Certain data points, names, and details have been altered or generalized to maintain confidentiality and respect internal privacy requirements.
Weekly attrition was high at 6.7% at my site. That's about 180 associates every week, costing Amazon $180,000 weekly in turnover. Our goal is to have an attrition of 1.5%.
I started conducting qualitative exit interviews to figure out why associates left Amazon. Conducted about 20 interviews weekly for 8 weeks. Asked questions such as: why did you leave, what resources and support were missing if anything, was there anything Amazon could do to improve your experience.
Surveys were considered, but interviews were chosen for the research methodology as it allowed me to ask follow up questions to uncover the root cause of why the associate resigned and for me to confirm if they were aware of potential solutions to their resignation reason.
Three biggest reasons for leaving were school, family move, and personal reasons. When informed about resources that could have helped them, a lot of associates mentioned they did not know about the support resources Amazon offered and wished the information was more accessible. Based on these insights I identified the problem as the lack of knowledge associates have on support resources that might help them. I hypothesized that if my site improved education on support resources and made it more accessible, we could lower attrition.
Launched an education campaign focused on school and moving resources Amazon offers, such as school accommodations and building transfers. Campaign action includes informing associates during start up meetings, putting it in the weekly newsletter, and putting up informational posters around the building. After campaigning for 4 weeks our attrition rate went down to 3%
Saved Amazon almost $6 million a year due to less turnover!