Southwest Airlines on-boarding process is uniquely wonderful. The customers do not camp out simply to get onboard the flight ahead of time. On the contrary, they line up and pay attention to when their respective boarding group is being called out. People only need to differentiate between the letters A, B and C as well as the numbers one to sixty. This type of on-boarding process elicits the emotions of passengers. They feel welcomed, comfortable, proud, excited, inspired and confident. Basically, the whole process creates positive emotional experiences. Besides, the company has an inspired workforce that feels engaged and feels part of the whole process of on-boarding.
Besides hiring individual with the right attitude, the company trains its employees. The training topics encompass airline codes as well as city codes. There is a topic that relates to the company’s airport codes. Also, topics on green filter operations are covered. Employees are encouraged to apply the green filter operation to their lives as well. Basically, training topics revolve around the company’s culture and its operations. Particularly, the topics focus on leadership skills development like strategic thinking as well as coaching capabilities (Employer Profile).
Also, because of the company’s protection to the environment, topics such as environmental sustainability and stewardship form topics in employee training. These are undertaken during the educational outreach. The company measures transfer of learning. This is accomplished via measuring the level of awareness, expectation building, recognition and reflection of the learned topics. The training provided is relevant to the organization’s mission, i.e. they focus on the provision of highest quality of customer service, offered with a sense of warmth, company spirit and pride. The training is also relevant to the company’s environmental sustainability initiatives.
Southwest Airlines offer internships and mentorships. They have currently for instance, advertised for the position of a technology intern. The company has a mentorship program dubbed ‘’Adopt-A-Pilot’’ that sends the company’s Pilots into fifth grade classes to help them in geography, science, math, and creative writing. The employees have a clear ladder or method to obtain promotions. They are very much aware that promotion is dependent on outstanding service to the customer, the company and to the community. Employees who meet company’s goals and help the company beat company are heavily rewarded besides being promoted.
The company develops its pay scale based on the number of hours worked in a week. It does not technically pay based upon performance, since pay is set by union contracts. Its pay scale is very comparable to the one of its industry peers. Nevertheless, its pilots are not paid by the hourly basis but their pay rather depends on the number of flights. A ramp agent has a pay range of $54,000 to $70,000. This range however include little overtime benefits. When a worker attains the max for the pay grade, he/she is rewarded by the available company reward programs. The presidential award, for instance, honor employees with outstanding performances towards the company, the community and to the customers. There is also other award like the Founder's Award and the Kick Tail program which rewards employees who meet the company’s internal goals. However, Southwest salaries are governed by contract, so specific and unique rewards may not be possible for most rewards to individuals (Schuster and Zingheim, 2000).
Southwest Airlines promote wellness. The company uses various consumer driven health plans. They offer best medical benefit plans to its employees. The medical benefits are accessed by the company employees as well as their families. Employees particularly benefit from health coverage, with additional coverage package options for family members (South Airlines, 2012) Benefits offered if something more than standard for the industry occurs is the provision of other benefits like the long term disability insurance plan, mental health chemical, life insurance, healthcare spending account benefits, among others. These benefit schemes help the company meet its health expenditures with ease. Insurance and healthcare spending account benefits, for instance allow employees to save for themselves such that in case of any health eventually which is past the company standard, employees meet the expenses themselves and thus locking out the company from meeting the expenses (Schuster and Zingheim, 2000).
The company values and rewards tenure as well as performance. Basically, employees who meet company’s goals and help the company beat company competitors are heavily rewarded. The employees with highest outstanding service to the customer, the company and to the community are heavily rewarded using the various available reward programs like the Founder's Award, the Kick Tail which reward employees who meet the internal goals of the company. The company’s employees know that they are valued when they are recognized and rewarded for exemplary performance. Southwest Airlines provides standard benefits that are common to most businesses. Employees are rewarded using the various available reward schemes and benefit plans.
References
Employer Profile: 100 Best Places to Work in IT 2010. Retrieved 9th April, 2012 from http://www.computerworld.com/spring/bp/detail/758
Schuster, J. R. and Zingheim, P.K. (2000). Total Rewards. Retrieved 9th April, 2012 from http://www.schuster-zingheim.com/docs/Total_Rewards.pdf
South Airlines. (2012). Our Benefits. Retrieved 9th April, 2012 from http://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest/careers/benefits.html
Southwest Airlines (2010). Education and Outreach Retrieved 9th April, 2012 from http://www.southwestonereport.com/planet_gf_edu.php
