Amazon employees over 100,000 people and have presence in over 18 countries around the globe. Jeff Bezos the founder and CEO of Amazon believe strongly that if the organization takes care of its employees, the employees will take care of the customers. Based on the said notion, Amazon spends a good amount of time and resources in creating an environment and learning and growth for its employees.
In order to design the process for development of learning and talent, the company exercises Training need analysis. As a part of training need analysis, company first creates a required set of skills ideally required for the job. This exercise of skill analysis helps the company in setting up a benchmark for designing the training module for the employees (Burke & Noumair, 2015).
Further, the company assesses the present skills of the employees, and based on the skills required for the job, the company identifies the required set of skills to be acquired by an individual to excel at his job. Hence, the gap of Present skills and skill required constitute the training module for the employees at Amazon.
The company after creating a training module and a calendar for its employees creates a training plan for them. The training plan specifies the training time, day and the trainer along with the name of the module for the training exercise. Besides creating a training environment Amazon also assigns buddies and line managers to employees to ensure that they get their on the job training. The purpose of the trainers is to develop the skill set of the employees and make them ready for the current market scenario (Koole, 2009). This exercise is helpful not only for the professional development of the employees, but according to the Hertzberg theory it also creates motivation factors for the employees. This intrinsic motivation then helps them to work with enhanced productivity to reach the goals of the organization. Thus, implementation of learning and development is both beneficial for the growth of the employees as well the organization (Gast & Van Dam, 2016).
After providing the training the next logical step is to assess and evaluate the result of the training process which contributes to the learning and development of the organization. Amazon has a couple of methods by which it evaluates the training impact on the employees:
Simulation Exercise- Based on the training given to the employees, Amazon assess their performance by exposing them to various simulation exercise created in accordance with the present business case scenario. This helps them in assessing how fairly the employee has understood the concept taught to them in the training (Rover, 2014).
Feedback, reflection and Surveys-Feedback and surveys are another method to evaluate the impact of learning and development. Employees are asked to take in surveys, fill in the feedback forms and take a reflection to document their learning form the training. Moreover, the company evaluates their performance for at least a couple of month and give them feedback on their performance and a performance development plan if needed (Chinnery, 2006).
The global employment market is changing rapidly, due to the rapid proliferation of technology which has led to the rise in the number of unconventional industries in the business ecosystem. E-commerce has been the buzzword for over a decade, which requires employees with relevant skills to exist in such challenging and dynamic industry (Wojcik, 2018).
Millennial (18-35 Years) are the drivers of the e-commerce industry at present, this is the segment of people which is making the organization to create policies and procedures around them. Due to the rapidly changing business environment, some of the impacts on Amazon are:
Increasing turnover in the organization- Amazon in the initial years suffered mostly because of the employee turnover, employees in the present day find it easy to switch jobs because of their skill sets. Social media has been a big contributing factor for this impact; it has become easier for employees to know about the various opening in other companies by use of social media, in lure of even small salary bracket (Baum, 2015).
Flexibility in Jobs- Full time jobs are being replaced by flexible jobs in the present day business situation. Global employment market has made it easier for the employees and given them the option of flexibility rather than spending 8-9 hours of a day in their office spaces. This high flexibility is giving Amazon sleepless nights as employees want more work life balance from their jobs (Charter, 2017).
Growth of tech companies-Tech companies in the last decade has increased by more than 25% around the world; this has been in the form of small setup, or start-ups, diversification of business and so on. Every company wants to leverage the growth in technology and want to have a share in the increasing market size (Piercy, 2016). This has pushed employees to sharpen their technical skills and undergo technical learning other than the core departmental jobs like marketing, finance, operation and even manufacturing. Thus, due to this changing paradigm shift towards the tech, Amazon finds it difficult to get top talent for its mainstream departments (Brooks, 2016).
