Читать книгу The Power of WOW - The Employees of Zappos.com - Страница 13
ОглавлениеHollie Delaney
Chief Human Resources Officer
I trained dolphins after college.
I was fed up. I’d worked in HR for years, in a whole bunch of different environments, from a casino, to a water park, to e-commerce, and finally for brick-and-mortar retail, and, to be frank, I just didn’t like what was I doing. I felt like all I did was enforce rules all day long, and deal with compliance issues, and tell people what they were doing wrong. There was nothing fun about it. Nothing uplifting.
I didn’t even feel like I was me when I was at work. I didn’t dress the way I like to dress. I’m a ripped jeans and t-shirt kind of woman, and at one of my prior HR jobs they made us wear stockings. Like, pantyhose. Every day. Why? Because that was the way it had always been done. Truly, there was no other reason.
When I was at work at my previous job, I didn’t act like I normally act. It was like I put on a persona when I walked through the door. Work was just a job, and sometimes a miserable job, that I dragged myself to every morning only to watch the clock in the afternoon, just waiting to go home to my family and be me again.
Zappos’ HR department is like no other HR department I’d ever encountered. It’s fun and a little bit weird, just like me.
When I hit the wall with my last job in retail, I made up my mind not only to leave but also to change careers. I was done with HR. All I needed was a temporary job to get me by while I figured out my next steps.
Of course, that was easier said than done. HR is what I was trained in. It’s what filled up my résumé. So when I looked into employment at Zappos for what I truly believed would be a short stay, I grudgingly applied for an HR position. It wasn’t the whole new world I was hoping for, but I had heard they were a fun company. I thought maybe it would at least be a somewhat enjoyable place to work while I figured out how to transition to an entirely different career.
I remember one of the first things the person who interviewed me asked was, “How would your current manager describe you?” And I replied, “They’d say I was fun, but a little weird.”
“Really?” she said. “That’s one of our core values: ‘Create Fun and a Little Weirdness.’”
“Oh,” I said, surprised and honestly a little skeptical. Zappos wasn’t widely known back then. I hadn’t heard a word about their “core values” or really much of anything else. (Turns out, they’d only just finalized the Core Values list that very year.)
“That’s weird,” I said out loud.
I wonder if Hollie laughed at her own joke on the inside.
It turned out that Zappos and I shared a lot of core values, once I learned what those were. I got hired. I stuck around. I moved up the ladder to become head of HR, and, more than twelve years later, I’m still here. The job wasn’t so temporary after all!
You see, I quickly discovered that Zappos’ HR department is like no other HR department I’d ever encountered. It’s fun and a little bit weird, just like me. And it’s built on actually putting the “human” in human resources.
When you hire people who are aligned with your values and the company’s values, things just click—for the employee and for the company.
So how do we figure out who to hire?
First off, take our time. After all, if our employees are our greatest resource, it only makes sense that we would put some serious effort into finding the right humans for our company. The minute our recruiters start talking to candidates, from the first phone call or email through several rounds xxof interviews, they bring up the Core Values and ask behavioral-based questions to see if the candidates understand and align with those values. We dig right in to great customer service, and talk about understanding change, and being humble, and taking chances, taking risks, and being ready to learn. Our hiring process is not just about the résumés. It’s about finding out who these candidates are as human beings.
When we get to a final decision phase, the candidates spend the day—sometimes multiple days—on site, getting to know the whole company. They’re given tours of the campus so they can see our values in action. They join us for lunches and afterwork happy hours, just so we can see how they interact with other employees.
Once they’re hired, we put them through an extensive new-hire training (NHT) and onboarding process. We’re not talking one or two days. Our onboarding is four weeks! Four weeks in which our new Zapponians get a deep dive into our history, our core values, and who we are as a company. And that onboarding is really an extension of the hiring process. If we decide at the end of those four weeks that they’re just not a good fit with one or more of our core values, we let candidates know we’re going to let them go; and if they themselves don’t feel that they’re a good fit for Zappos, we want them to be comfortable walking away as well. We truly want our potential employees to ask themselves, “Is this really what I want? Did I sign up for the right thing? Is working at Zappos really going to make me happy?” And we want them to ask these questions before they’re entrenched, before they wind up working for six or eight or ten months or a year in a place they really don’t like, only to quit and put us back at square one with refilling the position.
How do we get our new recruits to put up with all of that?
We give them an offer to quit at the end of training and if they choose to take that offer, they receive a month’s pay. Is that a costly process? Yes and no. A small percentage of new hires does elect to quit. And we’ve found that it’s actually cost effective, because we’re not just hiring people. We’re hiring the right people. People who have a service-first mindset. People who want to be here because we fit them, too, and who, in most cases, are going to stick around for the long haul—the way I did—and hopefully make our company better for the hard work we all put in early on.
