Zappos is a name that originated from zapatos referring to shoes. It is an online retailer having specialized in shoe selling. The company is situated in Henderson, Nevada with a warehouse located in Shepherdsville, KY and it was founded in 1999 as Shoesite.com by Nick Swinmurn. The products offered also include accessories, bags, baby products, clothing, sporting goods, housewares, and watches. It currently operates as a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc. since 2009.
The company sets itself apart from its competitors by providing swift, free shipping and ironclad policy. This policy allows for customers to return the items purchased with no shipping or restocking fees. Its principle competitors include; FogDog.com, Bluefly.com, Gear.com, Onlineshoes.com, Shoebuy.com, Shoedini.com, and shoesonthenet.com.
Zappos mindfully builds and underpins its corporate culture. The company has a defined corporate culture that is embedded in its ten core values. This is inclusive of the employee job description, the process of hiring, human resource and management systems developed, day to day work environment, and on the job training reinforces and instils these values with visitors, customers, employees, and its partners.
This company has an ambitious aim to provide the best customer service online giving the best experience with the company’s ten core values. The company’s core values include;
- Drive and embrace change
- Deliver WOW through service
- Be open-minded, adventurous, and create
- Pursue learning and growth
- Be humble
- Be determined and passionate
- Build a family spirit and positive
- Build honest and open relationships with communication
The company has grown to be more important in the explicit definite core values as listed that define the culture adopted in the organization. These particular values are embodied by factors that ensure its sustainability. Employees are on continuous training by a team on each core value ensuring consistency among the employees as they are taken through similar process hence a behavior is learnt that is expected.
The company’s recruitment is more or less like a courtship process unlike the traditional recruitment processes thereby enabling the prospect employee meets the company’s employees in company events or in any type of department. This would allow for the other employees not participating in interviews to equally have an opportunity to meet the potential employee informally.
The company considers the cultural fit as serious and it takes on a slow hire thereby creating a huge gap between the initial cultural fit with the human resource recruiter and the particular job offer. In case a candidate fails to be successful in the cultural fit which is an approximate score of 50% in weight hiring the person won’t be invited to meet the hiring manager and the employees.
Behavioral based questions are developed by interviewers assisting in illuminating a candidate’s congruence with the very core values cited earlier. This is a method that assists in assessing the potential ability held by the candidate to be able to fit in within the organization’s culture and the exhibition of the requisite skills.
Specific feedback about candidates are provided by the interviewer and this information is entered into the computer system and it is by answering of specific questions followed by free forms that is used to evaluate the opinions of the candidates’ fit at Zappos.
Every company employee is expected to sign up for shifts during the busy season since no part time employee hiring is carried out during those times. Employees are able to serve customers with efficiency and professionally after receiving early training.
At Zappos, raises come from building skills and capabilities. Employees excel in skill and proficiency tests and they receive pay raises. Schmoozing with managers or other non-measurable action does not lead into pay raises. Every employee at the call center is expected to meet a percentage time frame in being available to the customers which is 80% of the time with the exception of mid-level managers and executives.
For the promotion of culture at the organization, managers take the forefront with the hire and fire decisions with the help of human resources support. In this, managers create job offers; make calls thereafter write a job offer. Consistency in this process by mangers s made possible by entering data into offer letter forms.
In this organization, the culture reinforcement is made possible by the performance evaluations conducted regularly. Cultural assessments are conducted by managers instead of the performance evaluations and provide the employees feedback on their fit within the culture and the possible ways of improving.
The organization applies an approach to leadership which is holacracy in that internally the typical hierarchy and job titles are getting done with. This is to change the traditional chain of command in corporates with a self-governing and series of overlapping circles. This is an opportunity for the employees to voice in the running of the company.
In the case of reduced demand of products and services in the company products and services, the company requires to re-invent its supply chain management. In this manner, the company is able to direct the company’s efforts in improve customer service within the call center; improve its technology in running and designing the websites. Also, improving the distribution system for delivery to retail customers so as to reverse the diminishing demand of products and services is important as a culture change within the organization.
References
Michelli, J. A. (2012). The Zappos experience: 5 principles to inspire, engage, and wow. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Staley, E. (2014). Nick Swinmurn, Tony Hsieh, and Zappos.
Zappos.com (Firm). (2000). Culture book. Nevada?: Zappos.com.
