In the rapidly evolving world of business, Amazon stands out not just for its innovation and customer-centric approach but also for its commitment to employee development. At the heart of this commitment lies a comprehensive suite of programs designed to nurture talent, foster continuous learning, and support career growth. From leadership development initiatives to mentorship programs and specialised training, Amazon invests heavily in the growth and well-being of its employees.
Rajeev Sharma, Amazon's Director Talent Acquisition, shared insights into the company's unique approach to employee development with All Things Talent. Rajeev highlighted successful programs such as Pinnacle, Catapult, and the Amazon Mentoring Program. He also explained how these initiatives empower employees to reach their full potential and contribute significantly to Amazon's success.
How do Amazon’s initiatives such as Global Month of Volunteering contribute to fostering stronger community ties within the organisation?
Global Month of Volunteering (GMV) is a cornerstone of our community impact initiatives demonstrating our commitment to being responsible corporate citizens. Volunteering at Amazon goes beyond the periphery of a typical job and encourages employees to contribute meaningfully to causes they care about. This fosters personal growth and brings a sense of pride in being associated with a company that values social responsibility. Such activities also help promote team building that creates a ripple effect ensuring that we move towards inclusive, equitable, and sustainable workplaces and society in India. While GMV lasts for a month, its impact transcends beyond boundaries with a long-lasting effect that instills a sense of fulfilment beyond daily life. This year, we saw a record participation of over 70K Amazon Employees including corporate employees and associates in India, an increase of 100% YoY, underlining the company’s deep commitment to create impact and engage with the communities.
This year, we mobilised our volunteering network through Tiny Treats, Transform a School, Cricket match with the visually impaired to promote inclusivity, volunteering activity with people with disabilities (PwDs) at the Amazon-supported Global Resource Centre that has been instrumental in skilling and providing dignified jobs to 6000 PwDs. Our top leadership is deeply engaged in our volunteering initiatives, setting an example that volunteering is not an activity for us but is deeply embedded in our culture. With a mission to educate, inspire, and connect, Amazon.in has created over 400 volunteering opportunities across India, partnering with more than 55 non-profit organisations who enable and guide Amazonians engage in activities in a more meaningful way.
Amazon consistently receives high ratings, beyond 4 in areas such as company culture, compensation, and work-life balance on employee feedback platforms like Ambition Box. You’ve also been one of the top-rated companies for women as well. What specific practices or policies does Amazon employ that gets it consistent positive feedback from its employees?
At Amazon, we strive to build a workplace for our Amazonians that helps them invent on behalf of our customers. We believe in hiring and developing the best builders and innovators from all backgrounds. This helps ensure they are drawn to our mission, culture, and leaders. Our sixteen Leadership Principles (LPs) form the backbone and are the living embodiment of our culture, regardless of job role or geographic location. We are guided by the LPs every day, whether we’re discussing ideas for new projects or deciding on the best way to solve a problem. It’s just one of the things that makes Amazon peculiar.
We provide ways of working that align with our employees’ life stages and personal priorities. Whether our employees are starting their careers, moving over from, or returning to work, we understand work is an important and necessary part of their lives. For us, what matters the most is their time, with their family, and friends. Our motto is ‘working hard, making history, while having fun’. We work relentlessly to define products and programs that enable us to objectively identify top talent and ensure that we provide crucible experiences to our talent for them to be the best version of themselves. We double down on things that matter most to our employees and their communities: mental health and well-being, diversity, equity, inclusion, and upskilling.
Besides competitive compensation and benefits including health care coverage, holistic wellness support, family building etc., Amazon invests heavily in career development and training programs of its employees.
We provide different offerings to cater to the needs of our diverse workforce. For example, Amazon invests in developing women professionals through leadership development programs, and mentorship programs to help them navigate their careers.
- Pinnacle is a leadership development program for high-performing women at Amazon aimed at building an internal pipeline of diversity leadership for the future.
- Catapult was launched in partnership with Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning.
- Amazon Catalyst Program enables Amazon women leaders to leverage the knowledge, experience, learnings and guidance of senior Amazon leaders via 1:1 mentoring to accelerate their growth and professional development.
- Power of 10 is a mentorship program where women group in batches of 10 attend a session that is facilitated by senior mentors (assigned based on their expertise and interest in the selected topics). Once women graduate from this program, in the next phase of ‘Power of 10’, the mentees become mentors so women learn and pay it forward.
- ParentEx program to enhance the experience of new parents. For new or working mothers, Amazon actively promotes work-life harmony via its various inclusive policies and programs like flexible work schedules, reduced work hours, 26 weeks of maternity leave, and facilities like a mother’s room in our offices.
Our commitment to equality stems across all communities of talent including focused efforts around women, LGBTQIA+, military veterans, and people with disabilities, amongst others. Amazon has created opportunities throughout its network, empowered individuals with financial independence, and helped them realise their true potential. At Amazon, we have affinity groups – Glamazon (LGBTQIA+), Warriors at Amazon (Military veterans), Women at Amazon, Women in Engineering, and Amazon People with Disabilities. These affinity groups are essentially employee resource and support group communities that have helped many employees share experiences, offer support, and organize events through healthy discussions and forums.
