http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/how-zappos-reinforces-its-company-culture.htm

Zappos in well-known for having a great company culture in which employees are happy and perform well as a result. But what are the main reasons why Zappos was able to build such a function team?

First of all, the way in which Zappos hires it’s employees is very different from other businesses. Zappos undergoes a series of interviews and ‘cultural fit’ tests to ensure that employee candidates are a good fit for the company and months can pass between an initial cultural fit interview with an HR recruiter and an actual job offer. This is elaborate hiring process which Zappos undergoes:

If a potential employee fails to pass the cultural fit interview (50% of the weight in hiring), he or she is not invited to meet the hiring manager and other employees.

Interviewers have developed five or six behaviorally based questions that illuminate a candidate’s congruence with each of the Zappos core values. his approach to interviewing allows interviewers to assess a candidate’s potential ability to fit within the culture and to exhibit the necessary skills.

If you are hired by Zappos you have to complete a 4 week course on costumer relations and working in the call center.

This is the process that Zappos goes through when hiring new employees. However, Zappos has other techniques to ensure that the perspective employees are the right fit for the company. Firstly, Zappos does not hire temporary employees. I think this is a very good tactic to maintain a efficiency becuase temporary workers need to learn how the business operates and because they know they’ll be leaving soon they don’t have much incentive to work hard. Secondly, Zappos offers $3000 to employees to leave the company. This financial incentive separates the employees that are truly invested in Zappos and those who are not. This is a good method of achieving the best company culture and increases efficiency.

So if this tactic which Zappos uses to hire employees and establishing a very functional company culture why don’t more companies do it?

1) It’s is expensive. You don’t see the benefits of going through this process until several years after. Lots of companies don’t like to take such risks.

2) Companies are not patient enough to undergo such a time consuming hiring process.

3) Some companies don’t think about the longterm when they hire but more the short term – they want to hire people fast when more employees are needed.