Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 | 6 a.m.
If you want to work in what feels like a family Zappos.com leaders will admit that they’re probably not running the most efficient operation. But its employees, who are helping to bring in $1 billion in revenue during one of the most financially challenging years in history, are fiercely loyal and always ready to party; on company time, of course.
Like it or not, someone is doing something right at Zappos.com, as the little online shoe company that could is raking in serious cash, and it’s not being done by cutting staff and limiting benefits. If anything, it seems the party at Zappos is only just getting started.
To list the benefits, both formal and fringe, for Zappos.com employees can be downright exhausting. The company doesn’t just cover health and dental, it picks up the tab for co-pays and deductibles. Zappos buys lunch every day, and vending machine snacks are purchased by the company as well. Employees enjoy a 40 percent discount on merchandise, and the company sponsors “happy hour” for new employees every month — complete with taxi service for safe rides home, if needed.
Zappos offers “nap pods,” so if employees are a little worn out from working — or not — they can catch up on some z’s. A “help desk” is like a concierge desk for employees, reminding them of car wash services, dry-cleaning pick up or if the book they ordered on Amazon.com is in. Employees also are allowed to request reading material for the help desk to purchase and keep in a library area. Employees can then check out, return or keep books.
“I say all the time, I hope this is the last job I ever have,” said Rebecca Ratner, director of human resources. She made the jump from the casino industry and admits that she very well may have found employment nirvana at Zappos.
Ratner said one of the best benefits the company offers existing and new employees is a $2,000 bonus/buyout for recruits who decide within their first six weeks of employment that the Zappos environment is not to their liking.
“The program keeps people who are here surrounded by people they want to work with,” Ratner added.
To be sure, work does indeed get done at Zappos. The company prides itself on the communication with its employees, who are updated via their e-mail every day on daily sales levels, call volume, and answered and unanswered incoming calls. They are briefed on revenue goals and are motivated by those figures, Ratner said. By 2014, Zappos.com is looking to reach $5 billion in annual revenue.
“They get really invested in that stuff,” the human resources director added. “We definitely like to promote the ‘work hard, play hard’ balance.”
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