New Hire Communication:
JetBlue Airways
Magda de la Matta
November 24, 2014
COMM/295 Business Communications
Professor George Beaini

Crafting effective messages is an important part of business, and is a skill that requires constant honing. As Bovee and Thill discuss in their book Business Communication Today (2011), the three steps of the writing process are planning, writing, and completing. This paper will describe the process of writing a message to flight attendants who are being hired at JetBlue Airways, and are awaiting information about Flight Attendant Training.
Planning
The first step in planning a business message is defining the purpose and profile of your audience. It would be foolhardy to jump directly into the writing itself, because the information needs to first be organized; without taking the time to analyze, the writing process is slower, and excessive wordiness and potentially embarrassing text is more likely (Bovee & Thill, 2011).
Define the Purpose The purpose of any business message must be carefully defined. Is the purpose worthwhile and realistic, acceptable to the organization, timed well, and understandable to the audience (Bovee & Thill, 2011)? Is it to persuade, collaborate with, or inform the audience? These are important questions to consider when shaping the business message, to ensure that it is necessary, appropriate, and clearly defines what the audience should do upon receiving the message. The purpose of the New Hire communication is to inform newly hired flight attendants at JetBlue Airways about the company’s culture, and the process and procedures of the company and the employment process. The communication is necessary and timely, as newly hired flight attendants need clear information about training procedures in order to move forward with their employment. The message is written at a reading level commensurate with the audience’s level of understanding: flight attendant applicants are required to have an undergraduate degree and a demonstrated command of the English language.
Define the Audience After defining the purpose of the business message, the audience is profiled to determine their size, location, composition, expectations, and reactions (Bovee & Thill, 2011). By profiling the audience, the message’s writer ensures that the communication is effective and tailored to its specific audience’s needs. The JetBlue New Hire communication is written to a specific audience: newly hired flight attendants for JetBlue Airways, who have accepted their employment and are waiting to receive information about training procedures. New Hire groups generally range from 30-100 flight attendants per month. Flight attendants must be U.S. citizens, but they may be anywhere in the world at the time they are receiving the New Hire communication. Newly hired flight attendants are fluent English speakers, college graduates, and are generally 22-40 years of age. Becoming a flight attendant is extremely competitive, so newly hired flight attendants will most likely receive information favorably, as they are excited to begin work and are grateful for being hired. Due to the fact that the audience is receptive to the message, the direct approach was used in the communication (Bovee & Thill, 2011).
Channel of Communication In order to reach one’s audience, it is crucial to choose an appropriate medium of communication. The types of communication may be oral, written, visual, or electronic, though these categories have blended together due to technological advances (Bovee & Thill, 2011). The JetBlue Airways New Hire communication is in electronic, written form, for multiple reasons. JetBlue uses email as its primary method of contacting employees, so the New Hire communication follows suit to stay consistent and follow employee expectations. Electronic media can reach multiple people simultaneously, and can be received anywhere in the world. The information is most suited to written form, as it provides a permanent record for employees to refer back to, leaving less room for misunderstandings or error. One drawback of using email is the risk that the message may accidentally be sorted into the junk mail folder. However, as employees were already in the habit of receiving email messages from JetBlue, it is likely that potential hiccups in the sorting process had previously been worked out. Visuals were not used in the New Hire communication, as visual files do not always load properly on computers and other devices, and JetBlue wanted to ensure that every employee received the exact same information.
Writing
Following Bovee and Thill’s Three-Step Writing Process (2011), the New Hire communication is written with a “you” attitude, conveying sensitivity to the audience’s needs and using polite, unbiased language in a credible tone. The information used in this New Hire communication was a compilation of personal knowledge, and the JetBlue public website (JetBlue Airways, 2014).

|Dear [First Name], |
| |
|It is our pleasure to welcome you to Flight Attendant Training at JetBlue Airways. |
| |
|At JetBlue Airlines, we pride ourselves on being a down-to-earth company built on five simple company values: Safety Caring, |
|Integrity, Fun, and Passion. These values differentiate JetBlue from the rest, and ensure outstanding customer service. We |
|sincerely believe that this position will offer you a challenging opportunity and will be both personally and professionally |
|satisfying to you. |
| |
|Flight Attendant Training will begin on Monday, January 5th, 2015 at 9 am at our headquarters in Queens, New York. A representative|
|from Human Resources will contact you in the week prior to Training to inform you of your flight itinerary. Trainees arrive |
|depending on flight availability, so you may fly in as early as three days before your training start date. Flights to and from |
|Training will be at zero cost to you, and housing and food are complimentary as well (dietary restrictions will be accommodated). |
| |
|Training classes are held from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Saturday, and finish on Saturday, February 27th, 2015. |
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|We ask that you dress in business attire during the Training period. Uniforms will be given out in the fourth week of training. |
|Please bring one or more pairs of unadorned black or navy business dress shoes that are made of polishable leather or leather-like |
|material. Heel height maximum is 2 inches. |
| |
|We are looking forward to working with you. Should you have any questions, please contact Jeremy Stockham at 1-800-327-4978 ext. |
|35877. |
| |
|Sincerely, |
| |
|Flight Attendant Recruitment |
|JetBlue Airways |

Completing After writing a business message, it is crucial to proofread and revise the message before submitting it. When proofreading this document, the author confirmed that the message matched the content, organization, style, and tone that it was intended to, and the message was readable (Bovee & Thill, 2011). The message was edited for clarity and conciseness, by using techniques such as breaking up long sentences, deleting extraneous words, and rewording sentences that begin with “it is” or “there are” (Bovee & Thill, 2011). Technology assisted in the revision process, through the use of tools such as spelling and grammar check. These revisionary techniques act as a safeguard to make sure that the communication reflects positively on the author and the company as a whole.

References
Bovee, C., & Thill, J.V. (2011). Chapter 4: Planning Business Messages, Chapter 5: Writing Business Messages, and Chapter 6: Completing Business Messages. In Business communication today (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
JetBlue Airways (2014). Work Here. Retrieved from http://www.jetblue.com/work-here/more-to-look-forward-to.aspxw