amazon hrm case study

Amazon Human Resources Management: What you Need to Know

Whats Inside?

Defining human resources management, the position of human resources in amazon structure, human resources in amazon, recruitment and selection, performance management, amazon human resources management: critical response.

Amazon is a multinational technology firm specializing in e-commerce, digital streaming, cloud computing, online advertising, and artificial intelligence. The firm has been on the Fortune 500 list since 2002. When it joined, it ranked 492 nd, and Amazon has now risen to 2 nd . It is critical to analyze Amazon's human resources management to understand the success of such a giant over the decades.

The success of Amazon is attributed to various factors . These include its creative business model, emphasis on customer satisfaction, and capacity for growth. However, one of the most vital factors in Amazon's success is its employees – thus, the need to interrogate human resources at Amazon.

A 2019 annual tech survey found that 89% of Amazon employees stated they were proud to work for the company. Additionally, 84% said they would suggest Amazon as a workplace. These figures suggest that employees at Amazon are highly satisfied with their jobs. This satisfaction is arguably one of the reasons Amazon is very successful.

Related: Discounts for Amazon Employees: Everything you Need to Know ​

An interesting definition is that Human resource management is the art and science of getting the most out of people. I find this definition intriguing because it isolates two main aspects of HRM: it is both a science and an art. On the one hand, the "art" of HRM points to the ability to motivate and understand employees, whilst on the other hand, the "science" refers to the use of data and analysis to make decisions about people. Dave Ulrich argues that HRM is a science because it is based on applying scientific principles to the management of people.

Gary Dessler gave one of the popular definitions of HRM. He states that human resource management is the process of acquiring, developing, and deploying an organization's human resources in a way that achieves its strategic goals. With this background, analyzing Amazon human resource management is key to understanding the knit between human resources and strategic success at Amazon.

Research has found that effective HRM practices positively correlate with employee satisfaction, engagement, and productivity. A McKinsey study found that organizations with effective HRM practices are 1.3 times more likely to report organizational outperformance. Similarly, the Society for Human Resource Management research shows that organizations that successfully adopt the best HRM practices outperform those that do not.

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Amazon human resources management is heavily integrated with the company's corporate strategy. This follows the company's flexible and dynamic structure, particularly the human resources position in Amazon structures. The organizational structure of Amazon is functional and concentrates on various business functions and components as the foundation for establishing the interactions and reporting relationships among these various components.

Below is a snippet from the executive team organizational chart at Amazon to reflect the human resources position at Amazon.

The organogram shows that Beth Galletti , Senior Vice President – Human Resources, reports directly to Amazon's President and Chief Executive Officer. A new examination of the HR reporting structure found that 13% of the head of HR at various organizations reports directly to the chief executive officer. This is the case for Amazon human resources management. The results likely reflect the value employers place on human resources in today's dynamic working environment.

Human resources at Amazon enjoy increased visibility and importance. Research has shown that when HR reports directly to the CEO, it makes it apparent that the CEO views HR as a strategic function and values its contribution to the company. As a result, HR may become more visible and significant within the company, increasing the likelihood that HR will be heard at the highest levels.

Related:  Amazon Leadership Principles

Amazon human resource management is unique and very strategic. It represents a unique model of management. This is evidenced by Amazon winning the 2018 Human Resource Management (HRM) Impact Award . The principal HRM practices of Amazon refer to specific measures aimed at ensuring equal opportunities for all employees.

According to Amazon's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics on the company's website, Amazon human resources management guards against discrimination in the workplace. This is not to be underestimated, as discrimination is a growing cause of concern on a global scale. It includes anti-harassment and is complemented by safety and health policies, which are important for human resources at Amazon.

Amazon human resource management reflects the company's leadership philosophy. They adhere to the SHRM principle, which states that all choices about human resources should align with the organization's fundamental objectives ( Sagar, 2019 ). Amazon's strategy refers to attaining long-term benefits with the assistance of qualified human resources.

​ Recruitment and selection is one of Amazon's main pillars of human resources management. The hiring and selection process at Amazon is very diverse and rigorous. According to the Amazon site, Amazon has recruited from diverse colleges and universities.

A publication by Gefen in the International Journal of Management Science stated that Amazon requires people who can contribute ideas. As such, they disregard the employees' past careers. He further asserted that professional athletes, racing fans, liberal artists, rock musicians, and Oxford University poetry academics are all possible Amazon employees.

Research has found that 7 in every 10 executives rate diversity as an important issue in hiring. A McKinsey study found that businesses that are deemed to be more inclusive and diverse in hiring are 35% more likely to outperform their rivals. Therefore human resources at Amazon continues to succeed as it leverages diversity in its recruitment and selection practices.

A former Amazon employee shed some light on Amazon's recruitment and selection process. He highlighted that candidates might take several interviews to fully being accepted. The process may include several phone interviews, online interviews and face-to-face interviews. These approaches of Amazon human resources are very scientific as they avoid perception errors by providing layers of interviews.

The compensation and performance management at Amazon is very strict. Amazon has high expectations for every employee in terms of performance management. Amazon human resources management sets specific standards for each employee, covering everything from the daily workload to the work-related materials. It also covers the overall work plan to the work procedures. Additionally, there are connections between remuneration and performance management. [ Read more ].

The guiding principles of Amazon's leadership determine its approach to performance management. The emphasis on an employee's unique talents and abilities fosters their capacity to handle new challenges independently rather than through teamwork. Such a system makes it necessary to evaluate the performance of all employees regularly. In that regard, it is said that Amazon uses a program called ' Anytime Feedback Tool. ' This program allows employees to leave feedback on the performance of others anonymously.

The feedback tool is complemented by a program called ' Connections. ' Connections allows employees to respond to a daily random question regarding their work ( Kim, 2018 ). If a worker's performance indicators fail to correspond to the set values, they are subject to a three-month "Performance Improvement Plan." [ Read More ].

Amazon human resources management has not been without critiques. In 2021, the New York Times published an article titled Inside Amazon's Worst Human Resources Problem which investigated a major HR problem at Amazon. There were serious allegations that Amazon human resources management exploited employees. The exploitation was around unpaid leave for employees.

The New York Times conducted investigations and concluded that leave processing had gone extremely bad and was widespread. This weighed heavily on the nature of human resources management at Amazon. The scandal tempted critics to assert that Amazon human resources management was being mismanaged.

Amazon has come under fire for various human resources issues that have resulted in reduced performance and productivity. Amongst these issues is poor remuneration, lack of concern for the employee work-life balance and insensitivity to personal workers' issues ( Zhu, 2021 ).

