Taking on new employees is definitely easier said than done. Recruitment takes up so much time, money, and effort — especially when you’re a startup.
Like here, I personally handle the applications that come in from the job ads that also I posted. I’m a 1-woman HR department. Since we’re bootstrapping, same as Zappos, we can’t afford to hire someone who doesn’t believe in the startup experience. He/she has to have an entrepreneurial spirit, have the good sense and initiative to work on his own in our office even if he’s alone because the others come in late or have proven that they can work from home, and of course mad skills in programming/business development/UX/customer service.
Discovered via Good Experience and JP has mentioned this in passing:
This (Zappos) is a company that’s bursting with personality, to the point where a huge number of its 1,600 employees are power users of Twitter so that their friends, colleagues, and customers know what they’re up to at any moment in time. But here’s what’s really interesting. It’s a hard job, answering phones and talking to customers for hours at a time. So when Zappos hires new employees, it provides a four-week training period that immerses them in the company’s strategy, culture, and obsession with customers. People get paid their full salary during this period.
After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!
Why? Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later. (About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run.)
Continue reading “Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit — And You Should Too” or watch Bill Taylor’s interview:
As much as I’d like to emulate how Zappos keeps employee turnover down, I’m not sure we always have instant USD 1,000 just lying around. Since web-based products are fundamentally unique and not the same as working in a bank or a consumer goods company, this could potentially be a good practice.
