The HR leaders at these companies told me explicitly that this policy, while good for financial results, made it increasingly difficult to hire. Aerospace contractors are famous for layoffs whenever they lose a large contract (other companies also operate this way). (To say nothing of the union issue.)Īs I write about extensively in my book Irresistible, companies that operate this way underperform over time. Not only is it hard for the company to grow, high turnover damages the company’s employment brand and it becomes harder and harder to hire. I can’t see how this is a good business strategy, yet the company still operates this way.Īs the article points out, many internal Amazon folks have figured out that this is a death-spiral strategy. Imagine the hiring, onboarding, and training costs this creates. While I can’t speak for the entire company, I have talked with warehouse managers who told me the turnover is sometimes over 200% (every job churns twice each year). As a result, the company brutally penalizes employees for low performance, forcing a turnover rate over 100% in many areas. In other words, Jeff Bezos deliberately wanted employees to leave every year. Well if you read the article (and this is consistent with stories we hear from Amazon employees), the company built a talent model designed for turnover. According to internal Amazon reports, the company is “running out of people to hire.” What’s going on here? Vox just published a pretty amazing story. So while some of the over-funded tech companies (and Crypto) companies are laying people off, they’re in the minority.īut to be more specific, let me highlight what’s going on at Amazon (the country’s second-largest employer.)Īmazon Reports They Are Running Out Of Workers In other words, companies are hiring.ĮMSI believes there are 14.9 million jobs open (almost one in ten) and that we have 17% more jobs open now than a year ago. This week’s BLS study shows that the US unemployment rate remains very low at 3.6% and is 2.2% lower than a year ago. Despite the biting headlines about the stock market correction and possible economic slowdown, one thing is very clear.

Amazon issues