Paying Your Employees To Quit - Brilliant!

Sure you say.  Pay our employees to quit.  What could be so brilliant about that?

Bill Taylor (FastCompany, Mavericks at Work) over at Harvard Business Blogs tells the story of Zappos and their practice of paying employees to quit.  The gut reaction from most is say that is nonsense, a gimmick and it flies in the face of all that is holy in the HR space regarding turnover.  That is exactly why it makes sense - it flies in the face of all that is holy in the HR space.  Here is the money from Bill's blog:

So when Zappos hires new employees, it provides a four-week training period that immerses them in the company’s strategy, culture, and obsession with customers. People get paid their full salary during this period.

After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit!

Why? Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later. (About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run.)

I think it is total brilliance on the part of Zappos.  The cost of keeping disengaged and disloyal people who have a very high probability of being poor performers is significantly higher than dropping a quick $1,000 on them and sending them on their way. 

Ideas like this work, they make sense and they get resuts.  They also take daring and courage which is exactly why most companies won't do it.