I have written about the values in place at Zappos before (see: Strategic CSR – Zappos October 6, 2008, October 7, 2011, and March 22, 2013). The article in the url below is a Q&A session with Tony Hsieh, Zappos’ CEO, in which he describes the workplace environment at his company. Most importantly for this Newsletter, it contains another example of how this CEO is integrating values throughout the organization in a way that can only result in increased loyalty and reduced turnover among his employees:
“Qu: Where the wild things are
Ans: We have two buildings that are kind of attached. There’s a 10-story building and a three-story building. We just moved here. The three-story building is where the [executive team] are. At the top of the 10-story building, we have the people who answer the phones, the call center reps.”
“Qu: Who has the best view
Ans: The call center reps. We’ve always done that. They’re the ones providing customer service and that is what our brand is about.”
What would be interesting is to see if the organizational culture generated by such policies actually increases productivity among Zappos’ employees. My intuition says it would (and I know the firm’s customer service is great), but it would be encouraging to see empirical support for that hypothesis.
Have a good weekend.
David
David
David Chandler & Bill Werther
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Workplace: Welcome to My Rain Forest
Workplace: Welcome to My Rain Forest
By Tony Hsieh
December 29, 2013
The New York Times
Late Edition – Final
BU3
