Evaluating Talent Management Strategies: Amazon Case Study Report

This report examines the talent management strategies employed by Amazon, a leading technology company. The research begins with an introduction outlining the aims and objectives, which include analyzing talent management concepts, identifying challenges in employee retention, and evaluating Amazon's strategies. The report details the project management plan, including cost estimation, scope definition, quality assurance, resource allocation, and risk management. It also incorporates a Gantt chart and work breakdown structure to illustrate project timelines and task organization. The methodology section describes the research approach, including the use of surveys, a deductive approach, and positivism philosophy for data collection and analysis. Both primary and secondary data sources are utilized. The report includes a literature review covering talent management concepts, challenges in retaining employees, and strategies for employee management. The report presents a data analysis, conclusions, and recommendations for improving Amazon's talent management practices, with a focus on enhancing employee satisfaction and retention. Task B includes performance review, Task C covered in PPT and Task D includes Project Log Book and finally the report concludes with references.

Managing a Successful
Business Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK A...........................................................................................................................................3
Aims & objectives of research...............................................................................................3
Prepare Project management plan for research......................................................................4
Gantt chart and work breakdown structure ..........................................................................5
Methodology...........................................................................................................................7
Evidence of primary and Secondary research:.......................................................................8
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................9
Data analysis along with conclusion and recommendations................................................11
Conclusion and Recommendation .......................................................................................17
Recommendations...............................................................................................................17
TASK B.........................................................................................................................................17
Performance review..............................................................................................................17
TASK C.........................................................................................................................................19
Covered in PPT ....................................................................................................................19
TASK D.........................................................................................................................................19
Project Log Book .................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................22

INTRODUCTION
Talent management is a basic process that is related with identification of vacant
position, hiring of suitable individuals, development of skills & expertise to match the position in
a organisation further retaining talented employees to achieve the long term objectives. It is a
basic process that starts with several steps starting from planning and ending with transition of
employees. It is accompanied with organisation strategies & performance outcomes. Presently
the research report is based on evaluating the different talent-management strategies that are
adopted by Amazon which is a American multinational technology brand based in Washington
they are focussing on cloud computing, e commerce, artificial intelligence and digital streaming
aspects. It was founded by Jeff Bezos in year 1994 started as a online marketplace for books but
expanded to other segment that includes software, apparel, furniture, jewellery & many such
products (Krishnan and Scullion, 2017). The research report is based on covering of different
aspects that includes formation of aims and objectives, research methodologies, project
management plan, further there is collection of information from primary and secondary sources
in order to achieve the laid aims and objectives.
TASK A
Amazon overview:
Amazon is a leading technology organisation that was started in year 1994. they are
serving cross worldwide and focussing on artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital
streaming, they have a wide product portfolio and a wide distribution are across globe with a
wide market share, they are part of big five technology companies and its major competitor
includes google, apple, Facebook and Microsoft (Gupta, 2019).
Aims & objectives of research
Research overview:
Research aim: Aim of research is “Developing a overview of talent management strategies used
by organisations for the purpose of retaining and managing their workforce”.
Objectives: Objectives of the research are mentioned below:
 To analyse the basic concept of talent-management used by organisations
 To determine the challenges faced in the process of managing and retaining employees

 To evaluate the strategies formed by organisations for the purpose of managing
employees.
Research questions:
 What do you understand by the meaning of talent-management?
 What are some of the challenges that are related to managing & retaining of employees?
 Determine some of strategies used by Amazon for the objective of managing their
talented workforce?
Prepare Project management plan for research
Project management plan is a formal document that define how to execute and monitor
research work. To develop different plans according to project it has to be included in research
which is assist by management (Al-Kasasbeh, Abudayyeh and Liu, 2021). If there is any
deviation while doing work, project manager make adjustment to correct them. Aspects of
project management plan for research work is described below:-
Cost:- It means estimation and allocation of cost which is required to complete present
research work. Cost is related to complete the project on time, for this they require financial
resources for particular research. Need of finance arises in research report for expenses such as
travelling, management cost and survey.
Scope:- It is very important in every research to make overview of report and draw
recommendation to human resource manager of Amazon related to strategies of talent
management (Badiru and Osisanya, 2016). This will help them to retain employees for long
period of time to achieve business goals.
Quality:- It is to assure that result of quality is achieved as per the set standard. Before
starting the research there is need to determine and set quality standard so that all results are

