Engadget reports that Amazon "is experiencing high levels of attrition (regretted and unregretted) across all levels, totaling an estimated $8 billion annually."
According to the story, ";'Regretted attrition' – that is, workers choosing to leave the company – 'occurs twice as often as unregretted attrition' – people being laid off or fired – 'across all levels and businesses,' according to this research. The paper, published in January of 2022, states that the prior year's data 'indicates regretted attrition [represents] a low of 69.5% to a high of 81.3% across all levels (Tier 1 through Level 10 employees) suggesting a distinct retention issue.' By way of explanation, Tier 1 would include entry-level roles like the company’s thousands of warehouse associates, while a vice president would be positioned at Level 10. It also notes that 'only one out of three new hires in 2021' stay with the company for 90 or more days.
The story says that "the documents, which include several internal research papers, slide decks and spreadsheets, paint a bleak picture of Amazon’s ability to retain employees, and how the current strategy may be financially harmful to the organization as a whole. They also broadly condemn Amazon for not adequately using or tracking data in its efforts to train and promote employees, an ironic shortcoming for a company which has a reputation for obsessively harvesting consumer information. These documents were provided to Engadget by a source who believes these gaps in accounting represent a lack of internal controls."
The documents are part of a "tranche … marked 'Amazon Confidential' provided to Engadget and not previously reported on."
Engadget also writes:
"Amazon repeatedly declined to answer specific questions related to these documents. Reached for comment, a spokesperson wrote: 'As a company, we recognize that it’s our employees who contribute daily to our success and that’s why we’re always evaluating how we’re doing and ways we can improve. Attrition is something all employers face, but we want to do everything we can to make Amazon an employer of choice. This is accomplished through offering good pay, comprehensive benefits, a safe workplace, and robust training and educational opportunities that are effective, yet always improving.' Amazon also declined to confirm or deny any of the specific claims or figures made in the documents, instead generalizing that internal documents are sometimes 'rejected due to lack of reliable data, or are modified with corrected information' without indicating if that was the case here."
The entire Engadget story can be read here.
Subsequently, Forbes elicited a response from Amazon and reports:
"'We weren’t afforded the opportunity to review the draft documents cited in the Engadget article,' Steve Kelly, an Amazon spokesperson, said via email.
'That said, they are most certainly early drafts that weren’t appropriately refined or vetted, let alone finalized. Basing articles on unverified documents - without knowing when they were written, if they were validated, or if they were later corrected – can be misleading, as is the case with the Engadget article'.
"Amazon has a rigorous document review process - oftentimes documents never make it past the draft stage, are rejected due to lack of reliable data, or are modified with corrected information,' Amazon said in a statement.
'After the Engadget article published, we believe we were able to identify all of the leaked documents in question and can confirm that none them had been fully vetted or approved,' Amazon said."
Maybe not "fully vetted or approved."
But not necessarily inaccurate.
And certainly an Eye-Opener.
