Women in tech — entrepreneurs, technologists, nonprofit founders and entertainers — are creating pathways to a better, more equitable world.
In honor of Women’s History Month, Gillian Heaton, vice president of human resources, Comcast Mountain West Region, joined Colorado Inno to amplify the stories of some of these remarkable women. She discussed Comcast’s commitment to celebrating the contributions of women year-round, hiring trends, career development, fostering an inclusive work environment and being a top employer of choice for women.
Hiring trends
The telecommunications and media company aspires to have strong representation of women in its workforce. Since 2019, Comcast has seen a yearly increase in women hires, according to Heaton.
Comcast strives to reflect the communities where its teammates live and work. “In 2022, 37% of the workforce was composed of women, and 45.3% of our new hires in 2022 were women,” Heaton said.
Comcast is particularly focused on ensuring strong representation of women in leadership roles. In 2018, 39% of the people at the vice president level and above were women and there has been a 70% increase in the number of women at that level since 2010. There are women in leadership positions in every area of the business who are enacting powerful and innovative change.
To improve its job candidate pool, Comcast invests in organizations that support women and girls through ProjectUP, an initiative to advance digital equity and help build a future of unlimited possibilities. This includes ongoing partnerships with NPower, whose Command Shift Coalition is seeking to double the number of non-traditional, tech-skilled women of color hired in the industry over the next 10 years; and Reboot Representation, a tech coalition working to double the number of Black, Latina and Native American women receiving computing degrees by 2025. Through the coalition, Reboot funds a diversity of nonprofits and institutions focused on women, including Last Mile Education Fund, Break Through Tech, Natives Rising, and Spelman College.
Comcast’s impact to bolster tech careers extends throughout its local communities, including partnerships with Girls Inc., Science Club for Girls and others.
Additionally, on March 14, Comcast Spectacor hosted the second annual Next Shift: Mentoring the Next Generation of Female Leaders presented by Holman.
Empowering women through inclusivity
Comcast has several employee resource and affinity groups that support women, including TECHWomen, which has 1,500 members across 10 chapters. It provides impactful programming for women to support professional development, community building and personal growth.
In March, the group hosted its second annual TechWomen Global Summit, where thousands of members from around the world gathered, either in-person or virtually, for a day of learning, networking, fun and innovative thinking.
“Comcast has an ongoing commitment to professional development and career growth for women that involves finding ways to engage them in a deeper way than by hearing only from our senior leaders,” Heaton said. “These internal efforts, combined with the external support we are providing to women and girls, ensures an inclusive work environment.”
Benefits for all employees
Comcast continually looks for ways to offer attractive benefits for all employees, including women and their families. The company believes benefits should connect employees to the support they need when it matters most to help them care for those who matter most.
An array of personalized benefits, expert guidance and always-on tools are provided to meet the needs of an employee’s reality. They are designed help support people physically, financially and emotionally.
In addition to traditional benefits like medical coverage, paid time off and retirement plans, Comcast offers paid parental leave, pet insurance, mental health resources and assistance for a variety of life’s big milestones, from adoption and childcare to fertility. These offerings have led to a long list of awards, including Fortune Magazine’s Best Workplaces for Women for that last seven years in a row, No. 12 on People Magazine’s 100 Companies that Care and a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index.
“Every year you hear about another addition to the benefits program, and that’s because people’s needs constantly change,” Heaton said. “We want to support women and their families holistically, so we’re always assessing benefits and are willing to change with the times. To be an employer of choice, you have to make sure the benefits are attractive and meet the needs of current employees, while also being forward-thinking about the needs of the women we hope to attract in the future.”
Comcast brings together innovative technology and extraordinary entertainment. Learn more about careers at Comcast.
Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer with The Business Journals Content Studio.
