southwest hire the right people presentation 97-2003
TRANSCRIPT
Southwest Airlines Recipe for Success: Recruiting the Right People, at the Right Time and with the Right Attitude
Office of Personnel ManagementAugust 18, 2010
What should we talk about?
History of Southwest Airlines
Our Culture, Our People
Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill
Recruiting Transformation at SWA
• Founded in 1971• Profitable for 39 consecutive
years• Serve 69 cities nationwide • Largest airline in U.S. in
terms of Customers carried• Consistently received the
lowest ratio of complaints per passengers boarded of all Major U.S. carriers that have been reporting statistics to the Department of Transportation (DOT) since September 1987*
Our History
*1987 is the first year the DOT started tracking Customer Satisfaction
Locations Served
Our Employees
35,000 Employees in 35 states
83% of our workforce is unionized
We have 1,164 married couples working for us!
Mission of Southwest Airlines
THE MISSION OF SOUTHWEST AIRLINESThe mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highestquality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth,
friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.
TO OUR EMPLOYEESWe are committed to provide our Employees a stable work
environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth.Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectivenessof Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same
concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they areexpected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.
Living the Southwest Way
Hire for Attitude
Southwest has a long history of “Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill” which emerged from the belief that you can train People to do whatever it is they need to do on the job but what Southwest
cannot change is inherent attitudes.
What happens when you need to hire for skill, too?
Business Pressures
Competition – more low-cost airlines taking flight
Sky rocketing costs – People and fuel
Government compliance
Post 9/11 environment
Recruiting Pressures
Technology and interviewing processes which were not scalable
High volume of candidates and high volume of positions.
Declining time to fill High first year turnover Higher demand to fill highly skilled and Leadership
positions External competition for Talent OFCCP’s Internet Applicant Definition
Sound familiar?
Pop Quiz!
What do Southwest Airlines, Harvard, and NASA’s
Astronaut Candidate training program have in common?
Less than 1% who apply get in!
Mile High Volume
Year Applications # Hired2008 329,000 4,4002009 90,043 834
Spring 2010 Internships
10,000 50
Know what you can’t change
Never relinquish the belief that we must hire for attitude
Take our work seriously but not ourselves
Putting our Employees first Fight to stay the low-cost
airline Provide Positively Outrageous
Service Follow the letter & spirit of all
employment laws and compliance obligations
Yep! That’s our CEO!
It starts at the top!
Recruiting Transformation
Areas of focus Organizational structure Technology The Interview Process and methodology Measuring for success and accountability Retaining our Talent
Our Organization Structure
We are the People Department! Centralized recruiting
function HDQ plus 5 (almost
6!) Field Offices HR Business Partner
model
Silo
Over the past 4 years, we have eliminated 11 job titles and integrated the functions of 10 Teams into 5 Teams
Technology
Upgraded and standardized our ATS
Added a prescreening tool
Eliminated paper resumes
Instant messaging
Sourcing for Talent
Just because you receive tons of resumes doesn’t mean that the best have applied!
Passive vs. active candidates
Social media
Interview Process & Methodology
Telephone Interviews
Behavioral interview Career Motivation
interview Involve the hiring
manager and line Employees in the processHire TOUGH!
Measuring for Success
Cost per hire Time to fill Percentage of Stations
fully staffed First year turnover Quality of hire (failure
rate in background) Recruiter success (New
hire turnover by Recruiter)
Retaining Our Talent
Two areas of focus The quality hire Integration into the
culture OnBoarding initiatives
Online orientation LUV@First Bite
Luncheons FLY nights Duck Derby
Summary
Know who you are Know what can’t
change Color outside the
lines
Julie WeberSenior Director [email protected]