Human Resource Management - Amazon

This article discusses the design, implementation and evaluation process for the development of learning and talent at Amazon. It also evaluates the impact of changing global employment market on the organization and contemporary approaches for employee resourcing and talent management. The article also analyzes the process of resourcing employees at Amazon.

Running Head: Human Resource Management
Amazon
Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management P a g e | 1
Table of Content
Task 1..........................................................................................................3
1- Identify and evaluate the design, implementation and evaluation
Process for the development of Learning and Talent.................................3
Design Process.........................................................................................3
Implementation of Learning and Development.......................................3
Evaluation of Learning and Development...............................................4
2-Impact of changing global employment market on the organization......4
Increasing turnover in the organization..................................................5
Flexibility in Jobs-....................................................................................5
Growth of tech companies.......................................................................5
3-Evaluate Contemporary approach for Employee resourcing and Talent
Management...............................................................................................5
Leadership development plan..................................................................5
Linked-In as the Professional Network....................................................6
Using Motivation as the Tool...................................................................6
Task 2..........................................................................................................7
1-Identify and evaluate a range of theories and practices in learning and
talent development.....................................................................................7
Learning Organizations..............................................................................7
System Thinking......................................................................................7
Personal Mastery.....................................................................................7

Human Resource Management P a g e | 2
Mental Models.........................................................................................7
Creating shared vision.............................................................................8
Team Learning.........................................................................................8
2-Analyse the Process of Resourcing Employees.......................................8
Predicting outcome through HR Analytics..............................................8
Developing an Engaged Workforce.........................................................8
Influence of Social and Mobile................................................................9
Employee Empowerment.........................................................................9
References................................................................................................10

Human Resource Management P a g e | 3
Task 1
1- Identify and evaluate the design, implementation and
evaluation Process for the development of Learning and
Talent
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.
Design Process
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).
(Source: Lauricella, Blackwell & Wartella, 2017)

Human Resource Management P a g e | 4
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.
Implementation of Learning and Development
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).
Evaluation of Learning and Development
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).

Human Resource Management P a g e | 5
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).
2-Impact of changing global employment market on the
organization
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

Human Resource Management P a g e | 6
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).
3-Evaluate Contemporary approach for Employee resourcing and
Talent Management
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

Human Resource Management P a g e | 7
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).
(Source: Bratton & Gold, 2017)
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

Human Resource Management P a g e | 8
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).
Task 2
1-Identify and evaluate a range of theories and practices in
learning and talent development
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.
Learning Organizations
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).
System Thinking
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.

Human Resource Management P a g e | 9
Personal Mastery
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 Models
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.
Creating shared vision
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
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.
2-Analyse the Process of Resourcing Employees
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:

Human Resource Management P a g e | 10
Predicting outcome through HR Analytics
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).
Developing an Engaged Workforce
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).
Influence of Social and Mobile
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

Human Resource Management P a g e | 11
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).
Employee Empowerment
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.

Human Resource Management P a g e | 12
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.

Human Resource Management P a g e | 13
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.

Human Resource Management P a g e | 14