How CCTV Became a Talent Hub

Dictated by Yang Weiguang, former CCTV president

Collated by Liu Shiying

From the 1950s to 1980s,large numbers of Chinese journalists were mainly concentrated in the Xinhua News Agency and the People’s Daily,and famous broadcasters in China National Radio, while CCTV was faced with a talent shortage.

Short on Talent, Rich in Resourcefulness

The serious talent shortage CCTV was staring in the face in the 1990s is unimaginable to most.When a new program named Oriental Horizon was launched in 1993, only seven or eight crew members were transferred to the new team. Generally, a one-hour program requires more than 100 workers. Plus, Oriental Horizon was still an avant-garde program broadcast in the wee morning hours whose fate was hanging in the balance, which was not so attractive to established talent,so no one was willing to leave the security their department offered for the bold adventure into the unknown. The top priority was to find suitable talent.

Nowadays recruitment is a cinch, but it was certainly tough back then. CCTV personnel recruited primarily through three channels, which were: enlisting university graduates to fill quotas,transferring a few individuals from other units, and accepting veteran soldiers to the team. Even so, talent was still very small in number. There were hundreds of vacant positions waiting to be filled. Depending solely on this recruitment method to save our skin was like rubbing the magic lamp from the story of The Arabian Nights and wishing for a miraculous rescue from the genie.We had to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and find another way out of this mess.

First of all, we conjured up a new way of recruitment that worked like a charm,namely, soliciting referrals from classmates or friends. For example, Shi Jian (the executive producer of Oriental Horizon)and Cui Yongyuan were college classmates, so he invited Cui Yongyuan to help; Bai Yansong was Cui Yongyuan’s fellow alumnus of the same school, so Cui Yongyuan recommended Bai Yansong to Shi Jian.

中央电视台总部大楼CCTV Headquarters

央视:从人才荒到人才湾

口述/杨伟光
整理/刘世英

20世纪50年代到80年代，中国新闻界的名记者主要集中在新华社、人民日报社，名播音员、播音主持主要在中央人民广播电台。中央电视台一直面临人才困局。

人才饥荒

你怎么也想象不出，20世纪90年代，央视曾面临过怎样的人才困境。

1993年，我们创办《东方时空》时，台里抽调到栏目组的人只有七八个。当时，一个栏目，尤其是一个时长达一小时的栏目，需要100多人。而且，当时《东方时空》还是一档生死未卜的早间栏目，对人才并没有多少吸引力，没人愿意离开原来稳定的部门，来这个栏目。当务之急是寻找人才。

现在招人很简单，当时却很难。中央电视台人员补充，只有上级下达大学毕业生指标和个别外单位外调、复员军人的接纳等渠道，人数很少。栏目组面临上百人空缺，想通过电视台招聘方式招进来，近似于天方夜谭。我们不得不另寻出路。

首先，我们想到人招人的方式，即依靠同学或朋友介绍吸纳新成员。如时间（《东方时空》总制片人）与崔永元是大学同学，时间就把崔永元拉过来帮忙；白岩松是崔永元师弟，崔永元又把白岩松介绍给时间。

Equal Opportunity Employment

The open recruitment policy in 1993 was: no work permit,professional evaluation or medical insurance provided; 280 yuan total salary each month; no help with party membership and no housing subsidies.

The minimum academic certificate required was a college degree, but you can bet that we fought tooth and nail to recruit master’s or doctoral degree holders to the crew.

The recruitment policy was so unattractive that it was almost like we were not recruiting journalists and editors but maids and janitors. Now that we were looking for talent,we should provide them with the treatment they deserved.Recruited employees should enjoy the same welfare as the longstanding employees did in other departments.

We kept striving for a better recruitment policy. Upon the first batch of recruitees passing the probationary period, CCTV issued a document, making it clear that the employees had the same rights and benefits as the regular employees in terms of study,work, benefits and vacation time.It also stipulated that they could be appointed to any post below middle management.

This not only offered immediate job opportunities for recruitees, but also ensured that they had the same development possibilities as regular employees.A few years later, many of these young journalists were promoted to managerial positions. Ni Ping,Wang Wenhua and Chen Duo obtained their professional titles by virtue of the special talent standard policy in the station.Zhao An, Zhang Ziyang, Yang Lan,and Ju Ping were all promoted accordingly.

Bringing Out the Best in the Best

Besides giving them fair and equitable treatment, it was necessary to avoid misusing their talents and to put them in the best possible position to succeed.

One of such examples is that Jing Yidan did not become a department head, but later became a famous host via Focus Interview and Oriental Horizon.It’s probably easier to find a department director than a popular host.

After joining in Oriental Horizon, Bai Yansong was enthusiastic about his work and tried his hand at being an editor and an anchorman, which actually not only made great contributions to Oriental Horizon , but also led to his quick growth into a famous host.

Before joining the CCTV team,Shui Junyi was an editor of the International Department of the Xinhua News Agency. Because of his experience as a foreign correspondent and excellent spoken English, along with his positive image, he was allowed to host foreign reports in CCTV,and has since become a host of considerable influence worldwide.

Generally, a man’s success depends largely on his footing. A good leader should not only have the sensitivity to discover talent,but also create an environment for them to bring out their intellect,which is the best treatment for talent and the greatest support that could be given.

Today, CCTV has gone from talent crunch to talent boom.

(From My CCTV Days:Interview with CCTV President Yang Weiguang, New Star Publishing House. Translation:Qing Run)

平等用人

1993年公开招聘的政策是：不发工作证、不能评职称、没有医疗保险；月薪280元；不能入党，不能享受福利分房。

我们需要的最低学历是本科，尽可能招硕士生和博士生。这个方案哪是招聘记者、编辑，是在找清洁工嘛。既然招的是人才，那就应该给人才应有的待遇，招聘的职工和正式职工都是本台职工，只是用工制度不同，他们的待遇不应低于本台原正式职工。

我们一直在争取更好的招聘政策。第一批招聘人员试用期满的那天，台里下发了一个文件，明确了聘用人员具有与正式职工一样的学习、工作、福利、休假等权益。其中还规定，聘用人员可以被聘担任中层以下职务。

这不仅对招聘员工提供了眼前的工作机会，还保障了他们和正式员工一样的发展空间。几年后，这些年轻人中，有不少走上了管理岗位。倪萍、汪文华、陈铎的高级职称，都是台里按照特殊人才标准评定的。赵安、张子扬、杨澜、鞠萍等，也都得到了相应的提拔。

因材用人

对待人才，除了要给予他们应有的待遇，还要避免大材小用，把人才放在最合适的岗位上。

敬一丹没当部门主任，后来成了名主持，就是其中一例。我觉得找一个部门主任容易，找一个名主持人难。

白岩松到《东方时空》后，从编辑走向主持，对工作充满热情，不仅为《东方时空》等节目的成功立下汗马功劳，还迅速成长为知名主持人。

水均益来中央电视台前是新华社国际部的编辑，但他英语口语好，当过驻外记者，加之良好的气质，适合当涉外报道的主持，到中央电视台后没多久就火了。

一个人能取得什么成绩，往往取决于他站在什么位置。一个领导者，除了要有发掘人才的敏锐性，还要根据人才的优势，为他打造一个能让他充分发挥聪明才智的舞台。这才是给予人才的最好待遇和对人才最大的提携。

如今，央视已经从当初的人才荒发展成人才辈出的人才湾了。