Let Spirit Guide Leadership - human resources management

Workforce, Feb, 2000 by Nancy Wong

When Libby Sartain chose a profession in human resources, she was following her heart--taking her natural interest in organizational behavior and turning it into a career. It only seems fair that she landed at Southwest Airlines, an organization that also relies on its heart--which it recognizes as its employees. For 12 years, Sartain has been Southwest's "vice president of people," the airline's term for the HR function.

Southwest's people department has received such honors as a place on Fortune's and Working Woman's "Best Places to Work" lists. The Dallas-based airline's reputation for accountable HR has a lot to do with innovative management, led by CEO Herb Kelleher When Sartain joined Kelleher's team, she added years of experience in compensation and benefits, as well as a caring approach to HR. Executives like her prove a company's spirit has just as much to do with its leadership as it does with its workforce.

Of more than 1,200 respondents in a WORKFORCE.COM News Poll last September. 19 percent said they'd work for Southwest it they were given a choice. What is it about SWA that makes it such a great place to work? And how does HR contribute to that?

Employees have their own reasons why they love working for Southwest. For me, it's the fact that we value individuality. We don't have a corporate image that all employees have to live up to. I didn't have to modify my style or curtail certain aspects of my unique personality to be successful. To be able to be yourself at work gives you freedom to be creative and productive.

And I love that we take chances on people. Many companies pass over great candidates for promotion just because the person doesn't have the credentials desired. We promote people whose best qualifications are good work performance and a great attitude, and it's amazing what they accomplish as compared to their credentialed counterparts.

With an entire SWA population of 30,000, what are the challenges of leading such a large group?

One of the biggest challenges for us is that our HR department is centralized. We service the needs of 30,000 people in 56 different cities, and about one-third of our people are flying around in big metal tubes all day. It's challenging to be available and accessible to our people.

Unlike other large companies, where they have local HR representatives at each location, we have unique communications challenges. Some of our employees do not have a stationary workplace. They show up at an airport and check in for their flight, then they're gone for three or four days and may not come back for another week. So our continual challenge is ensuring that our folks are aware of the great programs available through the company.

What has your department done to help the communication problem?

We've initiated many communications efforts to introduce benefits and other initiatives. We're working on internal branding and positioning right now, and are ready to roll a campaign that incorporates the real-life options available to our people. Our employee communications department works constantly to ensure our people are informed of what's going on. We use every method of communication from mail, to videos, to intranet; and Internet. But, unfortunately, we don't manage to get though to everyone.

SWA is renowned for respecting the actions of its HR. How did the department reach this level of accountability?

We have a lot of support from the top. Our CEO, Herb Kelleher, really set the tone for making HR an important function. However, our biggest supporter and biggest influencer is our executive vice president of customers, Colleen Barrett.

Even with all of this support, we have to deliver what we promise to be respected by our internal customers. And we have done that for many years. While there's always room for improvement and we learn new ways of doing things every day, every person at Southwest has worked with our department at some point or another. If that encounter was good, and hopefully it was, then we have the credibility and reputation for service that we expect to deliver. We feel very appreciated by our internal customers and we feel that we add value to their operations and make their lives easier.

What kinds of programs reflect the value you offer employees?

Because most of our people are hired at the entry level and salaries are determined by union rates, we don't have much opportunity to be creative with our compensation program. However, we're able to recognize our star performers through fast and steady career progression. We promote from within, and provide learning opportunities for our people to learn what they need to do their jobs and to move up in the company.

We have an internal "University for People," where we offer leadership development classes. We spend most of efforts on giving our supervisors and managers the tools they need to do their jobs so we can ensure that they're confident with what they can do and they know what is expected of them. And it's a place where they can feel they can ask for help if they need it. If our leaders or employees ask us for help, then we help them. It sounds simple, doesn't it? But if we help, then our credibility will develop, and it provides better service to our internal customers.