Unhappy workers at online retailer Amazon could receive up to $5,000 for quitting, according to CEO Jeff Bezos.
In his annual letter to Amazon shareholders, Bezos outlines a number of ‘inward innovations’ around people management. These include training staff to that aren’t going to stay and paying employees up to $5,000 if they quit.
Once a year the ‘Pay To Quit’ programme offers employees a large sum of money to quit their job. The first year the offer is made, the amount is $2,000 – rising a thousand dollars a year until it reaches $5,000.
Bezos says: “The headline on the offer is “Please Don’t Take This Offer.” We hope they don’t take the offer; we want them to stay. Why do we make this offer? The goal is to encourage folks to take a moment and think about what they really want. In the long-run, an employee staying somewhere they don’t want to be isn’t healthy for the employee or the company.”
Another programme offered by Amazon is ‘Career Choice’. The company will pre-pay 95% of tuition for employees to take courses for in-demand field such as a nursing, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.
“The goal is to enable choice. We know that for some of our fulfilment centre employees, Amazon will be a career. For others, Amazon might be a stepping stone on the way to a job somewhere else – a job that may require new skills. If the right training can make the difference, we want to help,” says Bezos.
Image courtesy of Flickr SeanMacEntee
