Career Spotlight: Flying high after disaster
In times of crisis, such as the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, a few remarkable employers have consistently risen to the occasion, providing aid to their employees and using the troubles as an opportunity to build teamwork and loyalty.
Southwest Airlines is one of those few. Leading the employee-relations charge from the very beginning has been Colleen Barrett, a divorced mom who worked her way up from legal secretary to president of the nation's most successful airline. Barrett is no Colleen-come-lately to smart employee relations. As soon as Southwest started hiring, she made sure the company sent a birthday card to each employee–a practice that continues to this day. And after 9/11, she took the daring step of writing and delivering the first airline ads to be broadcast after the terrorist attacks. Somber and resolved, the ads hit exactly the right note for a shaken country. U.S. News checked in to see how she was handling the Katrina crisis and how she thinks other employers should be responding:
Q: I'll bet you got up at 4 a.m., as usual.
A: I got up at 4 and started work.
Q: Last week, we summarized several surveys that indicate employee morale seems to be declining around the country. I'm wondering if the disappointment and suffering of Katrina will worsen that.
A: We talk a lot at Southwest about the "warrior spirit." To me, it means that fighting spirit of teams. I think we're kind of at our best when we think we've got a fight, when we have something people can rally behind. The hurricane is a perfect example, in my mind. But we also hire the kind of people who, I don't know, are like firefighters, people who love to be told, "Here is a problem. How can you fix it? Or how can you help us fix it?"
Q: Companies come to you all the time and ask for advice on how to build the kind of esprit de corps that Southwest has become known for. What do you tell them?
A: I tell them: Don't improve morale with a program. The way you treat people has to be a way of life. If you have been treating people poorly, you have to work three times as hard to change your behavior. The one thing you've got to do is win the trust of your people. They have to see that any actions you are taking with regard to them, any special care or attention that you are paying to them, is because it is the right thing to do and not to win favor. Our industry is unionized, and we are too. [Eighty-one percent of Southwest's employees belong to a union.] If you don't have the basic altruistic and caring attitude toward your employees at all times, then, when you have heavy-duty contract negotiations, people won't believe anything that you do if it is out of the norm when there wasn't a contract negotiation. It is so simple to me. We approach labor relations in a totally different way. We approach them as a team. We acknowledge we are going to have strong disagreements. But it is like politicians: We all have our constituents, but there should be common goals and behaviors and expectations that must be met.
Q: How have you responded to Hurricane Katrina?
A: We have 800-number hotlines and a staff of 30 people to contact our 250-plus employees who have mailing addresses in the affected area. We are busy reaccommodating everybody who booked a ticket to New Orleans. We are eliminating all New Orleans flights indefinitely. We really don't know when [the airport will be ready to allow regular commercial flights].
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