Zappos Recruitment and Selection

Zappos is maybe not the best fit for me professional, just in terms of what I expect they need in terms of skills (engineering/technological, customer service, warehouse) but the company does have a good culture. It is important that you enjoy your work in life, and Zappos has recognized the value of this in employee retention. For example, they emphasize fun and close social bonds among their workers, and both of these things are correlated with employee satisfaction (Twitchell, 2009). So Zappos has a pretty good cultural fit with what I want in a workspace even if maybe the roles available aren't the best fit. Nevertheless, they seem to have tapped into something that younger workers want to see in a workplace, and that is the idea that a workplace should be fun, not dreary and that this does not have to come at the expense of working hard (Kerr, 2014).

So for me, if the job was right, I would definitely give Zappos a good look. It is important that the company you work for shares your same values, and for me Zappos has the right perspective on employee relations.

2.

The ten core values at Zappos, according to the company's website, are as follows:

1.Deliver WOW Through Service

2.Embrace and Drive Change

3.Create Fun and A Little Weirdness

4.Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded

5.Pursue Growth and Learning

6.Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication

7.Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

8.Do More With Less

9.Be Passionate and Determined

10.Be Humble

I believe that these core values have a significant impact on the corporate culture. The values are an expression of what management sees as important elements of the core culture. Employees are drawn to the company because of its values, so immediately just publishing those values affects the company's employer brand, which attracts people who share those values. Further, the company incorporates these values into the process of training and enculturation, to ensure that all employees are well aware of the values, and take them to heart. As a result, there is little doubt that Zappos has taken steps through the publication of these ten core values to ensure that they are part of how the company operates.

It is also worth considering that actually having these values stated will also serve a control function. All stakeholders of the company can look at these values and point to them -- their existence gives everybody who deals with Zappos, either internally or externally, the ability to hold Zappos to account if the company does not live up to these core values. Once the values have been built into the corporate culture, they will also play a valuable role in guiding ethical behavior at the company, because people within the company will hold each other accountable to upholding these ten core values as well (Duh, 2010).

3.

There are different kinds of interviews that an employee can expect at Zappos, and the process can actually take a long time. They like to do initial interviews by telephone. The company asks about both personal and professional experience. This is one of the key elements of a Zappos interview, in that they try to find out if you are a personality fit for the organization. There is, to some extent, an underlying assumption that if your resume reflects your abilities they are probably already aware you can do the job. What they really want to know if whether or not you will fit in at Zappos, so the questions will often focus on culture and personality more than anything else. There might be multiple phone interviews as well, in particular for more technical positions.

In many cases, the interviews are only conducted over the phone -- they do not necessary have you fly to Las Vegas before hiring you. The personality and technical interviews are two different types that are common at Zappos. The technical interview is important for some roles because of the level of expertise that is required at the company in order to fit the position for which they are hiring. So Zappos is oriented towards ensuring both a technical and cultural fit with the organization.

An employee must pass both interviews to be hired because they want to know that the person can do the job, but also that the person is going to be a good fit. Employees who are a poor cultural fit are just as likely to leave quickly as ones who lack the technical ability, something that Zappos is accounting for in this process. The company wishes to minimize the turnover that it faces, and ensuring both a technical and cultural fit is the best way to do that. Further, it often hires people from outside of Las Vegas, which means that people will be relocating to join Zappos -- the company and employee both need a high degree of certainty in order to proceed with hiring under such a circumstance, so this process is beneficial for both parties.

4.

The "offer" is that after the first week, Zappos offers new hires $3,000 to quit (McFarland, 2008). This serves a few purposes. The first is that it ensure that the employee still wants to work for Zappos. In some situations, a person might be reluctant to quit a new job because they need the money, even though they know that the job is not a good fit. The offer is basically to weed out those people who are not certain that they wish to remain at Zappos, to encourage them to leave before they become too entrenched. Ultimately, Zappos is going to save that money back because when someone does not really want to be there, Zappos is going to spend time and money getting them up to speed, training them, and they will end up leaving the company within the first year anyway. The offer exists, therefore, as a means of saving both parties the time and effort (and in the case of Zappos the money) associated with onboarding them beyond that point.