Building a workforce by leading with values, not benefits
for:
Quanta Services
Fortune 200 Energy & Utilities
2021–2024 | North America and Puerto Rico
Value Summary
Rather than treating recruitment as a messaging problem, this work used brand to reframe how Quanta understood its workforce challenge.
By leading with values and vision instead of benefits alone, the company built a system that aligned employees, operating companies, and future recruits around a shared point of view.
The problem
The energy and infrastructure industry faces a growing workforce crisis. Experienced workers are retiring, fewer young people are entering the trades, and demand for skilled labor continues to rise. For Quanta Services, a Fortune 500 company with more than 50,000 employees across 200 operating companies, this was not a distant trend. It was an immediate operational risk.
Recruiting was slowing. Loyalty in the field was thin. Operating companies functioned independently, and many employees had little awareness of the parent company or the long-term opportunity it provided. People moved job to job for marginal pay increases, often without realizing what they were leaving behind.
Leadership knew something was wrong, but the problem was not tactical. There was no obvious campaign to run or channel to optimize. What was missing was alignment. Quanta lacked a shared point of view about how to talk about work, pride, safety, and opportunity in a way that could scale.
The challenge
Quanta faced two connected challenges.
First, the industry struggled to attract younger workers to the trades. Recruitment relied on traditional pipelines and messaging focused on pay, security, and convenience. These methods were no longer effective.
Second, Quanta’s structure made cohesion difficult. Each operating company had its own identity and culture. While this independence was operationally necessary, it made it hard to create loyalty or shared belief at the enterprise level.
The question was not how to recruit more people. It was how to build belief in the work itself without erasing what made the organization work.
The decision
The most important decision Quanta made was to lead with values and vision, not benefits alone.
Instead of positioning work as a transaction, the company chose to articulate why the work mattered. Recruitment shifted from incentives to purpose, pride, and contribution to modern life. This belief became the foundation for how Quanta spoke to employees, recruits, and the broader market.
The work
Our work began by listening. We conducted qualitative research across leadership, employees, and prospective workers to understand how work was perceived, what people valued, and where belief broke down.
A clear pattern emerged. People committed when they felt their work had meaning beyond the job itself. Pride, safety, and contribution mattered more than incentives alone.
We helped Quanta articulate this belief into a clear point of view, captured in a mission-driven narrative centered on the idea that Quanta’s people power modern life. This belief became the filter for decision-making across communication, recruiting, and experience.
From there, the focus was application.
We updated Quanta’s brand expression to reflect this point of view, keeping what worked and improving what did not. Messaging emphasized professionalism, purpose, and safety as core values. A new corporate website was structured around culture, capabilities, careers, and companies, helping audiences understand both the scale of the organization and their place within it.
To support alignment across 200 operating companies, we designed systems rather than mandates. Operating companies retained their identities while clearly signaling their connection to Quanta through shared language, design rules, and simple affiliation markers. These systems created cohesion without centralizing control.
We also developed tools that allowed leadership to communicate directly with employees at scale, reinforcing shared values and reducing reliance on fragmented messaging.
What changed
The shift went beyond marketing.
Leadership began speaking about employees differently, both internally and at the board level. Recruitment messaging moved from short-term incentives toward long-term opportunity and pride in skilled work. Operating companies gained clearer guidance and stronger tools, making alignment easier without sacrificing autonomy.
Most importantly, the work held together over time. The mission and messaging continue to be used years later as Quanta grows and acquires new companies.
Results
The impact was measurable.
Website traffic increased more than 400 percent
Overall digital engagement grew 34 percent year over year
Engagement across platforms increased more than 300 percent after shifting focus from technical capability to people
At the organizational level, brand cohesion improved across more than 200 operating companies, creating a more consistent experience while preserving local identity.
Why it matters
Quanta’s workforce challenge was not solved by a campaign. It was addressed by clarifying what the company believed about work and applying that belief consistently.
This case shows how brand, when treated as a point of view and a decision filter, can align complex organizations and support long-term growth without centralizing control.
Define your point of view.