{"id":999881534,"date":"2016-04-19T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T18:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dice.npgdev.com\/?p=73990994"},"modified":"2016-04-19T18:42:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T18:42:00","slug":"employment-branding-case-study-centurylink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dice.npgdev.com\/hiring\/recruitment\/employment-branding-case-study-centurylink","title":{"rendered":"Employment Branding Case Study: CenturyLink"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the new Definitive Guide to Employment Branding<\/a>, recruiting expert John Sumser breaks down effective Employment Branding (EB) for companies large and small. Here\u2019s a case study from the e-book that shows how even a single individual can have a huge influence on a firm\u2019s branding and recruiting efforts: Tina Williams solves a very tough problem every day. As the Director of Talent Acquisition at CenturyLink, she recruits for over 400 locations from an office in Northeast Louisiana, near the Arkansas border. Her messages about working for the company have to be tailored and disseminated differently in each place. For each category of worker in each location, she prepares nuanced individual materials that describe the company in ways that matter in that locale for that profession. She specializes in \u201cworking closely with business leaders to translate business strategies into human capital needs and then delivering programs and services to meet those needs.\u201d Or as she says: \u201cWe tailor (segment marketing) from skill sets to geography to demographics. Messaging is tailored and it gets more so if the position is hard to fill. You change messaging and tactics based on the position.\u201d For some, the challenge would be daunting. Since Williams cut her teeth on trench-level marketing for the same firm, she almost intuitively understands the 400 markets and their nuances. \u201cWe look for every kind of talent everywhere,\u201d she says. She worked in marketing at her company for 16 years before being promoted to run the Talent Acquisition Department. \u201cWe have a separate organization that focuses on employment marketing and branding. We hire from entry level to multiple degree technical skill set,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause we hire so many who are so different and the name is new, we knew we had to introduce or reintroduce ourselves as an employer of choice.\u201d That recruiting problem required a branding solution. When the company decided to build a recruiting team, step one was to develop a staffing operation (all tactics, no strategy). Step two was the establishment of a separate employment marketing and branding initiative. Last year, she hired an Employment Branding agency to help with continuous improvement. The EB firm had a proven track record. She recruited someone from the company\u2019s marketing department to manage the contract. When asked if EB reduced her recruiting costs, she says: \u201cYou can\u2019t always look at this from a pure cost perspective. Our goal is to hire the highest quality people. I am sure that our approach gets us there. We can show it with evidence from our process. But, no, I can\u2019t point to a direct cost savings.\u201d One really important key is internal support. \u201cBrett Blair, our VP of Talent Acquisition, made it possible by removing roadblocks and making sure I had the resources I needed,\u201d she adds. \u201cHe coached and supported our team at every step.\u201d About the most important things to do, she immediately began raving about the quality of her team. Then she outlined a basic process:<\/p>\n