Employee resourcing can be understood as the part of Personnel and development which focuses on the recruitment and release of the employees from organizations as well as the management of their performance and potential while being employed by the organization. Resourcing and talent management is the practice of ensuring that the organization is able to retain and attract the top talents in order to create a competitive advantage, and also to ensure that the resources meet the growing needs of the organization. Some of the contemporary approach in doing so is:
Leadership development plan-By the virtue of 360 degree performance management system, organization is able to identify the budding talent in the organization. These employees are then relived of their existing job duties and are considered for training in leadership and development program. The highly comprehensive program of leadership ensures that the employees sharpen their existing skills and acquire new ones for advanced, global or bigger roles in the organization (Certo, 2018).
Linked-In as the Professional Network- Linked in is the largest social network for professionals. Business managers have identified the role of Linked in in their development and are using the platform to strengthen their contacts in the industry and build communities of like-minded professional on the Platform. Amazon is always looking out for top talent in the industry, people who have good experience, the right skill set and attitude, and have high organizational fit are easily found on this humongous platform and thus being approached by the organization, as a step to attract top talent(Cascio, 2018).
Using Motivation as the Tool- Once the organization figure out the talent in the organization, they do everything to retain him and train him to achieve a competitive advantage. Motivation is extremely useful in influencing the employee. Maslow theory of motivation implies that every person has inherent needs and according to the needs one has to be motivated. It is essential for the organization to understand the level at which the employee is standing to motivate him and make him work with enhanced productivity in bigger roles for the company. For example, the person might be standing on the self- esteem needs, and organization has to push him to self-actualization need by motivating him (Greene & Kirton, 2015).
Work of Peter Senge in the vision of a learning organization has been extremely influential as a group of people who are continually working to enhance their capabilities to create what they actually want to create is of great importance.
Peter Senge defined learning organization as a place where people are working continuously to expand their capacity to create the result they truly deserve and desire in an environment which is nurturing new thinking patterns and people are collectively learning to see the whole together. The underlying rationale of the theory is that only flexible, highly adaptive and productive people will sustain in the organization (Senge, 2014).
It can be understood as the theoretical integration of the parts of the organization with the issues in the organization. The view point of system thinking is targeted towards a long term approach for the organization.
Organization learns only through its employees who learn on their own. Personally mastery thus can be understood as the discipline of continuously clarify and clearing ones vision in order to focus the energy to develop patience and see the reality objectively (Simonin, 2017).
Mental model metaphorically is turning the mirror inwards, it is the ability to carry the learning process and balance it with the inquiry and advocacy, so that people can think effectively and open up their thinking to influence others.
Leaders in the past have been seen to work alone on their mission, however, in the present this has been changed to the concept of shared vision. Like minded leaders and high performing employees come together and create a shared vision and work together to achieve the vision (Baldwin, 2016).
Team learning is an extension that people beyond the scope of Personal mastery and shared vision have to work together in order to learn together. Working in teams helps in learning better for individual team members and creates a culture which promotes team learning, which is the foundation of enhanced productivity.
Amazon is highly employee centric in its approach; it believes that employees are the asset which contributes to the succession of any organization. The process of resourcing employees at employees is:
Amazon uses HR analytics to predict the behaviour of its employees. The HR team uses data analytics to analyse the behaviour of the employees on social media. This helps them in understanding what are the employees doing online, which industries and job roles they are looking for. The skill sets they are looking to learn on the internet and so on, this helps the company in identifying if a talent is about to leave the organization. This technique is based on strong facts and according the employee can be moved to a different department in which he is actually interested and also use motivation technique to retain him in the organization (Liu & Hong, 2016).
It can be said that at Amazon three generations are working together, Amazon uses this at its advantage and tries to team up a senior member with a junior employee. This helps in transferring the skills and the junior level employee gets to learn from the experience of the senior person. Besides this, Amazon keeps its employees engaged most of the time, through its weekly contest, innovative practices, learning and development program, social media posts, feedback session, team building activities and more. This high level of engagement ensures that the employees are occupied with the company and are motivated to work and deliver enhanced results for the organization (Dolata, 2017).
