In the early 2000s, Zappos implemented a radical program that seemed to many completely backwards. After putting new employees through an intensive four-week training program that immersed them in the company’s culture, strategy, and obsession with customer service, Zappos would pull new hires aside and make what became known internally as “The Offer.”
The pitch was simple: If you quit today, we will pay you for your time, plus a $2,000 bonus. No strings attached. Just walk out the door with a check for two grand.
The program started at $100 and gradually increased over the years, eventually reaching $4,000 because they didn’t feel enough people were taking them up on it (only a small percentage ever did). Amazon, which acquired Zappos in 2009, liked the idea enough to adopt their own version. Here is Jeff Bezos on the topic in a letter to shareholders in 2014:
“Why do we make this offer? The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want. In the long-run, an employee staying somewhere they don’t want to be isn’t healthy for the employee or the company.”
The intuition behind this is a disengaged employee costs more than a severance check. Someone who stays because they don’t know how to leave is a drag on culture, on customers, and eventually on the team around them. Better to find out early and part on good terms than to let the wrong fit fester for months before the inevitable.
We think about this a lot when it comes to how both candidates and employers tend to approach interviews.
Most people walk into an interview in sales mode. We think that’s very understandable. There’s a job on the line. But the instinct to package and present, to sell rather than explore, is exactly what produces the kind of mismatch Zappos was trying to pay its way out of. And often employers are the ones setting that tone. When interviewers only ask questions and candidates only answer them, you end up with a transaction. Not a conversation.
We push hard against this with every candidate we work with: an interview is not a one-way evaluation. It is the best opportunity you will have before accepting an offer to figure out whether this role is actually something you want to do. For employers: we won’t spell out the reasons why early turnover is painful as these have likely been burned deeply into your memory.
A few practical thoughts we’d offer:
- Don’t hide the hard parts of the role. If the schedule is demanding, say it. If the environment is fast-paced, explain what that actually means day-to-day. Surprises after the start date are rarely productive.
- Encourage candidates to ask difficult questions. Candidates evaluating fit thoughtfully is a good thing, not a bad thing. Someone trying to deeply understand the role is usually more likely to succeed in it.
- Hire for informed enthusiasm, not interview enthusiasm. Some candidates are simply great interviewers. But there’s a difference between someone excited about getting an offer and someone excited about doing the actual work. A question we like: “What do you think you’ll do here in this role?” After interview 1, they should have a good answer for this.
Zappos’ bet was that the right people, given a clear picture of what they were signing up for, would choose to stay. And most did. The $2,000 wasn’t really about the money. It was about building an off-ramp early enough that the wrong decision didn’t turn into an expensive one later.
You don’t have to write a check. But you can do the equivalent by being radically transparent about what the role actually is, and creating enough space in the process for candidates to decide honestly whether they want it. The goal isn’t a “yes.” It’s the right “yes.”
Until next time,
Your Spherion WI & Northern IL team
P.S. For $5,000, we will quit writing these posts. Just kidding…