b'Elizabeth: We really built an internal culture first thatWas there anything that you changed in allowed us to recruit the talent we wanted becauseyour selection process as this was unfold-people wanted to work here. There was a pretty biging,anythingthatwasdifferentabout shift in the way that we did business, and it was allhow you were connecting with talent?about flexibility. We had a staff of young moms that couldnt be most productive being in the office fromElizabeth:Onethingthatisuniquetousbecause 8-5 each day. So, we put some benchmarks in placewe have a good core team is that when we have an that if you are hitting your numbers and you are outopening, we rely heavily on the CSS talent analysis. Is onsalescallsanddoingthedevelopmentalwork,someone a natural salesperson based on their innate then we are going to trust our people and trust youtalents versus do they have experience but not the to do a good job, and from that trust, it will grow. Andright talent profile for success. We feel good about the word spread. People were asking what are youour training, so we focus on recruiting someone natu-doing over there at the station and how are you do- rally talented versus someone that has any broadcast ing it? We developed such a good culture, the wordexperience. We are always training up for natural tal-spread, and we started attracting top talent acrossents instead of just finding someone that we can plug our market.in and do this job. We are not working from behindeven if we need to hire someone brand new, we Lori: And that is really where it started, years ago, be- are usually in a place where we can do that. We rely fore anyone had begun to allow flexible work hours.heavily on the CSS Sales and Management Assess-We had no idea a pandemic was in the future.ment tools and feedback calls before we hire anyone. We stick to the process because it works!Was there a specific pain point that wasLori: We actually utilize the talent assessments for Congrats to TEGNA Houston: 2021 TEGNA Station of the Year! drivingthat,orachallengethatcom- every single sales role we have. We have identified pelled doing things differently? specific talents that are needed for an individual to Lori: It probably started as doing things differentlybe considered for a specific role, along with their ex-and then, just organically, different things happened.perience, skills learned, and then skills that we can develop. We take all of that into consideration when We had Hurricane Harvey here and everyone was dis- we are hiring somebodymost of the time we dont placed. Our AEs never had an office or place to comeeven meet with someone until they have completed to during the year and a half we were trying to findthat assessment because the interview then allows a new location. Events outside of our control reallyus to get more information and able to ask better pushed us forward all the way, but because we al-ready had our toe into it, we were in a much strongerOur success did not happen position to adapt quickly. When the pandemic came, we were already way ahead of virtual, and we didntovernightwe have been just survivewe have excelled through this time. working on perfecting Elizabeth: What we saw was that as our team hastransformation for years the technology, and we are communicating regularly, they were able to be out more on new business callsconsistently changing and and to maneuver more easily because they werentadjusting as our worlds driving into an office. It really allowed our sales team to do what they do best, and thats connect with ourevolve. CSS has been a clients. And they were doing more of that, and it justsignificant contributing factor built on itself. Once you have your core group doingto our success. that every time you attract new talent, everyone lives and breathes this model. We are always meeting with clients. We are always client facing. Everyone knows- Lori Clark, that this is the expectation here. Director of Sales How This Organization Won National Acclaim by Focusing on Talent 63'