Christa Foley
Head of Brand Vision, Head of Talent Acquisition, and Head of External Culture Training
I was late to the party with Game of Thrones, but I love it.
Over the years we’ve developed a long list of questions around each of our core values, and they help us determine whether someone is going to align with our core values and fit our culture, or not. I mean, someone who’s very rigid, who can’t adapt to change, who wants to live by the standard old corporate rules—they’re definitely not going to fit in here, right? It’s important to catch those sorts of red flags early on. And we’ve found that a lot can be gained by asking sort of off-the-wall questions, like “How lucky do you feel you are?” or “If every time you walked into a room a theme song played, what would that be, and why?” These quirky questions can lead to some serious conversations and shine a light on somebody’s values.
We also decided a long time ago that culture fit always trumps a technical fit when hiring. Just because someone is great at their particular job at this particular moment doesn’t mean they’re going to be a good fit down the line when systems change, or practices change, or the marketplace changes, or we move to a new location, or whatever it is they might have to adapt to. If “Embracing and Driving Change” isn’t something they value, they wouldn’t enjoy working at Zappos—and they wouldn’t be very successful here.
Mostly, though, we want to make sure our new hires understand what we mean by customer service. That a “customer” is any person they come in contact with, including coworkers. Just because a person can interface with a computer doesn’t mean they’re on board with “Delivering WOW Through Service” to their fellow human beings in the office, or elsewhere. It’s important that we see who they are, as an authentic person, to know if their core values align with ours.
Maritza Lewis
Engage Team
My parents have five daughters, but they decided to name their restaurant after me. I guess I’m the favorite. :P
“Culture” is not about conforming here. We value diversity. We value individuality and personal growth. It’s the reason I’ve stayed and taken on different roles here over the last twelve or thirteen years—just like Hollie and so many people who’ve stuck around—because Zappos values me as a whole person and wants me to flourish.
We don’t expect everyone to be the same. Not at all! But the most important thing about building a workforce and hiring the right people is figuring out: How are these people going to work together, and work together extremely well, to deliver great service and to make your company grow?
MEGAN
I hate wearing shoes when I’m teaching.
VERONICA
I believe all life lessons can be learned from watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
STEPHANIE
I love boxing and trying to coerce people into coming to boxing class with me.
Megan Petrini, Veronica Montanez, and Stephanie Hudec
Onboarding
VERONICA The reason we have ridiculously high expectations during new-hire training and onboarding is because our company culture actually comes down to one thing: Relationships. Our company isn’t siloed. We work really, really hard to make sure that we’re not isolated from each other as we continue to grow. So everyone needs to have the same foundation. You need to be here every day. You need to show us that you have good time management. You have to pass a final, just like everybody else. You have to pass a quality check, just like everybody else. You have to get on the phones, regardless of the position you’re being hired into, to show us that you’re the right fit for the company, not just one department.
Our company culture actually comes down to one thing: Relationships. Our company isn’t siloed. We work really, really hard to make sure that we’re not isolated from each other as we continue to grow.
Even though the re-cruitment process is long and the vetting is thorough, our new-hire training is basically the last stop. Because during a month of training, you’re going to see a person’s true colors come out. You’re going to find out if they’re someone who abuses an attendance policy, or who tries to skirt around the edges of an assignment, or who doesn’t actually work well with a team.
It’s funny because around week two, a lot of the trainees are like, “We’re gonna die here!” It feels really long. But by week four, people are like, “I can’t believe we’re graduating on Friday!” Assuming they’re actually a good fit, they’ll have built great relationships and made friends, and are actually now living embodiments of the foundation of our culture. And if they’re not a good fit, well, then we pay them to leave. And that’s a pretty great deal for all involved.
MEGAN The foundation winds up being “You’re a part of the team.” We do a lot of team building, like a middle school–style egg drop, where you work with a team to make a contraption to hold and protect an egg, and then we drop the eggs from the second story of the building and see which eggs go unbroken. These activities seem like fun and games at first, but they’re not just fun. We learn our core values through doing. So “Do More with Less,” all of the team and family spirit we talk about, it all comes into play.
STEPHANIE A lot of the team-building activities are timed, so there’s no time to think about what might go wrong. That pushes another thing we love here at Zappos: “Don’t think about how it’s not going to work. Imagine it done, imagine it working, and work backward from there.” We want them to get in the habit of trying new things, fearlessly, and building on top of each other’s ideas and learning from each other’s failures.
VERONICA At the end of training, there’s an office parade, people dressing up in costumes and going through campus—it’s all about having fun and letting people know that it’s okay to be themselves here. When we put people on the phones we want them to be themselves, which is what helps them relate to our customers authentically. You can be on the phones or be the CFO of the company—no matter what your role is, we want you to provide the Zappos experience 100 percent of the time. You’re going to do that in your own unique way. There’s no one way to do it. But by providing the foundation of training, we know that you’ll be able to go out there and represent the company in every interaction just by being your real self.
