service is what we do come check us out we're more than just shoes clo house handbags Bea to help us understand what HR practices work best towards creating and maintaining a culture conducive to a successful company we visited a shoe store but not just any shoe store if you shop online then you've probably heard of zapo since it start in 1999 zapo quickly outpaced its own expectations and became both the largest online shoe store and one of Fortune magazine's top 100 places to work its Mission it goes far beyond bringing interesting people into the office in short it's to provide the best customer service possible and to do this Z has built a company culture on the strong Foundation of its 10 core values we really live and breathe those core values so unlike a lot of companies that I've worked at previously they're not just on a wall or on a plaque or in a handbook they're in everything that we do and it's in our everyday lives so you can interpret those and do the things that you do as long as it's built on that Foundation the best way that it is for you to do it so there's no prejudgments there's no you have to do it my way anything like that it's we we all want to get to the same result and each person has their own individual way to do that when current CEO Tony Shay joined the company in its early days he was already successful having sold his previous company for over 200 million but he had a vision of something more he wanted to create a company and a culture completely focused on happiness and service so when it comes to the hiring of its employees zapo isn't intent on enforcing its culture and core values upon them it's focused on a thorough hiring process to bring in the best employees who will naturally Thrive with the company um it's a long interview process there are multiple multiple phone screens sometimes Skype interviews with people when they come on site it's usually at least a full day of interviews where they get a tour they get to see all of the craziness as it happens if you were a superhero what superhero would you be and why on a scale of 1 to 10 how lucky are you on a scale of 1 to 10 how weird are you what cooworker behaviors drive you crazy um if you could do anything and pay wasn't an option what job would you do you know and there's no right or wrong answer to any of the questions it's just to see how you respond and to see if people are down to answer them and talk through them or they think they're dumb and they don't want to have anything to do with them that's an indicator for us on whether somebody's going to like working here or not the hiring process goes far beyond just interviews all candidates also complete an intense four-week training course at the end of which zapo extends a unique offer to make sure the candidate is enthusiastic about becoming part of zapo culture zapo offers $3,000 to any candidate who ultimately decides zapo is not for them we don't get very many people that take the offer but when people do take the offer it's they're very happy that they have a way out because they do realize that this isn't for them and Zappos would much rather bring on an employee completely committed to the company and offer anyone who isn't a little help towards their next opportunity and for the vast majority who decide zapo is for them they get benefits Beyond perks and perkiness zapo also offers comprehensive medical dental and vision insurance vacation Company discounts free breakfasts lunch snacks and an abundance of other benefits none of this is done for the short-term balance sheet and all of it is done for the long-term happiness of those who decide the zapo culture is for them and that happiness is more than just a benefit in itself it's a business strategy with its 10 core values zapo has learned that happy employees equal happy customers which equal a successful company and the most important part I think is that you are allowed to be yourself usually we have our work self and then we have our home self and that doesn't happen here and that's one actually one of the advices I give the trainees on day one when we do our introductions I tell them be yourself and because here everybody's so different you're always going to be learning from everybody which is amazes me like I see every day I learn a new thing every day I see things you know different because of the culture but just how successful could any company be that uses no scripts for its call center provides a nap room for employees and encourages every employee to bring a little weirdness to the office zapo has outpaced its own expectations and currently does over 1 billion annually in gross sales it was recently purchased by online giant Amazon and has branched out to selling handbags accessories housewares the list grows all the time while Zappo's success is extraordinary the secret to that success is Elementary delivering happiness or wow to its customers from its employees and that all stems from making sure the interview process is effective in measuring an employees True Fit with the company's culture adding a little weirdness might not hurt either in the case of Zappos it's definitely working for them