How Southwest Airlines Hires Such Dedicated People

Southwest Airlines receives a job application every two seconds. Given the talent shortage facing our industry, you’d think we’d be tempted to snap up many of those candidates, particularly ones with backgrounds in engineering and technology. But, since the company was founded, even before our first flight on June 18, 1971, we’ve been extremely selective in our hiring. So far this year, for example, we’ve reviewed 287,422 resumes, chosen 102,112 candidates to interview, and hired only 6,582 people, or less than 2% of all applicants. That’s because we view engagement as a two-way street. Yes, an employer must work to keep employees engaged by offering good pay and benefits, opportunities for development and advancement and a collaborative, mission-driven culture. But you also have to hire people who are engaged from the start, whose values are in sync with the organization’s. At Southwest, for example, we talk about hiring not for skills but three attributes: a warrior spirit (that is, a desire to excel, act with courage, persevere and innovate); a servant’s heart (the ability to put others first, treat everyone with respect and proactively serve customers); and a fun-loving attitude (passion, joy and an aversion to taking oneself too seriously.) We’ve found that it’s important to clearly define these expectations — they’re listed on every job description — and build our interviewing methodology around them. The mentality isn’t “We’ll know it when we see it.” It’s “Does this person already live the way we do?” We use behavioral interview questions to determine whether candidates have those key attributes. For example, to determine someone’s ability to be a passionate team player, we will ask him or her to describe a time when he or she went above and beyond to help a co-worker succeed. We also conduct what we call a career motivation interview to determine if the candidate really understands the job he or she is applying for and if it is aligned with his or her career goals. Insight Center How to Be a Company That Employees Love Sponsored by Citrix GoToMeeting It takes a careful mix of mission, management, and culture. Obviously, certain positions require specific skillsets. We’re not going to hire a pilot who has a great attitude but can’t fly a plane! But, if it comes down to two equally qualified candidates, the one with Southwest values will receive the offer. And, more importantly, when we’re faced with a qualified candidate who doesn’t have the right values, we won’t make an offer — no matter how long the job has gone unfilled. Our development and promotion practices are also tied to our company values. In annual performance appraisals and 360-degree reviews, employees are measured not just on results but on how they get results (they get actual ratings for their warrior spirit, servant’s heart and fun-loving attitude) and the people who rise to leadership roles are those who display those attributes in spades. Anyone being considered for a position at director level or above has a final interview with either me or Jeff Lamb, executive vice-president of corporate services. It’s time consuming, but that’s how committed we are to making sure that Southwest’s leaders serve as diligent, selfless, passionate role models for everybody else. We often talk about how we can evolve to compete to attract and retain the best talent, and we always agree that hiring and promoting for values is something we can’t ever change. In a 2014 employee survey, when we asked whether people felt like their job was “just a job,” “a stepping stone,” or “a calling,” nearly 75% selected, “a calling,” and 86% said they were proud to work for Southwest. So hiring for values seems to be working from our employees’ perspective as well as ours.

How Southwest Airlines Hires Such Dedicated People

Partner Center