“What we’ve done is turn our people into raving capitalists.”

Not the label one might think to apply to the employees of Canadian airline WestJet, but that was how Duncan Bureau, WestJet’s vice president of sales, characterized the company’s singular focus on customer service while delivering the opening keynote at the 2009 Ottawa Business Summit this week.

The summit was a joint effort between the Ottawa Business Journal, The Canadian Association of Family Enterprise and the City of Ottawa to provide business owners and executives with education, information and inspiration.

In a cut-throat, commoditized business that’s seen dozens of players fold in the past couple of decades, WestJet has in 13 years grown from an upstart, with three planes serving only a handful of destinations in Western Canada, to a fleet of 76 planes, 55 destinations, $806 million in cash and one of the highest earnings before tax margins among North American carriers.

Key to WestJet’s success has been its focus on cost efficiencies and finding ways to keep its fleet flying and generating revenue, such as partnering with Transat to fly its short-haul routes when Transat’s own narrow-body aircraft fleet for that purpose grew tired.

But perhaps the greatest difference has been made by a corporate culture that makes employees owners with a vested interest in the organization’s success. At present, about 87 per cent of WestJet’s employees are shareholders in the company. The value of profit-share payments to employees to date is approaching $150 million, more money, Duncan pointed out, than many airlines have made in that same period.

While this model may not be for everyone, in an industry where service is the strongest differentiator, the WestJet example includes a number of common sense lessons to achieve top-notch employee engagement and performance.

1. As Duncan emphasized, travellers are considered guests, and this emphasis on serving the needs of guests has resulted in 90 per cent of travellers who use the airline recommending it to others.

2. Build a culture of opportunity rather than entitlement, in which employees feel confident in taking the initiative to ensure an optimal customer experience. Employees are empowered to act and think like owners. At WestJet, “great customer service comes from the heart, not from a manual.” There is no weighty policy book. Nor do executives get the kinds of perks that create a divide with the rank and file, such as reserved parking.

3. Hire for attitude and train for ability. Except for pilots, of course. As Duncan said, he can’t make someone smile and demonstrate enthusiasm for their job.

4. Celebrate success and recognize excellence frequently and loudly.

5. On the flipside of that, don’t hesitate to sack the “duds” who don’t fit in or are not performing and threaten to poison the organization.

6. Communication. Communication. Communication. Maintain an active dialogue (which means the listening is happening on both ends) with employees.

7. And lastly, imbed in your culture the lessons learned in Kindergarten — share, play fair, don’t hit people, put things back where you found them, don’t take things that don’t belong to you, say sorry when you hurt someone, look both ways before you leap, and keep the balance between work, life and play.

Tomorrow I’ll offer the Dragon’s perspective from the afternoon keynote by Robert Herjavec, one of the five dragons on the CBC television series, Dragon’s Den.

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