Weird, Authentic and Fun: The Zappos Family's Take On Recruiting and Social Media

Cheryl Anne Fernandez

HR Project Manager

Zappos.com, Inc.

cfernandez@zappos.com

twitter.com/chinchin22

linkedin.com/in/cherylannefernandez

Drew Kovacs

Sourcing Specialist

Zappos.com, Inc.

dkovacs@zappos.com

twitter.com/plaz_

linkedin.com/in/drewkovacs

(Actual Time Spent/Week

Partial - personal 0-20%

- company 0-20%

Partial - personal 20-50%

- company 20-50%

Dedicated - personal 50-80%

- company 50-80%

2

X%)

Survey…Says!

1887 inLouisville

1066 inLas Vegas

ZAPPOS AT A GLANCE:

2953 employees

Founded in 1999

© 2009 sunnibrown.com

SERVICE!

Fast, FREEshipping

FREE returnshipping

365-dayreturn policy

Fastfulfillment

Fast, friendly,expert Customer

Loyalty Team

© 2009 sunnibrown.com

ZAPPOS AT A GLANCE:

How we ensure both with each employee:

5 weeks of training

Trust

Open, collaborative

$2000 incentive to quit

© 2009 sunnibrown.com

SERVICE CULTURE!

What is Zappos’ social media policy during work hours?

“Well, we really don’t have a policy…employees

are able to log in on their breaks and send tweets

or update Facebook.”

- Fred Mossler, No Title, Zappos Merchandising, Inc.

“Our customers always come first, but employees

are free to use Twitter as long as our customers

are not waiting to be helped.

- Pam Tidmore, VP of Pipeline, Zappos CLT, HR, Zappos.com, Inc.

6

A:

Q:

A:

Huh…buh…wha?!

So, how do you monitor activity?

"We don’t monitor our employees. We feel that

if we focus on the culture, we can trust our

employees to make good decisions and we

don’t need policies or monitoring of what they

are doing.”

- Fred Mossler, No Title, Zappos Merchandising, Inc.

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A:

Q:

8

© 2009 sunnibrown.com

Who are we?

What do we want?

How do we get there?

Figured outvalues and culture.

© 2009 sunnibrown.com

Who are we?

1. Deliver WOW Through Service

2. Embrace and Drive Change

3. Create Fun and a little Weirdness

4. Be Adventurous, Creative, & Open-Minded

5. Pursue Growth & Learning

6. Build Open & Honest Relationships w/ Communication

7. Build a Positive Team & Family Spirit

8. Do More With Less

9. Be Passionate & Determined

10. Be HumbleWho are we?

“Zappified” Recruitment Life Cycle

Skits, Videos

Who are we?

Who are we?

Zappos Recruiting 1.0

No tools...

Vision Quest!

© 2009 sunnibrown.com

What do we want?

Thinking big:Provide best service

(clothes, accessories, housewares, etc…)

Original concept:Provide best selection

of shoe sizes and styles

What do we want?

Original concept:

In-house, drive and screen for culture.

Thinking big:WOW! service

(feedback for all, referrals, exploratory)

What do we want?

Tony + Twitter…

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What do we want?

Zappos Recruiting 2.0

What do we want?

Zappos Recruiting 2.0

“P. E. C.”

© 2009 sunnibrown.com

How do we get there?

Very little constraints

(a whole lotta trust)

Authentic, personal touches

Personal Emotional Connection

How do we get there?

NOT “networking,” or “building relationships”

(Individual expression, being real)

Specific feedback

(Technical and/or culture-based)

How do we get there?

PEC, Mullet-Style!

Platforms

Dedicated Youtube channel, LinkedIn group

Iterative upgrades to jobs.zappos.com

ToolsLinkedIn Recruiter account

Jobvite analytics (activity best focused where?)

Employees How do we get there?

Zappos Recruiting 2.+

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25

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“Be real and use your

best judgment.”

- Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com, Inc.

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0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

Referrals Non Referrals Total

3438, 9.0%

34883, 91.0%38321

How Did Candidates

Find Us This Year?

Where Did Our Hires

Come From This Year?

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Referral Non referral Total

640, 28.8%

1580, 71.2%

2220

2010 Hires

How many referrals from Jobvites?

