2013 Top Company winner: Level 3 Communications

TELECOM

LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS (Watch a video about Level 3.)

Level 3 Communications currently has more than 10,000 employees around the world. After a 2011 acquisition of Global Crossing Limited, Level 3 nearly doubled the size of its employee base and increased revenue by $2.6 billion to $6.2 billion with its unrivaled IP/optic network and global reach.

Along with the closing, Level 3 got to thinking about its company culture.

“The things that knit us all together are the corporate social responsibility piece and the customer experience piece,” said Laurinda Pang, chief human resources officer for Level 3.

Its global Level 3 Cares program, launched shortly after the acquisition in January 2012, “allowed us to formulate and structure a consistent three-part program,” including: education, sustainability and service for the underprivileged. Moreover, the ability to foster employee engagement and a sense of belongingness across the large, dispersed team has its advantages. “Contributing to team efforts and initiatives, being apart of something bigger than yourself, that’s why you stay with a company,” Pang said.

From a strategic standpoint, Level 3 is focused on providing solutions to global enterprises. Currently, network security comes up frequently with clients, according to Pang.

“Our network security operations, the depth and breadth of our network, how deep we go into geographies, allow us to be in an interesting position to protect customers’ information,” Pang added, referencing the 9.5 million fiber miles in the Level 3 network. Today Level 3 serves customers in more than 500 markets, in 55 countries over a global services platform. That includes: 18 of the world’s top 20 telecommunications carriers, nine of the top 10 U.S. Internet service providers, the largest social networking sites, more than 200 federal agencies and divisions, and four of the top five global financial exchanges.

As technology rapidly advances, communication is undoubtedly being redefined. “We’ll continue to have a really compelling proposition for customers moving forward,” Pang said.