When you go to bed on a Sunday night, not bummed that there is work tomorrow, you know you’ve got a job you love! My guest today is the Managing Director of Talent Acquisition at Southwest Airlines, Greg Muccio. He’s been there for over 22 years and is passionate about his job, his team, and the programs and people involved. In our conversation today, Greg talks about his experience as a long-time Southwest Airlines employee, what motivated him over the years to stay, and the aspects of the job he loves even today. He shares an overview of the distinctive talent acquisition challenges faced by Southwest and talks about current hiring trends and the appetite for open roles. He elaborates on their Destination 225° (D-225) program before expressing the significance of uncovering new talent that Southwest does not currently possess. Make sure to tune into this episode to hear more about how Greg conceptualizes the talent department within Southwest and how he implements long-term tactical approaches to talent acquisition. 

 

Key Points From This Episode:

 

• Greg’s thoughts and experience as a long-time employee at Southwest Airlines.

• Across the years, the reasons that motivated Greg to stay.

• The qualities of his team that make it worthwhile to stay.

• Greg paints a broad stroke of the unique talent-sourcing challenges at Southwest. 

• Current hiring trends and the appetite for open roles; from a labor workforce point of view. 

• More jobs than people: what’s happening?

• Southwest’s approach to attitudes that are not one-to-one with the open roles.

• Their steadfastness to anchor onto stability at Southwest.

• He expresses his fondness for his team and their work efforts and dedication. 

• Greg talks more about his team and the scope of the talent operation. 

• He talks more about the D-225 program (Destination 225°) at Southwest.

• The essentiality of discovering new talent that is not yet present at Southwest. 

• Mix-and-matching and the total talent approach. 

• How Greg conceptualizes the talent department within the organization.

• Why you need to be thinking of long-term tactical approaches.

 

Quotes:

 

“To be at a place like Southwest that has a great history of taking care of their people, it’s a fun job!” — Greg Muccio [0:01:46]

 

“Being in TA right now [is] hard work. You’ve got to show up and you’ve got to be ready to work hard.” — Greg Muccio [0:10:26]

 

“If we are going to make it. If we are going to have the right kind of talent, we will have to uncover new pools of talent that exist in Southwest today.” — Greg Muccio [0:19:29]

 

“At Southwest, we want a representative of our brand and that culture and those kinds of things because that’s what makes people come back and fly with us again, and again, and again, it’s our people.” — Greg Muccio [0:26:19]

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

Greg Muccio on LinkedIn

Southwest Airlines

Talk Talent to Me

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