Southwest's People PlanSouthwest's People Plan

While most airlines are looking for ways to cut jobs, Southwest Airlines Co. has a different problem: managing an onslaught of 200,000 resumés a year as it tries to add staff.

Southwest recently decided to use recruitment software from Deploy Solutions Inc. to manage the hiring necessary as the company grows, says Beverly Carmichael, Southwest's VP of people. Unlike much of the industry, Southwest's net income more than doubled to $246 million in its second quarter compared with a year ago, and revenue rose almost 3% to $1.5 billion.

Yet Southwest is playing catch-up with its HR technology, says Allan Schweyer, an analyst with the research division at HR.com. United Airlines, American Airlines, and Air Canada have all deployed recruitment software in recent years. The software is particularly useful in an industry with such a wide range of employees. "There are high-end professionals that require a lot of recruiting and have low turnover, such as executives and pilots," Schweyer says, "and there are high-turnover, hourly workers like baggage handlers."

Southwest, which employs 35,000 people, expects the investment to improve recruiting productivity and reduce hiring costs. The airline plans to use Deploy for hiring from both outside and within the company. Features include applicant tracking; a career portal; job requisition, creation, and approval; candidate matching; and ranking.

Southwest also chose the software because it integrates with a U.S. government system for verifying candidate's fingerprints and validating drug-test results. Recent federal security changes require compliance with the system. "There's a fair bit of work being done around screening and background checking of candidates with many of our customers," says Nicole Strata, CEO of Deploy, which includes FedEx Corp. among its customers.