Financial Services & Recruiting academyrecruiting on 21 May 2008 12:00 pm
A company where new hires get paid to quit
Sorry, it’s not a financial services company, but a great story, nonetheless.
Zappos is a company you likely have heard of or maybe even have bought something from. They are probably the largest Internet retailer of shoes, having sold over $1 billion worth last year. There’s a great article this week on the Harvard Business Publishing site that describes many of the innovations at Zappos, but one in particular got the author’s attention - and mine.
Zappos starts off its new call center employees with four weeks of initial training at full salary, which is great, although certainly not unique. But here’s the big deal:
“After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.”
Why does Zappos do this?
“Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for.”
Now, I don’t know of any financial services companies that do that, but I can tell you that’s the level of commitment they all expect, so if you want to be a financial advisor, you need to come with that kind of attitude.
Lots of other great information about how the company is able to do so well in the article - here’s the link:
