Most Respected Corporations 2009

Nov 1, 2009  

by Michael McCullough Scott Messenger and Stephanie Sparks

Love at 30,000 Feet

Why do WestJet employees care so much? Because they’re recruited and trained with love. “Have you ever had cookies baked with love before?” asks Garrett Hollman, leadership development specialist at WestJet Airlines Ltd. “Do they taste better? Absolutely. Is there anything different about the ingredients? Not at all. Then how can they taste better?”

Though it’s hard to believe that those little packages of in-flight cookies are thus prepared, they are certainly handed out with love. Finding caring individuals to join a caring team starts with a rigorous recruitment process, and only those whose personal values align with WestJet’s will be hired.

All employees, or “WestJetters,” take part in a two-day orientation designed not only to explain what the company does, but why and how. Executive team members visit orientation sessions to share stories, answer questions and provide insight into the company’s culture.

WestJet’s cookies, er, human resource practices outshine those of other companies because of that level of care. Hollman explains that his company for the last four-and-a-half years hasn’t done anything that much different from other airlines. “What you’re doing may be the same, but it’s how you go about it.”

Since the airline took flight in 1995, WestJetters from the executives to the baggage handlers have undergone training programs to learn to perform their every task with an extra bit of care. WestJet has two permanent learning centres in Calgary and Toronto (permanent Edmonton and Vancouver locations are currently being sought) to educate staff through a variety of training programs. WestJetters learn the basics of good leadership and the building blocks to achieve it for themselves.

“It’s about empowering our people to make good business decisions and making sure they’re familiar with the standards that are around,” says Rob Befus, WestJet’s manager of learning and development, “but most importantly what’s our goal as a company when we start focusing on working towards being that world-class air carrier.”

It’s not about just training people; it’s about retaining them too. “Trust me. It’s painful when you lose great people,” says Befus.

The company offers a number of extras to keep staff onboard: a profit-sharing program, a share purchase plan, travel privileges, health and dental benefits and a twice-yearly program called “Map Your Career.” Essentially a company-wide job fair, Map Your Career allows all employees the opportunity to learn about career paths in the company and how to get where they want to be. Group leaders man booths and field questions about their career paths. The events have high attendance records with WestJetters in Regina, Phoenix, Turks and Caicos and beyond welcome to attend.

And the marketing campaign that WestJetters are “also WestJet owners”? It’s a fact, right down to the writing on their business cards, says Befus. “And when we use that word ‘owner,’ our profit share is based on the performance of our company, which is based on the performance of all of our employees.”

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