Delivering Talent

Note: Tonight at 8PM ET on the HR Happy Hour show, we will be joined by Jamie Naughton from Zappos, to talk about some of the HR and Talent Management practices employed at Zappos.

Everyone knows at least something about the Zappos story.  Small, specialty online retailer survives some rough early years to become a $1B plus juggernaut just a few short years later. This growth is fueled by a relentless focus on providing legendary customer service; understanding, documenting, communicating, and living by their famous company culture and values; and by building sustainable processes for finding, developing, and rewarding the best people to live the culture and that can deliver on the customer promise for tremendous service.

In 'Delivering Happiness', Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh's, book about the origins, rise, and philosophies behind Zappos, Hsieh expounds upon many of the talent management strategies that are employed to ensure that the company can continue to live up to its high standards for customer service, ensure that the most important organizational values are supported and strengthened, and that there will be a steady and ready supply of future leaders to drive the constant and rapid growth.

From Zappos practice of interviewing specifically for cultural fit, to offering brand new employees cash bonuses to leave, to the focus on building active and deep pipelines of talent for positions across and through the organization, the examples of effective and even innovative talent management strategies and execution abound in Delivering Happiness, and other writings, speeches etc.

When the entire business strategy and opportunities for success hinge almost completely on the talent, commitment, and execution of people, (face it, you can buy shoes from about a thousand different places), then the challenge, pressure, and opportunity on those folks mainly responsible for the hiring, development, and compensation of these people becomes marked.  I'd submit you can't have a world-class roster of fantastically engaged, aligned, and successful employees without a corresponding world-class HR and Talent Management group helping to deliver on the customer and employee promises.

Sure you know the Zappos story from the book, or from the blogs, or from the thousands of blog posts about the company.  But tonight on the HR Happy Hour show you will get a chance to hear from one of the leaders of the Zappos talent management team, Cruise Ship Captain Jamie Naughton.

The fun starts tonight at 8PM ET.  Join us by listening on the show page here, by calling in to the listener line on 646-378-1086, or using the player below:

It should be a fun and interesting show, and I hope you can join us.