$1,000 to Quit? Take This Job and Love It

Zappos, the online shoe retailer, has an inventive secret weapon when it comes to recruiting customer service talent: offering new hires $1,000 to quit.

Harvard Business Review blogger Bill Taylor describes Zappos as a place where employees are abnormally enthusiastic about and dedicated to their jobs.

But as the company continues to grow -- it now has about 1,600 employees --that slightly nutty level of passion for shoe sales is difficult to maintain. So a week into the training process, Zappos offers news employees $1,000 to resign on the spot. (Roughly 10 percent take the bait.)

It sounds as if it could be a gimmick for a new television game show: Job or No Job, perhaps. But Taylor praises the practice as an innovative way to build a "memorable" customer service organization.

The operating assumption is that anyone willing to take the company up on the offer lacks the commitment to the job and conformity to the culture that are necessary for a successful relationship. By Zappos' calculation, that $1,000 is less than the cost of keeping an uninspired call-center employee on the payroll.

The link between happy, inspired employees and improved output is not a new one, but up to this point companies trying to foster devotion have done so through their on-the-job relationship with employees.

It's a "nature versus nurture" debate in a way. While traditionally companies like Google and Starbucks have believed that exceptional perks and benefits fuel dedication, the Zappos strategy suggests that it's all about employing people predisposed to be happy working at your company.

Of course, while the $1,000 challenge may go part of the way towards weeding out ill-suited employees, choosing not to take the money may not be a sufficient measure of dedication to the brand. Especially in uncertain economic times, it may equally show how nervous people are about their ability to find a new job.

Liz Gunnison