Biden task force lauds Frontier hiring efforts

Stamford-based telecommunications company Frontier Communications Corp. was included in Vice President Joseph Biden”™s recently released report titled “Ready to Work: Job-Driven Training and American Opportunity.”

President Barack Obama requested such a report during his 2014 State of the Union address.

Frontier signed on to assist with the “Best Practices on Recruiting and Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed” report with several other companies in January.

The report said in part:

“Years before its CEO signed the best-practices pledge, Frontier was alert to eliminating hiring screens, such as credit checks, that could inadvertently disadvantage the long-term unemployed. Removing the credit checks had no negative effect, a fact the company recently proved by reviewing hires who would have been ”˜screened out”™ had a credit check policy been in place. Looking at 30 hires, 95 percent of those hired would have failed a credit check. This talent would have been lost due to a screen with no bearing on a position”™s job qualifications or the applicant”™s performance.”

Frontier is a member of the national Platform to Employment, a program to help long-term unemployed workers get back to work, and participates in other best-practices initiatives.

Cecilia K. McKenney, executive vice president of human resources and administrative services for Frontier, said, “Frontier is committed to creating ”˜upskill”™ opportunities for American workers and employers.”

McKenney cited Frontier”™s relationship with Bridgeport-based The WorkPlace, one of five Workforce Development Boards in Connecticut, as an example of “a great way to prepare people for careers while strengthening the workforce for employers.”

Frontier employs 13,700 in 27 states.