achieved according to determine standard. They ensure that research report is completed
according to set standard and in timely manner and take measures for high quality, for this they
adopt the techniques to monitor quality such as Gantt chart, indicators for performance and to
correct defects.
Resources:- Resources is important source to conduct research so that information is
collected on time. These resources include newspaper, magazines or websites.
Risk:- When there is delay to achieve target on time then risk is associated with it.
Therefore, to reduce or eliminate risk the researcher make strategies to overcome risk (Bredillet,
Tywoniakand and Tootoonchy, 2018). In current research report work, they have divided work
and activities because to complete research on time so they use Gantt chart and work break down
structure is followed.
Communication:- Communication is necessary in present case as there is need to
communicate about research in different stages to complete work on time. To communicate
directly with their teams or other team for research they can use various sources such as
telecommunication, mail or other sources.
Gantt chart and work breakdown structure
Gantt chart:- It is a tool used to plan and schedule project, they specify when and what to
be done in research work. It illustrate additional information regarding allocation of task and it
also show how activities are related to each other or how delay will impact other (Li and Lu,
2017). They set starting and ending time so that they achieve different activities to performed in
research report. The stages for completion of Gantt chart such as start project and set time to
complete, determine which task is dependent to other, frame in layout of Gantt chart and last
stage is to add task description and transform into excel Gantt chart.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS):- It is a tool used to divide the project into small so
that the projects are managed and completed effectively. In other words, it means the work is
divided into different team members for better productivity and easy management of project.

There are four stages to complete structure (Ong, Wang and Zainon, 2016). First stage is to
identify the area where different activities are performed. Second stage, in this they plan different
groups and according to requirement they divide work. Lastly, third and fourth step is to break
down projects and identify the attributes for activities.
Methodology
Research is a consideration of study based on various stages to achieve project aims and
objectives and this researcher perform al these activities. This method is important because to
collect and gather true and fair information for project. These methods explained below is used
conduct present project in an appropriate manner which are as follows:-
Research strategy:- It is conduct to plan research study and guide researcher to plan,
execute and monitor project (Shirley, 2020). There are various strategies such as survey,
experimental and research. For the current project, all strategy are important but survey is chosen
best for recent project because it take less time to complete project.
Research approach:- In this approach there are procedure and plans to conduct research
and analyse the information. There are two approaches for research i.e. deductive and inductive.
According to the recent project, deductive approach is appropriate. Reason for choosing
deductive approach is that it take less time to evaluate quantitative data than inductive approach.
Research philosophy:- This is a philosophy where data is used, gather and analyse. There
are two types positivism and interpretivism. According to present project, the manager has

chosen positivism philosophy because it does not take much time to gather and analyse
information as compare to philosophy of interpretivism.
Research choice:- The two main research choice are quantitative and qualitative. For
recent project, project manager has adopted quantitative research choice because they collect
information in numericals whereas qualitative research choice is not adopted as they consume lot
of time and does not give better result.
Data collection:- In this data is collected to process of gathering data either from primary
sources and secondary sources or both. For present project, the researcher has applied both
primary and secondary data to collect information (Turner, 2017). To collect primary data
questionnaire is taken whereas in secondary data different ways are there to collect information
such as newspaper, books and journal etc. These sources are useful for achieving aims and
objective of project in appropriate manner.
Sampling:- Sampling is statistical tool used to determine number of observation in
population. It have two process such as probability and non-probability (Zwikael and Smyrk,
2019). As per present project, there are 40 employees in Amazon which are randomly selected
during the observation in probability because probability is easier as compared to non-
probability as it take less time when selecting large population.
Research ethics:- This help researcher to follow ethics and complete the project on time
in ethical manner. There are various ethics to achieve objectives such as autonomy, consent and
confidentiality etc.
Evidence of primary and Secondary research:
Primary & secondary are the two types of data that will be use in case of a project. In primary
research questioner will be used and in case of secondary research there will be application of
sources such as books, magazines, articles, application of primary & secondary sources of
information is mentioned below:
Questionnaire
Q1)What has been your duration of working with Amazon?
a) Less than a year
b) 1-4 years

c) 4-10 years
d) More than 10 years
Q2) Do you believe that Amazon is offering you enough opportunities of individual growth ?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes
Q3) What are some of basic strategies used by management of Amazon for the purpose of
talent management?
a) Taking timely feedbacks
b) use of 360 degree approach
c) Offering on the job training opportunities
d) Career development opportunities
e) Any other measures
Q4) What is one of the most important factors that is assisting Amazon to retain employees
and manage the situation of high cost associated with employee turnover?
a) Developing a employee oriented culture
b) Offering competitive salaries to employees
c) Taking timely feedbacks from employees
d) Timely addressing employees complainant and issues
Q5) What can be some of negative consequence that is associated with no proper policies of
talent management?
a) Dissatisfied workforce
b) Low motivation of employees
c) Negative working environment
d) any other such consequences
Q6) Please provide some suggestion for the management of Amazon to improve the practises
of talent management........
Secondary basis

