Zappos, based in Las Vegas, is an online retailer. Its initial goal has been to be the best Website for buying shoes, offering a wide variety of brands, styles, colours, sizes, and widths. The zappos.com brand has grown to offer shoes, handbags, eyewear, watches, and accessories for online purchase. Zappos’s vision is that in the future online sales will account for 30 percent of all retail sales in the U.S., and Zappos will be the company with the best service and selection. As a result, Zappos believes it can become the online service leader, drawing customers and expanding into selling other products. Zappos believes that the speed at which a customer receives an online purchase plays a critical role in how that customer thinks about shopping online again in the future, so it is focusing on making sure the items get delivered to customers as quickly as possible.

Zappos CEO Tony Heish has shaped the company’s culture, brand, and business strategy around

10 core values. They are:

·   Deliver WOW through Service

·   Embrace and Drive Change

·   Create Fun and a Little Weirdness

·   Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded

·   Pursue Growth and Learning

·   Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication

·   Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit

·   Do More with Less

·   Be Passionate and Determined

·   Be Humble

Deliver WOW through Service means that call centre employees need to provide excellent customer service. Call centre employees encourage callers to order more than one size or colour because shipping and return shipping are free. They are also encouraged to use their imaginations to meet customer needs.

Zappos’s employment practices help to perpetuate its company culture. For example, the HR team uses unusual interview questions, such as “How weird are you?” and “What’s your theme song?” to find employees who are creative and have strong individuality. Zappos provides free lunch in the cafeteria (cold cuts) and a full-time life coach (employees have to sit on a red velvet throne to complain). Managers are encouraged to spend time with employees outside of the office, and any employee can reward another employee a $50 dollar bonus for good performance. Most employees at Zappos are hourly. All new hires complete four weeks of training, including two weeks working the phones. New recruits are offered $2,000 to leave the company during training to weed out individuals who will not be happy working at the company.

Due to a downturn in sales, Zappos was forced to cut costs, including laying off 124 employees. Heish handled the downsizing in a positive way. Laid-off employees with less than two years of service were paid through the end of the year. Everyone received six months of paid health coverage. Zappos also allowed laid-off employees to keep their 40 percent employee discount through Christmas.

Discussion Questions

1.     What challenges is Zappos facing that may derail its attempt to be the best online retailer?

2.     How can training and development help Zappos meet these challenges?

3.     Do you think that employees at Zappos have high levels of engagement? Why?

4.     Which of Zappos’s 10 core values do you believe training and development can influence  the most? The least? Why?