At MediaMath, we care deeply about data. Whether it’s first-party, second-party, real-time or historical, data informs marketing decisions for our clients and helps them meet their target customers at exactly the right place in their buying journey. We also believe in the power of data for cultivating the talent of our most important asset: our people.
Our organization has grown tremendously since its founding in 2007, and we have had to rethink how we attract, retain and grow the right talent with a few extra hundred people. Our new approach has centered on aligning key employee competencies with business goals and using a data-driven model to manage talent. The overarching trifecta we have set after matches the same goals we aim to deliver to our clients: outcomes, transparency and control.
Outcomes
We’ve done goal-setting before and previously used our Math Values to evaluate employee performance. In an effort to establish a more streamlined approach to measuring the impact of every individual based on their achievements on goals and their behavior on competencies, we have introduced the Performance Assessment and Competency Evaluation System, or P.A.C.E.S. The data we will use as inputs for this model are employee goals and our new MediaMath core competencies, which are inspired by our Math Values. We hope this new approach allows us to have a more clearly defined pay-for-performance model that rewards based on outcomes. However, we’ve yet to complete a full cycle of this new method, so stay tuned for a follow-up post evaluating our results in the New Year.
Transparency
This year, we instituted our new human resources information system Namely company-wide so that each employee’s goals are transparent to their colleagues. We believe strongly that having access to other individuals’ and departments’ goals will lead to a greater whole, aligning everyone with our overarching MediaMath business goals. This fall, we will also institute 360-degree reviews for all employees to be assessed on their alignment with our MediaMath competencies so that they get input from multiple sources to help make them even more successful at their jobs.
Control
At MediaMath, we invite employees to take the reins of their careers by setting their own goals twice a year. Each goal should be an individual one that aligns with a departmental or company goal. Many of these goals include metrics that help drive better overall business processes, such as getting a product to launch on time or integrating supply sources, in the same way that we use data-driven marketing to deliver better business outcomes to our clients.
Just as we view our advertisers’ campaigns, MediaMath is taking a humble test-and-learn approach to talent, where we will use data from multiple sources to help steer individual employee career paths and collectively drive toward our business goals. We’re confident based on past successes on a smaller scale that this new way will set us out on a better course that leads to success at scale. Stay tuned for follow-up posts on how our new approach is going in the months to come.