#55 2008 · Zappos · E-commercecostly-signal
Zappos paid trainees $2,000 to quit — buying proof that everyone who stayed wanted to be there
the problem
Culture-poisoning hires only reveal themselves after they're expensive to remove
background
Zappos ran on culture as its moat: every hire, whatever the role, went through four weeks of paid immersion in the phones and the culture book. Tony Hsieh's fear was specific — people who stay for a paycheck quietly poison a service organisation.
So about a week into training came The Offer: quit today and keep your pay so far, plus a bonus that started at $100 and grew to $2,000 as the company tested how high the filter needed to be.
the move
One week into training, every new hire got 'The Offer': quit today, keep your pay, plus a $2,000 bonus. Taking the money disqualified exactly the people it was designed to catch.
the payoff
Only 2–3% took it; the rest had publicly chosen the job over cash. Misfits self-identified for $2,000 instead of months of salary.
what came after
Only 2–3% ever took the money; everyone who stayed had publicly priced their commitment above cash. Amazon judged the mechanism sound enough to scale it as 'Pay to Quit' — up to $5,000, offered annually to warehouse staff.
filed under
references
- [1]Why Zappos pays new employees to quit — and you should tooHarvard Business Review (Bill Taylor), 2008hbr.org
- [2]Why Zappos offers new hires $2,000 to quitBloomberg BusinessWeek, 2008bloomberg.com