The Trend goes to Sundance to check out what’s hot in snowy Park City, Utah during one of the most prestigious film festivals of the year.

Check out this week’s featured trends:

Giuseppe Zanotti boots

Alexander McQueen skull scarf

Alexander McQueen aubergine sunglasses

Vince Pima Cotton Long Sleeve Hooded Henley

When I wrote this article I hadn’t noticed that the employee I featured, Roz Searcy at Zappos, had a Twitter handle.  I just read her Twitter profile.  The first sentence reads, “7+ years for the greatest company in the world!” Is there any doubt she is the happiest employee in America?

“You name it. I make it happen.” That’s what Rosalind (Roz) Searcy said when I asked her what she did for her employer, Zappos.com. I’ve met thousands of employees. I speak at their companies, conferences, or interview them for my columns and books. Most employees like their jobs and they’re grateful to have a job at a time when millions of people do not. In rare cases I meet employees like Roz, who are passionate, happy, enthusiastic, and inspired day after day and year after year. In my opinion Roz Searcy is America’s happiest employee.

I met Roz two years ago when I visited Las Vegas and requested a tour of Zappos.com headquarters in Henderson, Nevada. Zappos.com is consistently rated as one of the best places to work in the country and has built a reputation as the gold standard in customer service. I wanted to learn why so I could share the lessons with my readers. Roz showed up in a shuttle to pick me up from my hotel on the Vegas strip. I was the only one on the shuttle and Roz had no idea that I was writing a book. I soon learned that Roz picked up anyone who wanted to visit Zappos—vendors, journalists or customers.

“Why did you pick me up? I could have taken a cab,” I said. “Don’t be silly. We treat our customers like family,” Roz responded. “If you had a family member in town, wouldn’t you pick them up from the airport or hotel?” I thought Roz was the happiest shuttle bus driver I had ever seen. It’s what happened next that really surprised  me. Roz parked the shuttle, walked inside the building, and took her position behind the front desk. Roz was the receptionist, yet she gladly volunteers to pick up guests as well. “From the first day I walked in the door [February 22, 2005] I knew it was the place I was going to work for the rest of my life,” Roz told me.

Two years later, December 2012, Roz is still working at Zappos, happier and more passionate than ever.  One of her colleagues told me, “I’ve never seen Roz in a bad mood. As a matter of fact, the day I came to Zappos for my first interview, Roz was in her previous role as the front desk receptionist and she not only made me feel welcome, she made me feel like I was the most important visitor to the office that day—which I can guarantee you I wasn’t.”

Zappos.com is an independently run subsidiary of Amazon with nearly 1,300 employees. In September 2013, Zappos will relocate to its new headquarters in downtown Las Vegas. Roz has a new role that fits her perfectly—as a member of the downtown community team her primary function is to get to know every business owner downtown and to build relationships between Zappos and those businesses.

Here are five reasons why Zappos inspires Roz and hundreds of happy employees. 

Hire for cultural fit. Everyone I met at Zappos had a friendly, outgoing personality. From Roz to my tour guide, everyone exuded passion and enthusiasm (see the video below that I recorded with my smartphone).

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh told me that the company hires for cultural fit. For example, one of Zappos’ core values is to “create fun and a little weirdness.” Zappos managers ask potential employees, “On a scale of one to ten, how weird are you?” The number is not as important as how people react to it. Zappos looks for people who have fun, have passion and personality, and are committed to customer service.

“At Zappos, I’m allowed to be myself,” Roz told me. “I have a strong, bubbly personality. Zappos supports me and encourages me to be me all the time. At the company I worked at before, I couldn’t be as open and personable as I am today. At Zappos I stay at a level nine or ten all day long!”

Commit to transparency. Zappos shares everything with employees, partners, and vendors—the good and the bad. True partners don’t mask results and Zappos goes the extra mile to demonstrate transparency. Daily briefings and call statistics are posted on a whiteboard for everyone to see—employees and guests. Even its all-hands company meetings are publicly available. Here’s a link to the company meeting held in November 2012. If you have three hours, you can watch everything they discussed. It’s all there.

Everything is transparent at Zappos, even the CEO’s condo. Roz told me that as part of her new tour, she takes people to Tony Hsieh’s condo to see the view of downtown. The next time you think you’re a “transparent leader,” ask yourself if you’re willing to open up your home to anyone who asks for a free tour. Hsieh walks the walk.

Help employees grow. When I met Roz two years ago, she was a receptionist. Today she is building relationships as part of the company’s move to its new headquarters. Everyone is given the opportunity to grow at Zappos.com. I even met a “goal coach” whose job was to help employees meet their personal goals. “What does that have to do with selling shoes online?” I asked. “It has everything to do with Zappos,” the coach said. The formula is remarkably simple. If leaders help people achieve their dreams, it makes them happy. Happy employees offer better service.

