One of New Zealand's most recognisable media brands is mid-transformation – and its people leader is at the centre of it all
When Bernadette Kelly joined TVNZ as chief people and corporate officer, she stepped into a business already in motion.
The broadcaster – long defined by its six o'clock news bulletins – was undergoing one of the most significant pivots in its history: away from traditional broadcast and toward a fully digital, streaming-first model.
Two years into a five-year transformation journey, Kelly says HR's role in holding that change together has been anything but peripheral.
"We've had to strip quite a lot of cost out of the business," Kelly said. "At the same time, we've also had to really pivot away from... people have a TV and it comes through an aerial, because people watch our content now on their phones, on tablets or iPads, or on connected TVs."
The transformation touches every corner of the organisation. TVNZ is competing directly with global streaming giants for both content and advertising, and its new platform – due to go live imminently – will enable hyper-targeted advertising, including through anonymised data-sharing arrangements with advertisers.
It is, Kelly noted, a "complete 180" from the broadcast model the company was built on.
Structuring change with intention
Rather than absorbing transformation into existing roles, TVNZ took a deliberate approach: dedicated project structures, appropriate resourcing, and change managers assigned to each of 12 concurrent initiatives. It was a lesson partly learned the hard way.
"When we started on this process, we probably didn't quite have the structures right, and we sort of paid for it a little bit at the beginning, but we quickly got on board with that,” Kelly said.
The investment has paid off. In TVNZ's most recent engagement survey – conducted in 2026 – the organisation recorded an 85% response rate, with around 85% of staff indicating they understood the strategy, the initiatives, and the future direction. That is a marked shift from where things stood at the outset of the transformation, when uncertainty ran high and communication was still finding its footing.
"It's probably the best I've ever seen it in all the companies I've worked for," Kelly said.
Anxiety, however, has not disappeared. The survey also surfaced a consistent undercurrent: concern about job security. "What is coming out in the survey is: I'm concerned for my job. All these changes – what does it mean for me? Will I still have a job? Will my job still be the same?" That tension, Kelly acknowledged, is real and ongoing.
Learning in the margins
One of the less visible consequences of the transformation has been a significant surge in on-the-job development – though Kelly concedes TVNZ has not always done enough to name it as such. Staff have been seconded into project teams, exposed to high-calibre external hires, and upskilled in areas like data fundamentals and AI literacy.
"One thing we know we've got to do better on is actually communicating that. The last two years, although you haven't been on a course or there hasn't been a leadership program, most of the business has had a significant amount of development just by working here."
It is a point Kelly would revisit if starting the journey again: being explicit, from day one, that the transformation itself is the development program.
The people function at the executive table
Kelly's role spans people, corporate services, including – notably – internal communications. That alignment has proved strategically important during a period when TVNZ's own journalists are among the staff navigating change.
"Whatever we say externally, we need to be saying internally, and if we say it internally, then we may be reporting on it ourselves externally," she explained. "It's been a bit of a trick for us."
More broadly, she is emphatic about where the people function belongs during periods of major organisational change.
"I don't understand how you could do a major piece of change without having that role at an executive level and being able to influence with the CEO. I think it's crucial."
The exec team itself has tightened considerably – down from 11 or 12 members to five plus the CEO – a trend Kelly sees playing out more widely.
In leaner structures, the CPO and the CFO are the two roles most likely to carry a whole-of-business view. That vantage point, she said, is precisely what change demands.
"The sort of chief people role, the senior people role, should sit on the exec. And I think it says a lot about how they value their people."
