Running head: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES STRATEGIC HRM NEED 1

Southwest Airlines Strategic HRM Needs

Name

Institutional
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Organizational Background

Southwest Airlines is an aviation company with its headquarters at Love Field in Dallas,

United States. It was formed by Herb Kelleher who managed to steer it towards its success by

ensuring its continued improvement. It is known to have dominated the airlines industry for short

distance since the year 1971 having competed favorably against Continental and United airlines.

The CEO guaranteed the airlines success by reducing the operating costs and setting up a record

turnaround time of fifteen Minutes. Moreover, the low flight fares attracted several customers

hence increasing the flying frequency of Southwest Airlines.

Between the year 1991 and 1993, Southwest Airlines miraculously succeeded when

others failed. During that period, the United’s market share in the aviation industry dropped be 8

percent to 30 percent over a period of three years from 1991. On the other hand, the Southwest’s

share rose to 45 percent from 26 in 1991. Their success affected further affected the survival of

Continental Airlines who were their major competitors in the region besides United.

With the analysis of the Southwest’s continuous performance, it is evident that the

management, as well as their employees, have a common goal. That is, to ensure that their

company dominates the airlines industry especially in the short distances arena. They all

cooperate to reduce operation costs, and their main aim is to ensure that they increase the number

of times an airline is in the air. Their success falls nothing short of effective Human Resource

Management strategies. The HRM policies are felt in the People’s Department, recruitment

procedures, training and the use of a Southwest spirit to maintain their culture and attributes.

The Peoples Department

The re-adjustment and equipping of the airlines Peoples Department has helped to

promote the employees love the organization. The departments equip the employees with
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relevant knowledge that improves their response towards customers’ queries. They are

encouraged to the word “yes” instead of “no” when dealing with their clients. Additionally, the

HRM department can handle personnel challenges that comprise of safety concerns, discharges,

grievances and other issue relating to the relationship between them and their managers (Diaz,

2012).

HRM should not only be established to better the organization's performance but also be

made the backbone of the company’s strategic plan since a company makes its profits from

employee’s efforts. Employees in the Southwest airlines are considered as a competitive

advantage that is equipped to win for their business. Therefore, the HR should be able to support,

develop, enable and encourage the employees building capacity that will help to harness their

inner potential and channel it towards the achievement of the organizational goals and objectives

(Diaz, 2012). Championing high performance in every department should be a goal for every HR

manager.

In Southwest, the People’s Department employees are encouraged to understand and

make use common sense and compassion all the time. The management is worried about the

company’s culture and continued excellence. Therefore, they advise employee not to be afraid of

breaking the rules when they need to. They consider the department to be the keeper and

maintainer of staff morale. They equip their members with the ability and the right to make their

decision and do the right thing always. Moreover, the department values employees’ attitude

more than anything else. They claim that experience and expertise can be gained, but the attitude

is inbuild.

For instance, an interviewee never made to the selection stage since he was rude to a

receptionist. Despite his experience and long service in another company, his attitude
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disadvantaged him from being a Southwest’s stakeholder. Finally, the Human Resource

Management Department frequently updates their employees on their performances, the number

of customers on their flights and the daily costs. They claim that each employee should know

how their daily actions affect the costs on a daily basis. This action, therefore, can encourage

employees to avoid actions that will reduce the company’s returns.

Recruitment

The recruitment process is also imperative for the HRM. The management should be

clear of the exact number of employees that they are required to recruit. Knowing this number

will help them to ensure that there is no excess number of people in every department who could

slow down tasks (Boxall & Purcell, 2003). Additionally, the skills being looked for while hiring

employees should be precise and very clear to everyone. Finally, employees ought to be

employed during favorable times. They should not be hired in unstable times since the

recruitment exercise will be a burden instead of improving the company’s performance.