We use Amazon Connections, an innovative program that helps employees provide continuous feedback confidentially. By asking employees quick questions daily, Connections leverages real-time information to learn more about their experiences and introduce positive changes. We develop a variety of engagement, feedback, and remediation mechanisms that help us continually improve our work experience basis the inputs we receive via Connections. Our goal is to help develop leaders who earn trust, remove barriers to excellence, and make Amazon an inspiring place of work.
How have initiatives like SignAble and the provision of Mental Health Support for the children of Amazon employees impacted the overall well-being and satisfaction of Amazon's workforce?
At Amazon, we always work backward from the employee base and come up with policies and processes that find favor with them and align with the wellness roadmap of the organisation. This is reflected in the deployment of SignAble which helped in several touchpoints with DHH associates in our fulfilment centres. For example, standups, training, and other operational updates in our fulfilment centers are done using SignAble benefitting DHH associates. This has also enabled us to have coaching conversations or discussions on support/help for the associate without worrying about the knowledge of sign-language or the presence of an interpreter. Consistent use of this tool has also enabled managers and leaders to learn sign language beyond basic words which brings higher commitment from the associate groups, as they see their leadership making efforts to communicate with them.
Our Pediatric Care Program provides Amazon corporate employees with free mental health support for their children. It’s counselling and coaching program is designed to help Amazon families navigate challenging times. The service builds on our existing mental health benefits and is delivered in partnership with our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) partner. This specialised support addresses a wide range of behavioural health needs, including Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), anxiety, depression, trauma, and more.
Peer-Reviewed Hires: Amazon’s Innovative Hiring Policy
Amazon has a peculiar culture and we maintain a high bar when interviewing and follow a comprehensive interview process where the candidate is evaluated not just by their future peers, but also by other stakeholders of the role. Our interviewer panel is diverse, focuses on data-driven decision-making, and is equipped with tools like bias buster mechanisms, Bar Raiser, who works as an objective third party in the interview loop to ensure a hire has long-term potential at Amazon with 3 primary responsibilities - Interview, drive decisions, teach and mentor.
Based on the role and level, we first deploy assessments to test functional/technical skills for the role, before inviting the candidate to an on-site interview process. Our interviews evaluate the candidate for technical competence and assess their experience based on Amazon’s leadership principles. The process is intentionally designed to ensure we hire candidates who would thrive at Amazon and are better than 50% of the incumbents in the role and level. This thorough hiring process ensures that we minimise any process bias and have a well-rounded approach to hiring. We work relentlessly to provide a frustration-free experience for our candidates and aid them with resources to prepare for the interview process, all made available under one tool.
Candidate feedback is equally important for us. We make continuous improvements to enhance our hiring practices. For example: how we prepare candidates, continuous touch points with the candidates through and timelines to provide a best-in-class candidate experience.
What initiatives have been launched to provide skills training to employees? What insights into employee needs drive the development of L&D programs?
Nurturing talent and fostering skill development is at the core of Amazon values. We believe that our employees are our most valuable assets, and we are dedicated to provide them with the resources and opportunities they need to thrive and grow in their careers. We focus on the importance of learning through “Learn and Be Curious” leadership principle. We ensure that candidates and employees spend time in learning on the job and asking questions to help their development.
Amazon offers a wide bouquet of training opportunities ranging from classroom leader led sessions to self-service trainings where employees can self-enroll and learn basis their individual career aspirations and learning needs. Being a transparent organisation, we believe that employees can choose their own career path. Amazon’s slate of programs and opportunities meets the changing needs of employees while propelling their career growth. Through the entire employee life cycle, we ensure they have access to resources to aid their training and development. We have various e-learning modules available for employees across levels, about their job roles, which they can go through at their convenience in a self-paced manner.
We offer various avenues for growth and development with programs like Atlas which provides opportunities for employees to transition from non-tech to tech roles. Machine Learning University provides our tech employees with opportunities to learn about and apply machine learning concepts. ML Gurukul aims to educate SDEs on fundamental ML concepts and techniques to enable them to frame ML problems and identify appropriate modeling techniques to solve business problems. Some of the other programs we offer are:
- Amazon Mentoring Program (AMP): AMP is available to every Amazon employee and connects prospective mentees to mentors, provides structure to their relationships, creates opportunities for skill building, and helps people grow their network inside Amazon.
- Amazon Career Rotation: The Career Rotation Program is aimed at upskilling, developing, and providing career support to all Amazon India Talent Acquisition employees who aspire to learn new skills or build competencies for a new role. In this program, employees can take temporary assignment(s) to learn the role across teams to become proficient in the competencies and skills in a hands-on manner. It equips participants to own their development and explore challenging assignments beyond their work.
- Dynamic Leadership series: This initiative aims to elevate the skills of all people managers within the Amazon India Talent Acquisition team so that they can set up teams, and as a result, themselves, for success.
Rajeev is an HR professional with over 22 years of experience in strategic HR leadership roles across APAC. He leads a team managing Amazon’s global recruitment cycle, with expertise in crafting recruitment strategies, partnering with C-level executives, and leading diverse teams. Rajeev holds a Master’s in Computer Application and certifications in Transformational Leadership and Employment Law from XLRI. He has worked with Barclays, BNY Mellon, Bank of America, and is currently the Director of Talent Acquisition at Amazon, focusing on HR leadership.
