Thoughts on a Company’s Culture and Hiring Process

Zappos’ Dance Dance Revolution for employees and visitors

How important is a company’s culture?

Jack Shepler recently sent me a great blog about Zappos’ company culture and branding written by the company’s CEO/COO. The basic gist is that the company’s branding flows from its culture so they work hard to protect their culture.

This really hit home with me. It ties into my belief that the web is forcing transparency on businesses. A company used to be able to run an ad campaign protraying their company or service as being X whereas the reality was Y. Other companies, like Angie’s List and Yelp.com, have created a business reporting on the difference between X and Y. Essentially they serve to either confirm, deny or modify a company’s marketing claim. Now blogs, forums and social media in general act in this capacity on a larger scale.

Bottom line is you can’t lie to your customers anymore,  eventually you will be found out and everyone else will know. What a bummer!

Of course this is actually a good thing. Forcing a company to address and not ignore problems actually serves them well in the long run. There is nothing like a public shaming to get a CEO out of their office and actually interacting with their customers.

So to have great branding it needs to follow from a great culture. A company’s culture flows from the executive team but is kept alive by the entire company. New hires are essentially new “ingredients”. Make sure you add the right ones or the dough will turn sour.

On a related note: I heard someone remark today that they overheard someone at a company saying they would “remove all the negative feedback” before sending along this person’s comments to their boss. What a horrible idea! The negative feedback is the most valuable stuff.

The CEO of Zappos makes many good points in his blog about culture and branding so I recommend you read it all. The one I found most relevant and interesting was how it plays into hiring. They have one round of questions that deal with the job itself (i.e. can you do it) but another round of interviews that deal with the company’s culture. If the person is a good fit for the job description but not the culture then they would pass on the hire. He even states that they have passed on hires that could have been very beneficially for their bottomline but not their culture. He realizes that the culture is where their success springs from and to mess with it might be toxic to the company’s future.

I know at Small Box we typically work on a freelance basis with a potential hire for at least 6 months before they come on full time. It really helps us see if they are a good fit for the team. I realize that isn’t possible in all industries but it seems to work with ours. I think with more people un-employed and looking for whatever they can get this might be an opportunity for more companies to have a courtship period prior to hiring on someone full time.

What do you think? Does your company’s culture match its brand? What is your hiring process?