Comcast
How the telecom and media company created an organization-wide upskilling pipeline for new talent and emerging leaders
At a glance
Since 2022, Comcast has partnered with Section to create scalable, well-rounded talent development programs for employees at every stage of their career.
Comcast’s goal was to future-proof their talent and build pipelines that served the current and future needs of the business. With this in mind, they created new upskilling programs for two groups: Early career employees who lack practical experience but have expertise in emerging skillsets, and mid-career employees seeking leadership roles.
For mid-career employees, Comcast leveraged Section’s business core and leadership curriculum – with top courses including Problem Solving, Generative AI Business Strategy, and AI for Strategic Decision Making. For their early career employees, Comcast partnered with Section to create a custom solution so effective they’ve brought it back 3 times.
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Jenn Nyiri, VP, Comcast
"There’s a real art to designing learning and making the learnings stick. The Section platform really captivates and keeps our audience engaged because it's not a lecture experience, but rather an interactive and experiential opportunity to learn from academic and industry experts. That type of mix is really hard to facilitate internally."
75 NPS
Across all Comcast learners
The story of
Comcast
Comcast is a telecommunication and media conglomerate, and parent company to brands like Xfinity and NBCUniversal. Through its digital connectivity offerings, original content, and experience services, Comcast reaches millions of customers globally and employs 190,000 people worldwide. In 2020, Comcast leadership took a harder look at proactively building talent pipelines that meet the current and future needs of both Comcast and NBCUniversal. Because they employ a significant number of recent graduates – and people without traditional degrees – the question became: How do we recruit x with little to no experience and turn them into top performers?
The challenge
From untapped top talent...
Comcast needed to provide soon-to-be and recent college graduates with on-the-job training that would let them thrive in their new roles. The company created rotational programs to give new employees hands-on experience in three core areas: finance, cybersecurity, and technology. At the end of the three rotations, new hires make the case for where they want to be placed in the organization by creating a personal career “launch story” that highlights their experience and strengths.
With the programs established, Comcast needed a third-party course provider that could offer accessible, flexible learning experiences to make the experience more enriching and effective.
The solution
...into top performers
Comcast purchased seats for early-career rotational program participants in Section’s Storytelling for Influence course – which focuses on connecting with an audience, making them the hero, and crafting a convincing narrative. This two-day workshop was custom-designed for Comcast with the goal of helping each participant create a personal “launch story”.
On the first day of the workshop, participants navigate the Comcast launch story framework and explore the multiple paths that their story can take. They then prototype, workshop, and present their launch stories to their peers and Senior Program Managers.
Participants walk away from the course with a new set of storytelling skills and a tangible retrospective of their professional accomplishments and strengths.
“Learning comes to life when our development program participants make connections with and hear real-life examples from each other and people across other companies.”
Jenn Nyiri, VP, Comcast
Results & the future
Section’s Storytelling for Influence course was extremely well-received by employees and managers, who saw observable growth in communication skills and confidence in the employees who participated in it. Comcast made the decision to require the course for all future entry-level participants.
Comcast saw three significant outcomes from its partnership with Section:
- Outsized learner engagement – Participants were excited and motivated by the level of expertise and professional community available through Section.
- Noticeable improvement in business skills – Managers report observing improved communication skills and confidence during and immediately following the Storytelling for Influence course.
- Enhanced community – The storytelling course led to stronger relationships between participants and their managers.
Comcast is sponsoring a third sprint of the storytelling course. To date, 267 Comcast employees have learned with Section, completing 400 courses and watching 2,800 lessons.
Section is also now providing foundational AI knowledge to the Comcast enterprise talent team by upskilling them in generative AI strategy. This team has used Section courses to influence expectations and governance around AI as well as identifying practical use cases for daily use within Comcast.
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