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Employers are using every carrot and stick they can find to bring employees back to the office these days.
Amazon’s latest tactic is denying promotions to employees who don’t comply with its in-office attendance policy. HR leaders at companies inspired to take this approach may want to conduct a risk assessment and develop a good communications strategy, one expert cautioned.
Zoom in. Amazon employees who don’t work in-person at least three days a week may not be considered for promotions, Business Insider reported.
While in-office attendance might not be the only factor HR takes into account, employees need their manager to recommend them for promotion, and a VP to ultimately approve it.
“Promotions are one of the many ways we support employees’ growth and development, and there are a variety of factors we consider when determining an employee’s readiness for the next level. Like any company, we expect employees who are being considered for promotion to be in compliance with company guidelines and policies,” an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider.
Lesson learned. With this policy, the retailer may have put its people leaders in a tricky situation, according to Kate Palmer, an HR advisor at Peninsula UK, an HR consultancy. HR leaders at companies considering a policy similar to Amazon’s should conduct a risk assessment to determine potential contract, recruitment, and attrition pitfalls, she said.
“The cost of recruiting, the cost of attrition is massive,” Palmer told HR Brew. “With any policy change,” she said, people teams should consider “the wider ramifications of what that means for all these different considerations—legalistic risk, recruitment, engagement, attraction, attrition, reputation, because that can influence everything.”
Palmer also recommended that the entire leadership team be on the same page when communicating the new policy.
“Have a very consistent message that they’re going to put out to the wider employee population,” she suggested, noting that employees are more likely to accept a policy, such as promotions being tied to attendance, if all managers echo the “why” behind it.
Be prepared to answer “Why have the policy? What are the benefits? Why is it the best thing for the business?” she said, “and then make sure that you’re putting it out consistently.”