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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | NOVEMBER 19, 1999 NET JOURNAL By Scott Kucirek A Company Is Its Culture How we cultivate a climate of serious fun
 Over the past two months, I've realized that my key job as president of zipRealty.com is to build a great company culture. I don't think anyone would argue with our core values: We strive to attract and reward intelligent people with positive attitudes and a strong work ethic who can work in teams of diverse personalities. Most companies would say "Amen" to that. It's all the other stuff that's tricky. We want people to enjoy their jobs enough to work really hard — we are an Internet startup, after all — but not to feel like slaves. We don't want our staff to have to choose between a job and a family. It should be possible to have both. We also want to be a congenial community, but without invading people's privacy. How does that sound?
So far, we must be doing something right. We've hired and kept great people, even in this tight labor market. It takes a big investment in time and energy, though. Let's look at what we did just this past week to maintain our culture. On Monday, two new new people started working at zipRealty.com. I gave them my standard presentation, which lasts about an hour. I emphasize three things: 1) their importance to the company; 2) the characteristics of zipRealty.com team members — the traits mentioned above, plus an innovative spirit, lack of egotism, and good communication skills; 3) the company's goals — to remain the leader in online realty by making home buying fun, easy, and more affordable. At first, I didn't give a speech to the new hires. That was, I've since realized, a mistake. From the beginning, team members need to know their roles and how important they are to the company. In the afternoon, the new employees came by to schedule their get-acquainted lunches with me. At these repasts, we talk about them — not business. This is my best chance to get to know many of the team members. The only other thing I require of new people is a set of 6 to 10 photos of them, their friends, and family. We take those photos and create a wonderful montage that hangs on our entrance wall. We do it because we want people in this company to realize that everyone here has outside interests, friends, and family, and that maintaining a balanced life is very important to the success of the company. What if someone doesn't want to put his or her family or friends on display in the office? Generally, interviewees see the wall, and if they don't see themselves contributing, I imagine they wouldn't pursue a job here. But I can envision that someone — who would otherwise fit in — might balk. Maybe they're going through a divorce or some other difficulty. I'm sure it will come up. We would encourage them to bring photos of things they like, or we would just take pictures at work. We don't want to make people uncomfortable, but we do prefer to have photos. Trust me, everyone knows who has a photo up and who doesn't. They all stop and look at them to learn about the new people and their lives. The wall isn't just window dressing. We really do want people to have a life. BIKE RIDES. On Tuesday, I put out a reminder about the company bike ride. We started this activity about three weeks ago. At noon, a group of us headed out for an hourlong ride. At an Internet company, it's easy to get stuck for too long behind the computer. We get more employees cycling each time. It's supposed to be fun, not strenuous. It's also good to have a shower and towels on-site to keep the atmosphere pleasant after the ride. On Wednesday night, we had our fourth family dinner. Every four to six weeks, we take all zipRealty.com employees, their families, and guests out for dinner on the company at a local restaurant. We celebrate our accomplishments and acknowledge the support of the families. Usually after these dinners, the mood is much better and work gets done faster. That said, we don't believe in forced fun. Understandably, some people need a break from their colleagues and prefer to pass. We respect that. Nobody is penalized or thought worse of for not coming. Finally, on Friday, we had our company lunch and "all-hands" meeting. When we complete a week of training for new employees, we like to get everyone together for a stand-up meeting where we introduce the new team members and talk about what's happening with zipRealty.com. We cap it off with lunch. You can never give people too much information about the company, we find. As for other issues, such as work hours, we judge employees on results, not time in the office. Yes, we've had very aggressive goals, and people work long hours — mainly because they love what they are doing. I've sometimes had to insist that people take time off. We are trying to keep a sustainable pace, so they don't burn out and quit. We put our money where our mouth is. Our benefits package includes paid time off. If an employee needs a week off, he or she just requests it. If a person wants to take part of the day, that's fine by us. And we don't have established office hours. Most people work between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., but we have people here past 9 p.m. almost every night. These are just some of the ways we've started to promote our culture, and we're always adding more. Got any ideas? Send 'em in. See you in two weeks.  Scott Kucirek is president and co-founder of zipRealty.com, an online real estate brokerage. The company's Internet site and online real estate agents let people complete the entire purchase or sale of a house via the Web. The company's Web site is www.zipRealty.com, and you can E-mail Scott at Scott@zipRealty.com.  | | |
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