MEGAN That’s actually the last conversation we have with new hires, right after they graduate. We pull them back into the classroom and remind them, “You’ve had this full immersion into the Zappos culture, to really understand what it’s all about. But now, you have to be the one to continue this. No one else can force it to happen. You just have to go out there and make sure that you continue this.”
Our job is done when they have the right tools to go out and do it themselves.
VERONICA It’s amazing to see people relax, too. Some of them will come in from a corporate background and show up on the first day in a dress shirt and slacks, thinking it’s a casual look. And by the end of NHT, they’re in their favorite band t-shirt. It’s a metamorphosis. And it’s about way more than how they dress. The metamorphosis unlocks their creativity and excitement. They come to realize that their individuality is actually valued here. That it matters to Zappos that they bring their own unique stuff to the table that no one else can bring.
MEGAN Truly, one thing no one could ever accuse us of is judging a book by its cover.
Ironically, the team that worked on this book went through what felt like hundreds of different iterations of the cover, with various fonts, layouts, and wording—which they asked for Christa’s and my opinions on because we both hold the Brand Vision role. At some point they all started to blur together, so I told them to stop asking me for my advice and do whatever they felt was right. I hope you like the cover.
Why would we? We want our whole company to work, and for that, we need to look at each individual we’re hiring. Not just the suit they wear or the résumé they bring, but the whole person. We want to value the whole person we’re bringing into our family.
Johnnie Brockett
Treasury and Accounts Receivable
I used to be terrible at math. Now I work in Treasury.
I’ll say right up front that I recognize that a lot of companies wouldn’t even think about hiring me just because of the way I look. I’ve got tattoos and gold teeth. I don’t look like a typical “corporate employee.”
I grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where the Army’s Fort Bragg is located. It’s a tough town, man. I fit right in there. But walking into HR in most companies, I could tell they closed the door to hiring me before I even said my name.
Zappos was a different story. They care about what your mind can do, and how much you care about other people, and whether you value doing the right thing, the honest thing—’cause all of that is a whole lot more important than how a person looks on the outside.
Looks can be deceiving.
Case in point: About two weeks after I started, we were still in class, and we got invited to a meeting at Downtown Cocktail Room. We were sitting at this big table, and everybody’s got on Chuck Taylors and Zappos t-shirts, and little did I know I was sitting there with some team leads, managers, and executives—everybody. And we were just hanging out! That’s how this company is.
It’s amazing how much trust they’ve put in me over the years, too. I’ve grown here into something that I never imagined for myself. I went to college for zero years. Zero! All of my education on the business side has been right here at work. I’ve moved up. I’ve moved into positions where I was needed. And just last week I was handling a quarter of a billion dollars in transactions. Just me. No one else.
Bhawna Provenzano
Head of Benefits and Wellness
I have traveled to over fifteen countries and can’t wait for our next adventure!
We hire employees who care, who want to make a difference, and we see it as our job to provide benefits that make a difference to our employees and show them that we care, too.
First of all, we want to remove as many barriers as possible for our employees. We want to make sure they’re covered in case there are catastrophic events. We want to make sure that their medical care and the costs that are associated with it won’t ever throw them into bankruptcy. But that’s just a start. We want our employees to feel safe. To feel healthy. To feel covered, so they don’t have to worry every day about basic things. We make the conscientious decision to say, “Okay, we are going to pay more and spend more on benefits, and to do it purposefully. Mindfully.” And like any other company, we have to be mindful of costs, right? But that’s not the number one thing for us.
Our employees are number one.
Our employees, in addition to our core values and culture, are our north star.
Why would we not want to WOW them?
So in addition to offering the best-possible health care plans, with expansive maternity and paternity leave and, honestly, the sort of support that so many people dream about at other companies, we offer all sorts of on-site benefits and perks as well. For example, the company pays for pet adoptions. We’ll bring a bunch of little doggies on site and let employees play with them as a fun, relaxing thing to do, and if anyone really bonds with and wants to take one of the dogs home as a pet, we’ll cover the adoption fee. That may seem frivolous in the corporate world, but the idea came from an employee, and people love it!
Close to 90 percent of our benefit ideas and wellness ideas come from employee feedback. They’ll email us and be like, “What do you think about this? What about that?” And oftentimes we’ll try new ideas simply because we can—simply because we want to offer the best possible service to our employees.
We’ll pay the entry fees for employees who want to run marathons or 5Ks for a cause.
There are fitness classes here during work hours. Employees can purchase meal prep plans for themselves and for their families. We have an outdoor space where people can partake in community gardening.
