Southwest Airlines Recipe for Success: Recruiting the Right People, at the Right Time and with the Right Attitude Office of Personnel Management August 18, 2010

What should we talk about? History of Southwest Airlines Our Culture, Our People Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill Recruiting Transformation at SWA

Our History Founded in 1971 Profitable for 39 consecutive years Serve 69 cities nationwide Largest airline in U.S. in terms of Customers carried Consistently received the lowest ratio of complaints per passengers boarded of all Major U.S. carriers that have been reporting statistics to the Department of Transportation (DOT) since September 1987* *1987 is the first year the DOT started tracking Customer Satisfaction

Locations Served

Our Employees 35,000 Employees in 35 states 83% of our workforce is unionized We have 1,164 married couples working for us!

Mission of Southwest Airlines THE MISSION OF SOUTHWEST AIRLINES The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. TO OUR EMPLOYEES We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.

Living the Southwest Way

Hire for Attitude Southwest has a long history of “Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill” which emerged from the belief that you can train People to do whatever it is they need to do on the job but what Southwest cannot change is inherent attitudes.

What happens when you need to hire for skill, too?

Business Pressures Competition – more low-cost airlines taking flight Sky rocketing costs – People and fuel Government compliance Post 9/11 environment

Recruiting Pressures Sound familiar? Technology and interviewing processes which were not scalable High volume of candidates and high volume of positions. Declining time to fill High first year turnover Higher demand to fill highly skilled and Leadership positions External competition for Talent OFCCP’s Internet Applicant Definition Sound familiar?

Less than 1% who apply get in! Pop Quiz! What do Southwest Airlines, Harvard, and NASA’s Astronaut Candidate training program have in common? Less than 1% who apply get in!

Mile High Volume Year Applications # Hired 2008 329,000 4,400 2009 90,043 834 Spring 2010 Internships 10,000 50

Know what you can’t change Never relinquish the belief that we must hire for attitude Take our work seriously but not ourselves Putting our Employees first Fight to stay the low-cost airline Provide Positively Outrageous Service Follow the letter & spirit of all employment laws and compliance obligations

Yep! That’s our CEO! It starts at the top!

Recruiting Transformation Areas of focus Organizational structure Technology The Interview Process and methodology Measuring for success and accountability Retaining our Talent

Our Organization Structure We are the People Department! Centralized recruiting function HDQ plus 5 (almost 6!) Field Offices HR Business Partner model Silo Over the past 4 years, we have eliminated 11 job titles and integrated the functions of 10 Teams into 5 Teams

Technology Upgraded and standardized our ATS Added a prescreening tool Eliminated paper resumes Instant messaging

Sourcing for Talent Just because you receive tons of resumes doesn’t mean that the best have applied! Passive vs. active candidates Social media

Interview Process & Methodology Telephone Interviews Behavioral interview Career Motivation interview Involve the hiring manager and line Employees in the process Hire TOUGH!

Measuring for Success Cost per hire Time to fill Percentage of Stations fully staffed First year turnover Quality of hire (failure rate in background) Recruiter success (New hire turnover by Recruiter)

Retaining Our Talent Two areas of focus OnBoarding initiatives The quality hire Integration into the culture OnBoarding initiatives Online orientation LUV@First Bite Luncheons FLY nights Duck Derby

Summary Know who you are Know what can’t change Color outside the lines

Julie Weber Senior Director People Julie.Weber@wnco.com