How to hire and fire in Airbnb, Facebook, Google and Zappos

It has long been known that large IT companies cherish and nurture their employees. In the invention of the "buns", some employers sometimes come to ridiculous. But the furthest along this path were the “unicorns” from Silicon Valley, the Mecca of start-ups and technological entrepreneurship.

Recruiters of the international company BBDO, which specializes in advertising services, last year traveled to the Valley and explored the corporate principles of Google, Facebook, Airbnb and Zappos. How do they hire people in these companies and what are they fired for, what do they spoil and how do they work with them? The answers to these questions, the researchers outlined in the presentation.

The average salary in the Valley is 100 thousand dollars and is growing annually by at least five percent. The engineer here earns an average of 130 thousand dollars (in other states around 80 thousand dollars). Valley bonuses are at least 13 percent, in other states about eight percent. But they encourage IT in California not only with money.

Facebook

Facebook was founded in 2004, by 2011, the number of full-time employees reached 2000 people, and by 2014 - 11000 people. Mostly on Facebook they hire developers. The company cooperates with 18 universities, regularly holds talks - events where HR managers and the best engineers of the company communicate with newcomers. The company also conducts five hackathons per year.

Candidates in the recruitment process undergo four interviews: two on programming skills, one for analyzing the experience and another one for analyzing the behavior and “teamwork”. There is no trial period on Facebook, instead there is such a thing as a “campus” - if an employee is hired, he has been studying for six to eight months, after which he can independently choose a project or team for himself.

Every Friday at 17: 00, the founder and CEO of the company, the legendary Mark Zuckerberg, speaks to employees - this strongly spurs the team’s morale. Moreover, the company congratulates those who have been working on Facebook for more than six years on a weekly basis - such is an interesting tradition.

Facebook employees are given a lot of freedom: they assign KPIs to themselves, just like tasks. Everyone decides what they would like to do. The manager has the right to agree / disagree or modify the plans of employees. Twice a year, an employee performance review is conducted. If he has poorly executed his six-month plan, he will be fired.

Facebook is quickly hired and quickly fired - there is a fixed-term employment contract that can be terminated at any time. Dismissed mainly for poor performance or disclosure of confidential information. There was a case when an employee, using internal resources, got into his wife’s personal correspondence to convict her of treason. When the "crime" was revealed, he was immediately shown the door.

The third most popular reason is sexual harassment.

Benefits and compensation

• Full medical insurance at the expense of the company.
• Wednesday is the day of remote work. Employees may not come to the office, but work from home or any convenient place.
• Bonuses twice a year, percentage of salary. The amount of bonuses is tied to the company’s performance and employee’s personal performance, but not more than a certain level.
• After three years of work in the company, the employee begins to receive options.
• Free food (cafe, snacks, tea, coffee, etc.).

Google

In 2009, 19835 worked in Google, more than 2011 thousands in 32, and 2014 thousands in 55. Getting a job at Google is a great honor. Two million resumes per year are sent to the company, less than one percent of candidates are hired. At the same time 60 percent of employees got into the company on the recommendation. For each recommendation of a good specialist, Google pays four thousand dollars (about two thousand dollars after taxes), and for replacing the most difficult positions - up to 10 thousand dollars.

Here they profess a culture of freedom from strict rules and the absence of bureaucracy. To assess a candidate for a position in a company, the term Googliness is used (as far as a person is friendly, positive and pleasant. At the same time, the recruiter asks himself the question “Would I like to be stuck at the airport with this person for a few hours?”, Who has already become famous.

In Google, there is the principle “Everyone is just one coffee away from you”: if you got a job at Google, even at the lowest position, then you are cool a priori and you can invite at any time on the coffee of any employee of the company, up to Larry Page or Sergey Brin. They can not refuse.

Employees are evaluated once a quarter. Each employee sets himself goals for the year, and at the end of the quarter, managers assess progress. By the way, an employee cannot ask for a promotion himself - only the manager decides when his time has come.

For the evaluation of employees, the OKR - objectives vs key results system is used, everything is documented in the electronic system, a human performance curve is constructed, and this is taken into account when paying bonuses. The five-point evaluation system - if an employee earns less than three, he does not receive a bonus. The percentage of bonus depends on the level: first, the breakdown of 70 revenue into 30, and over time 30 into 70. It all depends on the implementation of the plan by the employee and the company.

