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CANADA’S TOP SMALL & MEDIUM EMPLOYERS
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Eat well: Vigilant Global goes all-out on perks
f you’re an employee of Montrealbased Vigilant Global, there is such a thing as a free lunch.
Breakfast, too.
Managing director Arvind Ramanathan has been providing those two meals to staff ever since he co-founded the company in 2005 with a handful of employees. “The way I was raised, you don’t eat if others are hungry,” he says. “So I would go out for food and say, who wants what? And it’s just continued. Now, of course, we have all sorts of different needs—like vegan and people with special diets. We take care of everybody, every day.”
“There’s a lot of opportunity here for people to expand and rise to a challenge.” – Marc Venne, Sr. System Administrator & Data Acquisition Team Lead
The food is useful fuel. Vigilant Global operates at lightning speed in financial markets around the world, particularly in futures. It’s what’s known as a proprietary trading firm, which means it generates income by investing its own funds rather than money deposited by clients. But it is fundamentally a technology company. Firms like Vigilant rely on highly specialized software that makes trades instantly and automatically, often involving options and other complex strategies in a manner similar to a hedge fund.
Vigilant’s 120 employees include software engineers, software developers, network engineers and network architects, concentrated in the IT and research & development departments. There are also about a dozen financial market strategists, but the workplace style invokes Silicon Valley, not Wall Street. “It’s a very collaborative process,” says Ramanathan. “Some of the techies have a very good grasp of what’s going on in the financial markets, but you don’t have to in order to work here. We like to say, you choose your own involvement.”
Amid the monitors, the downtown Montreal office features a lot of bright, plantfilled open space, plus the fabled cafeteria, “smoothie stations” and two games rooms. “Games are very popular with the whole crowd here,” says Ramanathan. Some of Vigilant’s benefits are stellar for any Canadian company. New mothers can receive maternity and parental leave top-up payments to 100 per cent of salary for 50 weeks. Day care is subsidized. Gym memberships are supported to $1,200 per year. Staff can choose between a free monthly transit pass or a parking permit. And they each have a $500 annual allowance to support any group activity—guitar lessons, parasailing, cooking classes, whatever—that involves at least five employees participating together. For work-life balance, the company is also on the leading edge in terms of time off. Along with a starting level of three weeks’ vacation, employees can take five personal days per year and another five paid days to do volunteer work. The company supports a variety of charities and institutions. Marc Venne, senior system administrator and team lead for the Data Acquisition Department, appreciates the benefits—he has a son in daycare. And as
VIGILANT GLOBAL EMPLOYEES VOLUNTEER AT A HABITAT FOR HUMANITY “BUILD-DAY”
124
full-time staff in Canada
1,800
job applications last year
an early recruit—2006—he remembers the breakfast and lunches right from the start. “For tech people, it’s very convenient,” he says. “You never have to think about it. It just shows up.” Venne’s role, originally tech support, grew with the company. He now ensures that the real-time financial information coming in from Dow Jones, Bloomberg and other vendors circulates throughout the company in the proper format. “They just let me run with it,” he says. “I set up my own team. There’s a lot of opportunity here for people to expand and rise to a challenge.”
1,200
staff volunteer hours last year
10
charities helped last year
He also praises Vigilant’s open culture and constant information sharing. “There’s nothing like seeing new people come in and feel completely at ease. They see that everybody is able to bring ideas forward to the table.” And then there are the activities that help bring Vigilant’s people together. Venne especially likes the annual barbecue in a Montreal park. “All the families come with their kids,” he says. “It really says who we are—not just numbers but a family. That’s really important to me.”