LITERATURE REVIEW
Basic concept of talent-management used by organisations
As per view points of Momtazian, (2020) Human resource management process includes
talent management as a function where there is need to focus meeting of the strategic needs of
the organisation. Every organisation have some immediate needs that is related to the function of
talent management in order to focus on overall laid business goals. A talent management plan
enables a suitable business strategy by managing people. In context to Amazon this function
leads towards attracting of top talent by recruiting of most talent & skilled employees that leads
to contributing towards high level of business performance (Thunnissen and Buttiens, 2017). The
main focus of this aspect is to enhance the present employee performance by increasing the level
of employee engagement by making consistent and systematic decisions as part of development
of staff. It is a fair process of development to increase the retention rates and ensure that overall
operational requirements of the organisation (Introduction to Talent Management, 2020).
Challenges faced in the process of managing and retaining employees
According to views of Echelon, (2020) business organisations are willing to attract, retain
and top talent in organisation so that there can be addition of value. There are certain challenges
that are faced by organisation in this process that includes poor hiring strategies that may lead to
trouble in sourcing of top talent. Inexperience with technology that may lead to difficulty in
automation of business process. Ineffective leadership is also a challenge that may lead to no
proper guidance in the development of talent as strong leaders can also not work properly
without effective talent management practises. In case of Amazon, High employee turnover is
also a issue that may lead to increasing cost of organisations as employees may find better
opportunities and leave the organisation that creates a situation of high cost associated with
retaining of employees (How Recruiters Can Help Solve Talent Management Challenges, 2020).
Evaluate the strategies formed by organisations for the purpose of managing employees.
As per pollack, (2018) there is need of some strategies in organisation for the purpose of
effectively managing talent in the organisation. There is ned to define & communicate the
overall gaols and performance objectives. Utilisation of management software is required with
application of techniques such as traditional reviews and 360 management tools. Offering of
performance feedbacks is also a essential step as it reinforces strong skill sets and development
of positive behaviours by showcasing of opportunity areas for clear path of improvement. Using

of peer reviews is fostering the process of effective performance management to use it as a part
of performance software management programs as it leads to better communication and assesses
of the improvement opportunities (Maurya and Agarwal, 2018). In relation to Amazon for the
purpose of talent-management there is development of edge by use of a data driven approach
with formulation of clear metrics to measure the employee behaviour (6 Strategies for Effective
Performance Management, 2018). At amazon the talent management is a aspect of leveraging
employees to make better decisions on behalf of their customers. There is another strategy that is
used by taking continuous feedback at the annual stack ranking where each aspect of the
employee performance has to be ranked and measure from the initial stages of on boarding
process (How Does Amazon Do Performance Management?, 2018).
Data analysis along with conclusion and recommendations
Data analysis is a process of evaluating the data related to topic. Present report is based on
application of quantitative data for the purpose of making a frequency distribution analysis based
on the analytical technique that has been adopted by the researcher. The frequency distribution
analysis of present report is mentioned below:
Theme 1: Time duration of working
Q1)What has been your duration of working with Amazon? Frequency
a) Less than a year 10
b) 1-4 years 6
c) 4-10 years 10
d) More than 10 years 14

Interpretation:
On the basis of above data, it is analysed that time duration of employees working with amazon.
10 respondents replied that they are working with Amazon for less than one year and 6 are
working for a duration of one to four years. From data it is also analysed that te 10 respondents
are working for time period of 10 to 14 years. From data the it is observed that majority of
employees are working with Amazon for duration of more than 10 years.
Theme 2: Opportunities of individual growth
Q2) Do you believe that Amazon is offering you enough
opportunities of individual growth ?
Frequency
a) Yes 14
b) No 6
c) Sometimes 20
10
6
10
14
a) Less than a year
b) 1-4 years
c) 4-10 years
d) More than 10 years