Southwest Airlines has long been the most profitable, well-run, and well-respected companies in one of America’s toughest industries. One of key reasons Southwest has had such great success over the years is the esprit decorps of their 35,000 employees, which is known for their fun-loving attitude (yes, singing songs at 40,000 feet help!), do whatever it takes customer service, and a family-like work environment.
With all those things going for them, it is not surprising that Southwest won Glassdoor’s second annual Employees’ Choice Awards for Best Places to Work for 2010. If you haven’t heard of Glassdoor.com and you are in senior leadership or work in HR – then you haven’t seen the future of employer branding.
What makes Glassdoor’s award different that a lot of the employer of choice / best places to work awards (and there are way too many of these) is that these 50 companies were chosen by the people that know these companies best – their employees. Below is a quick rundown of the methodology for all you research geeks out there…
The Top 50 were selected from more than 37,000 companies reviewed by the nearly 100,000 employees who completed a 20-question survey on Glassdoor.com in 2009. To be eligible for the list, a company must have had at least all of the following:
- 25 reviews from United States-based employees between January 1, 2009 and December 1, 2009,
- “satisfied” ratings overall and across all categories, and
- a CEO with at least a 50% approval rating.
The survey questions relate to employees’ attitudes about Career Opportunities, Communication, Compensation & Benefits, Employee Morale, Recognition & Feedback, Senior Leadership, Work/Life Balance, and Fairness & Respect. After the overall ratings are calculated, a company may be excluded from the list if our review panel determines detrimental acts by management or other negative company events could ultimately damage employees’ faith in the company’s senior leadership and/or adversely affect its overall rating on Glassdoor.com.
Do you remember the days when you took a job and all you knew about it was 1) what it produced/sold 2) what the hiring manager and the other interviewers told you about the company 3) whatever you could dig up through your personal grapevine? With sites like Glassdoor.com and social media gorilla’s like LinkedIn, Facebook, & Twitter - those days are long gone as potential employees can now find out the real scoop about your company before signing on the dotted line.
So, back to my earlier point in on the future of employer branding (drum-roll, please)…your company’s “employer brand” is not what you say it is, it is what your employee’s say it is…if you don’t believe me just ask the employees of Southwest.