Maritza Lewis
Engage Team
My husband and I met at work before we both came to Zappos, but we didn’t dare date at our previous job. It was forbidden. Here? There are lots of couples. Dating coworkers isn’t discouraged. I mean, people understand not to take it to the extreme and, like, make out in front of your coworkers and stuff, but there aren’t any rules about it. We’re all adults. Since Zappos is really careful during the hiring process to find people who just sort of “get it,” who fit the culture, who want to do right by the people around them, it just works.
One of my roles here is to teach eight hours of company history during new-hire training, and I even talk about this dating business as part of our company history. Our founder, Nick Swinmurn, met his wife, Gabby, here. When Nick started dating Gabby, one of our HR representatives at the time pulled him into a room and said, “Nick, what the hell are you doing? You’re the founder of this company. You can’t date your employees!” And he was like, “What?”
The HR rep said, “This could end great and you end up marrying her, or—or—this could end really badly and she’ll take everything you have!” And Nick looked at her and said that he would much rather assume that something positive would happen than to focus on the worst possible outcome.
Nick and Gabby did marry, in fact, and they have a son. Today, there are lots of other couples here at Zappos who work side by side in some cases, and in different departments in others. The only policy we have is that you can’t date someone you report to, or vice versa.
When you hire employees you trust, who fit your company culture, then you can trust them to do the right thing.
I think one of the most unique things I’ve found about working here at Zappos is that 20 percent of your time is really meant to build relationships and bond with your coworkers and colleagues from other teams all across the company. You don’t find that in a lot of organizations, because, in most organizations, if you’re not sitting at your desk, well, guess what? You’re going to get in trouble. But here, the site is built in such a way that the entire campus is Wi-Fi friendly. You have little places to work all over. It’s been drilled into us that it’s okay for you not to sit at your desk. Actually, we would rather you not sit at your desk.
You can get your nails done, or you can paint pottery, or get your oil changed or get a car wash while your car’s just sitting in the parking garage all day, rather than spending time doing those things after work or on the weekend. Having a gym on site matters to a lot of employees. We have showers here so you can go during work. And the fitness classes—even they contribute to team building. There are whole teams that go together and have fun with yoga classes and dance classes in the middle of the workday.
It all goes back to removing barriers for the employee. We’re thinking holistically when we’re providing these things. It’s about service. It’s about “What can we do to make the employees’ lives better?”
That includes paying for as much coverage and as many benefits as possible for our employees’ families as well—because if someone is worried about the health of their spouse or their child, that’s going to affect their ability to concentrate at work, and ultimately to deliver great service to our customers, and to serve our business interests. When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) came along, we were already doing most of the parts of it related to families, which meant there was little to no adjustment for us to make to comply with the new law. We were already doing those things because they were the right things to do. I heard about some real struggles that went on at other companies. There was a huge cost involved trying to come into compliance—a loss of productivity, lots of confusion. For us, it was easy. Which just goes to show that caring about our employees and doing the right thing for them isn’t difficult. It’s not burdensome. It’s actually easier and more cost-efficient in the long run!
Life doesn’t end when you come to work, and the feeling of working for the Zappos family, which we talk about here a lot, should not end when you go home.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Google and Facebook and some of the most profitable, fastest-growing companies in the country have cute offices and strong benefits plans. But such companies are still few and far between. With Zappos, it’s “work hard, play hard.” I mean, the toys in the office, the nap rooms, the fun events we hold every week, the bar we built right on campus—the fringe benefits are what get highlighted in magazine articles, but people don’t look much at the other side of it, which is the incredibly hard work that people do here to maintain and grow this company every day.
The instigator and creator of the bar in our lobby is Letha Myles, who is one of our tour guides but also moonlights as a bartender around downtown Vegas. She also happens to love Prince (or the artist formerly known as Prince) more than life itself. (Pretty Woman fans: see what I did there? ) Anyway, Letha came up with the perfect name for the bar: 1999. (Zappos was founded in 1999 for those of you paying attention.)
We wouldn’t be where we are after our first twenty years without a lot of incredibly hard work, and I just don’t think that anyone would work quite so hard if it weren’t for the feeling of true support that this company offers. It goes both ways.
Little things aren’t frivolous. The fact is, if somebody can come wash your car and give it an oil change while you’re here at work, you can then spend that hour or two on the weekend with your family, so you can truly focus on living life when you’re at home and not waste an entire weekend running errands. Then you can come back to work on Monday morning and not feel like you missed your chance to be with your family because you were stuck in an office all day and not allowed to leave your desk. It’s just a different way of looking at things. And the benefits of that to the company, and to our customers—it’s enormous compared to the nominal cost associated with some of these things.
Do right by your employees and they’ll do right by you.
If our employees are truly our most important resource, then it simply makes sense to treat them accordingly. We want them to feel WOWed by our company culture, the same way we want our paying customers to feel WOWed by it, too. So we do as much as we possibly can.
It just seems like common sense, doesn’t it? Do right by your employees and they’ll do right by you.
