Amazon's employee turnover could cost it up to $8 billion a year

According to foreign media reports, Amazon's exaggerated employee turnover rate has always been the focus of attention. Before the outbreak of the epidemic, Amazon's annual employee turnover rate was as high as 100% , more than twice the industry average.

Recently, a leaked internal document from Amazon confirmed its high employee turnover rate and the associated costs. According to the report, Amazon's various operating departments experience high levels of natural attrition, which is costing the retail giant and its shareholders an estimated $8 billion per year in total.

The report noted that only a third of new employees in 2021 worked at Amazon for more than 90 days , and this was true for all levels (level 1 to level 10 employees), indicating that Amazon has serious employee retention problems.

It is reported that the main reason for Amazon's leadership employees to resign is for career development and promotion. The document shows that Amazon does not have a complete system for training and promoting employees.

Another study showed that in 2021, workers in Amazon's U.S. warehouses suffered serious injuries at twice the rate of other companies in the industry, with 6.8 out of every 100 Amazon warehouse workers suffering serious injuries.

The Center for Strategic Organizing said that rate is more than double that of other employers in the warehousing industry, where the average is 3.3 serious injuries per 100 workers. The report shows that in 2021, Amazon employed nearly a third of warehouse workers in the United States, but nearly half of the workplace injuries in the warehouse industry occurred in Amazon warehouses.

“Amazon’s hiring practices, productivity quotas, attendance policies, and unequal rules are the main reasons for the lack of job security, which is the main culprit for Amazon’s high turnover rate,” said an Amazon worker in Campbellsville, Kentucky, who is trying to organize a union at the warehouse.

However, since last year, Amazon has introduced some safety measures, such as body mechanics training, and in January this year, Amazon disclosed that it spent $300 million in 2021 to improve worker safety.

In addition, Amazon has launched a series of health programs, which are expected to reduce the accident rate by 50% by 2025. In order to provide its employees with better education and training, Amazon plans to pay for college tuition and textbooks for more than 750,000 front-line employees in the United States.

On the other hand, Amazon’s latest third-quarter revenue did not meet expectations, causing its stock price to plummet. It remains to be seen how this retail giant will make adjustments in the future.

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Employee turnover