This paper examines Time Warner's human resource management philosophy and practices across its diverse media empire, which includes CNN, AOL, HBO, Warner Brothers, and Time, Inc. Drawing on the company's official HR website materials and statements from leadership, the paper explores how Time Warner positions its employees as core assets, uses real employee testimonials in recruiting, promotes professional development and diversity, and addresses the unique health and safety challenges facing journalists in conflict zones. The paper also offers recommendations for improving HR cohesion across the conglomerate's many divisions and international operations.
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Although all multinational corporations are, almost by definition, large, Time Warner is a particularly sprawling, all-encompassing behemoth, comprising entities as diverse as the Time Warner corporate division, Time, Inc., AOL, Warner Brothers, HBO, D.C. Comics, and many other media-based operations. By virtue of being a media-based company, it would seem that Time Warner would have to focus on the human, creative elements of the organization to conduct credible business and to stay afloat in today's cutthroat media environment. Time Warner's human resource staff includes everyone from the journalists who report news for CNN, to the people who offer technical support to customers having problems with their AOL service, to the employees working in Warner Brothers stores. In short, the first experience a person has with Time Warner is likely to be with a Time Warner employee — if only through reading an article written by a Time magazine correspondent, accessed through an AOL account.
The careers and human resources section of its website affirms this corporate commitment to its employees. Time Warner presents itself as a company that believes human beings are a vital asset in the corporation's effective day-to-day functioning. To draw the top talent of tomorrow to this entertainment conglomerate, however, Time Warner stresses not merely that people are important, but that it offers a genuinely engaging place to work — provided prospective employees fit into the Time Warner mold of enthusiasm and excellence.
Rather than simply stating such core principles, the website allows real-life employees to provide testimony. For example, it features the words of Jessica, a Sports Illustrated employee with a fresh-faced appearance, according to her website photograph. Jessica, who is not one of the top managers but a fairly ordinary middle-level manager, states that she looks forward to going to work in the morning because she loves her job. Through Jessica's image and words, and those of other employees, the website attempts to put a human face on working for the corporation. It stresses not merely the professional growth opportunities offered by the magazine, but the quality of life the company provides for its employees.
For example, Jessica appreciates that "the Time & Life Building is located in the heart of Midtown, with the subway station in the concourse below the building… it reminds me how cool it is to be part of the print world." ("Jessica," Working at Time Warner, 2006). Time Warner employees are portrayed as fun, educated, and on the cutting edge of media trends. Jessica becomes an article on the website — an asset for the company, a persona, as well as an employee. She becomes a personification of the company's spirit, a skillfully deployed entertainment and recruiting asset.
The personally fulfilling aspect of working at Time Warner is explicitly stated in the mission statement of the HR department, which affirms that Time Warner is "committed to offering tools and resources to help employees succeed at work and in life. Human Resources teams offer a number of leadership and professional development programs at both the enterprise and division level. In addition, workshops designed around general needs, including diversity awareness, managerial skills, communication, teambuilding, career development and presentation skills are offered throughout the year. Time Warner's larger businesses have online sites that employees can use to sign up for training classes and workshops." (Leadership and Professional Development Opportunities, Leadership Growth and Development, 2006)
On every level of the company, employees are seen as invaluable assets — deserving of training, mentoring, and continued development. The online component of being able to continuously seek employee enhancement opportunities underlines the technically forward-looking nature of the company, as befits an organization that houses AOL under its roof, even though Time Warner is not strictly an IT company. Through the use of an online format, employees are also regularly surveyed for their opinions. This enables employees to feel that their perspectives matter to the company, and also functions as a mechanism for using employees as assets to determine the best ways to reach different audiences.
The entertainment industry must constantly be on the lookout to deploy and develop new audiences. Consulting its workforce is therefore an important source of idea generation as to how to reach people — and a natural extension of the company's broader development strategy.
The company's human resource management activities, and how they relate to the general goals of the company, pertain to Time Warner's desire to satisfy all human emotional and communicative needs and desires — for human beings are the company's stock in trade. The company's general strategies of fulfilling the human desire for innovation, entertainment, and knowledge extend to learning how better to fulfill these appetites, as well as using its employees as assets in pursuit of its goals. Thus, human resource management is important to the company almost by necessity: to neglect the human element of the company's entertainment empire would be to neglect the company's reason for being and its primary source of revenue.
"Diversity goals across workforce and content"
"Protecting journalists deployed to conflict zones"
"Suggestions for improving cohesion and recruitment"
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