The secret is out: Denver is a great place to live and work. And millennials (people born from 1980 to 2000) are moving here in great numbers for the quality of life and strong job market.
Millennials comprise Comcast’s largest client base, boasting the highest usage of broadband of any other group. They see the value in the product Comcast offers, and they use it almost constantly.
As a result, Comcast, like many other companies in Colorado, is learning what it takes to have a multigenerational workforce—and those strategies look a lot different than a generation ago.
In the past, a prospective employee evaluated the company’s stability and how likely it was he or she could grow a career there, hoping to stay at the same company for decades.
Younger professionals have a very different litmus test.
To attract millennial workers, we as employers have to help them understand the many ways we are invested and committed to the communities we serve. It’s less about the specific job and the paycheck. Quality of life and employee purpose trump these more traditional concerns. Millennials ask themselves very different questions about a prospective employer: Do I support what this company stands for? How will I feel communicating with my network on social media about my work?
“Millennials don’t see themselves pigeon-holed in a position or in a single career vertical,” says Stephanie Kater, director of talent acquisition for Comcast’s West Division. “Rather, they want to grow a strong foundation of diverse skills, and this drives them to seek experience in many different areas.”
Comcast, which is among the five largest private sector employers in Colorado with approximately 8,000 employees in the state, is working hard to develop our millennial workforce— including a concerted focus on recruiting active duty military service members, reservists and veterans.
Comcast seeks to tap into the expertise, experience and extraordinary discipline of current and former service members, and we are working to hire 10,000 reservists, veterans and military spouses nationally by 2017.
We offer generous benefits for service members who are called to active duty or training, as well as internal support and mentorship programs to advance veterans’ personal and professional development.
“For an individual getting out of active duty, it can be hard to see how their skills as a gunner translate to the professional civilian world,” says Christopher Boland, a customer service supervisor with Comcast and military reservist. “But Comcast respects the skills acquired in the military, and we see those skills as transferable to a successful career within our company.”
Comcast’s challenge in attracting millennial workers is to help them understand the many ways we are invested and committed to the communities we serve.
“Millennials will continue to challenge the corporate environment,” says Kater. “In addition to wanting a community-conscious corporate culture, these professionals won’t stay in a role that they aren’t passionate about. They want a voice in their career progression within the company.”
At Comcast, leaders are charged with understanding our employees’ passions and helping them engage in projects that fit those passions and pique their evolving interests. In this way, Comcast acts as a navigator for our team members’ professional development.
Denver’s appeal to professionals continues to grow. And for companies to be successful in attracting and retaining millennial employees, including veterans, we must balance current trends in talent management with a responsive attitude toward internal feedback and employee ambitions.
Do you want to learn how to help our service men and women transition into careers? Come and network with veteran students as they practice their interview skills at Boots to Suits Career Boot Camp – Mock Interviews on Sept. 12
Jeff Hamstad is the vice president of Human Resources for the Comcast Mountain West Region.
This was originally published in the summer issue of Business Altitude. Click here to read the full issue.