30

70, 3%

570, 26%

1580, 71%

Jobvites

Non-Jobvite Referrals

Non Referral

Social Media Breakdown

Source Candidates Hired Not Hired % Hired % Not Hired

Non Social Media 23551 1670 21881 7% 93%

Facebook 318 17 301 5% 95%

Facebook App 6 2 4 33% 67%

LinkedIn 11 0 11 0% 100%

Twitter 1 0 1 0% 100%

TOTAL 23887 1689 22198 7% 93%

Source Candidates Hired Not Hired % Hired % Not Hired

Social Media 336 19 317 6% 94%

Non Social Media 23551 1670 21881 7% 93%

TOTAL 23887 1689 22198 7% 93%

Location (All)

Social Media? N

Count of Full Name

No Yes Grand Total

37signals.com 6 6

AddThis 1 1

Agency Conversion 77 116 193

boxesandarrows(UX) 11 11

Craigslist 697 41 738

DeVry_University 4 4

Dice 117 117

Email 24 3 27

Employee Referral 1305 409 1714

External Job Board - LVRJ 1 1

External Referral 43 6 49

here/a 15 15

Hiring Manager 86 42 128

Indeed 1661 33 1694

Internal Candidate 363 237 600

Internal Transfer 2 19 21

Non-Social Media Breakdown

Non-Social Media BreakdownLocation (All)

Social Media? N

Count of Full Name

No Yes Grand Total

IU_Career_Site 15 15

Job Fair 9 9

Job Notification 736 30 766

Job_News_Louisville 30 30

jobs.perl.org 5 1 6

JustTechJobs 6 6

LSHRM 44 1 45

Monster 5 5

Monster.com 982 7 989

Oodle 26 26

outdoorindustry.com 2 2

Recruiter 53 16 69

SHRM 32 32

SimplyHired 361 12 373

stackoverflow 45 45

Staffing Agency 323 15 338

Sullivan College of Technology & Design 11 3 14

UNLV 11 11

Walk In Applicant 51 2 53

Wow Through Service 1 1

Zappos Career Site 14716 677 15393

Zappos Yahoo Group 4 4

Grand Total 21881 1670 23551

Predicting the

Future Age

• Expand use of ATS

functionalities.

– Create a video or

demo for internal PR

– Contests

– Focus on department

or 1 hiring manager.

• Increased presence

on more platforms.

– Blogs, chat, RSS, social

networks, message

boards, podcasts,

video / photo sharing

sites, wikis….

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The Future Age

Want complete immersion

in Zappos social media?

linkedin.com/companies/zappos.comGroups: The Zappos Family of Companies, Zappos Family Careers

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blogs.zappos.com(CEO, Zappos Family, lifestyles)

jobs.zappos.com(open jobs, videos, company info)

facebook.com/zappos(ATS interface: Jobs tab)

twitter.zappos.com/employees

youtube.com/zappos

youtube.com/zapposfamilycareers

Contact Us!

Want a copy of this presentation?

How about copies of our culture book?

Any additional questions not addressed today?

Tour our offices next time you’re in Vegas! tours.zappos.com

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Cheryl Anne Fernandez

HR Project Manager

Zappos.com, Inc.

cfernandez@zappos.com

twitter.com/chinchin22

linkedin.com/in/cherylannefernandez

Drew Kovacs

Sourcing Specialist

Zappos.com, Inc.

dkovacs@zappos.com

twitter.com/plaz_

linkedin.com/in/drewkovacs

(the fun, strategy stuff)(the boring, analytics stuff)

P.S. You might be wondering why we need to have a legal and financial disclaimer in this presentation, but you are still reading, so our lawyers, auditors and accountants would really like to make sure we make the following clarifications.

Although an audit was underway and almost done, the financial information presented in this slide show was unaudited. We made every effort to present the best information we had at the time.

Gross merchandise sales is a non-GAAP metric. We use it to express the total demand across all of our web sites and stores. This number measures the dollar value of the orders placed in the year before accruing for certain items such as returns, and it ignores certain timing cut-offs that are required by GAAP for revenue recognition purposes. So the gross merchandise sales number should be viewed just as an interesting number that we want to share with our friends.

This presentation contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they ever materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and assumptions. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk of economic slowdown, the risk of over or under buying, the risk of consumers not shopping online or at our web site at the rate we expected, the risk of supplier shortages, the risk of new or growing competition, the risk of a natural or some other type of disaster affecting our fulfillment operations or web servers, and the risk of the world generally coming to an end. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements of expectation or belief; and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Zappos.com assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

Congratulations on making it through all the fine print. If you enjoy fine print, look for openings on our legal and finance team at jobs.zappos.com.

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Q & A

Discussion

Thank you!39