culture and core values: the zappos family way
DESCRIPTION
ERE Webinar from 6/1/2011, presented by Christa Foley.TRANSCRIPT
People Culture and Committable Core Values Recruiting, Managing, and Motivating The Zappos Family Way
Delivering Happiness
Tony Hsieh, CEO
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
1200 in Shepherdsville
1023 in Las Vegas
ZAPPOS AT A GLANCE
2000 plus employees
Founded in 1999
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
ZAPPOS AT A GLANCE
4 million warehouse
items
100% inventoried
BEST SELECTION!
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Zappos is powered by SERVICE!
Fast, FREE shipping
FREE return shipping
365-‐day return policy
Fast fulfillment
Fast, friendly expert customer loyalty team
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
“100 Best Companies to Work For”
“50 Most Innovative Companies”
“Top 25 Customer
Service Champs”
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Zappos is committed to WOWing every customer.
365-day returns!
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Then they come back.
Then they order more and more often!
Customers come.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
The Power of WOW
‘01 ‘02 ‘06 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘07 ‘00 ‘08
Gro
ss S
ales
$M
M
$1,000
800
600
400
200
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
What customers notice first SERVICE
800 number on every page
Free shipping
Free return shipping
24/7 customer service
365-‐day return policy
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
What customers experience next SERVICE
Redirection to competitors’ sites
Fast, accurate fulfillment
Surprise upgrades to overnight shipping
Above-‐and-‐beyond customer service
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
How we ensure it with our employees SERVICE
5 weeks of training
No call times
No sales-‐based performance goals
$2000 incentive to quit
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
How we ensure it through our policies SERVICE
50% of interviews and performance reviews based on values and culture fit
Culture Books
24/7 warehouse
All products inventoried – no drop shipping
Use of the telephone and Twitter
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
COMMITTABLE CORE VALUES
ulture =
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
ZAPPOS CORE
VALUES
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Deliver
through service.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Embrace and drive change.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Create fun and a little weirdness
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Be adventurous, creative and open-minded.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Pursue and learning.
growth
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Build open and honest relationships with communication.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Build a positive team and family spirit.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Do more with less.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Delivery!
Be passionate and determined.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Be humble.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
That’s great for Zappos but it
would never work at my company…
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
“It doesn’t matter what your core values are…
as long as you commit to them.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Figure out values
and culture.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Live the brand!
personal company
Culture
Values
Align!
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
HAVE A VISION. Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Don’t chase the paper; chase the DREAM.
Sean Combs, a.k.a. “Puff Daddy”
Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. “Notorious B.I.G., ”
WORDS OF WISDOM
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
What’s the greater vision and purpose of employees’ work?
Go beyond the profit motive.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Motivation is different from inspiration.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS.
Don’t “network.”
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
Hire slowly, fire quickly. BUILD YOUR TEAM.
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
– African proverb
© 2009 sunnibrown.com
How do we recruit for Culture & our Core Values?
• How do we recruit for culture? – Technical fit – do you have the technical skills to do the job?
• Skills & Experience assessments – Culture fit – do you have the same values we do?
• Culture Interview – It’s all about the Core Values
• Wow! Can you roll the way Zappos does? • Adventurous & Creative! Do you feel lucky!? • Fun & Weird! You gotta be, but don’t get crazy… • Team & Family! Workin’ 9 to 5?
How do we get around canned responses?
Shake ‘em up before you sit ‘em down! – “A three hour tour” – What’s your theme song? – New York City or Cher’s dressing room?
I know you said you know… but do you really know or believe
it? – CLT Training – Testing
Culture & Recruiting
100% Certified and Guaranteed!?
– Continual evolution • Peak Questions • Top Grading
– Students have the exam ahead of time? • Applicant to hire ratio = Less than 1% • Training is an extended screening process
Employee Relations – Zappos Style
HR is not the final say, we are simply advisors. Managers
make the decisions. – We act as true advisors and explain the risk around
situations – If the manager does not take our advise, that is fine, we
are here to help them in any way we can Being Proactive
– Building Relationships (HR and Management too)
Employee Relations – Zappos Style
Annual Performance Reviews
– No Annual Reviews. Our managers are encouraged to provide performance feedback regularly and often
– Maintaining our culture is key, Managers provide a Culture Assessment for each team member, based on our Core Values.
Employee Handbook
– Make it something people want to read – Employee Handbook: Policies for Employees by Employees
Infuse Culture in everything!
Benefits are Hot!
• Strive to have the best benefits possible for employees – We provide Medical, Dental, Vision, STD, LTD, Life
Insurance, AD&D Insurance, 401K
– Employees pay no premiums
– All annual visits, check ups / preventative care is free (no out of pocket for employees)
– Employees have an HRA that is fully funded by us. It covers all deductibles plus more.
P.E.A.C.E.
P.E.A.C.E.
Programs
Events
Activities Charity
Engagement
Put a little Zappos in your day… …some links to check out…
– http://twitter.zappos.com (public mentions, employees)
– http://blogs.zappos.com (photos & videos of culture)
– http://about.zappos.com (more information about us & core values)
– http://www.zapposinsights.com (to schedule a tour, video Q&A from different depts)
Put a little Zappos in your day… …some links to check out…
Follow me on Twitter @electra
Email me – [email protected] • A copy of this presentation • Answers to any additional questions not addressed today
Check out our jobs! jobs.zappos.com
Legal and Financial Disclaimer P.S. You might be wondering why we need to have a legal and financial disclaimer in this presenta;on, but you are s;ll reading, so our lawyers, auditors and accountants would really like to make sure we make the following clarifica;ons.
Although an audit was underway and almost done, the financial informa;on presented in this slide show was unaudited. We made every effort to present the best informa;on we had at the ;me.
Gross merchandise sales is a non-‐GAAP metric. We use it to express the total demand across all of our web sites and stores. This number measures the dollar value of the orders placed in the year before accruing for certain items such as returns, and it ignores certain ;ming cut-‐offs that are required by GAAP for revenue recogni;on purposes. If we were a public company, we would have to reconcile gross merchandise sales to the nearest GAAP metric (net sales), but we are currently a private company so the gross merchandise sales number should be viewed just as an interes;ng number that we want to share with our friends.
This presenta;on contains forward-‐looking statements that involve risks and uncertain;es, as well as assump;ons that, if they ever materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-‐looking statements and assump;ons. These risks and uncertain;es include, but are not limited to, the risk of economic slowdown, the risk of over or under-‐buying, the risk of consumers not shopping online or at our web site at the rate we expected, the risk of supplier shortages, the risk of new or growing compe;;on, the risk of a natural or some other type of disaster affec;ng our fulfillment opera;ons or web servers, and the risk of the world generally coming to an end. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-‐looking statements, including statements of expecta;on or belief; and any statement of assump;ons underlying any of the foregoing. Zappos.com assumes no obliga;on and does not intend to update these forward-‐looking statements.
Congratula;ons on making it through all the fine print. If you enjoy fine print, look for openings on our legal and finance team at jobs.zappos.com.