Kelleher's Take on Hiring
When Kelleher was telling a story about hiring one time, he commented that he said he pretty much hated the term "Human Resources," which he said "sounds like something from a Stalin five-year plan."
He said that he calls it their People Department because that's what you're dealing with. That was a prelude to his look at hiring the right people.
So a representative of Southwest Airline's (LUV) "People Department" came to him and told him that he was embarrassed because he had interviewed 34 people for a certain position within the company.
Kelleher responded saying, "If you have to interview 134 people to find the appropriate person ... do it.
The reason for it he said was that the most important thing for any company is to get the right people. He added, when someone chooses the wrong one, that person will poison everyone else.
This is really true in my experience. If you want to take care of the numerous people problems that arise your company, do it at the front end, not the back end. Once a person is in the company, it makes it far more difficult to deal with situations than if they hadn't been hired at all.
While this seems obvious, companies continue to try to fill important positions as quickly as they can. It's really not worth the rush to do this, no matter what position is being filled. We should teach and train our people in the "People Department" to interview until they get it right. There shouldn't be pressure on them to fill something and then bring in the wrong person. It's done far too many times in companies.
We need to resist this very powerful tendency and wait until we find the right people.
Other Herb Kelleher Sources:
Leadership: The Essential Herb Kelleher
Speeches and Presentations from Southwest Leaders
Southwest Airlines: The Hottest Thing in the Sky
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