Talent Attraction at American Airlines

After the acquisition of US Airways, American Airlines was finally positioned to make significant changes with the vision of restoring American as not just the largest, but also the greatest airline in the world. And to do that, they understood their focus needed to be on their people. After all, your customer experience will never be greater than your employee experience.

With that in mind, AA hired Carrie Corbin to build their centralized Talent Acquisition programs and strategies. Her team’s responsibility was to support the enterprise talent attraction efforts by building, implementing and overseeing a team responsible for the following:

“Carrie is one of the most knowledgeable individuals in our industry. She has built a career that most would hang their hat on, but she is nowhere near her finish line. When Carrie speaks audiences learn. She is a true strategist and always manages to stay ahead in an ever changing discipline. If you’re in a meeting and have an idea she’s probably already thought of it and taken it a step further so listen closely. Carrie combines her knowledge with a perfect balance of leadership skills and knows how to recruit, retain, and develop her team members. She is always an asset and can help any organization improve their recruiting and employer brand strategies. ” – Christopher Clark, American Airlines

Key Accomplishments

• RECRUITMENT MARKETING: Graduated from “post & pray” with targeted media strategy that drove 300% increase in app volume from 2016 to 2017. Career site averaged 450K hits a month (over 50% female) and media generates 80K applications a month (over 50% minority).
• SOURCING: Absorbed sourcing responsibility with only 2 of original 6 approved headcount due to successful media strategy implementation. For non-executive roles, drove $900K in agency avoidance in first year.
• DIVERSITY: Decided on a “make our own market” events strategy & launched AA exclusive military career expo to connect military talent directly with hiring managers (instead of recruiters) to minimize unconscious bias from simply reviewing resumes.
• HR TECH: Key player in the largest SAP/Successfactors full HR suite implementation, specifically with recruiting marketing, recruiting management & onboarding. Reduced app time to 10 mins & increased applications while lowering apply incompletes. Automated onboarding to include external portal for pre-start/keep warm.
• AWARDS & RECOGNITION:
  • Candidate Experience Awards: 2016, 2017
  • Glassdoor, Best Places to Interview: 2017
  • Indeed, Best Places to Work: 2017
  • GI Jobs, Military Friendly Employer: 2108
  • Increased Glassdoor rating from 3.4 to 3.8, CEO approval from 59% to 78%, doubled followers from 11K to 22K, increased average monthly traffic from 150K to 260K.