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Benefit
#4
Southwest Airlines
is serious about having fun at work. Their quest for fun has made
them the only airline to post a profit between 1990 and 1994 in
an industry that recorded a $12.8 billion loss in the same period.
Southwest was the only U.S. airline to earn a profit every year
since 1973. Their net-profit margins are also the highest in the
industry. Typically, the airlines receives over 24,000 applications
a year, interviews a fourth of those people, and hires an eighth
of them. A fun corporate culture attracts the most talented employees.
Most new employees
arrive brimming with enthusiasm, desire, and creativity. They find
their new job challenging and exciting with much to learn. What
happens to those same people in three months, six months or one
year? They can become automatons — unmotivated and unenthusiastic.
These employees were not hired as “dead wood.”13
Keep them thriving and growing through fun and creativity. If you
don't nurture employees, another company will.
Wall Street
is now looking beyond the stock prices to "people factors" when
looking at stock investments. Ernst and Young's Center for Business
Innovation presented a study of 275 portfolio managers who showed
their decisions on stock picks were over one third driven by nonfinancial
factors. A company's ability to attract and retain talented employees
ranks fifth among 39 factors.14
One company,
Facilitec Business Interiors in Phoenix, Arizona, started as a small
furniture dealership and grew to be one of the largest in their
industry. The company recognized that their most valuable asset
was motivated staff. Facilitec’s dynamic owners expected employees
to come to work with a good attitude. If someone did not feel like
coming to work, they had them the option to stay home. These leaders
knew that a bad attitude spreads like a dreaded virus. If this virus
was kept out of the work environment, they would have an office
of happy, healthy people. It worked. Although there were some people
who abused the system, it was not management that reprimanded them
but rather their fellow-employees. Others did not want the policy
to be revoked so they policed their peers. People who abused the
system did not fit in with the team and ultimately did not remain
with the company. Because of this unique policy, talented employees
are attracted like magnets to this high-energy environment.
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