Most often, employees from Google are laid off for poor performance, but the company has a “Second Chance” program. Managers, along with an employee, think what the company can do so that a person can work better, and provide an opportunity to start everything from scratch.

Benefits and compensation

• Payment of study staff.
• Covering the cost of children's education.
• Car park - employees can use a service car for their own purposes for no more than four hours a day.
• 27 cafeterias, fruit, tea and coffee on the floors.
• Exit "negotiation" (such bicycles for five or six people, in which you can safely communicate along the way somewhere).
• Gymnasium, swimming pool at any time of the day.
• 20% time for personal goals and aspirations.

Zappos

The company for the delivery of shoes is considered the number 1 in the world in the development of corporate culture. Zappos employs 1600 people. HR-department has 50 people, it even has a team to involve employees - their task is to constantly increase employee loyalty to the employer, to organize holidays and events.

Interview in Zappos is held in the format of "Club of lonely hearts." This is a stand-up party to the music, in which HR-managers communicate with candidates in an informal setting. After hiring, a person goes through a four-month boot camp - this is an educational program to dive into the company's culture and work. At the end of this period, Zappos founder Tony Shea offers the newcomer a choice: “Two thousand dollars and go away or stay and be part of the Zappos family.” The company says that since the founding of Zappos there were only three cases when a person chose money.

Employees of the company can arrange their workplace as they please. One guy, taking advantage of this opportunity, even made himself a bed. In this case, Zappos profess the principle of close friendship in a team. There is an internal rating on the knowledge of each other by the staff. A person can be shown a photo of a colleague and ask him what his name is, what he does, etc.

The company Zappos, perhaps the most impressive list of "buns" for employees.

Benefits and compensation

• Awards and recognition - not only for what the company requires, but also for personal achievements.
• 10% of the time you can do personal matters.
• Once a month, you can give $ 50 to a colleague for achieving or thanking for something.
• Full insurance, payment of 50% of the cost of insurance to family members, 24 hourly access to a doctor for questions over the phone, pregnancy management programs, infertility treatment, orthodontic treatment.
• Programs for managing employee lifestyle: paid coaches, clinical examination in the office, personal development classes.
• Fitness in the office, sports in the office, weight management program, bars and restaurants of healthy eating.
• Benefits for adopters, retirement plans, paid maternity sheets for women and for young fathers.
• Room for rest and sleep, library, mother and child rooms.
• Concierge service that takes on the personal tasks of employees - handing things in dry cleaning, paying utility bills, etc.
• Reimbursement of transportation costs, ergonomic station for recharging the car.
• Discounts for employees.
• Flexible working hours.
• Cumulative plans for further education.
• Mortgage management programs.

airbnb

The Airbnb rental service was founded in 2008 in San Francisco, and today the company already employs 1400 people (next year they plan to expand their number to 2600). The HR department employs 76 people, the average age of employees is 30 years.

The company grows so fast that on Airbnb a day, up to 50 people are hired. It is not surprising that recruiters are constantly working in an emergency mode - it’s difficult to quickly and efficiently put all this into the system. Therefore, management has formulated the core values ​​for which candidates are evaluated. The basic principle is expressed in the motto “We give people the opportunity to work for themselves”.

In the entire history of the company from Airbnb, 67 people quit. The company also conducts chats at the fireplace, in which experts in various fields take part, to share their experience and wisdom with employees. From general directors to musicians.

Benefits and compensation

• World-class medical services.
• Daily lunches and snacks.
• Culture of continuous development.
• Healthy work environment.
• Annual travel bonus.
• Compensation for transportation costs - 100 dollars per month.
• Parental leave up to four months (a rarity in the USA).
• Time off.
• Time to work outside the office and happy hours.
• Paid volunteering.
• 500 dollars per quarter to every employee on a trip with Airbnb.

Previously, Forum wrote about what is it like being fired from google. Developer Grigory Yakushev told Quora his story of dismissal after five years of work for the search giant.

Also we published 15 is a strange question that is asked at interviews at Google.

Forty thousand employees work at Google, but they all speak the same language, in which words that are not understandable to outsiders sometimes come across. we unscrambled "Google" dialect.