February is a monumental month for airline JetBlue. On February 11th, JetBlue will celebrate its 10th anniversary in the air. Back in 2007, however, the airline encountered (pardon the pun) some turbulence. Known by its employees as the “Valentine’s Day Massacre,” JetBlue left thousands of its passengers stranded in airports or trapped sitting on tarmacs due to a brief New York city ice storm. The fiasco took six days to resolve. Subsequently, JetBlue’s employee satisfaction scores began to dip.

“That was really our wake-up call,” said Julia Gomez, the director of People Planning and Analysis for Jet Blue Airways, at this week’s Net Promoter conference in New York City. Prior to implementing Net Promoter for employees, JetBlue had already asked its staff whether or not they were likely to recommend JetBlue as a good place to work. Spring 2008, the airline decided to get serious about its employee promoter scores and make the measurements a tenet of JetBlue’s four-prong corporate measurements. Not only would the scores become more visible, but leaders’ bonuses would be dependent on the company reaching the its employee NPS goals.

With their bonuses on the line, the VPs became interested, Gomez said. Instead of surveying employees annually like it used to do, JetBlue began emailing its employees on a monthly basis and asking for feedback. It also segmented surveys per department so that the enterprise could gain insight on where loyalty and satisfaction were the highest — and where it waned.

With monthly metrics, JetBlue began to see the areas that make employees promoters. Gomez said that, for instance, those who promoted the company, were likely to score the following areas highly:

• I feel proud.
• JetBlue cares about me.
• My growth is supported at work.

In order to boost promoters in those areas, JetBlue worked hard to foster employee loyalty. One particular area that Gomez has some sticking power is volunteering. In times when employee retention and satisfaction is often coupled with income, JetBlue made it it’s mission to implement no furlough days. Instead the company is more creative in cutting back, Gomez said.

The JetBlue team has grown by nearly 1,200 in the past two years. Even so, it has been able to improve its Net Promoter scores from 2008:

• Detractors: 118 down to 80
• Passives: 204 down to 166
• Promoters: 164 up to 240

For more on JetBlue Airways, be sure to check out guest blogger Eric Barkin’s six-part series, “Eric Across America,” a tale of one man’s journey with a JetBlue  ”All You Can Jet” pass. Gomez said that the top jetter — a young man who flew nearly everyday for 30 days — was invited to JetBlue’s leadership conference. “Our crews fell in love with him,” Gomez said. Barkin’s posts can be found here (Part I), here (Part II), here (Part IIb), here (Part III), here (Part IV), here (Part V) and here (Part VI).