"The profession is still about attracting and retaining the best talent. … It's still about creating an environment where people are going to thrive."
Judy Jackson
Global Chief Talent Officer
Wunderma
In her role, Judy Jackson is accountable for the leadership, development, and execution of a broad talent strategy for Wunderman—a digital agency—supporting the strategic needs of the global network.
How do you define talent development?
I don't know if I define talent development; I define talent strategy.
How has the talent strategy evolved at Wunderman?
Two years ago, we launched a philosophy called YOU Time. The goal was to create a culture where there was honesty, transparency, and where people felt comfortable being themselves. As a first step, we threw out the formal, clunky performance management system we had and replaced it with YOU Time, which encourages informal conversations between employees and their managers around four topics: How are you doing; what do you want to focus on in your work; how can I, as your manager, help you; and what do you want for your personal self? Over time, the YOU Time strategy became a culture of conversation.
What are the three most important components of talent development at Wunderman?
The talent acquisition and L&D functions probably top my list. They also take up most of my time. Talent acquisition is important because it's about building a culture that people want to come to and feel part of and where they will stay.
And then L&D is also important because we want to create a learning culture, especially one where people can have new experiences. That's why we developed the YOU Swap program so that people could temporarily swap jobs and learn how people in other countries or operations are doing similar jobs. This has been important to our Millennials, who are impatient and hungry to learn.
Where does learning and talent development fit in the org chart?
Talent development is a term we use interchangeably with HR. So, I report to the CEO, Mark Read, and the areas I oversee as chief global talent officer are talent acquisition, which some people call talent; global L&D; employee relations; and inclusion. Then, there are people reporting to me who handle talent acquisition, L&D, compensation, and total rewards.
