Optimizing Membership for a ‘Triple Win’

By Ed Marchetti

In an industry in which metrics define every aspect of network performance, it’s not a leap to apply the same evidence-based approach to the interactions that connect our workforces, our businesses and consumers. As research becomes increasingly sophisticated, we’ve seen greater evidence of the paths that lead from engaged and knowledgeable employees to satisfied customers and company success.

At Comcast, our quest to achieve “triple wins” that benefit employees, customers and our company has led us to seek new ways to immerse our workforce within the industry and to ensure the best available learning and development. Key among those strategies has been a partnership with SCTE•ISBE that leverages SCTE•ISBE’s Corporate Alliance Partner Program, its rich training curriculum and the grass-roots chapters that are the life-blood of SCTE•ISBE membership.

While Comcast’s in-house programs are second to none when it comes to cable operator-led career development, we’ve recognized that SCTE•ISBE provides additional valuable resources that can support our objective of “First Time Right” every time for installations, service calls and engineering/

operational activities. Our CAP relationship with SCTE•ISBE is designed to:

• Increase SCTE•ISBE membership within the Comcast workforce through a multi-pronged program that encourages recruitment, service on SCTE•ISBE chapter boards and the selection of Ambassadors and Fellows who are intended to drive an optimum relationship between Comcast and SCTE•ISBE on a regional/chapter level.
• Expand executive and leadership development by leveraging SCTE•ISBE programs — most notably the SCTE•ISBE Leadership Institute at Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth and the SCTE•ISBE Leadership Institute at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business — and through the implementation of quarterly executive and leadership professional development opportunities.
• Continue to evolve a training development partnership that includes access to SCTE•ISBE training resources that are consistent with Comcast initiatives in such areas as Fiber Deep, DOCSIS® 3.1 and Wi-Fi, implementing an SCTE•ISBE-Comcast learning council to develop partnership learning strategies, and creating target programs for Comcast technicians and engineers.

We are wholeheartedly throwing the support of our company behind the Corporate Alliance Partner Program through our Ambassador program and the investments of time and resources that they require. The concept is to provide a simple but powerful framework for engagement that can help Comcast engineering, product and technical employees grow their careers.

Here’s how it works:Ambassadors serve as linchpins of communication between SCTE•ISBE chapter leaders and Comcast employees, while Fellows work to provide expertise around new technologies, network capabilities and product enablement. Each ambassador is responsible for supporting and promoting SCTE•ISBE membership and activities within Comcast, providing Comcast feedback to SCTE•ISBE and sharing best practices with other ambassadors. Fellows fulfill similar duties but also provide chapters with subject matter expertise in disciplines that are closely aligned with SCTE•ISBE programs, in order to optimize chapters’ ability to spur learning and development around advanced technologies. Ambassadors and Fellows both receive letters of recognition that acknowledge the value of their involvement with SCTE•ISBE.

By working closely with SCTE•ISBE in this way, we believe we can accelerate the pace at which employees master the skills needed to advance their careers and increase their individual value to Comcast. Incidentally, we’re also collaborating with SCTE•ISBE to provide a view of each employee’s profile by pulling together training, certification and leadership data points into SCTE•ISBE’s CORTEX Expert Development System™ app.

We talked at the start of this piece about the increasing sophistication of research. At Comcast we’re using NPS scores to help us fine tune our operations, from the employee training process itself to its impact on customer satisfaction. Incorporation of NPS results from our customers and from our own employees creates a continuous feedback loop that is helping us optimize the benefits that the SCTE•ISBE has to offer. That close relationship will help us achieve and sustain the “triple win” we seek for employees, the company and, of course, our customers.

Ed Marchetti
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
Comcast Cable

Ed Marchetti oversees technical operations, workforce operations, network operations, technology and tools, communications, data/analytics and the customer/tech experience. With more than 30 years of telecommunications and information industry experience, Ed offers fresh perspective and strategic direction for operational excellence and inspires excellence, goals attainment and operational success. Ed is a graduate of Comcast’s Executive Leadership Forum and has completed the SCTE•ISBE Leadership Institute at Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth. Ed also serves on the SCTE•ISBE Board of Directors.

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