1. Zappos

Cultural fit interview

Zappos hires according to cultural fit first. It has established what the company culture is, and fitting into that culture is the most important thing managers look for when hiring. This promotes the culture and happy employees, which ultimately leads to happy customers.

New employees are offered $2,000 to quit after the first week of training if they decide the job isnt for them.

Our number one priority is company culture. Our whole belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff like delivering great customer service or building a long-term enduring brand will just happen naturally on its own.-Tony Hsieh

Its key that the people who are involved in establishing the culture (typically, the CEO) participate and vet each candidate that comes through. The theory is that those people that were hired by the CEO will hire people who share the CEOs vision.

It actually doesnt matter what your values are, what matters is that you have them and that you align the organization around them. And the power actually comes from the alignment not from the actual values.

Our message is more you should figure out what your values are and then align the entire organization around them.'

Fire Those that Dont Fit the Culture No Matter How Talented

Pay New Employees to QuitAt some point during the training, Zappos offers $4,000 to the new employee to quit and walk away from the company. Hsieh says they dont want people who are there for a paycheck, and they dont want people who feel like they are trapped.

Hsieh says that when new employees turn down the money, they turn out to be much more passionate and engaged because they realize that its a place they really want to be and contribute.

2. Warby Parker

Warby Parker has made company culture deliberate by creating a dedicated team tasked with coming up with events and programs to promote community.Company culture at Warby Parker instigates culture crushes 1. BE DELIBERATEIts no accident that Warby Parker has a fantastic company culture they planfor it (and have a whole group dedicated to do so). Within the company, the aptly named culture team is in charge of planning company outings and themed luncheons. They also play a part in the new employee screening process, ensuring the culture lifecycle lives on with every new employee 20/20 and optically challenged folk alike.2. FIND COMFORT THROUGH DISCOMFORTTo encourage a more unified work force, the company started playing weekly rounds of lunch roulette where four randomly selected employees are sent out to lunch together so they can get to know each other. Sort of like a blind date, but way better.3. ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TOEvery quarter a group of employees on the fun committee plan a surprise outing for the entire crew.In the past this has meant open bars and DJ lessons, but as Stephanie + Jen told us, every outing is always a surprise and has to top the next. So as the crew keeps growing the possibilities do too.

3. Southwest airlines

In order of importance,Southwest ranks employees first, customers second, and shareholders third.

"We believe that if we treat our employees right, they will treat our customers right, and in turn that results in increased business and profits that make everyone happy,"

Happy Employees=Happy Customers=Increased Business/Profits=Happy Shareholders!

We are all encouraged to Live the Southwest Way, and our Employees exemplify this with their Warrior Spirits, Servants Hearts, and Fun-LUVing Attitudes.

Warrior Spirit: work hard, desire to be the best, be courageous, display a sense of urgency, preserve, and innovate.

Servants Heart: follow The Golden Rule, put others first, demonstrate proactive Customer Service, and embrace the SWA Family.

Fun-LUVing Attitude: dont take yourself too seriously, maintain perspective (balance), celebrate successes, enjoy your work, and be a passionate Teamplayer.

4. Twitter

Roof-top meetings and friendly colleagues helped to make Twitters employees the happiest in the country

Team meetings on the roof are the best, great teamwork and a lot of smart people

Workers also get free meals at its San Francisco headquarters, in-office yoga classes and unlimited vacation, at least for exempt employees.

Team meetings on the roof are the best, great teamwork and a lot of smart people,

Three things in common in employees:They want a supportive and motivational team-oriented environmentThey want to work for companies that had a great mission statement and generally did the right thing and acted with integrityThey want to feel like they had a second family at the workplace, where they could turn to colleagues for support and advice.The best thing about their work is interacting with their co-workers. Though Twitter employees receive considerably fewer perks than Google employees, they are energized and motivated by Twitters culture of excellence and hard work.

This committed, passionate employee attitude doesnt come simply from fun extras or creature comforts; instead, Twitter employees say that they are motivated to maintain a culture of excellence because their values and goals are in line with the companys overall vision.

Twitter doesnt have the best company culture because of its offices or its atmosphere: Twitters company culture excels because of its people, thus proving that smart recruiting and people strategy are the best investment a company can make. When high performance is assured, harmony follows, and Twitter won this round by putting first things first.

5. Google

Weve all heard about Googleslegendary employee perks everything from free meals to an in-house bowling alley.Google employees do admitto enjoying these perks, and the fun atmosphere of their workplace, which one employee describes as like being back in college again times going to Disneyland every day.

It would almost seem wrong not to mention Google on a list of companies with great culture. Google has been synonymous with culture for years, and sets the tone for many of the perks and benefits startups are now known for. Free meals, employee trips and parties, financial bonuses, open presentations by high-level executives, gyms, a dog-friendly environmentand so on. Googlers are known to be driven, talentedand among the bestofthebest.

20%?

"We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google,"they wrote."This empowers them to be more creative and innovative. Manyof our significant advances have happened in this manner."

6. Facebook

Just like Google, Facebook is a company that has exploded in growth as well as being synonymous with unique company culture.Facebook offers, as do many similar companies, lots of food, stock options, open office space, on-site laundry, a focus on teamwork and open communication, a competitive atmosphere that fosters personal growth and learning andgreat benefits.Yet, Facebook has the same struggles as similar companies: a highly competitive industry leads to a sometimes stressful and competitive workplace. Additionally, a free and organic organizational structure that worked for the smaller organization is less successful for the larger one.To meet these challenges, Facebook has created conference rooms, has separate buildings, lots of outdoor roaming space for breaksand has management (even CEO Mark Zuckerberg) working in the open office space alongside other employees. Its an attempt at a flat organizational culture using the buildings and space itself to promote a sense of equality among the competition.

7. Adobe

Gives employees challenging projects and provides the trust and support to help them meet those challenges successfully Avoids micromanaging in favor of trusting employees to do their best Doesnt use ratings to establish employee capabilities, feeling that that inhibits creativity and harms how teams work. Managers take on the role of a coach, more than anything, letting employees set goals and determine how they should be assessed. Employees are also given stock options so that they know they have both a stake and reward in the companys success. Adobe has a very open company culture: it promotes risk taking without fear of penalty