W EEKLY EDITION NOVEMBER 6, 2019
J er ks At Wor k -
An d Ho w T o De a l W ith T he m
By Karleen Kos, PSAI Executive Director
So what can be done about jerks? As Sutton writes, a natural fir st step is not to hire them. Duh. But
how do you do that? Consider the approach of Southwest Airlines, which is famous for their
approach to recruiting: "hire for attitude, train for skill." Though I am sure we all hope skill also
counts for at least a lit tle when Southwest is hiring, say, pilots, the company generally tends to value
personality over previous job experience.
For example, when they're hiring flight attendants, applicants are flown in from all over the US,
naturally on Southwest flights. On the
boarding pass they get it says "Job
applicant" and if the flight attendants on that
flight notice an applicant behaving rudely
they tell the recruiting staff and the interview
is over before it even begins. Here's how
Southwest describes their hiring philosophy –
one which causes them to receive almost
300,000 applications a year and to hire just
2% of those candidates.
"[…] we view engagement as a two -
way street . Yes, an employer must
work to keep employees engaged by
offering good pay and benefits,
opportunities for development and
advancement and a collaborative,
mission - driven culture. But you also
have to hire people who are engaged from the start, whose valu es are in sync with the
organization's.
At Southwest, for example, we talk about hiring not for skills but three attributes: a warrior
spirit (that is, a desire to excel, act with courage, persevere and innovate); a servant's heart
(the ability to put others first, treat everyone with respect and proactively serve customers);
and a fun - loving attitude (passion, joy and an aversion to taking oneself too seriously.)
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