Meet William Leitch, Employer Marketing and Brand Specialist at Ulta Beauty

In this week’s 'A Day in the Life of...' interview, Ulta Beauty's William Leitch provides an insight into his role as Employer Marketing and Brand Specialist.

Hi William, can you tell us a bit about your role and how you got here?

Here at Ulta Beauty I serve as the Employer Marketing and Brand Specialist, which means it’s my job to work across departments and tell the beautiful story of what it means to be part of the Ulta Beauty associate experience.

I’ve had an interesting journey in my professional career thus far! I have had a great relationship with a mentor that taught me the fundamentals of graphic design, branding, and marketing strategy, all despite me graduating with a degree in political science and European studies. After leaving school, I started freelancing for social media management, digital marketing, and brand design – which eventually led me to taking on roles as a marketing manager in the legal sector, and then a strategist for a social media tech company. I happened to be managing Ulta Beauty’s account, which connected me with their talent team, and the rest is history! Ulta Beauty eventually opened this role and I wanted to apply my love for beauty, design, and people into telling the story that is working for such an amazing company.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Generally, I start my day with an overview of our social channels. I over see a few brand channels that are specifically dedicated to communicating the Ulta Beauty experience, and I like to see how our content is performing, respond to comments, and plan for the rest of my day. It’s part of my job to work across departments to see what great things everyone is working on so I can properly brag about them externally: what events are we hosting, where are we holding recruiting fairs, what cool initiative did we start, who did something amazing that deserves some praise, etc. My day is usually dynamic, working to strategize innovative ways to reach our audience in various markets, designing pieces for social media and print, and collaborating with other departments to support them in creative story telling.

What part of your role do you enjoy the most?

The part I enjoy most is the amount of people I get to spend time meeting with and hearing about! It’s so special getting to hear the unique, authentic stories that makeup the behind the scenes of Ulta Beauty. We have such a large group of intelligent, diverse, passionate associates that all bring their own unique perspectives to the table and are achieving such cool, innovative things – and I get the pleasure of bragging about them to our audience.

What top three skills are vital for this role and why?

1) Story Telling – I think that working in the employer brand space, and the branding space in general, requires some comfort with identifying the most compelling parts of your company and being able to strategize the best way to deliver that message to your core audience. It’s not just about the what, but the why, and the how, and getting creative with how you go about telling those stories as well…no one wants a picture book with all the same images on every page, right?

2) Design – the truth is there is so much content out in the world, and everyone wants to be the best. It’s important that someone entering this role is up-to-date on trends and thoroughly enjoys analyzing visual story telling. If you have a passion for color, varying forms of digital media, and feel confident in your skills to consistently diversify the way you’re approaching aesthetics, this could very well be the world for you!

3) People Passion – which is just a fun way of saying I think folks who enter the employer brand field really must love working with others. It’s one of the key components of my job to reach out to people, hear about how they’re doing, and celebrate them! It’s also vital that you remain competent in the experiences and needs of different demographics and identities, because my role plays a huge part in maintaining, improving, and communicating a culture that supports, celebrates, and reflects a wide range of talent.

What’s the most challenging aspect of your role?

Queue the worlds smallest violin, but, the most challenging part of my role is finding the time and space to talk about all the awesome projects, milestones, and people we have here at Ulta Beauty. I could spend most of my time just listening to our associates talk about their accomplishments and projects, let alone turning them all into stories to share with all of you! So, unfortunately, the most challenging part is figuring out how to best prioritize what stories are being put out, where we are putting them, and when – if only there were more platforms and more time…and maybe it would be helpful if I had more arms to multitask better?

How do you help others feel like they belong in your team/promote inclusion?

I think the key to making sure people feel like they belong and are included is by showing real, genuine fascination and support for the projects they are working on, and also for who they are outside of the workplace. Part of what makes for a great employer brand is really celebrating your associates for who they are both in and outside of work and bragging about those accomplishments as well. I love making sure I dedicate some time to hearing about what’s going on peoples lives beyond what they’re doing at their desk because who we are outside of the workplace has such a profound impact on how we show up to work, the work we’re passionate about, and how we go about reaching our own success – ask your colleagues about their hobbies, I swear, it works!

Which podcast/YouTube series would you recommend to someone interested in a career in this area to help develop their skills/prepare them for the role?

Frankly, I think listening to anything that gets your creative juices flowing is what you should be starting your day with. This could be something centered around design, communication, relationships, DE&I, etc. However, I will say, if you want a more direct recommendation, I did get to take a certification with Ph Creative in employer branding, and I also read a book by the founder, Bryan Adams, titled Give & Get, that really helped me build a stronger foundation to my understanding of employer branding.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Ideally, I’d love to see whatever brand I’m with developing such a robust employer brand team that I could serve in a creative director role and really build an internal and external employer brand from the bottom up. I would really love the challenge and fulfillment of delivering the research and execution from start to finish! I will also take my own talk show – whichever comes first.