Amazon's Attrition Costs $8 Billion Annually - Leaked Documents

Amazon churns through workers at an astonishing rate, well above industry averages. From a report: According to a tranche of documents marked 'Amazon Confidential' provided to Engadget and not previously reported on, that staggering attrition now has an associated cost. '[Worldwide] Consumer Field Operations is experiencing high levels of attrition (regretted and unregretted) across all levels, totaling an estimated $8 billion annually for Amazon and its shareholders,' one of the documents, authored earlier this year, states. For a sense of scale, the company's net profit for its 2021 fiscal year was $33.36 billion.

The documents, which include several internal research papers, slide decks and spreadsheets, paint a bleak picture of Amazon's ability to retain employees, and how the current strategy may be financially harmful to the organization as a whole. They also broadly condemn Amazon for not adequately using or tracking data in its efforts to train and promote employees, an ironic shortcoming for a company which has a reputation for obsessively harvesting consumer information. These documents were provided to Engadget by a source who believes these gaps in accounting represent a lack of internal controls. 'Regretted attrition' -- that is, workers choosing to leave the company -- 'occurs twice as often as unregretted attrition' -- people being laid off or fired -- 'across all levels and businesses,' according to this research. The paper, published in January of 2022, states that the prior year's data 'indicates regretted attrition [represents] a low of 69.5% to a high of 81.3% across all levels (Tier 1 through Level 10 employees) suggesting a distinct retention issue.' By way of explanation, Tier 1 would include entry-level roles like the company's thousands of warehouse associates, while a vice president would be positioned at Level 10. It also notes that 'only one out of three new hires in 2021' stay with the company for 90 or more days.

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