Independent Employer Brand Consulting
Most employer brand work answers the wrong question — what do we want to say about ourselves? The right question is who exactly you're trying to hire, and what that person needs to hear before they'll move. That's where this starts.
About
Dustin Carper
SHRM-SCP · Founder, Carper Advisory
15+ years building employer brand systems at companies ranging from early-stage to enterprise — including Atlassian, Radancy, and Groupon. I've led TA, run HR end-to-end as CPO, and built the kind of talent marketing infrastructure that actually outlasts the engagement.
Not a universal EVP. Not a positioning deck that lives in a shared drive. A four-phase methodology that starts with the candidate and works backward — producing a system your team can activate the day the engagement closes.
Every engagement runs on the Build + Shape framework: AI builds the research foundation. Human expertise shapes it into something credible, differentiated, and defensible.
Full Methodology & DeliverablesThe AI-Ready Talent Brief — every engagement closes with a structured brand asset formatted for direct AI tool input. Load it once. Produce on-brand, persona-mapped content on demand. Indefinitely.
Standard"Most briefs answer the wrong question. The Talent Brief starts with the hire — who exactly you're trying to reach, and what that person needs to hear to move."
Build 2–3 personas from decision logic, not demographics. Map competitor messaging. Identify white space in the labor market.
Analyze internal data, run stakeholder interviews, produce a positioning recommendation grounded in what you can credibly claim.
3–4 messaging pillars per persona with proof point structures. Framework, not copy — designed to feed a writer or an AI tool.
Owned/earned/paid property map and content category logic. Categorization and focus. Your team decides what to execute.
He challenges the status quo and drives innovation — and has redefined employer brand strategies for multiple household brands.
Previously
The Talent Brief is the thing I've built. But some problems don't come in a box. If you need clear thinking and a bias toward what actually moves hiring forward — for whatever the situation is — that's the other half of what I do.
$300/hr · A small number of engagements at a time.
An EVP that's three years old and was never really true — diagnosing what's worth keeping and what needs to go
A TA team rebuilding after a rough year — figuring out what the employer brand needs to do and how to resource it
Data you've been sitting on — turning exit interview themes and engagement scores into something recruiters can actually use
AI tools your team is already using — building the inputs that make them produce something worth publishing
The best lineup optimization for a 12U baseball team — okay, probably not. But the way I think about positioning and readiness before pressure moments is the same whether it's a roster or a recruiting funnel.
Who am I going to work with? What am I going to do? Start here — everything flows from here.
Read on LinkedIn (opens in new tab) LinkedIn AI · Employer Brand StrategyPrompts that look good push the important decisions to the model. Clarity first. Then AI.
Read on LinkedIn (opens in new tab) Substack Employer Brand · AI · TrustEliminating resistance too early creates trust problems later. Why friction is a feature, not a flaw.
Read on Substack (opens in new tab)I take on a small number of engagements at a time. If your timing is off, I'll tell you — and point you somewhere useful in the meantime.
Book a 30-Minute Call (opens in new tab)Prefer email? hello@carperadvisory.com