Is Company Culture Really That Important?

Alexandra Levit's Article

While reading articles this week, I stumbled upon this blog post by Alexandra Levit. She wrote about a speech Zappo's CEO, Tony Hsieh, gave at the national SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) conference last year. He spoke about the culture of Zappo's, which I find very interesting. Differences in company culture have always interested me, and now especially since the company that I work for is in the midst of trying to change the culture within our organization.

Last year, I had the opportunity to hear some employees from Zappo's speak at a work meeting. I found it fascinating that an internet shoe company places so much emphasis on their culture and stands behind the notion that their employees - not their prices or discount shoe selection - are the reason that the company has been extremely successful. As you can read in the blog post, Zappo's even offers its employees a $3,000 bonus to quit the company once they complete their training. They say that this ensures that they only have employees working for them that really, truly want to be there. I think that is a great way to show employee loyalty.

What do you think about employee loyalty and finding an employee that fits well with the culture of the organization? Do you think that even in the current job market this should remain an important factor in the hiring decision?