A Solution for Amazon’s Warehouse Hiring Challenge

Question for Andy Jassy: As you search for solutions to Amazon’s persistent warehouse staffing needs, have you considered making the facilities better places to work? Sure, you will respond that the warehouses are already fine places of employment, what with their $18 hourly wages, health insurance, college reimbursement costs, etc. Last week, in fact, Amazon bragged that it was “the most desirable workplace in the U.S.” citing a LinkedIn survey. But if Amazon really was such a desirable place to work, would it have to resort to trawling high schools for new employees, as The Information reported today? 

Certainly, turnover among warehouse workers wouldn’t be twice that of rival companies, as the New York Times reported last year. Another news report from CNBC today may explain part of the problem: Amazon warehouse workers suffered serious injuries at twice the rate of those from rival companies last year. That follows a report in The Information last year that said the same thing about injury rates at Amazon’s delivery stations, based on an analysis we did of government data. We don’t want to generalize or anything. But it does seem that exposing your staff to serious injuries too often just might be a deterrent to staff retention.