Southwest Airlines Offers Referral Bonuses to Expand Their Workforce

US airlines are dealing with labor shortages. As airline employees struggle to keep up with the current volume of passengers, Southwest Airlines decided to get the help of their current employees in recruiting new ones. The airline offers referral bonuses for employees who can help them hire new workers.

Southwest vice president and chief people officer Julie Weber wrote that “Southwest is experiencing a sharp decline in qualified applicants due to low labor force participation and competition for available talent”.

How Do Referral Bonuses Work?

Southwest employees can potentially earn 20,000 “SWAG Points”. The first 10,000 points will be given on the new hire’s first day of work. The other half will be given after the person completed six months with Southwest. The points have a taxable value of 1.5 cents per point. In a company document, the value of the bonus translates to around $300.

The airline said that it’s a common practice for them to encourage “employees to bring others into the Southwest family”.

Employees can redeem for frequent flyer miles, gift cards, and concert tickets. However, the points can’t be turned into cash. Staff can receive referral bonuses until November 20.

Early Retirement and Time Off

Southwest didn’t announce how many employees they are going to hire. During the start of the pandemic, US airlines urged workers to take early retirement packages as well as unpaid and partially paid leaves. The problem started when domestic travel picked up. Airlines ended up scrambling to either hire or retrain their staff.

Staffing shortage is a huge problem for the airline industry this summer. Customers had to wait for hours to talk to a customer service representative. Also, some airlines had to cancel flights due to the lack of crew members.

On August 1, more than 2.2 million people passed through airport checkpoints according to Transportation Security Administration. TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein said that “It was the highest checkpoint volume since the start of the pandemic”.