ABSTRACT
Training is an inevitable part of onboarding and an important opportunity to reinforce key elements of executive’s business strategy in general and their human capital strategy in particular. Once executives have an employee value proposition that causes the people they want to want they, then the task is ensuring that key parts of the organization are aligned to reinforce their human capital strategy. Given how core the right flight attendants are to Southwest’s human capital strategy and how directly its human capital strategy supports its business strategy, missing out on the right talent for flight attendants would be a serious business impediment to Southwest. If Southwest started with skills and knowledge as the basis for recruiting flight attendants, it would logically go after individuals with previous flight attendant experience. Southwest’s current focus on recruiting for the right inherent aptitudes and attitudes versus skills and knowledge for flight attendants goes back to its founder and first CEO, Herb Kelleher.
