Tech Talent Preview: Q & A with Comcast's Chris Passaro

Chris Passaro, Comcast’s vice president of Human Resources for the Twin Cities region, will speak on a panel about best-in-class workforce initiatives at TechTalent Feb. 28. Here’s a preview of some of his insight:

What’s the best thing about working in technology in Minnesota?

There are so many! The environment is thriving, and the thinking is progressive. We as a technology community want to keep it that way, and we’re eager to make the right investments in our people to continue to thrive.

What’s the hardest challenge facing our high-tech businesses?

The labor shortage is truly the biggest challenge facing us. Available jobs are outpacing the rate of new workers. This event is going to be so helpful for jumpstarting the conversation about how we attract talented technologists and keep them here.

What will we learn from you at TechTalent?

At Comcast we’re proud of the work we’ve done to help bring more military veterans into the private sector. These veterans bring a strong work ethic and the right skills to make a real impact, but hiring managers don’t always understand how that translates to a corporate or other private sector setting. Instead of putting all the responsibility for this translation on our veterans, at Comcast we’re training our hiring managers and recruiting teams to understand how a military background, skills and training transfers to our environment. We want to let these veteran applicants know that we’re honored to have them interview with us, and we want them to choose our organization. Making this effort with our hiring managers is one way we prove that.

Which other speaker are you most excited to hear from?

I’m excited to hear about the research from on the Defining the Problem panel and get a collection of thoughts and feedback to identify how we can collectively solve the problem. We’re in the top 25 cities in the U.S. and we we have a labor shortage on the horizon. We must get ahead of that so that this is an environment that people want to come to and stay. I’m excited to hear what they have to say so we can get to a place to solve for those issues.

What are you reading?

Leaders: Myths and Reality by General Stanley McChrystal. He gets at what makes a leader great and shows some unconventional paths to success.

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