The research will show that poor Amazon human resources management has harmed the company. A survey of employees at Amazon found that only 3 out of 10 of them were satisfied during times of HR turmoil. This relatively low figure can lead to less motivated and engaged employees.

​ Diversity and inclusion , which is part of Amazon human resources management policy, also open opportunities for drawbacks for human resources at Amazon. Amazon has to deal with workforce diversity. As a result, Amazon has been accused of numerous offences like sexual misbehaviour and discrimination (Zhu, 2021).

Many women have filed sexual harassment lawsuits against Amazon in recent years. Complaints have also been about unfair, arbitrary, and secretive internal procedures. Amazon has also been charged with supporting racial prejudice within the company. Some of the complaints were looked into, and those responsible were fired. However, these problems are still not entirely resolved. [ Read more ].

A study by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found that Amazon had a higher rate of discrimination complaints than other Fortune 500 companies. This discrimination could result in a loss of talent. Qualified workers are deterred from applying for jobs at Amazon or leaving the company after being discriminated against.

Amazon human resources management has been the backbone of the company's success. Its close interaction with executive management strategically positions the department to foster good and best practices. However, critiques have come down on Amazon for violating numerous good governance in human resources.

Brandon Murambinda is an Organisational Design and Development Consultant at Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, a management and human resources consulting firm. 

Email: [email protected]  

Websites https://www.thehumancapitalhub.com/ and www.ipcconsultants.com

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Amazon’s career development strategy: What HR can learn

With tech skills in hot demand, here’s how L&D facilitators can take a leaf out of Amazon’s book.

Amid layoff news and union tugs-of-war, Amazon is chugging ahead with its on-the-job learning and development program. Titled “Upskilling 2025,” Amazon leadership designed the program to aid talent in cultivating “in-demand skill sets and propel them into new careers.” The initiative was launched in 2019, and houses its prepaid tuition program Career Choice and its Technical Academy helping non-technical workers transition into software engineering.

Some of the tech training is high-level: For example, the company’s User Experience Design and Research apprenticeship program spans the finance and retail departments, and touches Prime Video and Alexa. Other L&D initiatives such as the Grow Our Own Talent program addresses entry-level talent “with non-traditional backgrounds.” 

There are also programs for talent in the middle: Amazon partnered with the U.S. Department of Labor on a robotics program that aims to increase workers’ wages up to 40% in phase one and up to 88% in phase two.

Amazon’s talent strategy is deeply imperfect, critics and employees have said , but its L&D offerings remain noteworthy. For two years in a row, LinkedIn has named the retail and tech company its no. 1 “ best workplace to grow your career ” in the U.S. In early 2022, Amazon granted its then-750,000 hourly employees free college as well as free ESL classes . Later in the year, the e-commerce retailer added tutoring services and digital nudges to its educational offerings.

L&D facilitators and people operations professionals can take a leaf out of Amazon’s book by asking themselves, “How can our training programs benefit our workers now? And what skills can ready them for the careers of the future?’”

Smaller research firms and the Bureau of Labor Statistics agree that tech skills are increasingly in-demand in the U.S. BLS identified “software developers” as one of the top three categories of new jobs being created from 2021 to 2031. It’s a niche that will add approximately 370,600 jobs over the next decade, the BLS predicts. 

Likewise, the labor bureau identified wind turbine service technicians, data scientists, information security analysts and statisticians within the projected top 10 fastest-growing occupations in the U.S. heading toward 2031.

More than creating a talent incubator or a stepping stone for an inevitable exit, HR may be able to strengthen its talent pipeline by getting serious about L&D. A Gallup study, commissioned by Amazon and published in its most recent Upskilling 2025 report , suggested that 57% of Americans are “very” or “extremely” interested in updating their skill set. Likewise, within the cohort of workers interested in upskilling, 69% told Gallup that they were either “extremely” or “very” likely to “leave their job for upskilling opportunities provided by another employer.” 

Outside of that study, a Society for Human Resource Management report confirmed that, second only to pay, lack of career development and advancement have been driving talent turnover. Throughout 2022, HR pros told Willis Towers Watson and other research firms that reskilling and upskilling were top-of-mind retention, attraction and cost-cutting strategies .

Together, those studies suggest investments in tech upskilling and developing solid programs today may help both the organization and talent in the long run.

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How Amazon is built to try and learn

The pace of change requires companies to continually learn and adapt. Beth Galetti, senior vice president of human resources at Amazon, describes how this reality has led Amazon to cultivate a culture of continuous learning and put in place the infrastructure to support it.

A culture of empowerment and continuous feedback

Our customers’ needs evolve and grow, so continuous learning is an imperative for all Amazonians. We capture this intent in our leadership principle, “Learn and Be Curious.” That principle is very important because we are frequently doing things that have never been done before. For this reason, there is often no playbook to teach nor experts to follow, so we empower people to try new things and learn along the way.

That philosophy of empowerment is reflected in the fact that we expect every employee to be an owner. If they see any issue that affects customer experience or have an idea about how to improve it, they’re expected to jump in, whether or not it’s in their area of expertise. We have a few awards to recognize this kind of behavior. One is called the “Just Do It” award. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, presents the employee or team responsible for the improvement with a Nike shoe during one of our corporate all-hands meetings. This simple but meaningful recognition reinforces the culture of empowering employees to take care of problems.

We also want learning to be continuous, so we have a culture of real-time feedback. Feedback is shared directly with the intention of making everyone involved better at delivering the best for our customers. To help with this, we built Connections, a mechanism that asks every employee a question each day when they log in to their computer or workstation. The answers provide aggregated feedback to their manager, highlighting areas to improve and surfacing relevant learning assets (such as online training) that the manager can access immediately. Questions are posed on a wide range of topics, from work environment to the manager’s effectiveness, team dynamics, and, most importantly, any barriers that are getting in the way of employees inventing on behalf of customers.

We also have an annual review process called “Forte,” where we focus on an employee’s “superpowers.” Superpowers are specific and distinctive descriptions of an employee’s unique, exceptional strengths. Forte is a simple, lightweight process in which every employee receives direct feedback from their manager, peers, and team members about their superpowers, as well as some growth ideas for the future.

Developing a learning infrastructure

Learning starts with helping people learn our culture as soon as they start here. We have a program called “Escape Velocity,” a three-day onboarding immersion experience designed specifically for externally hired vice presidents and directors. As the name implies, Escape Velocity is designed to help leaders leave the gravitational pull of their previous organization and enter a new orbit with Amazon. The program focuses on setting expectations and explaining our unique culture.

