The Daily Populous Wednesday May 12nd, 2021 morning edition
Authored by businessinsider.com and submitted by pltyz

Some Amazon managers say they hire people they intend to fire just to meet their turnover goal.

The practice is internally called "hire to fire," according to three Amazon managers.

Amazon employees say the performance-review system gives managers too much power over their careers.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Amazon has a goal to get rid of a certain percentage of employees every year, and three managers told Insider they felt so much pressure to meet the goal that they hired people to fire them.

"We might hire people that we know we're going to fire, just to protect the rest of the team," one manager told Insider.

The practice is informally called "hire to fire," in which managers hire people, internally or externally, they intend to fire within a year, just to help meet their annual turnover target, called unregretted attrition (URA). A manager's URA target is the percentage of employees the company wouldn't regret seeing leave, one way or the other.

In a statement to Insider, Amazon's spokesperson denied that the company hired employees with the intention of firing them and said it did not use the phrase "hire to fire."

But the existence of the practice in at least some parts of the company shows how Amazon's system of requiring managers to hit a target attrition goal every year can foster controversial norms and practices.

The most senior executives at Amazon, including incoming CEO Andy Jassy, closely track their URA goals, according to internal documents obtained by Insider. Jassy, for example, is expected to replace 6% of his division through "unregretted" departures on what appears to be an annual basis.

Managers are pressured to hit these targets one way or another. According to a memo previously reported by Insider, Amazon Web Services teams that fell short of URA goals in 2020 were required to make up the difference in 2021. In other words, if a particular team had an attrition of 3% one year, but a URA goal of 5%, it would have to get rid of 7% of employees the following year. The document did not address teams that exceeded attrition goals.

That internal memo also directed AWS managers to place twice as many employees as it wanted to get rid of into a performance-coaching plan called Focus. Amazon's spokesperson said the company had no central goals about how many employees should be entered into Focus.

Focus appears to be a strategy for Amazon managers to get rid of enough employees to meet the URA goal. Those placed on the Focus coaching plan are often met with unrealistic goals and vague expectations, Insider previously reported. Those who fail Focus are put into the next phase of the performance-improvement plan called Pivot, which can lead to an exit from the company.

Amazon employees told Insider that the performance-review process gave managers too much power over their careers. Managers can put any of their employees on the Focus coaching plan, which prevents them from applying for other positions within the company. And it's difficult to get out of the plan, which can result in a voluntary resignation or termination from the company.

"It takes a team to hire but one messed-up manager to fire someone," one employee told Insider previously.

Do you work at Amazon? Contact reporter Eugene Kim via encrypted messaging apps Signal/Telegram (+1-650-942-3061) or email (ekim@businessinsider.com).

Are you an Amazon Web Services employee? Contact reporter Ashley Stewart via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email (astewart@businessinsider.com).

AwareParking on May 12nd, 2021 at 01:02 UTC »

At a tech company, I was promoted to lead of a to be formed team. My manager taught me the ropes of putting the team together and coordinated with HR on hiring. We put together a strong core team of internal transfers and new hires. He casually told me the Last spot was for the person we were going to hire then fire.

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Yeah, Hire, bad performance review, then fire. We’ll get two years out of this person taking it for the team.

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Yeah, my team will be big enough for the forced curve to be applied. So someone HAS to get the lowest ranking.

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Ok, who have we staffed already that you’d like to fire? Nobody? Well … then lets go pick that person.

I saw how the corporate sausage was made that day.

kabdib on May 12nd, 2021 at 00:58 UTC »

Happened at Microsoft during the Ballmer reign as well, where a team would hire "ten percenters" and them fire them to protect the *real* team.

ultradip on May 11st, 2021 at 20:04 UTC »

I thought that the goal in most businesses would be to reduce turnover because replacing people has it's own costs.