Dow Jones & Co. is somewhat of a unique organization. In terms of employee population, which stands at about 5,500, the company isn’t exactly huge. But as the leader in news and business information worldwide, the reach far exceeds employee size. Under the Dow Jones umbrella are some of the most respected names in journalism, television and information services, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Smart Money, and Factiva.com, collectively engaging about 42 million people worldwide and impacting a far, far greater number.
When News Corporation took over Dow Jones operations in 2007, it brought more than a little change, with leadership almost completely turning over. That’s not to mention culture, procedural and managerial changes. With those organizational development needs in mind, the first step was to bring cohesion to the potentially disruptive changes by creating processes that govern the properties in Dow Jones’ vastly different business-to-business and business-to-consumer branches.
With new leadership in place and some change management safely behind them, the next step for learning leaders was to level out management functions. That process began this past summer, with the launch of a Management Essentials initiative to make sure all managers are armed and ready to operate together, as part of one unified company with one unified approach.
Lorna Hagen, vice president of HR and talent management, led the charge on the Management Essentials program, which was based on a program she and Greg Giangrande, executive vice president and chief HR officer, rolled out at another News Corp. sister company, HarperCollins. That adapted program has already touched about 40% of the Dow Jones managers, with an eye on reaching all current managers before the holidays.
“We wanted managers to understand why we were moving with such speed, from the redesign of the Wall Street Journal to the investments on the B-to-B side. There was a purpose to all this,” Hagen said. “The opportunity to have managers on the same page is a big opportunity, but also a big challenge.”
She’s not kidding about that challenge. Dow Jones has about 1,100 managers eligible for the Management Essentials program, and the classes are being done mostly in-person and entirely in-house, using no external facilitators. They’re learning new policies, procedures and approaches in four general areas: the company’s core management philosophy, manager roles in learning & development, the manager’s role in recruiting and manager participation in compensation and benefits.
It’s working, Hagen is delighted to report. Conversations are being started across divisions and across geographies, and the learning team is hearing helpful feedback for the next step.
And the next step is coming. The first phase of the Management Essentials class, of course, will be an ongoing offering as new people join the management ranks at Dow Jones brands. But Hagen and her learning teams are also working on expanding the course for alumni, involving managers in determining course objectives and ensuring everyone’s role is connected to company strategy. They’re hearing from managers with needs such as how to make recruiting more effective and how to better present when speaking in public. They want to continually expand the company’s internal perspective from regional to global, and they may expand facilitation of the programs to focus on more tactical approaches to management as well.
“The most important piece was having managers understand that they’re part of a global community,” Hagen said. “Understanding that they’re not alone in this and that they’re part of a global organization is important. They’re not going through certain challenges by themselves and their opportunities and challenges don’t have to be siloed.”