Current senior leaders teach new leaders the required mind-sets and skills to be successful, such as shifting from a “competitor and investor focus” to “customer obsession,” from a reliance on PowerPoint to well-thought-out narratives, and from a short-term emphasis on cost cutting or quarterly results to doing the right thing for the long-term. Instructors also present case studies and lead discussions on the importance of rigorous truth seeking and the nature of decision making at Amazon.

For ongoing learning, we have an internal wiki site that contains a wealth of information about Amazon, and we’ve built an internal video site called “Broadcast,” where people can post videos so that others can learn everything from specific coding practices to how to write a persuasive “working backward” document. We make it easy for anyone to publish and have developed a strong search engine to make the content easy to find. Since we know which videos perform best, we actively curate the content to make the most effective ones easily accessible. We have a manager learning hub, for example, where we put core learning courses and top videos. We also have classes for face-to-face training, but we rely on people to be self-reliant and scrappy by reaching out to get information.

Our Career Choice program is another example of ongoing learning. Career Choice classes are held in our fulfillment centers, and for those who enroll, Amazon prepays up to 95 percent of tuition and fees toward a vocational certificate or associate degree in fields ranging from IT and computer science to healthcare and transportation. The idea is to put people on a path toward well-paying, in-demand professions in their communities. We recognize that for some people, Amazon is a lifelong career, and for others, it’s a stepping stone.

Fast Times: How digital winners set direction, learn, and adapt

Creating experiences for learning.

We estimate that more than 90 percent of the learning that happens at Amazon comes from being challenged and having new experiences in their jobs.

Accordingly, we give our employees plenty of room to expand their roles. Due to our high rate of growth (31 percent year-over-year net sales revenue growth in 2017 alone), most Amazonians find that the scope of their job can grow just as fast. It often happens that an individual will have an idea approved, test it, develop it, and scale it. And soon they’re running a new program with a team. I know plenty of people who started here as lawyers or engineers but through this entrepreneurial process are now product owners or leaders of large businesses. It is not uncommon for an Amazonian to be promoted one or two levels in just a few years as they develop skills of running a project.

We typically have thousands of open positions available at any time and encourage Amazonians to try new experiences so they can learn new skills and gain expertise in other businesses. We make it easy for people to transfer to different teams as part of a deliberate program to give people new opportunities.

We have metrics to track if this experience-driven learning approach is working. We look at promotions and transfers, as well as the time between promotions. The biggest thing we look at is how the pace of development and product releases is increasing; that’s what really tells us if we’re growing and learning.

Thoughtful speed to get ideas to market

Nearly every new idea follows a “working backward” process. That means when an employee wants to present an idea, they start from the customer’s perspective and work backward from there. They write a narrative that provides answers to questions that are specifically related to the customer, such as, “How would the customer access the new product?”; “What would it cost?”; and “What are the benefits to the customer?” Then we discuss the idea and challenge it. There are a set of questions we typically ask, but we’re careful not to be too prescriptive, since we’re often asking people to do something that has never been done before. These narratives, called “PR/FAQs,” frequently take weeks to develop, with the inventor(s) carefully refining their thinking through multiple iterations and soliciting feedback from colleagues to help make the idea stronger and better for the customer.

To decide which ideas get the green light for moving forward, decision makers are pulled together for a meeting to review and discuss the concept. The meeting starts a bit like a study hall. The PR/FAQ is read quietly in the meeting, by all attendees, and the discussion only begins once everyone has read the full document. Once the discussion begins, the environment is intentionally designed to remove politics. The most senior person in the room frequently speaks last, so as not to sway the room before all diverse perspectives are considered and to improve the chances of finding the “path to yes” for the customer.

Once an idea is approved, it’s all hands-on deck to move the new product or service forward quickly. Typically, we will start with a pilot program, which provides meaningful feedback for the team to iterate for the next version. If the idea performs well, we make sure to allocate resources quickly so it can scale. For example, the PR/FAQ for Prime Now—our one-hour delivery service—went from concept to launch in only 111 days. There was a lot of iteration that took place during those 111 days, but once we hit on a formula that worked, we launched Prime Now in New York City, and over the following months we expanded it to customers worldwide.

Hiring the best “builders”

One of the ways we work to ensure we’re hiring the best candidates is through our Bar Raiser program. We want every hire we make to be better than half of the people currently working here at that level. We carefully select tenured Amazonians to be Bar Raisers, those who have conducted more than 25 interviews and “are right, a lot” in their assessment of candidates. They serve as a neutral third party on the interview panel, meaning that they’re not in the hiring manager’s chain of command. For an offer to be extended, the Bar Raiser must agree to hire the candidate.

Since we’re a company of builders, we look for people who know how to invent, think big, and deliver results. We hire based on our culture and passion for innovation, not solely based on whether a candidate has previously done the job. We want people with a beginner’s mind-set, eager to learn new things.

My own experience at Amazon is a perfect example of this. My professional background is in technology, engineering, operations, and transportation, so I applied for a role in Amazon’s transportation organization. After a full day of interviews, the recruiter called me back to ask if I’d be interested in a role in HR. I was slightly baffled, since I had no experience in HR and thought they had confused me with another candidate. The recruiter explained that I was at my most passionate and engaged when I talked about my experiences developing people, leading large organizations, and growing teams. Since Amazon is hiring tens of thousands of people each year, and needs to develop those individuals and grow their skills, they thought my unique background combining engineering, technology, and leadership development would be a great fit. It was an unusual opportunity, and I can’t imagine many other companies willing to take such a risk.

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What Amazon's human resources issues tell us about the state of HR tech

Uncover how your company can streamline HR processes.

PUBLISHED ON

November 8, 2021

“Amazon is the most technologically adept company around and they can't manage HR.”’

These are the words of Kara Swisher, said on a recent episode of the Pivot podcast, responding to the New York Times' revelations about Amazon's troubles with HR tech. Recently, the company faced widespread criticism for its labor practices and as the New York Times article explores, a growing list of HR misdemeanors. You might ask: if Amazon—one the wealthiest and most well-resourced companies in history—can't find an HR tech solution to handle its needs, what chance do the rest of us have? 

Attendance software issues have incorrectly penalized workers with medical conditions and other life crises for taking time off. Employees report receiving paychecks that are well below the amount they should receive, and in some cases, employees have even been unjustly fired for incorrectly recorded absences. 

Anybody who has ever missed a paycheck or has experienced payment issues can sympathize with the stress and burden it places on families and individuals with bills to pay. Unfortunately, these errors in the system are widespread and have affected employees at as many as 179 warehouses nationwide. 

To add to the problem, Amazon’s HR system makes it difficult for employees to receive any help when these issues arise. Many employees struggle with getting in touch with their case manager as they navigate automated phone trees in an attempt to find solutions. Even if they get past the automated messages and manage to get in touch with a human, communication within the company is subject to delays and errors that can result in weeks or months of lost income. 

