the capable adults that they are.
Belonging
We believe that workers achieve more through partnership and teamwork than through competition and politics.
Working in industries as diverse as travel, telecoms, music, media, financial services, and health and wellness, you can imagine that promoting a sense of belonging can be logistically challenging for us. Still, we always strive to promote a sense of belonging and family.
In the early days, we had annual staff parties in our backyard in Oxford, but when we reached 30,000 staff they got a little tricky to accommodate! Now, dad and I host my favorite Virgin event of the year, our annual Stars event. One winner and a guest, from every Virgin company, join my family and Virgin CEOs from across the world, at our home, to celebrate their work and meet their extended, global Virgin family. This is a chance to not only celebrate our incredible people, but to have them break out of their silos and to meet team members from other companies.
Here Are a Few More Things We Do to Make Sure Our Team Is Part of a Community
Town halls
First, you'd be amazed at the amount of positive support, loyalty, and personal investment that comes with simply keeping your people informed. Every three months, our wonderful Virgin Management CEO Josh Bayliss does an in-person update for all of our people at VML. He not only gives them a comprehensive (and honest!) overview of what is happening in the businesses across the Virgin Group, but also of the state of markets and the global economy. When I say “all our people,” I do mean every member of staff—not just middle management and up.
Roger
Our internal magazine, Roger, is available to our staff globally, in print, and online. It celebrates our people and their achievements, both professional and personal, as well as introduces new companies and team members. It's an opportunity to showcase companies and individuals and share their day jobs with their 70,000 colleagues. Roger also features articles on well-being in the workplace and new ways of working, to ensure we keep the discussion going. It shouts loud and proud about the fantastic purpose and charitable causes our people are passionate about. I'm proud to boast that in 2017 Roger Magazine won GOLD at the Global CMAs (Content Marketing Awards) beating off IKEA and British Airways as a leader in the internal communications sector.
Enjoy Roger firsthand: Click here
Netflix: Where Everyone Gets Time Off for Good Behavior
Reed Hastings does not have to work overtime to set a good example for the thousands of employees who work at his $60 billion firm—just the opposite.
The CEO of Netflix takes six weeks of vacation every year—to set an example.4
The father of two explained this at a conference. “You often do your best thinking when you're off hiking in some mountain or something. You get a different perspective on things.”
It started with a PowerPoint that went viral—seriously! The deck “Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility” was created by the video-streaming company's former chief talent officer, Patty McCord, and was shared over 13 million times on Slideshare. Sheryl Sandberg called the presentation “the most important document ever to come out of the Valley.” McCord started a revolution for work-life balance.
In it, the company explained its policy on holidays: “We should focus on what people get done, not how many hours or days worked. Just as we don't have a nine-to-five day policy, we don't need a vacation policy.” 5
Hastings says work must also be about play. Not only that, he believes if the company cares for its employees, its employees will care for the company.
So no one keeps track of vacation days.
“What we're trying to do is earn loyalty and trust that they'll really care about Netflix in addition to caring about their families, and they'll find successful ways to integrate it.”
Work should not be an end in itself. We believe that working for a company with purpose is more fulfilling and productive.
The Virgin Way
The Virgin Way is our comprehensive online portal for all the People, Purpose, and Development departments across the Group to share ideas and learnings.
In our “Purpose 101” chapter, we offered examples to help you embed purpose into the DNA of your business, and we told you that purpose is profitable. In this chapter, I hope I've given you some incentive to involve your people in the process. Your purpose, like your business, is only as good as your people. Get them engaged and committed for a more successful purpose project. Here's one example of how Virgin did it.
A while back, Virgin Mobile Australia (VMAU) joined forces with R U OK?, a charity that encourages people to have regular conversations as a way of assisting in suicide prevention. As part of a multilayered campaign, VMAU offered incentives to customers who participated, but they also worked hard to ensure staff were actively involved. All staff got a voucher entitling them to a free coffee in a local café, with the proviso that they took the time to catch up with colleagues and have a chinwag, rather than dropping the usual two-line email. The company also facilitated staff volunteering at R U OK? events, and hosted a Conversation Zone in the office, with comfy seats and free coffee, inviting people to sit down and have a chat. The campaign was hugely successful—internally and externally—because everyone on the team felt a sense of pride in what they were achieving. Everyone bought into the Purpose of partnering with R U OK? and participated in the mission.
Daydreaming about a Holiday at Your Desk? Get Up and Go . . .
As you can probably tell, we at Virgin Management Ltd. spend a lot of time thinking about our people and culture. Within the Virgin Group, VML is in a very unique position: we're not a retailer, we don't require shift work, and we don't build or manufacture products that require assembly lines. We don't have to assist millions of travelers on the rails and in the sky every day. This allows us to test forward-thinking “people policies” with more flexibility than do teams with more rigid work requirements. One such policy that grabbed headlines here in Britain when we introduced it was unlimited leave. I had read about Patty McCord, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, causing a stir with a radical new approach to culture at her company. I excitedly proposed to our senior team that we follow suit and introduce unlimited leave. (I did tell you that blatantly copying purpose leaders was an option.)
Dad jumped on the idea from the get-go, but it took a little while for some of the team to get to grips with what unlimited leave actually entailed and what effect it would have on the company's productivity. As it turned out, they had some time. In the UK, unlike the U.S., workers are entitled to a statutory 21 days of annual leave. We hadn't anticipated the legal issues we'd encounter while trying to give our people more freedom. Our policy left it completely up to each individual member of staff to determine their leave, for an unlimited number of days. Still, legally, we had to ensure that 21 statutory days were protected! It took 18 months to implement the scheme in Britain.
In a nutshell, unlimited leave permits all salaried staff to take off whenever they want for as long as they want. All of our staff can request holiday leave, in addition to the 21 days, without restriction.
It is left to the employee to decide if and when he or she feels like taking off a few hours, a day, a week, or longer. The assumption here is that staff are only going to leave work when they feel comfortable that their absence will not in any way damage the business. We are proud of our culture, and trust our people and their ability to make empowered decisions.
I'm delighted to say the company didn't collapse because everyone rushed out the door with their suitcases. Instead, we saw a spike in morale, creativity, and productivity. Our people are proud to work for a company that assumes they want to do a good job and therefore should be trusted to do just that. Unlimited leave will not work for all companies for many, many logistical reasons, but the principle it is based on, trusting your employees, absolutely will.
Since he's my boss (and to earn myself a couple of brownie points), I'll leave the final words on how to foster that trust to our CEO, Josh: “Why should your relationship with your place of work be different from any other relationship in your life? The best and most rewarding are always based on mutual trust and respect. If you want people to be themselves, be 100 percent human, and bring all of themselves to what they do, you've got to respect them. You've got to include them in the conversation, be transparent about challenges you are facing, and celebrate the highs with them.
“Remember the phrase ‘talk is cheap’ can also be seen as a positive: your bottom line is never going to suffer because you took time out to talk, converse, and interact with the people who work for (and with) you.”
Want to hear more on the B Team and workplace well-being? Click for video
A company that plays together stays together! Click for video
Notes
A healthy team is a happy team
Christmas Jumper Day!
Corporate Day American Style
Josh and our Virgin Managment Squad!
One of our Stars the amazing Sue Hale
Town Hall meetings at Virgin Money
VML Corporate Day - ties who needs ties
Working for the family firm (with the babies on the way!)