10 most unusual company rules Zappos
Online shoe store Zappos, which grew over 10 years from a company with an office in the bedroom in a multibillion-dollar corporation, is considered to be in business with corporate culture №1 in the world. Western leaders and managers when they want to describe the style of business, honed on the power of corporate culture often say all sorts of expressions such as «Zappos-like» or «Zappos-style».
And really - I read a lot of books about the construction of the interaction of the atmosphere within the company, and all of them put Zappos as an example and role model. And the books are full of examples of the special rules, laws and customs of the corporate atmosphere of the giant shoe that really surprised. That, in my opinion, the 10 most interesting ones:
1. When you receive a job offer from the applicant does not require a story about his achievements in the same place of work. On the contrary, he is asked to talk about their mistakes, to tell the story of life. The interview is more like a meeting in the "Lonely Hearts Club" - in a small room decorated in the grand style, the music, there are tables with drinks and refreshments. HR-managers and applicants are free to move and communicate in the mode of reception.
2. After hiring all employees must pass a four-month training course. Applicants study the history of Zappos, together go hiking and traveling. Every employee from the janitor to the CEO should be two weeks to work in the call center "on the phone" - in order to better understand the company's customers.
3. On the first day of the training to all candidates company offers to pay $ 2,000 if they refuse to work immediately in Zappos. According to statistics, it goes one.
4. The company carefully maintains and develops the unusual atmosphere in the office. Each employee can arrange your work place as he wants. Some arrange the tables in the real minimalism, others put in the office of the bed and sleep on it in moments of fatigue - creative employees no limits, on the contrary, the company pays for repairs. The office can be found Zappos walking robots offering popcorn, golf course and much more. That's one of the photos of the company's office.
5. Anyone can visit the office of Zappos, located in Las Vegas - it needs to make an excursion to the site. Even if a tour is written only one person behind it is still a special bus will be sent directly to the aircraft (it happened once). The office can be photographed and to touch anything, you can communicate with all employees and go to all rooms. You can even look to the CEO Tony neck. All visitors to the office for a few hours become employees of Zappos and can feel at home.
6. When you enter the internal network from Zappos employees is asked not only login and password. On the photo also appears every employee, randomly selected from a database - you need to enter his name. Of course, in case of an error the employee still gets into the network, but within the company conducted its own rating of knowledge of employees.
7. All employees can express their vision of corporate culture, to talk about his life in Zappos, share stories. All the stories fall into a special book «Zappos Culture Book». This book can get for free, anyone - the company will send you by mail. For a book to write an email to ceo@zappos.com. Yes, you read that right - a postal address CEO Tony neck. Incidentally, I wrote him a letter and spoke with assistant Tony, Stephanie. Stefan said that is a small group of "post Ninja" Tony, because Neck day comes more than 2,000 letters, and he no longer cope. Of course, my copy of the book I have already sent.
8. The company offers its suppliers and partners to the special web service that allows you to keep track of everything financial and logistical performance of the company. Suppliers see the sales data, load warehouses, shipment of shoes and more. This creates an atmosphere of complete openness incredible confidence - not in vain in the queue to enter into contracts with Zappos cost tens of brands.
9. On the table every employee has a set of cards that offered to send buyers shoes. Employees Zappos customers just want a pleasant journey, interested in the quality of shoes and asked about possible problems.
10. Employees are trained call-center to give maximum information on any issues and to be as useful as possible, regardless of concerns the question of the shoe or Zappos. Once Tony Hsieh joke called the support of his own company, slightly drunk voice call operator her address and asked where he could close order a pizza. Five minutes later, he had a few addresses and phone numbers of pizzerias.
Indeed, Zappos - a company with amazing corporate culture, and its features are not limited to the list above - these "chips" hundreds, if not thousands. No wonder that in November 2009, Zappos was bought by Amazon for $ 1.2 billion. Experts say that the computer giant was interested not so much online store selling shoes, as an opportunity to join the corporate culture №1 in the world.