Amazon is a large, innovative company with all of the capital and resources needed to be set up for success, yet they continue to struggle to effectively pay people on time, administer benefits, and manage paid time off. So what’s happening here?

The state of HR technology

While these issues certainly do not reflect well on Amazon, HR tech issues impact many companies worldwide. The NY Times article reveals that the main issue at hand is rooted in the patchwork of softwares that Amazon currently uses to track time off, including Salesforce, Oracle, and Kronos. These legacy HR softwares do not effectively integrate and are incapable of keeping up with the challenges that employers face today. 

As a result, much of the effort needed to manage the company’s complex HR processes must be completed manually, placing greater strain on Amazon’s HR employees and subjecting the whole system to human error. 

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Poor adoption and understanding of the system have also resulted in significant miscommunication of how it works and who is eligible for the various benefits. When employees do not receive the benefits that they are eligible for and entitled to, it becomes a legal compliance issue too. The company has been brought to court over these violations of state law, costing the company valuable time and resources and placing greater strain on fatigued employees.

Amazon, with around 950,000 employees in the United States alone, is a major employer. Globally, the company has 1.3 million employees. As a result, the company has a very complex system and structure in place. While Amazon is a case study where company size contributes to the issue, companies do not need to be a behemoth to face challenges with navigating multiple, ineffective HR tools. 

The role of HR leaders has become more complex

Complexity in the system is not going away any time soon. As more companies embrace distributed work, the challenges of managing payroll, benefits, and PTO are only going to increase. The more geographically spread out a company’s workforce is, the more challenges there are to navigate different state and country requirements. As companies increasingly look to hire abroad and to tap into labor markets internationally to access top talent, they need to expand their benefit package options to account for different laws and regulations. 

Keeping track of the different benefits available to employees distributed across country lines is no easy feat. It requires thorough training for HR employees to understand the different requirements and systems, and the nuances of when to apply each benefit. It also requires digital tools that are designed to meet the challenges of managing an international workforce. These digital solutions should not be overly complex to avoid creating the additional challenge of managing the system. 

The existing fragmentation within the HR software industry creates inefficiency, redundancy, and inaccuracies in HR processes. The ding to productivity and talent management is distracting and frustrating for employees and employers alike. It is clear that the global employment industry is ripe for disruption. There is a need for a modern SaaS solution that prioritizes customer experience and is capable of supporting global teams that are spread across dozens of countries. 

With the abundance of digital tools available to HR professionals, many companies get caught in the trap of using multiple tools to accomplish different tasks. Issues can quickly arise when a company uses one software program to store employee profiles and records and a separate program for pay and benefits. Employees are required to learn to use all of the different programs, requiring additional time and resources for training. These piecemeal solutions also often require manual data entry, creating more opportunities for inconsistencies and human error. The silos created when using multiple digital solutions also makes it difficult for companies to collect and analyze important data about their processes. Lack of transparency and access to data makes it difficult for companies to effectively identify and address issues with processes and systems before the problem compounds and becomes widespread. Companies are better off streamlining the number of tools that they use to improve efficiency. 

Another common issue that exists within the HR software industry is lack of attention to user experience and design. Digital tools are often glitchy and clunky to use, creating a costly and frustrating experience. Outdated payroll solutions are subject to errors and miscalculations. According to a survey conducted by Kronos with the American Payroll Association , 29% of respondents said their payroll solution is 10 or more years old. These older technologies are unable to keep pace with the rapid changes within the workforce. 

The modern jobseeker will look for companies with attractive benefits such as wellness programs, home office budgets, comprehensive healthcare coverage, disability insurance, paid time off, retirement plans, flexible schedule options, tuition reimbursement, and parental leave. The older software programs are not necessarily designed to effectively track and record this range of benefits that competitive companies are looking to offer, thus requiring multiple technology solutions. 

Creating a vision for a better future for HR tech

At Oyster, we’ve built a global employment platform that is designed specifically to help HR leaders handle the complexities of global hiring so that they can spend less time untangling tax, legal, and compliance issues, and more time building a delightful employee experience and thriving workplace culture. 

With the ability to manage teams across 180+ countries on one easy-to-use platform, Oyster was designed to scale with you. We offer an accessible solution for seamless employee onboarding, effortless global payroll, and benefit and equity management for global employees. 

Amazon will continue to grow as the world increasingly embraces ecommerce. As the company grows, there is an urgent need to proactively address these issues. If there’s one thing that this case study has shown us, it’s that the issues are not resolved with scale, but often exacerbated by it. 

Looking for a tool to help you get started with managing the payroll and benefits for your distributed team? Oyster makes administering benefits and remaining compliant across borders easy and integrated.

About oyster.

Oyster is a global employment platform designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, hire, pay, manage, develop and take care of a thriving global workforce. It lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense.

Oyster enables hiring anywhere in the world with reliable, compliant payroll, and great local benefits and perks.

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Amazon's Troubles Hold Lessons on HR Tech, Employee Experience

​Amazon's recent troubles administering employee leave and delivering accurate pay and benefits could be a warning for other organizations to integrate disparate HR technologies and not to put employee needs after customer needs.

A troubling confluence of poorly connected HR systems and apparent disregard for the employee experience caused workers at retail giant Amazon who took personal and medical leave to be denied proper pay and even to be wrongly terminated, according to a recent story in The New York Times .

At a time when organizations can ill afford to watch any employees walk out the door, experts say inattention to HR technology integration and failing to ensure that both HR staff and line managers are well-educated about the intricacies of leave policies can have an outsized impact on employee retention and company performance.

Widespread Problems Around Employee Leave

The Times reported that for almost two years, Amazon incorrectly calculated pay for many employees who were on paid parental and medical leave, while also withholding disability benefits from others. The issue was "only one strand in a longstanding knot of problems with Amazon's system for handling paid and unpaid leaves," the article noted.

Even more alarming, according to the Times , some employees were erroneously terminated because of flaws in the use of time and attendance software platforms.

"Workers across the country facing medical problems and other life crises have been fired when attendance software mistakenly marked them as no-shows," the Times reported. Amazon's leave management system was "run on a patchwork of programs that often didn't speak to one another," the article revealed.

HR technology analysts say that while combining the multiple systems required to effectively administer employee leave is no small feat—the systems can include third-party leave management platforms, HRIS, payroll and time management—a technology-savvy company like Amazon should have had little trouble with the task.

"I can't imagine a company that runs Amazon Web Services, distributes millions of packages every day and that can tell people within minutes when a package will appear at their door can't effectively connect its internal HR systems," said Josh Bersin, a global HR industry analyst and dean of the Josh Bersin Academy in Oakland, Calif.

