So You Think Your Brand is Unique... But What Do Your Employees Think? - A blog by Aman Singh
Aman Singh is the CSR Editor at Vault.com, where she focuses on how corporate diversity practices and sustainability translate into recruitment and strategic development. Her blog, In Good Company, discusses on many of these issues.
So You Think Your Brand is Unique... But What Do Your Employees Think?
Does your company have an HR handbook? Chances are, you're thinking yes, of course. What about a culture book for employees? Zappos does.
The company, which started by selling shoes a decade ago, is today an Amazon subsidiary and has expanded to a multitude of merchandising. It is also probably one of very few companies to grow its brand around an idea of transparency, ethics and collaborative culture. For Tony Hsieh, cofounder and current CEO of Zappos, this was intentional from Day 1. In his recently released book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose—which I will be reviewing in the coming days here In Good Company—Hsieh devotes a whole chapter to the Zappos Culture Book.
In short, the book contains employee interpretations of what their company's culture is all about and how it is different to other companies. And this is no mere PR exercise, designed to make the company look good: all of the entries received were inserted with minimal editing, even when they were anonymously submitted. Of course, Hsieh took a risk; no company is perfect and since culture is perceptional, the initiative could have resulted in a mudslinging session directed at Zappos management.
