The Zappos Family - How They Work
Summary
TLDRThe video script highlights the unique company culture at Zappos, emphasizing work-life integration, a positive work environment, and a family-like atmosphere. The hiring process focuses on selecting people who fit and appreciate the culture, even prioritizing this over skillset. The culture is seen as a critical business strategy that competitors can't replicate. Employees are encouraged to connect across departments, contribute to the culture, and help it grow as the company expands. Ultimately, Zappos believes that a strong company culture leads to excellent customer service and long-term success.
Takeaways
- 🌡️ It's currently very hot, setting a relaxed and informal tone for the conversation.
- 👥 Zappos prioritizes work-life integration, emphasizing that it's all just life in the end.
- 🏰 The company culture at Zappos is compared to a happy place like Disney, where employees feel like a big family.
- 📊 Company culture is the main business strategy, considered the top priority by leadership.
- 🛍️ While competitors may copy Zappos' product selection or shipping, they believe their unique culture cannot be replicated.
- 🤝 Hiring at Zappos focuses on cultural fit, with an emphasis on personal connections and whether employees would enjoy spending time together outside of work.
- ⭐ Performance reviews at Zappos include criteria for living out and inspiring core company values.
- ⏳ Zappos takes extra time to hire the right people who will fit and help grow the company's culture.
- 👋 Employees are encouraged to build relationships outside of their own departments, and this is factored into promotions.
- 🎉 Zappos allows employees the freedom to plan and participate in fun activities, reinforcing that it's possible to work hard while enjoying each other's company.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the company mentioned in the transcript?
-The main focus of the company is work-life integration, which they see as essential to a fulfilling life.
How does the company describe its culture?
-The company describes its culture as being like a family, with employees happy to see each other, enjoying their work, and having fun together. It is referred to as even 'happier than Disney.'
Why is company culture considered the top business strategy?
-Company culture is considered the top business strategy because it is something that competitors cannot copy. They believe that while competitors can replicate aspects like product selection or shipping, the unique company culture cannot be duplicated.
What criteria does the company use to hire new employees?
-The company hires based on whether they would want to spend time with the person outside of business. They look for people who fit into and appreciate the company culture.
How are employees evaluated for promotions within the company?
-Employees are evaluated on whether they are living or inspiring core values in others. Additionally, they are scored on how they contribute to the culture, including building relationships outside their departments.
What is the importance of culture in relation to customer service and long-term success?
-The company believes that if the culture is right, other aspects like delivering great customer service or building a long-term, enduring brand will naturally follow.
What responsibility do new employees have as the company grows?
-New employees are responsible for creating, maintaining, and improving the company culture as it grows.
How does the company encourage employees to participate in building the culture?
-Employees are encouraged to take initiative, such as organizing group activities like hikes. The company emphasizes that everyone plays a role in scaling the culture.
What is the company's approach to balancing work and fun?
-The company believes that it is possible to be focused and get work done while also being happy and having fun.
What does the company emphasize about core values?
-The company stresses that it's important to have a defined set of core values. While their culture may be unique, they encourage other organizations to define their own distinct cultures and values.
Outlines
🌞 Embracing the Heat and Workplace Happiness
The speaker opens by commenting on the hot weather and introduces themselves as Christen Wisa. They share that the upcoming discussion will focus on a company called Zappos, particularly emphasizing their work-life integration philosophy. They believe that work should be viewed as part of life and not as a separate entity. Zappos' company culture is unique, described as happier than Disney and akin to a big, joyful family. Employees enjoy spending time together at work, and the sense of community enhances their overall job satisfaction.
🎯 Company Culture as a Business Strategy
Zappos places its company culture as the primary focus of its business strategy. According to the speaker, competitors may be able to replicate aspects like product selection or shipping processes, but the one thing they cannot replicate is Zappos' distinct culture. From the beginning, the founders, Fred and the speaker, personally interviewed all potential hires to ensure they were a cultural fit. They focused on whether they would enjoy spending time with the person outside of work, highlighting the importance of aligning with the company's values and environment.
👥 Hiring the Right People for Cultural Growth
The hiring process at Zappos prioritizes finding individuals who will thrive in the company's culture and help nurture its growth. Employees are hired based on how well they fit the culture, even if it means taking longer to fill a position. Zappos believes that getting the right cultural fit ensures everything else, such as customer service and brand development, falls into place naturally. The company values cultural contribution so much that it is a criterion in performance reviews and promotions.