Southwest is known to be very selective during its recruitment activity. They are fond of

using experienced employees to conduct interviews that will ensure that a correct individual is

selected. They are fond of using peer recruitment. They claim that a pilot will know what details

are required for the hiring of another pilot. In this exercise, the interviewers look for employee

attitude and their ability to work in teams. Ann noted that of an individual says “I” too much

during an interview will not be hired. She claims that teamwork is what makes Southwest

Airlines survive stiff competition from other companies.

Some companies offer bonuses to employees who refer their friends to apply for jobs in

their organization. They believe such actions act as a form of marketing the company since such

referrals only happen if an employee love to work there (Guest, 2011). For instance, the
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Southwest Airlines have struggled to ensure that the company acts as a family to the employees.

The HRMs main aim is to make sure that everyone takes care of the organization as they do their

households. The company has hired about 481 couples who work hand in hand to ensure the

survival of Southwest Airlines. It ranks as one of the highest organizations to have many such

couples working for them. Their main aim is to transform the company into a family company

where each employee will be responsible for their actions.

To another extent, Southwest Airlines involve customers in interviews. Assessment is

done on how the said individuals will relate with the clients in the respective fields. The

Southwest’s management team take a lot of time while recruiting employees. They aspire to

identify the key components of employees who can come together to improve their general

performance as well as maintain the company’s behavior. Their primary target is individuals

with less industry experience since most of them will be struggling to acquire their skills and

experience rather than bossing around (Guest, 2011).

The compensation of employees also is another factor that HRM departments ought to

consider. Every department should develop an employee ranking system that will determine the

employee's pay grade. This should take into consideration the position and the level of an

employee. The salaries and bonuses entitle to employees should be high enough to motivate

employees but not too high to the point of affecting the budget constraints (Lee, 2013).

Training

The Human Resource Management also should design ways to train the company

employees effectively as per the required operations. Once recruitments are done and staff

selected, a rigorous training ought to follow suite to ensure that the new employees understand

how the company operates as well what is required of them (Lee, 2013). Employees ought to be
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taught about the organizational culture that dictates how an organization does its duties. Every

company has their unique way of doing things. Therefore, each person ought to understand the

existing corporate culture.

The Southwest Airlines considers the training of an individual as the most important part

of the organization. The training goes hand in hand with orientations and demonstrations that

will help an employee to adapt more quickly to their respective areas of specialization. The

Peoples Department of Southwest does not emphasize much on the company’s successes since

they assume that it can induce employee complacency.

The HRMs primary objective during training is to ensure that the employees know

presisely how to go about when executing their duties. The flight attendance is trained for four

weeks. Much of these is towards customer service and distinct approaches. Since the company

values their customers’ a lot, the employees are trained on ways to guarantee maximum customer

satisfaction. For instance, a gateman goes to a point of offering to take care of a client’s dog until

he returns from his holiday instead of advising him to cancel the flight.

During training, the new hires are also made aware of the company’s history, mission,

principles, and values as well as the importance of teamwork (Boxall & Purcell, 2003). The

managers are trained for approximately two days where they are equipped with knowledge about

leadership skills and how they ought to run their departments by the set company structure.

Finally, they are trained on the importance of developing employee trust and the need to

encourage employees to create a customer service procedures that will help sell the company’s

brand.
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Southwest Spirit

Southwest tries as much as possible to ensure the survival of its culture. The employees,

as well as their managers, are streamlined only towards the success of their company. Its

headquarters in Dallas have several themes and banners bearing the message of hard work,

effective customer service, and cost consciousness, equality, and, family. An employee who had

been employed by large company loved Southwest’s culture by referring to it as a place where

human spirit and kindness is nurtured. Its way of executing duties helped to steer the business up

to its current position in which it acts as a landmark in the United Stated airline industry.