Empower staff to do what’s right. Customers who call Zappos.com to order shoes or clothes will not feel pressured to get off the phone. There are no scripts or time limits for call-center employees. Hsieh once told me that an employee had spent a couple of hours on the phone with a customer. Hsieh did not ask the employee why she spent so much time with one person. Instead he asked, “Was the customer happy?” Brands that have best-in-class customer service empower their employees to do what’s in the best interest of the customer. Zappos.com views its call center employees as an extension of its marketing arm. Every unscripted conversation can help earn customer loyalty. Employees can even write personal thank you notes after a call. These simple notes make yet another emotional connection with Zappos customers.

Deliver happiness, not products. When I asked Tony Hsieh to describe Zappos.com he didn’t say “We sell shoes online.” Instead he said, “We deliver happiness.” Big difference. Hsieh is a student of happiness, literally. He quotes research into the science of happiness. He’s focused on the happiness of his employees and his customers. Leaders cannot expect their teams to deliver an exceptional customer service if they fail to understand happiness. Once you do, employees will speak about you the way Roz does of Hsieh: “Tony is an open book. He is still the same person I met eight years ago.  He is   very, very regular guy, funny and little weird, passionate, friendly, open and honest, inspiring and an incredible visionary.”

I talked to Roz recently and asked her if she was comfortable with the label, America’s happiest employee. “That’s interesting. In my previous role we chose nicknames for ourselves. Mine was Makena,” she said.

“Makena?” I asked.

“Yes. It means the happy one.”

Carmine Gallo is the communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. He is a popular keynote speaker and author of several books, including the international bestsellers The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. His new book, The Apple Experience,is the first book to reveal the secrets behind the stunning success of the Apple Retail Store. It has also been endorsed by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

 Carmine has recently launched an eLearning course titled, New Rules of Persuasive Presentations. Follow Carmine on Facebook or Twitter!

Our very own Tony Hsieh was recently featured on the "Pivot" series on A TOTAL DISRUPTION, two-time Sundance-winning director Ondi Timoner's YouTube channel that provides business and tech insights from the innovators defining our future.

In this video, Tony discusses how Zappos' pivot to focus on customer service and company culture has paid off—for both customers AND employees.

Last week in San Francisco, VERGE 2012 brought all sorts of technology and sustainability-focused professionals together to discuss the potential opportunities for technological advancements in energy, buildings and transportation.

Zappos’ very own CEO Tony Hsieh took center stage to deliver a stellar keynote address to hundreds of the professionals that attended the conference. His message was simple but packed full of inspiration: transform downtown Las Vegas into the “most community-focused large city in the world.” Tony highlighted the current efforts to bring technology, education, and small business development together in a way that creates “collisions, community and co-learning.”

Photo courtesy of Greenbiz.com

In Tony’s keynote address, there was also underlying messages of urban density, urban connectivity, and urban sustainability. By encouraging people, including Zappos employees, to move downtown, Tony hopes downtown Las Vegas will surpass 100 residents per acre: a population density that creates successful and sustainable cities. In Triumph of the City, a book that inspired Tony’s goal of revitalizing downtown Las Vegas, Edward Glaeser says, “The average suburban household consumes 27% more electricity than the average urban household.” The more residents that move and work downtown, the more our energy and resource consumption will decrease, as well as our carbon emissions from reduced car travel.  (Which the LEAF team couldn’t be more supportive of!)

In the fall of 2013, Zappos will move from the suburbs of Green Valley to the hustle and bustle of downtown Las Vegas. Modeled after NYU’s campus, our new home will blend with the surrounding neighborhoods and become part of the Las Vegas community.  We couldn’t be more excited for this new Zappos chapter!

FIRST A BOOK THEN THE BUS TOUR NOW…THE MOVEMENT!

Delivering Happiness started as a best-selling book, became a bus tour and turned into something bigger than ever imagined . . . a global movement.

We've heard from people representing 105 countries, crossing the lines of age, origin and background, telling us they're ready to make a difference in the world . . . through happiness.

In some ways it's not surprising since the truth is we all want to be happy. But the research shows we're not good at predicting what gives us lasting joy.

That's where Delivering Happiness comes in. Backed by science, academics and positive psychology, we're here to inspire and share ways to make happiness last.

Now you can help us spread the word and support the movement through our new DH Collection. With happiness as our higher purpose, we've put together a dream team to fashion the most comfy, stylish line of apparel—made in California and created to inspire (and be inspired by) happiness.

To celebrate our new line, 100% of the profits from all the DH Collection sales this year will go toward fueling the movement.

That means every purchase enables DH to put on more free classes that anyone in the world can take, more free events to inspire people to pursue their passions, and more talks to nonprofits, schools and companies about ways that everyone—no matter where they are in life—can start delivering happiness now.

With every purchase you not only help pay happiness forward—you feel good, knowing you're doing good. Together, we can make our communities, companies and cities happier places.

THE DH COLLECTION—APPAREL TOWARD A HAPPIER WORLD.

For more information: www.deliveringhappiness.com and facebook.com/deliveringhappiness.

