Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has always been more creative than most companies. The world’s leading online retailer has made its name on innovative solutions to well-worn problems. The company can’t deal with poor employees holding it back, and it’s apparently been taking steps to mitigate their affect on company morale.
According to the annual letter to shareholders authored by Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos, the company will pay employees to quit their job if they’re no longer happy. This isn’t a redundancy package or a contract buyout, it’s a simple take the money and run scheme for the unhappy. The executive reckons it will result in a happier work force over time, and will reap more benefits than it costs in cash.
Amazon fulfills employees at Fulfillment centers
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) fulfillment centers are the warehouses where customer orders are filled and shipped. Employees at those centers that are directly employed by Amazon will be able to reap the benefits of the pay-to-quit program. The first round amount under the program is $2000. Each additional time the offer is made the amount increases by $1000, up to a maximum of $5000.
According to reports the program is designed to ensure that those unhappy in their work will leave the company. A few bad employees may ruin morale all over, and the pay-to-quit program may significantly reduce the numbers of bad apples in Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) barrels.
Amazon values job satisfaction, though some employees differ
The company says that the well-being and happiness of the workers in the company’s fulfillment centers is of paramount important to Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), though some of the company’s former employees may disagree. Several reports in recent years have suggested that conditions in the firm’s fulfillment centers are not exactly pleasant, and some went so far as to allege an increased risk of mental illness in the employer’s care.
The pay-to-quit idea is a novel one. It was reportedly invented by Zappos, now a subsidiary of the online retailer. The company was once an independent shoe and clothing retailer. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) put an end to that independence in the summer of 2009.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is trying something different, and its results will determine whether or not the program spreads to other firms. Employee morale has become an obsession among some tech companies. Few deal with the kind of labor that Amazon employs in its warehouses, but that doesn’t mean a program based on this can’t work in a retail operation, or an accounting firm.
