Recently I shared my really cool experience consulting with the Zappos recruiting team. It was truly one of the best and most unique client experiences of my career. That whole process started when I met with Christa Foley (aka @Electra), Recruiting Manager at Zappos.com, about an NBC news story that featured both of our Twitter profiles.
Now in this exclusive exposé, Christa reveals Zappos secrets of talent selection and great candidate experience. Okay, maybe its not much of a secret since Zappos is one of the most documented brands in social media for its awesome culture and “WOW” customer service. But Christa was game to answer a couple of questions for us.
Fishdogs: You must get a ton of applicants. How are you increasing your candidate quality and decreasing those that don’t fit.
Electra: We do! So far ytd, we have had over 30,000 applicants. Honestly, the challenge of the initial candidate screening with such volumes is challenging. However, as a company that prides itself on being about WOW service, we in recruiting look to provide our candidates (who are our customers for sure) with a WOW experience – even if we don’t end up hiring them. To that end, we don’t leave our positions posted for days while 100s of people apply. We manage our requisitions by putting them on hold for a day or 2 once they reach 50 applicants so we can be sure that we review each resume and get back to every candidate. Our applicant tracking system, Jobvite, sends an auto reply to acknowledge a candidate’s application but upon resume review (either by the recruiter, the hiring manager, or a combination of the 2) the recruiter will send a personalized note to the candidate either letting them know we want to move forward to the next step or thanking them but gently letting them know the role isn’t a fit. Rejections are never fun but we have gotten so many replies back from candidates who are simply amazed that we took the time to get back to them. I think it is not atypical for a candidate’s resume/app to go into a “black hole” where the person has no idea if anyone even saw their resume.
Additionally, at the same time we review a candidate’s resume, we are also reviewing customized pre-screening questionnaires per req that we work with hiring managers to set up to help determine if the person is the right fit to move forward in our process. And, we have really been encouraging candidate’s to submit cover letter videos versus cover letters. While it isn’t required, it definitely helps us make a first culture assessment while considering the technical skills on a resume. For us this is key as we hire for both culture fit and technical fit – just having the experience/skills isn’t enough at Zappos.
Finally, we’ve also started using video “job descriptions” or “dept overview videos” done in a fun and zany Zappos style. We aren’t for everybody and are continually trying to find ways to convey to candidate’s what they would be getting into if they joined Zappos. 😉 We have had folks self-select out based on these types of things.
Fishdogs: What do you do as a recruiting manager to keep your team motivated and equipped to find the best candidates.Electra: So I am super lucky in that our whole entire organization believes in and is committed to our culture. This means hiring the right people – those that are technical AND cultural fits. There is not the same pressure here to focus on metrics like time to fill, rather, we view our team as protectors of the Zappos culture and therefore, take our role very seriously in hiring the right people that match both criteria. We believe in hiring slowly (and firing quickly) to ensure our culture continues to thrive as we grow. Long story short, if I have done my job in hiring the right recruiters, they know their number one priority is finding the best for Zappos. 🙂 Our culture in general makes it easy to motivate my team (and any other team) by offering an amazing work environment and co-workers you view as friends and family.
Fishdogs: You shared a story with me about how everyone in the company gets on the phone over the holidays to do customer service. Tell me more about that. Any funny stories?
Electra: Yep, everyone we hire, regardless of title, dept, level of role, attends our 4 week new hire training class when they first start. The class has 2 major functions. 1st, we teach all new hires how to do the job in our customer loyalty team (call center). If our brand is truly about delivering a WOW service experience, it can’t just apply to our call center. It has to be the priority in every dept. with whichever “customers” they interact with. New hires learn how to use our phone system, our back office system for assisting customers, and our philosophy of what WOW service means. In fact, everyone takes about 1.5 weeks of calls with our customers – literally doing the job of our call center rep. The 2nd objective of the class is to really immerse new hires into our culture, what our core values mean, how we live them, what our expectations are of each employee to help maintain and grow our culture.
One business plus is that during our busiest time (holidays) when other companies may need to bring in supplemental/seasonal staffing… We don’t need to do that. Everyone in the company is trained to take customer calls and is required to do so. Last year, we all took 10 hours of calls. It’s super fun for us to see the heart and soul of our business and participate in it each year. And, I love telling a customer I am the recruiting manager (if it comes up in the course of the conversation) and listening to their reaction to the fact that we all jump in all calls. One of my favorite stories isn’t specifically related to holiday phone help but relates to the fact that all employees are trained on calls. Not too long after one of our Finance employees completed his new hire class, our front desk accidentally transferred him a customer call instead of sending it to our call center. He easily could have apologized to the customer and routed her to the call center but just handled the call himself. To hear him talk about it he just thought, why not? He was trained, able to help her, and would avoid transferring her again which isn’t a great experience. 🙂
Thank you Christa!
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