Hello, World! I'm Tony, from Michigan (GO BLUE!!!), and I'm pumped to be interning for Zappos this summer.

Here's a photo of me with some of the other Z-Interns!

I'll spend my summer at Zappos coding with the search team in the Website Systems Department.  They're a crazy, tight-knit team that really embodies the company's work hard, play hard mentality.  Search work is both challenging and interesting.  The entire team is extremely supportive, making it a great environment to learn and grow as a computer science student, and as a person.  

This team reeks of Zappos culture. (It's a good smell. Everyone showers, I promise!) During the day we take breaks to crank out some push-ups.  At the end of a day of coding, we take time to challenge the other web systems teams to a game or two of Zing Zong: a Zappos mix of ping pong and volleyball.  The search team also tends to hang out together after work pretty often.  Even though this is a job, it's easier to think of my teammates as my big brothers, rather than co-workers.

Here's to a great summer!

Cheers,
Tony Ghita

WOW! Zappos’ culture is unparalleled. I’m still trying to take everything in while finding my place in the HR dynamic, yet I feel like I’ve been here forever. It’s a strange sense of belonging you only get after years of dedicated relationship building at a “normal” company.

On the first day of work, our trainer Kelly knew all of our names and the individuals in the class soon became a close-knit group. As we finished on-boarding and started in our respective departments, it was bittersweet not seeing my new friends all the time. However, it didn’t take long before I was fully immersed in my department and now I cannot imagine myself working anywhere else. Where else do you receive a Shakeweight™ on the first day??

Now I’m sure you are jealous and wondering “What department gives their employees amazing Shakeweights?” Well, I am the first HR intern! During the course of the next 11 weeks I will rotate through each department, starting with the P.E.A.C.E. team. Each day is filled with wish-granting adventures, decorating and event planning.

My overarching project is to pitch two charities for the fall season representing men’s and women’s cancer advocacy and resources. On the surface, the team looks fun and spirited—although this is true, working on this team showed me the hard work and dedication the team puts forth in making the best events possible for Zapponians. The biggest challenge I am currently facing is balancing the projects I am working on and all the fun activities going on in the company. For instance, I am working on developing a visual for the employees of the office to see the progress Zapponians are making in raising money for a charity project. But I’m getting distracted with things like blog posts, decorating desks, throwing Jolly Ranchers at people and sitting in on meetings. Zappos has a crazy way of making life easier and yet more challenging at the same time.

Challenge accepted!

--Michelle V.

The One and Only HR Intern

I'm in a bit of a dilemma as I write this post because we were asked to keep these blog posts brief, but we were also asked to discuss the Zappos culture, and if my two weeks here has taught me anything, it's that those are conflicting requests. Why, you ask? Because the culture is unlike that of any other company I have encountered. In our culture class yesterday–a course taken by new hires here at Zappos, we were asked to write a single word to describe the culture. My first reaction to this request was disappointment, because I knew that of all of the words in the dictionary, any single one would not be able to do the culture justice. I considered inventing a word; something like "AwesomeFunWelcomingJoytastic" may have worked, but in the spirit of the exercise, I set out to find a word that exists in real life.

Imagine a work environment where you feel like you are getting to know the people that you work with, and not just their drone-like at-work counterparts. That's Zappos, which is why the word I chose to describe the culture is "ORGANIC". Not only because the employees are encouraged to bring their personality, quirks and all, to work, but also because the culture itself evolved organically from the bottom-up. Since getting to Zappos, I have been trying to figure out how they managed to scale the start-up feel to a company of more than 5000 employees, but the answer is simple; it all comes from the employees being themselves, not being forced to conform to their environment, but rather allowing, and helping their environment to conform to them.

After onboarding last week, everyone was excited to branch off and see what they would be doing with their respective teams. I'm on the Zeta team for the summer here at Zappos. I'll spare you the details of the multi-page, diagramificated email that my superhero, Patrick sent me, but simply put, my team manages tons of code that keeps the website's gears in motion. Because continuing to write in paragraph form is frustrating me, I'll leave you with a list of totally awesome things I have experienced in my short two weeks here that I don't think I would have experienced at any other company:

1. The other tech interns and I had lunch with the CTO, Arun Rajan yesterday.

2. I have been encouraged, on multiple occasions to stop everything I am doing and play a game of Zing Zong–a super intense game that can only be described as a hybrid of ping pong, volleyball, and soccer (or fútbol, if that's your thing).

3. Every so often, in the middle of working, music begins to play and the search team, Patrick and I do push-ups.

4. As I was writing this post, Tony, the intern on the search team, turned on a laser machine he brought from home causing everyone to leap up in excitement telling him he can never turn it off.

5. We already experienced one of Tony Hsieh's legendary email messages that he talks about in Delivering Happiness.

6. Because I indicated that I like Swedish fish on a personality survey, I had 8 bags of Swedish fish waiting for me at my desk on my first day.

7. Last but not least....this:

Until next time,

-Luke