By Mary Auestad Arnold
According to John Moore, former marketer for Starbucks and Whole Foods Market, employees who have a passion for your credit union and who make a direct connection with members can separate you from your competitors.
How do you find those employees? You need a “passion test for hiring,” he told attendees of CUES’ CEO/Executive Team Network yesterday in Las Vegas.
At Starbucks, the test is deceptively simple. Interviewees are given an application, then asked, “Can I get you a cup of coffee?” By no means should the applicant decline, said Moore. The last thing Starbucks wants to do is hire barristas who don’t like coffee, so declining a cup basically ends the interview before it even begins.
At Zappos, an online retailer, the passion test occurs after the first week of training, when new hires are offered $2,000 to leave. About 10 percent take Zappos up on the deal. And the company is happy to see them go, Moore explained, considering them “cultural misfits who don’t get it. Zappos has made a business case for paying employees to leave” at this early stage, he said, rather than investing more resources in people who will likely leave the company in a short time anyway.
Do you have a passion test at your credit union? Have you ever taken a passion test? Tell me about it in the comments.
Mary Auestad Arnold is VP/publications of CUES.
Read more about Zappos in “NextGen Know-How: Exceptional Corporate Cultures."
