Case study

Virgin Money – ‘The World’s Most Creative Job Interview’

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Applications

204

Outstanding Candidates

10

Highlights

We delivered ‘The world’s most creative job interview.’

  • 1
    A headline-grabbing, experiential candidate assessment solution.
  • 2
    Resulting in the discovery of an exceptional leader for Virgin Money’s Head of Innovation role.
  • 3
    Leading to the nationwide adoption of a new employer brand-based assessment model for Virgin Money.

Challenge

The brief was clear: “I want you to find me a creative genius who can come along and change banking.” For their Head of Innovation role, Virgin Money wanted someone from outside banking, who could help them become an even more customer-focused organisation. It was the sort of out-of-the-ordinary brief we love, one that plays to our multi-disciplinary strengths to create talent solutions.

But it raised some big challenges:

  • 1
    How do we engage an audience who wouldn’t necessarily consider financial services as a destination for their talent, out-of-the-box thinking and entrepreneurial spark?
  • 2
    An audience this elusive wouldn’t be looking in the job sections of the usual places. It was time to think way beyond the traditional attraction methods. We had to come up with a solution that would make front page news, not just the job section.

Solution

How we collaborated

  • 1
    Our answer was an innovative blend of immersive theatre and robust assessment that would excite and uncover the right talent for this high-stakes, high-profile role. It was a project like no other we’d worked on before. Working alongside our team of creative, assessment and project management experts, was a production company we’d engaged to help us source the right location, actors and props.
  • 2
    Our assessment team established the criteria we’d need the experience to measure. Our creative team worked with the criteria to devise and script the scenarios. Our project managers triumphed over logistics, budget and time management more complex than anything else we’d taken on. And our media and marketing teams got to work amplifying the opportunity in all the right places. Meanwhile, our client services team maintained a strong client partnership – enabling their trust in trying something industry-disrupting.

What we delivered

01

From the start, applications set the convention-breaking tone. Candidates were invited to submit a three-minute video selfie explaining how they were going to change banking – as if pitching to Richard Branson himself.

02

We employed robust psychological principles to design immersive assessment exercises that would test core skills and reveal Virgin Money’s next creative genius.

03

Expecting a ‘normal’ interview, candidates arrived at a secret location, where they were told they had to pitch ideas – completely unrehearsed – to an inscrutable Dragon’s Den-like investor panel. They were then ushered into the dark depths of an industrial ‘cellar’ and tasked with proving the contents of a mysterious case. Next they had to persuade an intimidating bouncer to let them into a party, before exploring a jungle campsite, and giving a rousing motivational speech to a football team at 3-0 down. All of this before meeting any Virgin Money executives!

01

From the start, applications set the convention-breaking tone. Candidates were invited to submit a three-minute video selfie explaining how they were going to change banking – as if pitching to Richard Branson himself.

03

Expecting a ‘normal’ interview, candidates arrived at a secret location, where they were told they had to pitch ideas – completely unrehearsed – to an inscrutable Dragon’s Den-like investor panel. They were then ushered into the dark depths of an industrial ‘cellar’ and tasked with proving the contents of a mysterious case. Next they had to persuade an intimidating bouncer to let them into a party, before exploring a jungle campsite, and giving a rousing motivational speech to a football team at 3-0 down. All of this before meeting any Virgin Money executives!

02

We employed robust psychological principles to design immersive assessment exercises that would test core skills and reveal Virgin Money’s next creative genius.

RESULTS

Our client’s faith in our bold approach paid off, with expectation-exceeding results:

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30 Million

Alongside coverage in the usual HR publications we earned high-profile media coverage in mainstream titles like The Evening Standard, City AM, Campaign, Marketing Magazine and Brand Republic, with a combined estimated circulation of 30 million.

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204 People

204 people applied and 10 outstanding candidates were chosen for the ‘interview’. Which all led to the discovery of the successful applicant, Dhiraj Mukherjee, one of the founders of the music application Shazam, and a truly creative entrepreneur.

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Immersive Assessment

The success of this disruptive approach to assessment led to Virgin Money giving us the green light to roll out immersive assessment nationally for their customer service volume roles, with our next creation, ‘Dr Virginia’s Institute of Wonderful Experiences’.

“The thing I loved about TMP is they have a really interesting blend of a robust approach to assessment, and the creative ability to think differently.”

Head of Resourcing, Virgin Money

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