From the way in which the company executes its duties, it is evident that the human

resource management department has encouraged every individual to work as a together

irrespective of their position. It has pushed for the establishment of a family spirit in which

everyone cares for the company and other employees as their own. There is an instance where

the employees came up with a fund where they contributed up to half a billion dollars to be used

to help needy employees. They even went further to contributing some money to cater for fuel

costs. This kind of togetherness and one spirit is a unique figure that ought to be emulated

anywhere for the success of any organization.

Strategic HRM on Performance

The human resource management also ought to focus on the management of employees

such that they act as a tool to gain a competitive advantage. It is evident from severals

organization that successful policies and practices that govern employees help to increase

productivity and improve financial performance. HRM should, therefore, design a performance

management process whose key elements include positive employee reinforcement, feedbacks

and dialogues that enhance manager-employee relationships.

The leadership of Southwest has been a driving force of the company since its

establishment by Herb Kelleher. There have been several debates by major stations claiming that

Kelleher may be the best CEO that has ever existed in the United States airlines industry. In their

analysis, Kelleher is a leader who is not shameful of folding his shirt and joining the mechanics.

At times, he gets on his plane because he has been spending time chatting with his employees on

several topics including personal developments. As a manager, he frequently interacts with

customers and the Southwest employees. He has a philosophy that every individual should enjoy

life and avoid too much seriousness. He says that serious attention should be left to parties. In his

leadership, he has created a get-together party where all employees are invited to have fun and

celebrate annually. The parties have helped to create friendship among employees and their

managers as well as boosting their morale to work harder on their assignments.

In his get together parties, the CEO has ensured that there is a development of the

performance management strategy into a flexible continuous process that enables managers,

employees and all the stakeholders to operate as a single entity. By doing this, he has made it

possible for easier planning in the future. This strategy has helped to opened dialogues between

the managers and employees on how to come up with best performances to help further the

company’s dream. It has contributed a lot to the accomplishment of the business objectives as

well as the maintenance of the company’s competitive advantage. By terming employees to be

first class customers, the Southwest’s HRM department have guaranteed employee

responsiveness by creating room for innovations and developments that could steer the company

further in helping it maintain its position in the global chart.

The cooperation between the human resource management department and other line

managers have created a platform for the coming up of a strategic planning and influencing
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procedure of re-adjusting the company’s direction as well as the top management functions. The

actions of improving the decision-making process especially among low-level employees

together with their operational managers can help to reduce time wastage hence improving the

turnaround times of the Southwest Airlines.

Performance Appraisals

Performance appraisal is a way of measuring the performance of both employees and the

respective departments. It is usually done by performed employee assessment and rating of

respective teams in accordance to their set goals and achievements. Employees are regularly

rated according to their personal accomplishments and contributions to the company or by

considering the performances of the groups that they belong. Excellent employee rating

procedures can help to identify the challenges facing employees hence making it possible to

design strategies to solve them for future benefits (Lee, 2013).

The performance reviews and career development checkers can help too so beneficial in

rewarding employees and motivating others to work hard next time. Moreover, it can be used to

push for employee promotions as well as suggestions on who should be fired due to their poor

performances. Southwest Airlines do this performance reviews of employees frequently when

they discuss with the employees on the effects of their actions. Managers have always been

equipped with daily operations of the employees as well as their daily achievements that can be

used to gauge their productivity always. The management uses these procedures to help them

single out specific employees who deserve a promotion as well as the individuals entitled to

bonuses and other kinds of appreciation (Saudi, 2015).

There is the use of specific metrics to evaluate employee performance. Most of them are

based on the employee’s job description and the tasks required of them. The HR manager
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together with the departmental heads join efforts to fill the employee evaluation forms but most

importantly, they discuss job performance and other successes with the employees (Saudi, 2015).

The specific knowledge about the employee’s tasks and daily performances help a lot in

guaranteeing accuracy as far as employee rating is concerned. It helps to exterminate any

inaccuracies hence ensuring that an employee gets what he/she deserves. The Southwest Airlines

has made this possible by maintaining employee relationships with their managers. Therefore,

most employees are satisfied by their manager’s ratings.