Bersin believes the problems are more likely related to corporate culture than to technology acumen. "It appears from the Times story that management just wasn't paying attention to employee needs," he said. "It's as much about creating a culture that values the employee experience as it is about integrating different technologies."

Bersin said he talks to large companies that have solved similar types of HR technology connectivity challenges, even those that have recently acquired other organizations with their own patchwork of HR systems.

"Large companies that go through mergers or acquisitions are always upgrading, fixing and integrating HR systems," Bersin said. "But most that I talk to have come to the conclusion that if they don't do a good job of it, it will affect the organization in a very negative way. Employees will be unhappy, there will be productivity issues, and you'll have challenges around retaining and recruiting people."

Leave Management Technology Challenges

Other HR technology experts said the kind of systems integration required within Amazon is more achievable today given improvements in the quality of application programming interfaces (APIs) that connect disparate technologies.

"With modern API technology available, HRIS, time and attendance, and leave management systems can be well and robustly integrated," said Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst specializing in human capital management (HCM) technologies with Constellation Research, a technology research and advisory firm in Monte Vista, Calif. "Enterprises need to realize, though, that they own the integration and monitor it accordingly."

Ron Hanscome, a research vice president specializing in HCM applications with Gartner, said lack of such robust integration between core HR and third-party leave management systems can result in inaccurate pay data, wasted time and money, and longer cycle times leading to dissatisfied employees and HR administrators.

System integration challenges are considerable whether leave is administered in-house or if external technology vendors are used, experts say. The Times reported that while Amazon once outsourced management of its leave programs, it had "brought the effort in-house when providers couldn't keep up with its growth."

Hanscome said HR leaders should closely weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing leave management to third-party technology providers. "Pros include putting these processes in the hands of domain experts who do this all day, every day and improved process accuracy and standardization due to involving a third party with rigor in its processes and controls," Hanscome said.

Cons of outsourcing can include greater cost compared to keeping leave management in-house, a need to shift some resources to vendor management, and ongoing attention to keeping integrations current between core HR and the leave solution, Hanscome said. "Regular software updates several times per year on both sides can make that tricky," he said.

Special Issues Around Integration

Other experts believe the challenge of integrating disparate HR technologies to administer a variety of employee leaves can be underestimated, even with improvements in API technologies.

"The reality of integrating systems so they can effectively talk to each other can be harder than it appears," said Rich Fuerstenberg, a senior partner with research and advisory firm Mercer. Lack of seamless connectivity between HRIS, payroll, time and attendance, and external leave systems can cause issues around events like employees taking intermittent leave, Fuerstenberg said. 

"Hourly workers might need to take a few hours off here or there to get a vaccine or to help a family member, and that can be tricky for technology to track," he said. "It's a challenge to keep everything in sync for short intervals of time between, for example, an external vendor's leave system and internal HR technology."

Amazon Implementing Fixes

The Times reported that Amazon is being proactive in attempts to fix its leave administration problems. A company spokesperson said a permanent bridge between leave programs is scheduled to be complete in March, "with incremental improvements in the meantime," according to the Times . The spokesperson also said Amazon is bolstering training for HR staff and line managers on the complexities of managing leave and on being more empathetic with workers.

Some experts said the changes can't come soon enough for a culture they believe for too long has placed employee needs a distant second to customer needs.

"Hopefully the Times article is a wake-up call for Amazon's new CEO about the importance of the employee experience," Bersin said.

Dave Zielinski is a freelance business writer and editor in Minneapolis.

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Award winner: Amazon as an Employer

This case won the Human Resource Management/Organisational Behaviour category at The Case Centre Awards and Competitions 2021 . #CaseAwards2021

Author perspective

Instructor viewpoint, who – the protagonists.

Jeff Bezos is the CEO and founder of Amazon , the online retailing giant.

The case explores the unconventional office culture at the US retailer following an article in The New York Times that alleged Amazon was “conducting an experiment in how far it could push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.” The constant demands on Amazon employees to work harder and faster was under criticism.

With Amazon about to open several large new offices and increase its staff to around 50,000, the case asks if The New York Times article will impact its search for talented employees. Bezos dismissed the article stating many of his employees were excited to be working on cutting edge projects and felt working at Amazon advanced their careers.

Amazon is a global retailing giant with its headquarters in Seattle, United States.

The New York Times article was published in August 2015, just months after Amazon was ranked fourth in Fortune magazine’s Elite List of World’s Most Admired Companies. 

In 2014,  Harvard Business Review ranked Bezos as its top CEO, yet, in 2015, his ranking fell to 87th, with his method of keeping employees on edge to bring about constant innovation, being criticised. Amazon’s stock prices, however, more than double in this period.

AUTHOR PERSPECTIVE 

This is the first win for authors Jyotsna and Shweta, and for Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon.

Jyotsna and Shweta said: “This award is a reward for case writing. It is heartening to know the questions we raised resonate across the HR/Organisational fraternity, globally.”

Why Amazon?

They continued: “Amazon is a very popular brand.

“The case captures a very sensitive issue of keeping people on edge for business, and poses questions of compassion versus business profitability.”

Writing the case

The authors commented: “The background research for the case was daunting and enjoyable at the same time. We did many drafts, and our patience was tested while writing the teaching note.

“We’d like to express our gratitude to Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon for providing an opportunity to do the research and case writing, to Ivey Publishing for publishing the case and to our teachers, Paul Marshall, Noam Wasserman, and Rohit Deshpande at Harvard Business School.”

They concluded: “If there is a debate and controversy in a case, your case class will always be a winner.”

INSTRUCTOR VIEWPOINT 

Discover how this case works in the classroom.

"The case is super insightful, being not only relevant for my Corporate Entrepreneurship course in that it allows students to analyse Amazon’s culture but, also, to assess and develop recommendations for making the firm more entrepreneurial in terms of culture (e.g. organsational processes, cognitive processes, etc.). Moreover, the case is very interesting in that it covers a couple of surprising elements that allow students to not only increase their knowledge on leadership in a highly successful firm but also their reflection capacity regarding areas of improvement and recommendations for Amazon.

"I appreciate the balanced yin-yang approach of the case including both bright and dark sides and how they can enhance or exacerbate Amazon’s success, and for whom, enabling deep and critical discussions on sustainable entrepreneurial advantages."

The authors

Shweta was a FPM Scholar at Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon when writing the case.

In conversation with Jyotsna and Shweta

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic we were sadly unable to visit Jyotsna and Shweta to present their awards in person.

However, they joined our Director, Richard McCracken, from India to discuss their winning case.

