For telecom giant Spectrum, the frontline workforce is just as critical as those involved in the backend hardware. But employee tenure has been consistently shorter for frontline employees.
So Paul Marchand, CHRO of Spectrum, owned by Stamford, Connecticut-based Charter Communications, has been implementing a series of efforts to improve the frontline worker experience. He shares what the company is doing, why—and the results so far.
What does Spectrum’s frontline workforce look like, and why are you investing in them now?
Spectrum has a workforce of 95,000 employees dispersed across 41 states. The vast majority of our team is made up of frontline, customer-facing employees, including field technicians, customer service representatives and retail store associates. These employees are the face of our company and interact with customers every day, yet these are also the roles where tenure tends to be shorter across the industry.
That’s why we’ve made investment in our frontline workforce a core focus at Spectrum. We call it “Investing in You,” and it’s our commitment to continuously improving the employee experience, strengthening our culture and ultimately, delivering better service to our customers.
When employees feel supported, valued and see a future at Spectrum, they’re more likely to stay, grow their skills and deepen their knowledge. That translates into a more consistent, higher-quality experience for our customers. It’s a virtuous cycle.
Of course, it’s also the right thing to do. We want Spectrum to be a place where employees at all levels can build long-term careers. That means investing in compensation, benefits and growth opportunities. These investments pay off, not just in performance and retention, but in culture. And when employees advocate for Spectrum as a great place to work with great products and services, they become some of our strongest ambassadors.
What benefits has Spectrum implemented to encourage longer tenure in frontline roles?
We’ve introduced a number of enhanced benefits over the past few years with one central goal in mind: to make Spectrum a place where employees want to build long-term careers. In April, we launched an employee stock purchase plan, giving employees the option to purchase [parent company] Charter stock through payroll deductions, and we match the purchase with a grant of restricted stock units based on the employee’s tenure.
What makes our plan different is that instead of a traditional discount, we chose to match based on tenure. The RSUs vest after three years, an intentional way to show how much we value long service and reward that commitment. For example, for employees with 10 or more years with us, we match four shares for every four purchased, essentially a BOGO—buy-one-get-one—deal.
The ESPP adds to a strong foundation of benefits designed to support financial well-being and career longevity. We offer a minimum starting wage of $20 an hour, nearly three times the federal minimum, and more than 80 percent of our workforce is eligible for additional variable compensation.
Our medical, dental and vision plans have remained consistently affordable because we’ve absorbed the annual cost increases for the last 12 years. We also offer a market-leading retirement plan that includes a company contribution of up to 9 percent annually. These are the types of benefits that not only support employees today but help them plan for their future.
How is Spectrum helping its frontline employees grow their careers and build new skills, and why do you see this as important?
One of the most meaningful ways to support our employees and improve the customer experience is by investing in career growth. That’s especially true for our frontline workforce, where institutional knowledge and strong performance have a direct impact on service quality.
In August 2023, we introduced a new education benefit powered by Guild that offers 100 percent tuition-free access to nearly 300 online degree and certificate programs. By removing upfront costs for tuition, books and fees, we’ve eliminated a major financial barrier that prevented many employees, especially those in customer-facing roles, from pursuing additional education.
Importantly, this new benefit didn’t replace our legacy tuition reimbursement program, which continues to provide up to $10,000 per year for graduate degrees and other eligible programs outside of the Guild catalog. Together, these benefits give employees a wide range of options to learn and grow, both within their current fields and into new ones.
We’ve already seen the impact of this investment. Participation among eligible employees in the 100 percent free benefit is more than 8.5 times higher than under the traditional reimbursement program, and 68 percent of participants are in frontline roles.
Employees enrolled in the education benefit are being promoted at a rate 24 percent higher than their peers, and we’re retaining them at a rate 10 percent higher. It’s a clear signal that when we eliminate obstacles and make education accessible, our employees respond and they build careers that benefit them, our business and the customers we serve.
What advice would you give to other HR leaders who want to strengthen their frontline culture?
One of the most powerful tools any HR leader has is listening and then turning that feedback into action. At Spectrum, our senior leadership makes it a priority to get out into the field for regular regional meetings and town hall-style conversations. During these visits, we set aside time for more casual conversations, over a meal for example, creating a space for honest feedback. Some of our best ideas, including our ESPP, came directly from those sessions.
In these meetings, financial security, long-term stability and ownership are naturally recurring themes. We have polled employees, asking if they would prefer bonuses or stock for example, and consistently received greater interest in the latter.
We tested the waters with a company-funded contribution to our retirement accumulation plan, and the response confirmed what we were hearing in person: Employees want to invest in the company and share in its success. That insight became the foundation of the ESPP.
Actively listening to employee feedback isn’t just about retention—it’s a differentiator in a competitive labor market. When you do right by your employees, it enhances your reputation as an employer of choice. That’s a powerful recruiting tool.
We’re thinking long term, building early career pipelines, including a pilot program that brings high school students into part-time or internship roles with a pathway to full-time jobs. Many of these students might not be college bound right away. We’re there to tell them they can grow with us. We’ll support their education, offer great benefits and pay, and help them build a career.
It’s a long-term play, but it’s how we continue a virtuous cycle of investing in people, fueling their growth and in turn, growing our business.