Positive Working Environment

Strategic Human Resource Management is also required to provide comfortable working

conditions to all employees in the organization. These comforts range from the clean working

environments, neat and secure offices, healthy relationships and security of employees in and

outside the working premises (Cania, 2014). The workers should be made to enjoy being around

the company hence increasing their morale for hard work. Additionally, all employees should be

offered leaves that will help them relax and get rejuvenated and restored after a time of severe

company duties.

The leaves can be accompanied by sponsored holidays and trips where employees will

have fun at the expense of the company. An action like this will help employees develop a family

relationship with the company since it cares for their comfort and wellbeing. Southwest Airlines

always offer travel holidays as well as parties to their staff depending on the functionalities of

every department. New hires at times are given free flights to enable them to enjoy the company

services as well as creating a marketing knowledge that will help a lot in persuading customers to

board Southwest Airlines.

Such kind of positivity helps to encourage employees as well as showing to the whole

world how Southwest cares for their workers. A good working condition with positive colleagues

goes a step higher to guaranteeing productive employee operations (Cania, 2014). For instance,

an employee who enjoys working does not depend on supervision to perform his/her duties.

They understand that it is their obligation to ensure that the company performs its functions so as

to attain its strategic plan for the coming years. Therefore, good working conditions is always a

plus in the company as far as their benefits and aspirations are concerned.

In conclusion, the human resource management department ought to equip the other

departments and push them to identify the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and

threats (SWOT) (Diaz, 2012). The outcome of conducting a SWOT analysis in any organization

helps a lot in determining the specific issues facing them. While conducting the SWOT analyzes,

the company can align with specific needs that are contained in their business strategy. This

action enables the organization to identify the gap between the company’s strategic plan as well

as the HR’s strategic plan.

The company should identify strengths that have enabled them to stand out in the

industry. Such powers should be maintained at all costs since it guarantees the company’s

supremacy at all times (Saudi, 2015). The weaknesses of the company also should be identified

so as to structure ways of eliminating them with the aim of improving the company’s efficiency.

These weaknesses can be obtained from a customer’s level of satisfaction and the analysis of

teamwork performances. The opportunities identified will help the organization to set up plans to

meet the industrial growth.

By making effective plans to target the available opportunities, an organization will be

able to control its future irrespective of the kind of competition that may come their way (Diaz,
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2012). This is achievable through a continuous training of workers that will enable them to

acquire enough skills. Finally, the identification of threats can help the company to design ways

of reducing operational costs. The threats that a company might face comprise of advancing

technologies and changing economic conditions. Therefore, the company should be able to

update their systems accordance with the changing technologies hence increasing their

efficiency. For instance, the Southwest Airlines ought to introduce and online flight booking

system that will enable travel agents to book flights at the comfort of their homes and offices.

This will help to cut down operational costs and inaccuracies that other booking procedures

entail.
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References

Boxall, P. & Purcell, J. (2003). Strategy and Human Resource Management. Basingstoke and

New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cania, L. (2014). The Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management on Organizational

Performance. Economia Seria Management, 17(2), 373-383.

Diaz, P. L. (2012). Beginning Management of Human Resources. New York City: McGraw-Hill

Education.

Guest, D. E. (2011). Human resource management and performance: still searching for some

answers. Human Resource Management Journal, 21 (1), 3-13.

Janssens, M., & Steyaert, C. (2009). HRM and Performance: A Plea for Reflexivity in HRM

Studies. Journal of Management Studies, 46 (1), 143-155.

Lee. C. (2013). Strategic human resources is key to organizational success. Retrieved April 30,

2016, from http://www.halogensoftware.com/blog/strategic-human-resources-is-key-to-

organizational-success.

Saudi, ERP. (2015). What is Strategic Human Resource Management? Retrieved April 30, 2016,

from http://solutiondots.com/blog/strategic-human-resource-management.html.