Amazon has been facing high levels of attrition as of late, and it is costing the company a vast $8 billion dollars per year. According to a report from The Verge, the information came from leaked documents.
Back in 2021, Amazon had trouble retaining employees. Two-thirds of the retail company's fresh hires did not last 90 days before they were laid off, fired, or quit. Based on the leaked internal research papers, slide decks, and spreadsheets, its employees are twice more likely to quit rather than be laid off or fired.
This is not limited to labor workers, but it goes as high up as vice presidents as well. The issue is looking rather dire, considering that the lowest attrition rate from one of their 10 tiers is at 70%, which is already a high bar, to begin with.
Reasons for Attrition
One of the reasons that Amazon employees chose to leave, is because they see very little to no possibility of being promoted. This case is especially true for hourly workers. Fresh college graduates with barely any experience are preferred by the company even if they are compared to experienced entry-level workers.
Another issue for the retail giant is its training program, which consists of approximately 97 programs and 2,000 learning modules. These over overseen by the Consumer Talent Strategy, Management, and Development (CTSMD) team. The CTSMD including contractors has soared to 615 employees, with a rate of around $90 million run-rate for 2022.
The problem with the CTSMD's programs is other than it not having key metrics that focus on the financial aspect, it also has no process to determine whether the training programs were effective in teaching its workers, as mentioned in Engadget.
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Not the Only Problem
The lack of promotional prospects and ineffective training is not the only problem for Amazon concerning its employees. There have been a lot of cases where workers complained about their working conditions and how they were being treated.
According to an article from Bloomberg, it was seen in a former employee's email that Amazon has questionable HR policies. For instance, all pay increases and stock vesting were paused when the employee is on parental or maternity leave.
Another example was when Patrick McGah, a drone engineer from Amazon who was also a father of two, was instructed to put his kids to bed at 9 and continue to work until 2 a.m. after an hour-long nap. This just shows how employees were overworked by their managers.
Employees have also criticized Amazon for handling layoffs, since it didn't inform employees who were at risk of being fired. Without early notice, the workers won't know when to work on improving their performance, or look for a job to land on once they were fired.
It's also a hard task to meet Amazon's standards as employees claim that they ask for too much. This includes making a rate by packing a hundred boxes per hour, and then losing the job if they don't move fast enough.
