Why does zappos pay employees to quit

Her approach is inspiring and accessible, a rare combination. She shared with me five critical components of Jellyvision's human capital strategy. It is not the place to commoditize and standardize and follow a script. And so, we didn't. Job descriptions are where you get to show off your unique company culture, explain why your company is a great place to work and impress candidates with the exciting challenges of the job to be filled. Just like you use your company brand to get customers, you should use your employer brand to get great quality applicants--and job descriptions are part of that.

Lannert's focus on culture is rooted in a core belief: "We are a company that was, is, and always will be only as good as the people we have building our software, servicing our software and selling it. Your service can be copied. Your product can be copied. Your strategy can be copied. But your team is wholly unique and your best source of competitive advantage. Companies that think like this are in the position to dominate their market. So the value proposition is a winner.

This company is fanatical about great service — not just satisfying customers, but amazing them. The company promises free, four-day delivery. Zappos has also mastered the art of telephone service — a black hole for most Internet retailers.

Zappos publishes its number on every single page of the site — and its smart and entertaining call-center employees are free to do whatever it takes to make you happy.

There are no scripts, no time limits on calls, no robotic behavior, and plenty of legendary stories about Zappos and its customers. People get paid their full salary during this period. About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run. If you want to create a memorable company, you have to fill your company with memorable people.

The program works differently than at Zappos. Rather than receiving the offer once during training, employees at Amazon's fulfillment centers get the offer once a year, every year.

Each year an employee gets the offer, he or she has invested more in the company, and may find it harder to leave. The offer increases to adjust to the sense of investment. For skeptical shareholders, Bezos explained the rationale: "The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want," he wrote. The real upgrade that Amazon made in the Pay to Quit program over the Zappos program was checking in further along in an employee's tenure and doing so more than just once.

In a way, Amazon is asking its employees to give the company a performance evaluation every year. But just as at Zappos, only a small number of employees take the offer -- suggesting that employees are giving the company a pretty good evaluation.