Watch the full conversation here:

You can also watch shorter sections of the discussion:

• what the case is about
• why they wrote a case on Amazon
• what is was like working as co-authors
• why the case works well in the classroom .

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What's Wrong With Amazon’s Low-Retention HR Strategy?

This past month, a New York Times report on Amazon’s personnel strategies prompted several days of intense debate.  A number of questions can be raised about the article itself, given the fact that much of it was based on interviews with those who had left an organization that clearly placed severe restrictions on the reporter’s movements and contacts within the company.

But let’s assume for the moment that the article was even-handed and accurate.  It portrayed an organization with a “churn and burn” personnel strategy offering exciting jobs, creative freedom among talented co-workers, and the opportunity to earn high compensation--but jobs that often become too demanding for some employees, particularly those with health problems or family obligations.   

Former employees complained about bosses who lacked empathy for their problems and that kicked back when personal priorities supplanted job priorities.  No data was provided, but the impression left by the article was that because so many good people have left Amazon, it pursues either intentionally or unintentionally what can be called a low-retention strategy when it comes to people.   

It’s one that has produced remarkable service for customers and long-term profits to patient investors but disappointment for some people who have gone to work there.  (In parlance that my co-authors and I used in a recent book that discusses Amazon, it still falls short of the “service trifecta.”) 

In fact, if Amazon is pursuing a low-retention HR strategy, its customers probably regard it as a highly successful application of that idea.  Advocates of a high-retention strategy may wonder why Amazon hasn’t learned something from online retailer Zappos, a high-retention, “best place to work” company that Amazon owns .

Several years ago, Wayne Cascio compared the high-retention strategy of Costco (high wages, high productivity, high employee retention, low employee replacement costs, low prices, substantial profit) with the low-retention strategy of Sam’s Club (low wages, lower productivity, much lower employee retention, high employee replacement costs, low prices, and substantial but lower profit than Costco).  The implied conclusion was that high retention strategies like Costco’s can be more attractive for employees, customers, and investors alike.   (The irony here is that David Glass, when he was CEO of Walmart, Sam’s Club’s parent, once said: “Give me fewer, better-trained, better-paid people and they’ll win every time.”)

But think a minute.  We’ve mentioned four organizations that all have been quite successful pursuing both high- and low-retention HR strategies.  It raises questions about whether we have painted too attractive a picture of high-retention organizations (Costco, Zappos) in competition with those characterized by low retention (Sam’s Club, Amazon).  Both apparently can provide good service and make a lot of money.  If that’s the case, which strategy is most appropriate?  Under what conditions?

What’s wrong with a conscious pursuit of a low-retention strategy if it is based on providing exciting, demanding jobs, even if they lead to “burn out” among some employees?  Is it a problem of sustainability?  After all, McDonald’s and others have been able to sustain competitive success with high employee turnover for many years.  What’s wrong with a low-retention HR strategy?  What do you think?

To read more:

Wayne F. Cascio, The High Cost of Low Wages , Harvard Business Review , December 2006, pp. 23-33.  See also Cascio’s paper, “Decency Means More Than Always Low Prices:  A Comparison of Costco to Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club,” Academy of Management Perspectives , August  2006.

David Glass, in a comment confirmed by email on April 10, 2002.

James L. Heskett, Earl W. Sasser, Jr., and Leonard A. Schlesinger, What Great Service Leaders Know and Do:  Creating Breakthroughs in Service Firms (Oakland, CA:  Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2015), especially Chapter 4.

Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld, Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace , The New York Times , August 16, 2015, pp. A1 and A20-22.

Readers Respond: Employee-Retention Strategies and the Future

Employee-retention strategies in business quite logically vary from one industry to another. Perhaps even more important for today’s society, they vary from one job and type of employee to another within the same organization.

It applies to Amazon, this month’s poster child as a low-retention employer. That’s the general message that comes through in responses to this month’s column.

Some respondents suggested that it is only natural to find different strategies depending on the nature of the business. As Himanshu Pant pointed out, a strategy of higher  employee turnover works best "in companies like Amazon where the loyalty of customers is relatively more towards the product & its prices," and less towards its rarely seen employees.

The most frequently expressed view was that it is natural to gear a retention strategy to the job--to tthe nature of the work to be performed. Ivar put it this way: “When talking of turnover, it is important to know who is leaving the company." For companies such as Amazon, he said, "if well-paid, smart techies making things happen in AWS (Cloud computing) leave because they are treated poorly ... that is a problem.”

ITG added, “Amazon’s business model is perhaps about scale, automation and efficiency. I will imagine the HR or people strategy would be geared towards attracting and retaining the employees that will help to accelerate and improve these key performance and competitive advantage factors.” Gopal Parmeswar summed up this view commenting, “the retention strategy should be governed by the role of the employee in the organization. Our company has successfully strategized a two track policy.”

All of this sounds as if low-retention policies will continue to play an important role in HR strategies--there were certainly strong opinions about such policies.

As TNoble101 said, “a low retention, ‘chew ‘em up and spit ‘em out’ strategy highlights the negative side of unbridled capitalism against which the current populist movements are reacting. It works well for dictators building pyramids and great walls, but for a healthy democracy … not so much."

Finding a high correlation in his research between disgruntled employees and employee sabotage, Murray Burt advised us to “Stray into unhappy employee territory at your peril. I suspect Amazon’s profits are a lot lower than they could be.” Eric Morehead added: “I think there may be too many variables left out here… The relative happiness of an employee base has bottom-line repercussions far beyond customer satisfaction.”

What’s to be done? At the very least, FISSINNF suggests that greater transparency in recruiting would be helpful. “Amazon is an easy target for people to criticize… If it is promoting its jobs as sitting in a laid-back, laissez-faire environment and the reality is far different, then that is wrong… (but) surely, most people know the business demands much of its staff.”

The comments raised interesting questions about the future of the workplace. Michael expressed that the industry/culture has been disrupted by emerging technological and economic change that forces the lower-retention model. "It looks like we will end up with a very much smaller semi-permanent work force, a larger number of fly in, fly out subcontractors, higher productivity, and higher individual remuneration.” What do you think?

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Hired Hands or Human Resources?: Case Studies of HRM Programs and Practices in Early American Industry 1st Edition

In a companion volume to Managing the Human Factor, also from Cornell, Bruce E. Kaufman shows how American firms transitioned from the traditional "hired hand" model of human resource management (HRM) to the modern "human resources" version popular today. Kaufman illuminates through fifteen detailed case studies the structure and operation of HRM programs and practices across a diverse range of American business firms spanning the fifty years from 1880 to 1930. Nine of the fifteen case studies in Hired Hands or Human Resources? examine HRM before World War I and document the highly informal, decentralized, externalized, and sometimes harsh nature of the people-management practices of that era. The remaining six span the Welfare Capitalism decade of the 1920s and reveal the marked transformation to a more progressive and professional model of personnel practice at some companies, along with continued reliance on the traditional model at others.

