Training & Development Course Project

Contents Company Information 3 Gap Analysis 4 Needs Assessment 6 Conclusion 7 References 8

My company choice for this assignment is the Southwest Airlines Corporation. Southwest Airline Corporation is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and is a significant player in the American airline. The company was founded in 1966 by Rollin King and Herbert Kelleher and later incorporated as Air Southwest Company in 1967. The name Southwest Airlines was adopted in 1971 (Kelly, 2015). The company has a history of low flight fares as among the best intrastate airlines in America. Southwest Airlines is able to maintain its low-fares as a result of the use of the Boeing 737 aircraft which are normally associated with low maintenance costs. As of March 2019, the company has a human workforce of 59,000 employees who are responsible for the company’s operations. For the past year, the company stock value has increased at a rate of 12% from reaching a current stock value of 52.26 USD (Kelly, 2015).

The airline industry has faced significant changes in the past two decades. Most of these industry changes are as a result of the changes in the volatility in fuel prices, overall economic wellbeing of the population, the competitive strategies put into place by industry participants as well as government policy (Kelly, 2015). For example, fluctuations in fuel prices have led to the increased operating costs in the industry which has forced the fare prices up. On the other end, the increased cost of living among the nationals has made the customers of the airline industry price sensitive. This has translated to a formulation of competitive strategies among the industry players increasing the rate of competition in the industry.

Also, government policy is another significant aspect in the industry which has continually changed the rules of the industry. Taxation in the airline industry is on a continuous rise with the government increasing the level of taxes for the industry players. This has continually affected airline companies forcing others to run out of the industry. The existing industry players are strategically struggling to remain in business which means using various competing mechanisms. This has continually led to an increased level of competition in the airline industry.

The success of every company is based on the identification of any industry gaps and needs and adjusting the company’s operations to fit those gaps. Southwest Airlines is among the best-performing companies in the airline industry. However, every industry is prone to industry changes which mean that there is a need for industry participants to be ready and prepared for any potential needs (Kelly, 2015). Also, the success of a company in a competitive industry comes from how well the company is able to adapt to industry changes as compared to the other competing companies. An analysis of the company’s weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is provided below.

Company’s Strengths

Price Leadership: Southwest Airlines company is a price leader in the airline industry. the company is able to reduce their operating cost which enables it to offer low priced flights. By offering low priced fares, the company is able to attract more customers thereby putting it on a competitive edge.

Low Turnaround time: Southwest Airlines is able to save much time during a turnaround. By having a turnaround time which is much lower than the industry’s average, the company is able to utilize its aircrafts in making more flights in a day thereby eliminating the need for purchasing new planes to cover more flights.

Company’s Weaknesses

Lawsuits: Southwest Airlines Company faces a challenge of negativity in the eyes of the customers due to its involvement with some active lawsuits whose results are pending. Most of these lawsuits are based on passenger complaints which continually affect its image in the airline industry.

Over dependent on Boeing: Southwest Airlines is highly dependent on Boeing who is the sole supplier of its aircraft as well as spare parts. A disagreement between the two parties can affect the company’s operations (Kelly, 2015).

Opportunities

Expansion: Southwest airlines are faced with an opportunity to expand its market dominance both in the domestic and international markets. Expanding its market scope both in the United States and the global market can help the company in increasing its business revenues as well as counteract competition to an insignificant level.

Freight business: the increasing globalization effects have caused the rapid growth of the global freight business. Southwest Airlines can take advantage of this growth by capitalizing on its freight business (Kelly, 2015).

Company’s Threats

Competition: intense competition is among the prevailing threats in the flight industry which has continually led to pricing wars among the industry participants. Some of the major competitors to Southwest airlines are SkyWest, Delta Airlines and American Airlines.

Government Regulation: the airline industry is one that is dominated by strict government regulations and compliances. Industry players are also heavily taxed by the government which continually affects the company’s revenues.

Out of the company’s weaknesses, opportunities and threats, two gaps which required employee training can be identified. One of the identified gaps is customer relations. Employee training is a key component in the improvement of customer relations. The increasing instances of lawsuits can be significantly improved through training employees on customer relations. The second gap is business expansion. There is a need for the management team and the employees to be trained on the need for the company expansion. With the company being faced with an opportunity to expand its dominance, training the employees on the need for change and expansion will facilitate the growth of the company.

The reason as to why training best suites the identified gaps is due to the fact that most of these gaps are human resource related. Human resource-related gaps and challenges can only be addressed by improving the tactical skills of the company’s employees which leads to an improved human resource component. The operations of Southwest Airlines are run by its workforce. Therefore, improving the company’s workforce through training translates to improve the company’s operations.

If I was hired at Southwest Airlines to conduct a training needs assessment on the gaps that I have identified, the two methods that I would use for my needs assessment are company information and observations. The most appropriate company information I would use for my training needs assessment is the lawsuit information. Lawsuit information would involve researching on how the company’s deals with any business or industry disputes so as to assess how well the company addresses its differences with customers and other industry players. The use of observations would involve me watching the employees at Southwest Airlines when performing their regular tasks (Noe, 2013). This would be greatly focused on the employees working in the customer relations department as this is where I had identified a gap. While observing the employees, I would consider the behavioral, functional and technical aspect of the employees while observing to get a quantitative as well as a qualitative response on training performance.

Employee training on how to deal with the company’s clients is among the training I would suggest for the company. The customer is the lifeblood of any company and as a result, the human resource at Southwest airlines needs to be trained on how to improve their customer experience which shall translate to improved customer relations. Also, employees should be trained on how to adopt industry changes which include business expansion. Limitation of my assessment based on the feedback from my assessment method specifically observation was that employees felt monitored and spied on which gave misleading feedback (Stolovitch, 2011).