The Human Resource DepartmentThe human resource department has a critical role in recruiting, hiring, training and promoting individuals who fit with the strategy of Southwest Airlines. Southwest may not allow its HR managers to be informal in its methodology, though managers can be creative. One suggestion would be to provide training, job rotation, job enrichment, and training opportunities, in addition to pay and benefits (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2007).
HR is also responsible for identifying those who will be great performers. Just as the employee is interested in the best company, the company needs employees that are best for the company. Once hired, HR must continuously evaluate their workers, as some workers may be determined to perform better in a position other than the one they were hired for. This is talent management (Rodriguez, 2007).
The keystone of HR responsibility is talent retention, keeping great performers from going somewhere else. Many organizations are looking to fill the vacuum of star performers (Chambers, 1998). The war for talent, and talent retention, must become a burning corporate priority. HR managers must identify talent in the individual, not just by comparing a person to a job description. Rodriguez (2007) points out that employees flow through an organization as they flow through their career. The company spends a great deal of money training employees.
HR is tasked with retaining the best talent in the company. This is accomplished through compensation, recognition, new assignments, and promotions. Southwest must continue to market its culture. Organizational culture is the shared values among organizational members (Mathis and Jackson, 2000). Linking human resource practices to the culture is part of the overall strategy and becomes a core competency for the company. Southwest relies on its People Department to hire those who are a good fit with each aspect of the culture. Most employees are familiar with the knowledge, skills, and abilities that hiring managers use to match prospective employees with the technical requirements of a job. However, using human resources as part of the strategy
to build an organizational culture is particularly important. To this end, Southwest will use the Human Resource Committee or Human Resource Development Committee (HRC) to work with our Human Resources Committee to assist us in maintaining and enhancing the high standards of excellence that the company deserves to meet. In a process defined through direct action and through the hiring process, we want to provide the best possible human resources team that our customers can associate with the company and that is effective and accountable to its employees.
Figure 7 A) Employee morale in employees’ leadership positions: From 2006 to 2008 the percentage of CEO-sponsored and CEO-approved employees in the top 5% of executives increased from 8.7% for each person to 20.8% for all executives and increased for the top 10% from 5.4% to 18.3% for all CEOs. According to a 2009 report by a National Research Council Task Force, “CEOs are responsible for a 1% increase in the overall workforce workforce, while they account for a 2.8% increase in the overall workforce share (Figure 1B) and 1.6% increase in top ranks in the executive compensation group. Despite recent efforts to address the underperformance of the top 5% in the executive compensation panel, their increase in the performance metrics suggests that they cannot continue to maintain a consistent and representative workforce of executives (see Note 1 and Table 1).” The “underperformance” of the top 5% suggests that they are not meeting their full performance benchmarks to the job descriptions that guide the top 5%. To this end, Southwest expects that those who are in the top 5% will be more productive in their senior positions, and that they will have as powerful a voice or leadership role in the company as they would in the upper ranks.
Figure 7 B) Employee morale in managers’ leadership positions: From 2006 to 2008 the percentage of Manager-provided leadership positions increased from 5.5% to 16.7% of the top executives and increased for the top 10% from 5.2% to 11.4% for all managers. According to a 2009 report by the National Research Council Task Force, “Management’s attitudes regarding performance are more positive and consistent than in all other positions (Figure 2.1). Moreover, leaders of organizations are more engaged in their employees’ daily lives, and in doing so more communicate to employees about their goals and goals for advancement. It would also be surprising if these attitudes did not grow with each year the quality of leadership was more negative, especially among leaders of organizations that do not have much to gain from providing management the confidence to take steps to achieve their goals.”
Figure 7 C) Relationship between job satisfaction and workplace effectiveness: From 2006 to 2008 HR staff members were divided into two groups based on work satisfaction. The first group was those who consistently completed high-intensity physical physical therapy training and who had the ability to perform mental health and emotional well-being assessments. Those who completed high-intensity physical therapy training were classified as having high work-related satisfaction. The second group was those who