Q: What is your new role?
A: I’m the Vice President of Human Resources for the California Region. I lead a team of 45 people who is responsible for the well-being and success of our employees in California. My team’s responsibilities include employee relations, recruitment, organizational and employee development, talent management, compensation and benefits, internal communications, and environmental health and safety. Also, I’ll be positioning Comcast as the Employer of Choice in California.
Q: What are the top three things you plan to implement?
A: First, we’re implementing a new employee onboarding process for our leaders at the director level as they take on new heights in management. It’s a huge point of transition to move from a manager of people position to a manager of managers. The second is our YourVoice Survey. We want to know that our employees’ concerns are being listened to and acted upon and this is one more way we’re doing that. Lastly, we want to continue the same high engagement around employee motivation and our workplace.
Q: Tell me something people may not know about you?
A: I really love chess. My dream is to have a lawn-sized chess set. I think the interesting thing about chess is that it’s a good example of how business and human resources strategies fit together. You have the business and market strategy provided by those leaders while our human resources leaders provide the organizational design and make sure the right players are in the correct positions to win on the business. Together, they bring success to the business.
Q: Who is Karen Fascenda outside of Comcast?
A: I’ve been married for 26 years and he’s actually been a “Comcaster” (Comcast employee) for almost 18 years as well. We’re fortunate to have three amazing kids. One of whom just graduated from college, while the other two are about to graduate. We also have two awesome dogs as well. Besides that, I love the outdoors, hiking and just being outside.
Q: What do you value most in your work day? And what is your working style?
A: I take the most value out of seeing my impact in two areas. One, knowing we’ve helped the business succeed and second that I’ve helped our employees succeed in their goals. When I see someone who I’ve mentored realize some of their career dreams, that to me is amazing. Alternatively, and just as valuable, is helping coach someone through a difficult situation and seeing a positive outcome.
A: My working style is I don’t like to be scheduled. Unfortunately, I’m overscheduled all the time. I like to have some time to be creative and think through ideas. I’m a very collaborative person and in my experience having a diverse sounding board to bounce ideas off of leads to the best results.
Q: What is a “Comcaster” to you?
A: Collaborative, innovative and possessing high integrity.
Q: What are you passionate about as a leader?
A: For me it is about developing people and my team. During my first managerial role in my twenties, I managed two people who were closer towards the end of their careers. They taught me that a leader isn’t just coaching and leading others, but also learning and developing from your team. While that was over 20 years ago, one of those same employees invited me to have dinner with her when she moved into a retirement community recently. Examples of relationships like that, and knowing that I have influenced the lives of our employees is what drives me.
Q: What are you passionate about as a parent?
A: For me it is about being able to set my family and children up for success. Most recently, my son received his first job offer and with that offer, I felt like all my efforts were realized.
For more on our leadership take a look at our profile on Aaron Walker, Vice President of Technical Operations for the Sacramento Valley area: Aaron Walker: Future-Proofing the Sacramento Valley
