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S t r a t e g i c H R M

ABOUT
AMAZON
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Am azo n In tr od u c tio n
Introduction

The company Amazon has been expanding its business from the
last of the nineteenth century in the both ways horizontally and
vertically in the whole world. The company is also identified as
one of the most problem facing companies among the recent
global scenario. The problems which have been identified are
related to the internal structure of the company. Unreasonably
high standards and expectation, over forthright leadership,
breeding unhealthy competition among the co- workers, in
sensitive management, favouring criticism over harmony, lack of
benefits, disregarding employees' need for work-life balance, lack
of praise and finally unfairly ranking system for the employees are
the major problem of the company.  The main human resource
problem of the company amazon is their employee retention
strategy and the over timing policy for the employees.
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Unreasonably high standards and
expectations

Some, especially those who

According to the report, the
defend of Amazon's high
company boasts a set of expectations, said those who
cannot handle the demands
standards that are deliberately
are simply not the right fit.
"unreasonably high." Though "This is a company that strives
to do really big, innovative,
devised with the intention of
groundbreaking things, and
developing top-tier talent, the those things aren't easy,"
Susan Harker, Amazon's top
unreachable expectations and
recruiter, told NYT. "When
pressure employees feel to you're shooting for the moon,
the nature of the work is really
meet them can cause
challenging. For some people it
doesn't work."
significant distress. Liz Pearce, who spent two
years at Amazon, told NYT,
"The pressure to deliver far
surpasses any other metric. I
would see people practically
combust."
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Overly forthright leadership

From its early years, Mr. Bezos

Mr. Bezos' management style
led Amazon to resist the forces
is largely influenced by his he thought fetter businesses
and limit potential:
borderline abrasive
"Bureaucracy, profligate
personality, including an spending and lack of rigor,"
according to the report. As a
"eagerness to tell others how
result, Mr. Bezos codified many
to behave; an instinct for of his counterintuitive
workplace ideas into a simple
bluntness bordering on
instruction manual called The
confrontation; and an Articles of Faith. These
guidelines help enlist and
overarching confidence in the
develop a brigade of elite
power of metrics," NYT wrote. workers. They also helped to
instill a need in employees to
constantly prove their worth,
outperform their colleagues
and even sabotage their
careers.
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Breeding unhealthy competition
among co-workers

Fundamental to Amazon's Many employees told NYT the

culture is transparency about Anytime Feedback Tool is used
who is a high-achiever and who for scheming. They revealed
is not. Employees are expected secret pacts with colleagues
to and often work long into the that were used to bury one
evening hours — emails that employee at the same time or
arrive after midnight are praise another. In many cases,
frequently followed by text criticism from the tool, though
messages asking for a prompt displayed anonymously, was
response. copied directly into employee
Employees are encouraged to performance reviews.
publicly rip apart their co- While "winners" might excel in
worker's ideas in meetings. their jobs, "losers" quit or are
Additionally, the Anytime fired in annual eliminations. This
Feedback Tool, a widget in the is the description of "purposeful
company directory that allows Darwinism," as one former
workers to send praise or Amazon human resources
complaints about their co- director told NYT.
workers to their bosses, is often
used to sabotage others. Since
team members are ranked, and
those with the lowest ranking
are fired, it is in each
individual's best interest to
outdo their teammates.
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Insensitive management

Employees who endured great Craig Berman, an Amazon

personal hardship — including spokesman, told NYT this type
cancer, miscarriages and other of response to employees'
personal crises — said they crises was "not our policy or
were unfairly judged or pushed practice," and "if we were to
out without sufficient time to become aware of anything like
recover and perform at their that, we would take swift
highest ability. action to correct it.
The mother of a stillborn child
told NYT, "I had just
experienced the most
devastating event in my life."
She was soon after informed
her performance would be
monitored "to make sure my
focus stayed on my job." She
soon left the company.
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Favoring criticism over harmony

One of Mr. Bezos' most We always want to arrive at

distinctive management beliefs the right answer," Tony
is that harmony in the Galbato, vice president for
workplace is often overvalued human resources, said in an
and suppresses honest email statement, according to
criticism, according to the the report. "It would certainly
report. Amazonians are told to be much easier and socially
instead "disagree and commit" cohesive to just compromise
(rule No. 13 of The Articles of and not debate, but that may
Faith), which can mean lead to the wrong decision."
delivering painfully blunt
feedback to colleagues before
agreeing on a decision..
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L a c k o f b e n e fi t s

Although successful midlevel

Unlike its tech peers such as
managers receive competitive
Google and Facebook, which salaries, other workers are
expected to demonstrate
motivate employees to
frugality (rule No. 9). This
prioritize personal wellness includes their bare-bones
desks, cellphones and travel
with gyms, meals and other
expenses, which they
special benefits "designed to frequently must cover
themselves. Instead,
take care of the whole you," as
employees are told to refine
Google describes it, Amazon their "customer obsession"
(rule No. 1), always striving to
does not give any hint that
satisfy customer demands.
catering to employees is a Amazon requires new workers
to repay part of their signing
priority.
bonus if they quit before a
year's time, and a portion of
their relocation fees if they
leave within two years,
according to the report.
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Disregarding employees' need
for work-life balance

Some former Amazonians said Thanksgiving, and face

criticism from superiors for
nurturing bosses or relatively poor Internet connection while
slow divisions shielded them on vacation Another employee
said her fiancé was so
from unmanageable pressures, concerned about her working
but many others said the nonstop that he would drive to
the Amazon campus at 10 p.m.
culture encouraged them to and call her cellphone until she
erase work-life boundaries. For agreed to go home for the
night. During a vacation to
instance, employees often Florida, she used the free
spend hours working from Internet at Starbucks every
day to work, according to the
home at nights and on the report.
weekend. They could be
required to attend conference
calls on Easter Sunday and.
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Lack of praise

Employees said in interviews David Loftesness, a senior

developer, told NYT he
with NYT they felt their work at admired everyone's drive but
Amazon was never done or couldn't tolerate the hostile
language used in meetings. He
good enough. Noelle Barnes, eventually quit and is now a
who worked in a marketing role director of engineering at
Twitter.
at Amazon for nine years, said
a repeated saying around
campus was, "Amazon is
where overachievers go to feel
bad about themselves."
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