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Insight

Published October 2009

TV Stations Require a Different Lens for Talent

 

  Kellye Whitney

The media business is similar to yet completely different from other industries. Most businesses are at the mercy of trends but can predict consumer needs and wants with some accuracy using monthly or quarterly estimates. Not so in the media, where the primary product — anchors, on-air personalities, etc. — is generally human, and audience perception can change daily, even hourly.

Thus, talent management strategy becomes more challenging, but no less critical. Michele Golden, vice president of talent management at Turner Broadcasting System Inc., has made strides to bring the concept to life for the global media leader's 11,000 employees, despite key elements such as recruiting and compensation, residing outside of her immediate jurisdiction.

TM: How would you describe Turner's approach to talent management and improving workforce performance?

Golden: Our approach is to ensure that we have a pipeline of ready talent to further our brands and differentiate Turner as a global leader in media and entertainment. We recognize that a holistic, integrated approach to our talent management strategy is very important to our overall success and our ability to have the necessary pipeline of talent. About two years ago, we really started building our talent management organization, and as part of that we defined what our organization needs from talent management. We looked at all of the individual areas or buckets of work, so to speak, and started evolving individual programs and processes that drive organizational performance. To give you an example, we have been working on an initiative titled Performance 2.0. It's taking our talent management strategy, improving the individual processes overall and leveraging a new technology solution to enable those processes. Recently we launched a new performance management tool starting with our performance planning, and that tool will integrate with our compensation planning tools and methodology and processes. It will also drive [an] improved or a renewed focus on development and create more robust individual development plans.

In 2005, we introduced a set of core operating principles — innovation, branded environments, diversity, sustained growth and collaboration — that set the tone and the direction for the organization and human resources. [The focus] became: How can we better meet the needs of the organization given these operating principles [and] how do our HR processes better support that and align it? How does our talent management or HR function overall deliver better service to our employees?

TM: How is performance management linked to Turner's strategic objectives?

Golden: Our new process and the new technology [have] enabled better communication of our overall objectives as well as divisional priorities. It has really helped to align and communicate the highest-level goals and objectives for our organization, and as a result of that improved communication and alignment, employees have a better understanding of the goals and priorities of that particular business unit, in addition to what the company is trying to accomplish. The new tool has really helped improve goal setting overall, the quality of the goals and the communication between manager and employee regarding performance expectations. We're in the process of designing our training and communication to support the rollout of the new technology, and we're really emphasizing how do you give really solid, really informative feedback, [and] how do you hold those conversations? How do you talk about the employee's performance relative to those expectations, and then what's the resulting merit and or bonus increase that employee receives?