Southwest Airlines - Freeing the Skies

Southwest Airlines - Freeing the Skies

Some companies realize that the people who work for them are their most important asset. Southwest Airlines has long held this as true. Colleen Barrett, who started out at the airline’s inception in 1971 as a corporate secretary, is now president of SWA.

She took the top position in July 2001, after 30 years of loyal service to the airline. She managed the company through the terrorist attacks – only three months following her promotion -- and Southwest was one of the only airlines that didn’t lose significant revenues following 9/11. The main reasons for this were the company’s habitual frugal practices and careful attention to detail.

Southwest has done things differently from all other major air carriers for three decades. SWA flights never featured full meal service, serving a single snack and soda on short hops and a bag lunch on longer routes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_airline#Corporate_culture). After the attacks, Southwest’s “meal service” outdid most other main airlines, which had to struggle beneath the weight of lost profits and continually rising energy prices.

Aside from business success, Southwest treats its employees with integrity and respect. SWA has been featured many times on the list of Fortune’s Top 100 Best Places to Work. The “About Us” section of Southwest’s website (http://www.southwest.com/about_swa/) features a newsletter from Barrett right up top. Her latest entry praises the Internal Customer Care, or ICC, team, a six-person unit that notifies management of important issues in employees lives (things like births, deaths and weddings).

The existence of such a team at all in a corporate atmosphere indicates a sensitivity and humanness toward events that might affect an employee’s performance or attendance. Barrett writes: “It takes a very special individual to work in ICC, and we are blessed to have six of them. This dedicated and wonderful Team truly “Lives the Southwest Way,” which means daily exhibition of a Warrior Spirit, a Servant’s Heart, and a Fun-LUVing attitude (sic). Needless to say, I am extremely proud of each of them.”

Southwest’s motto is “Have a warrior’s spirit and a servant’s heart.” The company is dedicated to serving the customer at every level, and they treat their employees as customers as well – a theme that I find becomes ever-more prevalent as I research this area of study.

Barrett says her values come largely from her mother, who taught her to be persistently giving -- because there is always someone in greater need (http://www.leadernetwork.org/colleen_barrett_june_06.htm). She brings that lesson to work with her every day. When asked about her bottom line for running a business, Barrett replied “The Golden Rule, definitely.”

The SWA site also gives a brief outline of employee benefits, many of which are scaled according to position and title. For all appearances, the packages seem comprehensive. The only thing that I find unfortunate is that family coverage costs the employee (http://www.southwest.com/careers/benefits.html). Airlines have to make cuts where they can these days I suppose.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006