How Southwest Airlines Succeeded in the Industry

One of the key components to Southwest’s strategy is empowering the worker, and the company does this via 2 HR practices: 1) treating employees well through incentives, and 2) hiring the right people for the job. This is a good strategy because it aligns with the concept of hiring “great people with great values,” and then supporting them so that they pass it on to the customer (Strategic Management, n.d., p. 113).
Treating employees well through incentives supports the idea of hiring great people, as it serves to attract qualified candidates for the job—people who know how to work well and want to compensated favorably for their skills and abilities. Southwest recognized that in order to attract quality workers it had to compensate them with quality packages and incentives.
Second, the company realized that hiring the right people for the job was critical to success. It did not matter if the candidate was an overall great person, if he or she lacked a particular skill required for a management role, that individual was not the right person for the job. Or, if a person had a high IQ, all the right degrees, and came from a great college, but lacked people skills and a positive attitude, that person would not be suited for a customer service role.
Southwest made these types of decisions throughout and that is why it was able to fulfill its vision. Customers had great experiences on board Southwest flights because employees of Southwest had such a good time serving them. The good spirit and culture that Southwest had cultivated through its dedication to its workers and to the vision was passed on to the customers who appreciated the good mood and attitude of the company’s front line personnel.
References
Strategic Management. (n.d.). Chapter 3, 112-127.