📈 Scaling Culture with Company Growth
As Zappos has grown, maintaining and enhancing its culture has become a shared responsibility among employees. They are encouraged to foster connections beyond their departments and take initiative in organizing team activities. The speaker points out that happiness and fun are integrated into the work environment, alongside productivity. This cultural emphasis helps employees feel more engaged and enjoy their work, creating a sense of unity and purpose as the company expands.
🎉 Work Hard, Have Fun: The Zappos Way
The speaker concludes by stressing how the Zappos culture fosters a balance between being productive and having fun at work. The environment encourages collaboration, camaraderie, and personal satisfaction, which in turn fuels the company’s success. Although Zappos' culture is unique, the speaker emphasizes that it’s important for any company to define its core values and cultivate a culture that aligns with those values, ensuring long-term business success.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Work-life integration
💡Company culture
💡Core values
💡Hiring process
💡Performance reviews
💡Long-term brand building
💡Cross-departmental relationships
💡Scaling culture
💡Fun at work
💡Unique culture
Highlights
The approach focuses on work-life integration, as it's all just life.
Zappos' culture is described as happier than Disney, creating a family-like atmosphere.
Company culture is Zappos' main business strategy and its top priority.
Competitors can copy selection and shipping, but not the company culture.
Fred and Tony Hsieh interviewed every person hired, ensuring cultural fit.
Hiring criteria include whether you would want to grab a drink with the candidate.
Getting the right people who fit into and grow the culture is more important than filling positions quickly.
Performance reviews at Zappos evaluate whether employees live and inspire core values.
Investing extra effort in hiring the right people leads to great customer service and long-term success.
Employees are scored on contributing to the culture, including making friends outside their departments.
The responsibility of maintaining and growing the company culture falls on all employees as the company grows.
Employees have the freedom to plan fun activities, contributing to the culture.
Zappos has a unique culture, and it emphasizes the importance of defining core values.
Tony Hsieh's philosophy: You can get your work done, be focused, and still have fun.
Zappos' culture encourages happiness, enjoyment of work, and strong relationships between employees.
Transcripts
it is hot it is hot here right now hey
what's going on it's Christen Wisa today
we're going to be hang out with
zaposlite balance
and for us our approach is really to
focus on work life integration cuz at
the end of the day it's just life the
Zabo culture is uh unlike anything else
I've ever seen uh we joke that it's
happier than
Disney it's like a family it's like this
big family and we're happy to see each
other we come to work we enjoy it and we
have fun
here company culture is our main
business strategy it's the number one
priority of the company I think that
we've always felt that competitors could
copy our selection they can copy our
shipping but one thing that could never
be copied was our company culture from
the very beginning uh Fred and I
interviewed every single person but our
criteria was really would we want to go
grab a drink with this person uh even if
we weren't in business together and if
the answer was no then we just wouldn't
hire that person that's kind of the idea
behind the way that we hire here is it's
more important that we're getting the
right people the people that are going
to fit into our culture that are going
to appreciate our culture help grow our
culture performance reviews include
whether you're living or inspiring the
core values in others but what we found
is it's much much easier just to spend
the extra effort on the front end and
sometimes that means it'll take twice as
long to fill a position but if you get
the culture right then most of the other
stuff like delivering great customer
service or building a long-term enduring
brand or business will just be a natural
byproduct of that how are you
contributing to the culture are you um
going outside your department and making
friends outside your department these
are things that you actually get scored
on in order to get promoted when you
when you grow like we've grown
throughout the years and you have so
many new employees they're responsible
for creating this culture maintaining it
and making it better we're allowed to
feel free to say Hey you know it' be fun
if we all went for a hike cool plan it
do it that's something that they really
stress too is it's all up to everyone to
scale this culture and to grow with the
company as the company gets bigger you
know telling these guys figured out a
long time ago that you actually can get
your work done be focused but you can
also you know be happy and have fun
while you're doing that I don't know
we're just happy to be here because we
enjoy what we do we enjoy each other too
zapus has a unique culture and uh what's
important is not that you have a zapo
culture but that you have a set of core
values and you define what your culture
is
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