Kaufman gained access to the richly detailed audits of company HRM programs prepared during the 1920s by Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc., and draws upon this trove of information to present the most in-depth, up-close evidence available of how companies of this period managed their employees and how the practice of HRM evolved and developed. Hired Hands or Human Resources? features new insights into key subjects such as the strategic versus tactical nature of early HRM, alternative models of workforce governance used in these years, and the reasons some companies created autonomous HRM departments.

• ISBN-10 0801448301
• ISBN-13 978-0801448300
• Edition 1st
• Publisher ILR Press
• Publication date December 15, 2009
• Language English
• Dimensions 6.12 x 0.94 x 9.25 inches
• Print length 280 pages
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

" Hired Hands or Human Resources? richly reveals how HRM was practiced during the formative years of large-scale industry and uncovers not only the birth of the modern HRM model but also the origins of the central issues of the field. Today's debates over best practices, strategic HRM, and the determinants of HR practices have finally been given their historical foundations, and scholars and managers should follow Kaufman's lead by understanding the nature of early HR practices and by embracing the implications for today's research and practice."--John Budd, University of Minnesota

For anyone interested in the history of human resources in the United States, this book is a must-read. Bruce E. Kaufman goes back to the cases written at the time to describe the foundation and evolution of the HR function.

About the Author

Bruce E. Kaufman is Professor of Economics and Senior Associate of the W.T. Beebe Institute of Personnel and Employment Relations at Georgia State University and Research Fellow at the Center for Work, Organization and Wellbeing at Griffith University. His most recent book, also published with Cornell, is Managing the Human Factor: The Early Years of Human Resource Management in American Industry ; other books include The Global Evolution of Industrial Relations ; What Do Unions Do: A Twenty Year Perspective ; and Theoretical Perspectives on Work and the Employment Relationship (a LERA Research volume).

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ ILR Press; 1st edition (December 15, 2009)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0801448301
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801448300
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 0.94 x 9.25 inches
• #2,429 in Human Resources (Books)
• #7,803 in United States History (Books)
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Go read this look into how Amazon’s HR falls way behind

Turns out it isn’t making employee lives easier.

By Jasmine Hicks

Share this story

An email sent to Jeff Bezos from an Amazon warehouse worker began an internal investigation that found that the e-commerce giant falls behind when it comes to supporting its 1.3 million employees, according to The New York Time s .

From unjustified terminations to losing benefits with no warning, the employees inside the warehouse and the ones administering the leaves found themselves on the brink of burnout and sacrificing their lives to make up for countless HR issues related to paid and unpaid leave. Employees struggled to reach case managers, and doctor’s notes seem to simply disappear as paychecks were docked.

To add to the dysfunction, Amazon’s team didn’t have any policies to accommodate local laws like one in its home state. An employee filing for unpaid leave under a Washington state legal protection of domestic violence victims was terminated from the company for missing deadlines. The Washington state attorney general that took on her case called her termination a “failure” and retaliation that violated state law, according to the NYT .

You can go read the New York Times article right now. It will remind you that Amazon’s attention on consumer experience and technology doesn’t extend to the employees who keep the machine running.

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Strategic Human Resource Management: A Case Study of Amazon

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The Human Resource and the Change of Amazon's Expansion Strategy

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S. Bruce Thomson

Human Resource Management

D. Minbaeva

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 This paper aims to discuss differences between human resource management (HRM) and strategic human resource management (SHRM), and aims to discuss convergence or divergence between American and European HRM. Therefore, research question is what the similarities and differences are between European and American HRM. Research methodology is based on critical review of HRM literature. Therefore, this study aims to increase conceptual ability of human resource (HR) professionals. Major result is that HRM is related with employee performance, and SHRM is related with firm performance. Secondly, European HRM is becoming similar to American HRM. The difference between European and American HRM is social context and social partners. European HRM considers social partners in management of HR.

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The aim of this paper is to examine the Warwick and Storey Models of Human Resource Management (HRM). It begins with providing a general introduction underpinning the topic. In trying to understand and do justice to the topic, the paper examine the concept of HRM from different scholars. The paper opines that over the years a number of models have been postulated by various scholars to describe the HRM concept and how it operates. Among which the Storey model and the Warwick model were discussed. Finally, the paper concludes that since Human Resource Management (HRM) is critical for business sustainability, success and growth; thus, in order to gain competitive edge and maintain competitive advantage, organizations should use HRM models that can help to achieve maximum organizational and employee’s individual goals.

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This paper explores the performance effects of human resource management (HRM) practices in 74 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Four high performance HRM practices are identified: performance-based pay, participatory decision-making, free market selection, and performance evaluation. Regression analysis results support the conventional idea that the adoption of HRM practices generates better HRM outcomes and, in turn, better HRM outcomes contribute positively to firm performance. However, not all HRM practices, and their effects, led to improved SME performance. Among the Chinese SMEs investigated, a high level of employee commitment was identified as being the key HRM outcome for enhancing performance.

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Amazon is one of the world’s most recognised organisations. It was the first to leverage on-line platforms for selling and distribution, making its first book sale on-line in 1995 before diversifying into CD, DVDs and electronics and ultimately becoming the ‘everything store’. As Google is to internet search, Amazon is to e-commerce, practically inventing this category of shopping. Amazon’s overriding goal is ‘to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything online’.

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4 case studies of businesses that scaled to greatness.

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Joe Camberato is the CEO and Founder of National Business Capital , a leading FinTech marketplace offering streamlined small business loans.

Have you ever wondered why some companies succeed in unimaginable ways while others fade into obscurity? The best way to understand how to scale a company is to look at how the most successful companies have done it. Let’s look at four companies that started out small and become global players in their industries.

Amazon is one of the best-known companies in the world, so it’s easy to forget that founder Jeff Bezos started the company out of his garage . In 1994, Bezos financed Amazon, which began as an online bookseller, with $10,000 of his own money.

Amazon experienced many losses during its early days, but its revenue quickly grew from $4.2 million to $8.5 million in 1996. The company went public in 1997, and the following year, it expanded beyond books.

One of its biggest game changers came in 2005 when the company launched Amazon Prime, its subscription service. There are 180 million Prime members in the U.S. alone.

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Amazon’s continued commitment to innovation has led it to be one of the world’s most successful companies. Amazon provides its customers with almost unparalleled convenience.

