Those attending the Outside-In Talent Seminar last week got a peek at the complexities of finding and retaining talent at Comcast/NBC Universal.
Presenter at the event last week at the Goodstay Center on the University of Delaware Wilmington campus was Beth Bunting Arnholt, vice president of Integrated Talent Management at the Philadelphia-based company.
A graduate of the University of Delaware Lerner College of Business, Arnholt talked about a company with varied cultures or as Arnolt put it, “ways to get things done.”
Not long ago, Comcast was a cable company that employed about 4,000, Arnholt notes.
Now it is also a sprawling enterprise owning everything from amusement parks to a movie studio, the Fandango movie ticket buying site, as well as television networks ranging from NBC to Bravo. And don’t forget about the Philadelphia Flyers and local television stations in major markets.
Employment at the giant company now totals 135,000.
The company’s challenge is to come up with ways to be innovative in an industry where technology can quickly make old business models obsolete overnight, she says.
Arnolt has seen that transformation, as a vice president of human resources at Comcast who left to operate her own company. She returned a couple of years ago to take her current position.
She now reports to the chief financial officer of the company and works on ways to build a culture in recognizes the diversity of the businesses and people while attracting top talent.
Over the years, Comcast has learned a few lessons about building a corporate culture after buying up company after company, first in cable and later on the content side.
Ambitious efforts, led by the human resources side, often ended up as l reports that gathered dust on a shelf or more recently in a server in a data center.
Arnholt said the company is no longer attempting sweeping initiatives in responding to the marketplace, given its size, varied businesses and the need for cultures that reflect those businesses.
Instead, Arnolt looks for ways to start small with programs that have the ability to be ramped up to a larger size if proven successful. That work can also involve making sure that efforts are not being duplicated.
One example came with the 360 process, a common term in human resources for evaluations that involve input from a wide range of people who interact with a staffer, often an executive.
Comcast NBC Universal started small in testing the process that can present a challenge to staffers worried they could lose their jobs over a critical evaluation of a supervisor or executive. However, early successes point to a bigger rollout, she said. In the personnel area that involves finding talent that can not only fill current job demands, but also have the ability to take on future assignments in a changing landscape.
Too often, it was found that an individual might be applying for a similar job in two different areas of the sprawling company.
At times, one-time events can effect change. Arnholt pointed to a company technology conference for women that led to women realizing they were not alone in dealing with the challenges of a male-domination IT world. The conference also built relationships that promise to bring change, she added. It hit a nerve in a good way, she says.
Arnholt may soon end up with more on her plate with the expected completion of the acquisition of the massive Time Warner Cable operation and its legendary stories of customer service problems.
Comcast has also been plagued by customer service glitches over the years, the most recent being reports of names of customers being changed to include a vulgarism. The news made its way to social media and TV news reports that purportedly show copies of bills.
Arnholt did not comment on the recent revelations.
The event, is part of a continuing series by Outside-In a group of consulting, placement and staffing companies based in Newark. For futher information, click here.
