Contrarian king Jeff Bezos turns the old training cliché (CEO: ‘What if we train the team and they leave…?’ SD: ‘What if we don’t train them and they stay?’) on its head and deflects a little potential ‘staff-abuse’ criticism in the process….
In his latest annual letter to Amazon shareholders, Bezos outlines a number of ‘inward innovations’ around people management. These include training staff for in-demand non-Amazon jobs such as nursing and paying employees up to $5,000 if they quit.
Outsiders may feel that Bezos is simply heading off criticism that Amazon work their warehouse staff too hard – ‘walking 11 miles per shift’, etc. – but in fact he is taking a very innovative approach to reducing attitude issues at work.
Given that the right attitude makes development of a team’s knowledge and skills easier and takes half the time, coupled with the fact that ‘festering discontent’ can be highly infectious, Bezos approach has to make sense..
If still in doubt, think of the resource cost and complicated legal process involved in applying the traditional approach to ‘attitude’ elimination…