Under Armour

In 1996, Under Armour was founded with the idea of creating a T-shirt that wicks sweat away more efficiently and keeps athletes dry. The company started small , with founder Kevin Plank selling T-shirts out of the trunk of his car and to his former teammates on the University of Maryland’s football team.

Under Armour made several iterations of its original prototype, and the T-shirt was a huge success. The company began growing organically. Plank wanted to increase the company’s growth, so in 1999, he decided to take out an ESPN ad for $25,000 . It was a risky move at the time, and employees agreed to go without pay for a couple of weeks so the company could afford the ad. However, the risk paid off, and Under Armour generated $1 million in sales the next year and dramatically increased its brand recognition.

Under Armour’s initial funding came from Plank , but the company went public in 2005 . Under Armour began to diversify and release new products, but it never lost focus on its central mission—improving the performance and comfort of all athletes.

In 2007, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia couldn’t afford the rent for their San Francisco apartment, so they decided to rent out their loft space to earn some extra money. They didn’t want to post an ad on Craigslist , so they decided to create their own rental site.

In 2009, they were accepted into Y Combinator and received $20,000 in funding . Airbnb later received another $600,000 in funding in a seed round, despite receiving a lot of early resistance. By 2014, Airbnb had more than 550,000 properties listed worldwide and 10 million guests.

One of its keys to success is its focus on the user experience. By allowing people to rent out their homes, the company gives the average person a way to earn an additional stream of income.

In 1997, Netflix was started as a DVD rental service to help customers avoid getting hit with late fees. Customers selected the movies and TV shows they wanted online and could then have them delivered to their homes.

In 1999 , founder Reed Hastings introduced a subscription-based model. Once customers were locked into a monthly subscription, they were more likely to rent more movies. In 2000, Netflix released its Unlimited Movie Rental program, which allowed customers to rent an unlimited number of movies each month for a monthly subscription of $19.95.

In 2007, Netflix launched its online streaming service, and that was the first year the company surpassed $1 billion in revenue. The company later began entering into content licensing deals with television studios and, in 2011, started producing its own original programming.

Netflix has been a success because the company is flexible and able to adapt quickly to changes in the marketplace. And Netflix’s founders were able to see the long-term vision for what the company could become, unlike companies like Blockbuster.

Tips On Scaling Your Business

Scaling a business is the ultimate goal for most entrepreneurs, but how can you make it happen? First, it’s important to understand the difference between growth vs. scaling. Growing businesses focus on getting bigger and acquiring more customers and more team members. In comparison, scaling focuses on efficiency. Scalable companies can serve more customers without significantly more effort.

It’s near-impossible to scale a company by yourself, so you should ensure you have the right team in place. This isn’t just about bringing on more employees. It’s about finding those few, highly specialized employees who can help you move the company forward.

Research from McKinsey found that the highest performers are 800 times more productive than average employees in the same role. Focus on finding and keeping the right staff of people who believe in the company’s mission.

My company started with me. I worked as hard as I could and made some great progress in the beginning, but a business can only reach a certain level with only one person. It started with one hire, then two, then three. Before long, I was surrounded by amazingly talented people, and the business started to grow beyond what I was able to achieve on my own.

You also need to focus on understanding your customers and maintaining quality customer service. As companies start to scale, maintaining a high level of customer service becomes increasingly difficult. Ensure you’re meeting your customers’ needs by creating standard operating procedures, automating what you can and investing in 24/7 live chat.

Scaling your business requires investing in technology and systems, which aren’t cheap. Even if you don’t need the funds yet, start identifying potential banks or online lenders where you can access a loan or ongoing line of credit. Finding the right financing opportunities allows you to build the infrastructure necessary to scale.

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Aditya Kalra is the Company News Editor for Reuters in India, overseeing business coverage and reporting stories on some of the world's biggest companies. He joined Reuters in 2008 and has in recent years written stories on challenges and strategies of a wide array of companies -- from Amazon, Google and Walmart to Xiaomi, Starbucks and Reliance. He also extensively works on deeply-reported and investigative business stories.

All presumed dead on Thai charter plane that crashed with five Chinese aboard

Thai rescuers used hoes on Friday to search muddy, forested terrain for debris and the remains of nine people aboard a charter flight that crashed the day before, authorities said, with all the travellers presumed dead.

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps

One of Marvel's most iconic families makes it back to the big screen, the Fantastic Four. One of Marvel's most iconic families makes it back to the big screen, the Fantastic Four. One of Marvel's most iconic families makes it back to the big screen, the Fantastic Four.

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• Trivia Marvel fans have been campaigning for years to have John Krasinski and Emily Blunt play Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic and Susan Storm/Invisible Woman, as they are married in real life and already have solid power couple chemistry onscreen. Krasinski has reportedly wanted to play Mister Fantastic after seeing a fan-art of he and his wife as the characters, but in an interview with Blunt, she claimed that Marvel Studios have not contacted either of them about Fantastic 4. Even if they did, she is not a fan of superhero films. Fans have also campaigned to have Zac Efron play Johnny Storm/Human Torch. Krasinski did get to play Mister Fantastic briefly in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Reed Richards : [giving a school lecture] This equation not only confirms alternate dimensions, it suggests that parallel Earths exist on different dimensional planes...

[sees his students are bored]

Reed Richards : Who wants to see a big explosion?

[his students perk up]

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How Did Mpox Become a Global Emergency? What’s Next?

The virus is evolving, and the newest version spreads more often through heterosexual populations. Sweden reported the first case outside Africa.

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By Apoorva Mandavilli

Apoorva Mandavilli covered the 2022 mpox outbreak and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Faced once again with a rapidly spreading epidemic of mpox, the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared a global health emergency. The last time the W.H.O. made that call was in 2022, when the disease was still called monkeypox.

Ultimately the outbreak affected nearly 100,000 people worldwide, primarily gay and bisexual men, including more than 32,000 in the United States.

The W.H.O.’s decision this time was prompted by an escalating crisis of mpox concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It recently spread to a dozen other African countries. If it is not contained, the virus again may rampage all over the world, experts warned.

On Thursday, Sweden reported the first case of a deadlier form of mpox outside Africa , in a person who had traveled to the continent. “Occasional imported cases like the current one may continue to occur,” the country’s public health agency warned.

“There’s a need for concerted effort by all stakeholders, not only in Africa, but everywhere else,” Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a Nigerian scientist and chair of the W.H.O.’s mpox emergency committee, said on Wednesday.

Congo alone has reported 15,600 mpox cases and 537 deaths, most of them among children under 15, indicating that the nature of the disease and its mode of spread may have changed.

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