A keen focus on talent acquisition has played a key role in the fast growth and expansion of ASX300-listed technology company NEXTDC, according to its CEO and executive director, Craig Scroggie.
“It’s a fast paced business with continuous change as we grow,” he said.
“I’ve heard people describe what we do as ‘building the airplane while flying it,’ so we make a point of hiring talented people who can work with exponential change and create policy and processes from scratch.
“Our people have major personal input into their projects and feel a strong sense of ownership and individual contribution to the company’s success.”
NEXTDC, which offers data centre outsourcing solutions, connectivity services and infrastructure management software, consisted of a handful of staff working over a card table when the business was formed.
Six years later, it now has a market valuation of more than $800 million, with 180 personnel across six locations nationally, and last year NEXTDC achieved the number 3 position on the BRW Fast 100 list with 238.5 per cent growth.
“Managing our incredible growth and expansion has been a significant business and people challenge,” he said.
“We have a really diverse range of teams from finance, legal, sales and marketing and software development to operations and engineering, who design and maintain our award-winning data centres,” he said.
While the NEXTDC brand has strong recognition within the ICT industry, Scroggie said gaining awareness of the company and what it stands for across the broader business community has been more challenging.
“This can impact our ability to find and hire the right people for the company and keep up with its rapid growth,” he said.
Technology is an integral part of the company’s mission and vision as an organisation, and as such, there is a strong focus on developing strong communication and workflow management systems to enable a geographically dispersed workforce to focus on a wide range of projects.
Last year NEXTDC had outgrown many of its initial IT solutions and processes, so it embarked on a major digital transformation project spanning the systems used across the entire business.
Rolling out new systems is a challenge from a people and change management perspective, according to Scroggie, who said that investing in online, automated systems have allowed the business to realise competitive advantage through a more service-oriented business model. “This also enables our staff to focus on strategic objectives rather than spend so much time on manual administrative tasks,” he said.
“When a staff member is in doubt about a decision they can refer to our values to help them make the right choice”
“We seek a high level of creativity and innovation from our staff, who have to be able to adapt to our rapidly evolving organisation,” Scroggie said.
“So we can have fewer rules to hold us back in this kind of working environment, our company values have been designed to keep us all on the right path.
“When a staff member is in doubt about a decision they can refer to our values to help them make the right choice.”
Scroggie explained that the company’s values are not just “words on a page – they are part of our DNA: customer first; one team; innovation; excellence; efficiency; communication,” he said.
“By managing and promoting NEXTDC’s company culture, our people & culture team is the glue that unites the company’s diverse workforce and is an essential element of NEXTDC’s success.
“They ensure we recruit the best people for the role, provide advice and support to the business, and drive employment engagement initiatives.”
Employee engagement across the company came in at 84 percent in its last survey, against an industry benchmark of 63 per cent.
NEXTDC’s people & culture team works to maintain a workplace that promotes diversity and fosters a culture that recognises and celebrates our shared successes, according to Scroggie, who explained that the nature of the business means that everyone works closely with each other and as part of the one team value everyone gets involved.
“A key behaviour which is driven throughout the organisation from the top down is ‘That’s not my job, is not in my vocabulary,’ which helps break down silos and accepted ways of doing things,” said Scroggie.
“This focus on our people extends to hiring top talent – known in the business ‘A Players.’ “Key to this success is recruiting from our people’s personal networks and offering rewards for successful referrals.
“It really helps us to build a sense of everyone being in the one team and sharing responsibility for our actions.”
“We look for people who have a great attitude and support our need for diversity and the willingness to try new ways of working”
There are a number of important keys to the effective acquisition, management, development and retention of the right talent in the business, according to Scroggie, who explained that with a relatively small workforce (for the size of the business) each person is critical to success.
“It is extremely important to find and retain the right people,” he said.
“We place a strong emphasis on talent acquisition. First and foremost we look for people who have a great attitude and support our need for diversity and the willingness to try new ways of working.
“Ensuring prospective employees’ values align with our company values forms a critical part of our selection process.”
The business has adopted key parts of the Topgrading methodology in its recruitment process, which he says is a proven hiring methodology which has met with great success internally.
During recruitment, shortlisted candidates are asked to have a coffee catch-up, or an informal interview with one or two current employees who work in other parts of the business.
This provides a different perspective on the candidate outside of a formal interview setting, assesses true cultural fit with the team and gives the candidate a better way to assess if NEXTDC is the right choice for them.
“We think it is just as important for the candidate to interview us as it is for us to interview them,” said Scroggie.
Another key factor in attracting and retaining the best people is the company’s staff policies, such as flexible working, parental leave, mentoring and professional development programs, added Scroggie, who noted that NEXTDC has a 100 percent return-to-work rate following maternity leave.
NEXTDC has a strong history of promoting and transferring within the business, and Scroggie said the people & culture team work closely with senior management to identify opportunities within the business for high performing and high potential employees, and support them to prepare for senior management through professional development programs.
Image: supplied
