Four days after parting company with Danny Wilson, Pools eased their way to their first League One win in seven games thanks to a Kevin Kyle brace and a Matty Robson strike.
It moves the North East side upto 10th, although they could slip back into the bottom half of the table when the rest of the division play on Saturday afternoon.
"I have to say the players have been extremely professional, worked very hard and listened to what's been said over the last couple of days," said Turner.
"The early goal was very pleasing and gave us something to build on and I think the second came at the right time - it was a great strike by Matty too.
"After what's happened this week I felt it was important to get that win, especially in our home game, and hopefully we can build on that now."
The Southend manager Steve Tilson thought his side were "too nice". The result extended their winless sequence to seven matches.
"In the first half we created a few chances and I thought we were the better team," said Tilson.
"We were 2-0 down at half-time and I don't know how. They scored a wonderful second goal, but we need to be harder to break down.
"We're too easy to beat. In the end we didn't take our chances and got punished. We're simply too nice at the moment. We need to keep working hard though, as we've got to come through this sticky spell."