Cablefax The Magazine - July 2018 - 14

201 8 TOP OPS AWARDS
MSO DIVERSITY AWARD
Altice USA
Altice USA has gone through a number of changes over the past
year, splitting from its European counterpart and shifting its leadership.
It's also been preparing for a number of new endeavors, including
its upcoming mobile service. But through it all, one thing hasn't
changed: its commitment to diversity and inclusion.
" We have been on an amazing journey these last two years building
Altice USA using the foundations of three tremendous corporate
cultures, " explains Lee Schroeder, Altice USA's chief diversity
officer and evp, government and public affairs. " Once much of that
work was behind us, it was the right time for us to develop our
forward-looking plan to ensure we are best positioned to continue
serving the needs of our customers, our communities, and our
employees. "
The company has never had a shortage of employees wanting to
maintain a focus on diversity and inclusion, and it's never hampered
the conversation surrounding the topic. Despite that, Altice still saw
room to take its efforts to the next level.
" When we looked at some of the numbers in terms of employee
representation, we felt good about where we stood as a diverse
company to start, " Schroeder says. " However, our leadership team
all the way up through our CEO felt that we had to focus on developing
a deeper approach to diversity and inclusion that can permeate
across every area of the business. "
That approach wasn't something that fell back on simple tolerance,
or even the slightly better (but still far from perfect) benchmark of
acceptance. The final company definition transcended it all.
" Altice USA's approach to diversity and inclusion embraces every
individual, striving to ensure their distinct interests, realities and beliefs
are appreciated and valued in all that we do, " Schroeder says.
Each person is allowed to be celebrated for who they are and what
FAST FACTS
uAltice USA has seven employee affinity groups: Altice
Access, B.E.A.N. (Black Employee Affinity Network), Altice
Generations, The Latino Community of Altice, Altice Together
- LGBTQ, The Military Family, HER Impact Network
uThe MSO has more than 70 employees engaged in the
leadership of our diversity & inclusion programs at various
levels.
uAltice USA completed its spinoff Altice NV in June. It
serves approximately 4.9 million residential and business
customers in 21 states through its Optimum and Suddenlink
brands.
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their unique perspective brings to the team. They each have a platform,
letting their voice be heard by everyone from their teammates
to those in the C-Suite.
While diversity and inclusion has been top of mind for management,
top brass also believes that even more progress can be made when
the attention is off of them and on employees. Employee influence
affects every level of the company, starting from HR searches for
potential talent all the way to the executive level.
" It was important for us to make employee engagement a key
initial focus because this type of work has to be felt by employees
on a human level to start to really permeate the organization and
culture. " Schroeder says. " The Executive Council is focused on other
programs such as how we approach diversity through talent development
and what standards do we hold our partners and vendors to
that make sense for us as a company. " n
- Sara Winegardner
July 2018
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Cablefax The Magazine - July 2018

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