Dive Brief:

• Amazon will look to hire for 30,000 full- and part-time job openings, starting at $15 an hour, for Amazon Career Day on Sept. 17. The company will hold six career day events across the U.S. from its second North American headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and in Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Nashville, Tennessee, a press statement statement said.
• Amazon will recruit people with a range of skills, education levels and experiences for these jobs, it said. Open positions include software developers, "computer vision scientists" and entry-level jobs at its fulfillment centers — where workers will use robotics tech. As part of Amazon's $700-million skills training initiative, the company said all candidates will have on-the-job training.
• "Amazon has created more than 300,000 new jobs in the U.S. over the last decade — and we're proud to continue investing and creating opportunities for people across the country," Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in the statement. "These are jobs with highly competitive compensation and full-benefits from day one, as well as training opportunities to gain new skills in high-demand fields such as robotics and machine learning." The company said it will start hiring tens of thousands of seasonal workers, also at $15 an hour, in the coming weeks to meet the holiday season's demand for staffing.

Dive Insight:

Amazon has been cited by some as being a leader in funding hourly employees' training and development.​ Frank Britt, CEO of online learning provider Penn Foster, previously told HR Dive that Amazon's skills training of employees in its retail store, transportation operations and fulfillment centers is challenging other employers to invest in the same level of training for their own hourly workers.

Training and development is not only a way to prepare workers for the future, but it can also be a valuable benefit that attracts and retains talent. In addition to its investment in training, Amazon gave some of its hourly employees a pay bump to $15 an hour late last year in response to pressure from the "Stop BEZOS" bill. However, Amazon faced backlash after it announced it would eliminate monthly bonuses and stock options for employees shortly thereafter, and it then said it would implement additional pay bumps in response.

Offering pay increases and career development opportunities can help engage workforces, but employers should be weary of offering such benefits as the sole fix for broader cultural flaws. Culture is so important to workers that more than half of those in a May 2019 Speakap poll said they would quit their current job for one offering a more positive culture. In Amazon's case, the company has come under scrutiny lately for cultural failings — from alleged pressure on warehouse employees to its shareholders' and leaders' failures to listen to workers' concerns over climate change. Employers might consider issues employees care deeply about and come up with a resolution that meets business needs while allaying workers' concerns.