CTHRA Honors Campaign, HR Leader
Cox System, SA Exec Recognized By Trade Group
By K.C. Neel -- Multichannel News, 10/21/2007 8:00:00 PM
The Cable and Telecommunications Human Resources Association this year announced two awards honoring member achievements.
Cox Communications' Orange County/Palos Verdes, Calif., system earned CTHRA's Best Practices honor for its “Essential Pieces” campaign. In response to competitors' claims of superior technology and localism, the Cox OCPV team developed a comprehensive program involving business models, customer relations and employee involvement. As part of the strategy, Cox developed “You're the Essential Piece,” a comprehensive employee communications and participation campaign.
Separately, Brian Koenig, senior vice president of human resources for Scientific Atlanta, was named the winner of CTHRA's Leadership and Excellence Award for his role in strategically addressing complex human resources issues related to Cisco Systems' acquisition of SA.
“The caliber of CTHRA's inaugural award recipients sets a very high standard for future candidates,” CTHRA executive director Pam Williams said in a statement.
The awards will be presented at an Oct. 23 luncheon in Atlanta during CTHRA's Achieving HR Excellence Symposium.
BEST PRACTICES: COX ORANGE COUNTY/PALOS VERDES
Everyone at Cox Orange County/Palos Verdes knew competition was going to heat up in 2006 when Verizon announced it was launching its FiOS TV service, with promises of superior products and intense local participation. So Cox created a program to promote existing and new products and services, while emphasizing localism and engaging its employees every step of the way.
“Like any business, we have to keep our associates engaged,” said Sharon Smith, vice president of Cox's employee resource group.
In early 2006, Cox's leadership team partnered with the human resources and the public relations departments to develop the “Essential Pieces” program that included six factors deemed necessary for success in the marketplace. The challenge was to convince employees of the program's importance, help them understand their role in it and motivate them to achieve their goals, Smith said. An employee engagement plan was devised with the motto: “You're the Essential Piece” and the tagline: “How Are You Putting the Pieces Together?”
Goals were set in every department, and the success of those targets was integrated into employee reviews. The company also implemented a bonus structure designed around certain benchmarks. The “Essential Pieces” and employees' roles in reaching them were promoted and reinforced at monthly staff meetings.
The program was a huge success, according to Cox OCPV vice president and general manager Duffy Leone. Cox successfully launched several technological initiatives, including digital phone and the digital simulcast of its analog tier of programs. It also expanded its annual golf tournament — which had been a way of thanking advertisers and clients — into a charity event that raised $60,000 for local organizations.
Internally, the Southern California operation exceeded its free cash flow budgets and was among the company's top systems in digital video and high-speed data penetration. The system experienced the fewest bad-debt write offs, disconnects and equipment losses of all Cox systems.
The system ranked the highest among employee surveys. Turnover is also about half the industry average at 12% on an annualized basis. Safety is up and accidents are down, Leone said.
LEADERSHIP & EXCELLENCE: BRIAN KOENIG, SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA
When Cisco Systems announced its intention to buy Scientific Atlanta in November 2005, SA senior vice president of human resources Brian Koenig began assembling teams of executives from both firms to create transition committees. By the time the deal closed in March 2006, integration of the cultures, business and employees was well under way.
“It's fair to point out that Cisco had an outstanding reputation for mergers,” Koenig said. “They've purchased about 120 companies since 1993 and they had a huge amount of experience in this department. They have always focused on people, business continuity and effective integration of operations. What made this acquisition different for them was that the other deals were much smaller. They were making purchases that cost about $200 million. The SA deal was $6.9 billion. Other transactions involved 50 to 100 employees. SA had about 8,000 employees.”
The teams set up guiding principles for the integration to make sure business operations were uninterrupted; decisions were to be made from the customers' perspective; and employee plans were to be balanced with awareness and respect for SA's culture, Koenig said.
Teams were cross-functional from every department in the company and included representatives from both firms. Employees were able to post questions about the merger on the company's Intranet, and SA staffers even got to access Cisco's Intranet to get a feel for how that company operated from within. The merger resulted in no layoffs, and the only departments that had any changes in their reporting function have been finance and sales.
SA and Cisco agreed to a two-year hiatus, until 2009, on any changes to employee benefits. But Koenig doesn't expect any big changes for some time to come. “We won't make changes based on a timeline,” said Koenig, who is a past president of CTHRA and has served on its board of directors for 10 years.
No related content found.
Featured Company
-
Bigband Networks
BigBand Networks, Inc. NASDAQ: BBND provides broadband service providers with innovative network solutions designed to make it easier to move, manage and monetize video. These solutions are based on BigBand's video-networking platforms that are built to enable efficient and relia..more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
