Paying New Employees to Quit?
Judi Casey August 26th, 2009
By now, I’ve heard just about every new strategy to engage and retain employees, so I am rarely surprised by organizational efforts to keep the keepers. However, here’s a unique idea implemented by the online shoe company Zappos that really got me thinking. Located in Kentucky (fulfillment center) and Nevada (corporate headquarters), Zappos is just 10 years young, employs more than 1,000 people, and generated more than $1 billion in gross merchandise sales during 2008.
Here’s the idea: Zappos offers their new call center trainees a $1,000 bonus to quit at the end of their 4 week training period in addition to any salary earned for training participation. The thinking is that if you’d take a grand instead of work for them, you don’t have the level of commitment and enthusiasm that they are looking for in their new hires. In fact, the number one priority of Zappos is to provide the “best customer service possible.” Apparently, only 10% of the trainees accept their offer and quit! The remaining trainees have demonstrated that they really want to be part of the organization and definitely embrace the customer-service focus espoused by Zappos as critical for success.
Their business model is also intriguing. Basically, they believe that if they can be the best at selling shoes by providing stellar customer service, they can be the best at “anything and everything,” so their plan is to expand their markets to other products, which of course, is limitless.
From their website: “We believe that if we continue to focus on providing the absolute best service and the absolute best shopping experience, then we can continue to grow as a company. Our hope is that our focus on service will allow us to WOW our customers, our employees, our vendors, and our investors. We want Zappos to be known as a service company that happens to sell shoes, handbags, and anything and everything.”
It will be interesting to see if their acquisition by Amazon changes things. I hope not; I love to buy new shoes.
I LOVE the idea! I think it’s a great way to weed out employees that are not a good fit and consequently won’t be fully focused on their job and the company. $1,000 might seem like a lot of money, but when you consider lost productivity and how they affect the morale of the team, it is not that expensive at all! This is a great “out of the box” solution to creating a strong workforce! Mags @ <a href=”http://www.alivepast5.com/child-safety-products.html<Child Safety Solutions
I LOVE the idea! I think it’s a great way to weed out employees that are not a good fit and consequently won’t be fully focused on their job and the company. $1,000 might seem like a lot of money, but when you consider lost productivity and how they affect the morale of the team, it is not that expensive at all! This is a great “out of the box” solution to creating a strong workforce! Mags @ Child Safety Solutions
I like it, too! It’s a small price to pay for an increased productivity and moral in the workplace.
I hope Zappos is an inspiration to companies and encourages innovation and new ways to support employees and employers!
I like to see companies that use out of the box thinking. This sounds like a great idea to weed out those who are not totally committed to the job. However, I wonder how many times it is the inferior employees who were going to quit/be fired are the ones that take the $1,000 quitting bonus?