Keep Highly Engaged Employees Only - Offer Quitting Bonus!
Every company is focused on engaging their employees. They are creating new rewards and recognition systems, career opportunities, leadership development opportunities – really the gamut all in the name of increasing employee engagement.
But the reality is – depending on the source, anywhere from 40 – 70 percent of employees can be classified as neutral, middle or the road or agnostic. So what is a company to do? Well, Zappos, the online retailer just may have an interesting solution. According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, Zappos offers employees a quitting bonus. Yes, we did say a bonus to quit.“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.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!
Why? 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. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later. (About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run.)” Indeed, CEO Tony Hsieh and his colleagues keep raising the size of the quit-now bonus. Why?“It’s a small practice with big implications: Companies don’t engage emotionally with their customers—people do. If you want to create a memorable company, you have to fill your company with memorable people. How are you making sure that you’re filling your organization with the right people? And how much are you willing to pay to find out?”
We think they are onto something – what do you think?
Comments
I am not sure I see the benefit to this type of program. Newly hired employees, by definition, are your most engaged. They are entering the door wit ha certain level of expectations. You have not had a chance to let them down yet. If Zappos was offering this 6-9 months after hiring or at an annual performance review it may make more sense. There seems to be a slant in this theory that employee engagement levels are the employees responsibility and not managements.
Posted by: Joe | May 20, 2008 01:27 PM
This idea about “firing bonuses” is creative. It’s true that the level of “memorableness” that a customer has for an organization won’t ever exceed the level of dedication that people within the business have. Businesses have to create memorable opportunities for customers, and we have to hold our people accountable for making our organizations memorable.
Now, it’s clear that Zappos is trying to keep only people who are vested in making the company memorable. But how can they be sure that the people who stay are truly committed to making a memorable experience for customers? At our company, we keep people committed to customer “memorableness” by constantly recognizing people publicly to be sure they always get the credit they deserve. We start every group meeting by acknowledging people who uphold or do something over and above what’s expected. All this ties back into what we call the Four Roots of Engagement – showing people that they are part of a bigger picture, that they belong, that they are on a meaningful journey, and that what they do truly matters. People who understand these things will deliver for you because they are engaged and committed.
Posted by: Jim Haudan | May 27, 2008 01:04 PM