Employee Experience, Leadership & Management
What can your organization learn from Vrio about major organizational change?
Vrio is a leading provider of digital entertainment services in South America and the Caribbean, with more than 10.5 million subscribers in 10 countries and territories.
They have more than 9,500 employees across the region and in the U.S., and have been an AT&T Latin America company since 2015, . Today, Vrio is proud to be one of the World’s Best Workplaces™, as well as one of the Best Multinational Companies in Latin America™.
Vrio brings people together through entertainment. Whether it’s uniting fans for big games or sharing the drama of a hit new series, they are giving more people – in more places – access to the entertainment they love.
They began operations in 1996 and have since expanded by engaging more people with a best-in-class digital entertainment experience. They offer Pay TV services in Brazil through the SKY brand and through DIRECTV in Argentina, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Curaçao, Ecuador, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay.
Vrio’s teams have faced challenges that according to our studies, would cause most organizations to fold. Despite extreme political and economic upheaval in Latin America and industry disruption across the media and entertainment industries, Vrio has managed to thrive.
Vrio has done a remarkable job facing complex business challenges and delivering outstanding results.
Many of the ideas and insights the Vrio team shared with Great Place To Work could help your business through its own transition period.
For easy reference, here are some practical, actionable takeaways to share with your fellow leaders:
1. Ramp up executive visibility
- Monthly breakfasts with the CEO
- Daily rounding
- Weekly site visits
- Skip-level meetings
- Executives engaging with frontline people at company events
- Quarterly townhalls (which are being conducted virtually during COVID)
2. Increase face-to-face communication (which also became virtual during the shutdowns)
- All leaders having weekly or bi-monthly 1:1 meetings with their direct reports
- Coffee or lunch with their people
- Monthly department meetings
- Monthly review of goals and objectives
- During COVID, launched a weekly video series called “Take 5 with Melissa” (Vrio's CEO) in which other leaders within the organization provide updates
3. Keep leaders informed of the rationale for changes, especially frontline leaders
- Weekly leadership calls
- Provide talking points for leaders
- Provide coaching on how to effectively listen and respond to employee concerns
- Engage leaders in problem solving
4. Let the change be an opportunity for exposure and professional growth
- Provide stretch assignments to people giving them tasks that require more responsibility
- Allow frontline people to lead projects that are typically for leaders
- Provide cross-department visibility to people
- Let people present in meetings on behalf of you and the rest of the team
5. Gather ideas from your frontline leaders and employees to solve business problems
- Create cross-functional teams that gather regularly to work to solve a business challenge
- While walking around, engage in meaningful conversations to gather fresh ideas
- "Walk in the shoes” of the frontline for a day and listen to their recommendations
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