Hakim Boubazine

One of cable’s most innovative major players, Boubazine constantly strives to improve and grow the company’s offerings, and doing so in a mindful way. During the past year, he readied Altice USA’s mobile service, a new fiber offering, and launched updates and improvements to the Altice One entertainment experience, but he’s never lost focus on his commitment to sustainability and the environment. He knows diversity and inclusion are equally vital to the company’s success. “We need to think more broadly about talent evaluation and selection,” he says. “Managers need to strongly consider the positive impact of hiring people whose unique backgrounds and perspectives can be additive just as they do in evaluating technical skills.”

What does your company/organization do to ensure all employees feel included?
We recognize that inclusion is a highly personal feeling—different people engage and feel part of the collective in different ways. One thing that is fundamental to being included is knowledge sharing and communications. Are employees being brought along for the journey? Do they feel they have a voice? Whether in our enterprise communications or through leaders’ roles as communicators embedded throughout the organization, we strive to have a wide range of tools and moments for all of our people to both receive information and to raise their hand with an idea of a concern. It’s the first step in ensuring that they feel part of our community.

How can diversity be better incorporated into the recruiting process?
We need to think more broadly about talent evaluation and selection. Managers need to strongly consider the positive impact of hiring people whose unique backgrounds and perspectives can be additive just as they do in evaluating technical skills.

Can you share a successful diversity program at your company or one you’ve observed at another company or organization?
Altice Access is our internal affinity group that champions issues concerning those with disabilities. It’s a passionate group that even as they were establishing themselves was quick to serve as a resource for our product organization. Who better to help us understand the needs of customers than our own people? Seeing how that group has worked with our teams on new products that are in the pipeline and our retail organization on design and construction plans for our stores has been tremendous and absolutely critical to our plans to better serve the needs of all our customers well into the future.

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