How Strategic Employee Resourcing & Talent Management happens at Amazon

How Strategic Employee Resourcing & Talent Management happens at Amazon

Amazon.com has launched in 1995 with a mission of “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company” which was founded by Jeff Bezos and based out of Seattle, Washington.  

It was a website that only sold books when first launched & now it has expanded to sell electronics, music, furniture, and apparel.

At Amazon, they seek top talents from across industries and different backgrounds & where they value Customer-centric, Leadership & Innovation skills.

Interviewing at Amazon

Application & interview process at Amazon differs from role to role where this article will explain a common method of strategic resourcing, how they find real talent & how they manage it.

It would be easy to divide this process into four main stages where each & every employee at Amazon has to go through.

These are the main four stages Interviewing at Amazon.

1.     Online Application

2.     Assessment

3.     Phone Interview

4.     In-person Interview

Online Application

This is the first step in discovering opportunities at Amazon. Once you search for a Job of interest at Amazon jobs and find one, you can apply by simply clicking the button “Apply Now”. If you already have an Amazon Jobs Account you will require to log in or if not, you will require to create a new profile.

In this stage every candidate needs to upload his/her resume or CV with a brief description of their background, experience with employment dates, Educational achievements & skills.

Amazon will review the resumes and only contact candidates they’d like to learn more about. Hence, it is important to submit a complete attractive resume where it should describe the candidate’s working capacity into a maximum level.

Selected candidates will move to the next step of the interview.

Assessment

After the first stage, successful candidates have to prepare for assessments.

Amazons one of the highest priorities are to hire & develop the best. They use their online assessments as one way to get to know their candidates better & they design them to measure key characteristics required for success in a role. Every applicant is provided with the same experience & information needed to complete the assessment.

Two common types of assessments currently being implemented at Amazon.

a)     Work style assessments 

b)    Work sample simulations

Work style assessments 

These assessments are centered with Amazons culture and Leadership principles which needs to complete by 20-30 minutes. Amazon will ask their candidates to choose the extent to which a statement represents their work style.

Work sample simulations

These assessments will ask candidates to complete virtual tasks related to a specific position in 20 to 60 minutes. This includes making decisions based on Amazons leadership principles, demonstrating problem solving, prioritization, complete activities critical to success at Amazon and interpersonal abilities.

After completing the Assessments, successful candidates will be notified via email or they can check their status in application portal.

Phone Interview

This is also concerned with Amazons culture & Leadership principles. Phone interviews are routed in behavioral based questions which ask about past situations or challenges they’ve faced & how you handled them using leadership principles.

It is important to keep focus on the question asked, provided with a well-structured answer which is backed with examples & data which ever occurred in recent past.

Amazon will get back to the candidate within two business days after the phone interview.

In-person Interview

This is also concerned on behavioral-based interviewing. They expect their candidates answer in a structured method which known as “STAR” method.  

S – Situation

Describe the situation that you were in

T – Task

What goal were you working towards?

A – Action

Describe the actions you took to address the situation with details. Use the word “I” instead of “we” when describing action.

R - Result

Explain outcome of your actions. Your learning points. Include some data.

Applicants should make sure to provide specific examples which demonstrates their experience and unique skills. Each question to be answered while describing the situation, actions taken and the outcome.

Candidates will hear from Amazon after Five business days following the interview.

Conclusion

It is worth to consider why a company like Amazon use these stages to choose their employees & to what extent this has been a success to them. Amazon has created its Brand and Employee Value Proposition where people all over the world willing to work for it. As previously mentioned, Amazon is looking forward to hire & develop the best people and to find these best talents they are using various techniques from the recruiting level. From each of these stages they ensure that they hunt the best talent & the best person for the job which will affect the organization in long term success. Using multiple assessment techniques, observing by multiple observers & trying to find their talents is some of the key priorities of Strategic Employee Resourcing process proved effective in practice.

It is open to discuss whether this the best way for Strategic Employee resourcing & Talent Management or it can be done in an other different effective way.

References

Amazon Jobs Aren’t Always Worth the Hype — Here’s Why (no date). Available at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-jobs-aren-t-always-100300241.html.

Interviewing at Amazon (2019). Available at: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/landing_pages/interviewing-at-amazon.

How to prepare for Your Economist Interview at Amazon (no date) Inside Amazon Videos - You Tube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HEsBD1gn7Q&ab_channel=InsideAmazonVideos.

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