Social and mobile marketing is playing a key role in resourcing the employees. It is more than expected that majority of working population at Amazon is comprised of millennial, who are always consuming information over social and on the go. The company effectively uses the platform for employee and employer branding .Employee feels valued if they are appreciated on Social media, Amazon does that effectively by praising their employees on the high engagement platform. In addition to this, Amazon also ensures that it uses the tool to make the employees believe in the values of the company and resonate with it. Thus, the high influence of social media and mobile marketing is one of the biggest resourcing strategies at the company (Rossman, 2016).
Jeff Bezos has transformational style of leadership, which implies that he transpires and translates the vision for Amazon as culture of the organization. Besides this, Transformational style of leadership implies that employees are highly involved in decision making and in change management. The employee thus become an important component of change management when they realize that organization values their feedback and involves them in the process. This gives them a sense of empowerment, which in turn is the resourcing strategy of the company (Fernandez, 2017)
References
Baldwin, M., 2016. Critical reflection: Opportunities and threats to professional learning and service development in social work organizations. In Social work, critical reflection and the learning organization (pp. 51-66). Routledge.
Baum, T., 2015. Human resources in tourism: Still waiting for change?–A 2015 reprise. Tourism Management, 50, pp.204-212.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brooks, A., 2016. Gendered work in Asian cities: The new economy and changing labour markets. Routledge.
Burke, W.W. and Noumair, D.A., 2015. Organization development: A process of learning and changing. Pearson Education.
Cascio, W., 2018. Managing human resources. McGraw-Hill Education.
Certo, S.C., 2018. Supervision: Concepts and skill-building. McGraw-Hill Education.
Charter, M. ed., 2017. Greener marketing: A responsible approach to business. Routledge.
Chinnery, G.M., 2006. Emerging technologies. Going to the mall: mobile assisted language learning. Language learning & technology, 10(1), pp.9-16.
Dolata, U., 2017. Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft: Market concentration-competition-innovation strategies (No. 2017-01). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Organisations-und Innovationsforschung, SOI Discussion Paper.
Fernandez, M.M., 2017. What Is the Relationship Between Conflict Management and Employee Empowerment? A Message Design Logic Perspective and its Importance for Managers and Supervisors (Doctoral dissertation, Rochester Institute of Technology).
Gast, A. and Van Dam, N., 2016. Learning at the Speed of Business. McKinsey Quarterly, (2), pp.115-121.
Greene, A.M. and Kirton, G., 2015. The dynamics of managing diversity: A critical approach. Routledge.
Koole, M.L., 2009. A model for framing mobile learning. Mobile learning: Transforming the delivery of education and training, 1(2), pp.25-47.
Lauricella, A.R., Blackwell, C.K. and Wartella, E., 2017. The “New” technology environment: The role of content and context on learning and development from mobile media. In Media exposure during infancy and early childhood (pp. 1-23). Springer, Cham.
Liu, C. and Hong, J., 2016. Strategies and service innovations of Haitao business in the Chinese market: A comparative case study of Amazon. cn vs Gmarket. co. kr. Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 10(1), pp.101-121.
Piercy, N.F., 2016. Market-led strategic change: Transforming the process of going to market. Taylor & Francis.
Rossman, J., 2016. The Amazon Way on Iot: 10 Principles for Every Leader from the World’s Leading Internet of Things Strategies (Vol. 2). Clyde Hill Publishing.
Röver, C., 2014. Testing ESL pragmatics: Development and validation of a web-based assessment battery. Peter Lang.
Senge, P.M., 2014. The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. Crown Business.
Simonin, B.L., 2017. N-loop learning: part II–an empirical investigation. The Learning Organization, 24(4), pp.202-214.
Wojcik, D., 2018. The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography. Oxford University Press.
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