I was on holiday when this blog post about Zappos was doing the rounds but it's so good I thought it was worth mentioning again now. I'm a big fan of quirky working practices and this one is superb. I'm wondering if/how this could be implemented in my business.
"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.)
Indeed, CEO Tony Hsieh and his colleagues keep raising the size of the quit-now bonus. It started at $100, went to $500, and may well go higher than $1,000 as the company gets bigger (and it becomes even more difficult to maintain the all-important culture and obsession with customers.)"
I wouldn't welcome this at NixMc, Tom. It doesn't feel right for us. The team is still small so recruitment is a big all round effort - it seems perverse to then pay the newbies to leave.
I understand the concept and it would certainly work if the longer term benefit of staying was clearly felt by the right employees, but it feels kinda gimmicky too.
Posted by: Jenni Lloyd | 07 June 2008 at 01:37 AM
Definitely a gimmick and it's not sustainable either.
I reckon over time, you'll see less and less valuable candidates applying for jobs and more and more people just looking for that lump of easy cash. It's a foot shooting exercise in the long term.
Nice new blog theme by the way. :-)
Posted by: Matthew Hill | 07 June 2008 at 01:32 PM
It's easy to dismiss it, but it's obviously working for Zappos!
I think I slightly agree with you tho Jen. Somehow it feels more fitting for call centre type jobs than professional services.
Posted by: Tom Nixon | 07 June 2008 at 01:41 PM