As my flight landed at Love Field yesterday, I looked out and saw the Southwest Airlines corporate office, where I worked when I graduated from college. I have thought about my employee experience ever since.
I am grateful that I learned the importance of employee experience through Herb Kelleher's leadership. He didn’t have a name for it, it wasn’t something he "did," it wasn’t part of his “strategy,” it wasn't a "theme," it is something he "was."
“The business of business is people - yesterday, today, and forever. And as among employees, shareholders, and customers, we decided that our internal customers, our employees, came first. The synergy in our opinion is simple. Honor, respect, care for, protect, and reward your employees, regardless of title or position. And in turn, they will treat each other and their external customers in a warm, in a caring, and in a hospitable way.
This causes external customers to return, thus bringing joy to shareholders. We believe that our job is not only to provide a far more reliable service at far lower fares, but also to provide a spiritual infusion, an infusion of fun, warmth, hospitality, and diligent servanthood for both employees and our passengers. The intangibles of spirit, in our view, are more important than the tangibles of things. Why?
First of all, it's a matter of morality and of ethics. But secondly, from a purely business standpoint, the tangibles can always be purchased. All airlines have airplanes. But the intangibles are far more difficult for competitors to replicate. And unless a company's paying peonage compensation, psychic satisfaction is what employees and even external customers are primarily seeking. If anyone doubts the value of esprit de corps, I suggest to talk with the United States Marine Corps. Esprit gets things done well and fast.
Communicate, communicate, communicate and communicate, but not in corporate speak or bureaucratese, which is not only boring, but hardly understandable. Set up employee services and employee care departments, which are constantly in contact with employees who have any professional or personal problems.
Show that you value your employees as individuals, not just as workers.”
-Herbert D. Kelleher (1931-2109)
MBA, CPA, CIA, CRMA, CFE
1moVery interesting technology. Perhaps we'll see an Archer aircraft land on and take off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum based in Alameda, California. The first time a pilot landed on and flew off a ship was in the San Francisco Bay via the stern on the cruiser USS Pennsylvania around January 1911. Perhaps we can see another first in the San Francisco Bay.