Final Communication Plan

Business Communication 314

Isiah Alvarez, Kadin Bradley, Alexandra Hawk,

Billy Kane, Blair Seaman, Andrew Watkins

Team 42
 Table of Contents

Executive Summary.........2

Introduction..............4

Situation........................................4

Background ..................4

Stakeholders.............5

Recommendations............7

Response............8

Conclusion.......10

References...12

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Executive Summary
After researching Amazons internal and external narratives, we have found a disconnect between our
goal of customer value and how we treat our employees. In this document you will find an explanation of
the issue of employee treatment, how it affects our stakeholders, and our plan to to rectify this issue by
communicating to our stakeholders.

Key Issue
The key issue Amazon faces regarding our internal and external narratives is how the company treats our
employees. In providing the customer with the best possible service, employees are struggling to keep up
with ever increasing workloads and responsibilities. This increased workload has created an atmosphere
of poor employee treatment.

Employees face many stressors throughout the workday, however, the factors that have the most
significant impact on employee treatment include coworker feedback, performance reviews, and a
demanding workload. Amazon uses methods to provide feedback that are perceived by employees as both
stressful and demeaning.

Stakeholders
We identified that the most significant stakeholders are Amazons employees, customers, and
stockholders. After identifying the current stakeholders that would be affected by this issue, we created
several communication goals to reach each audience. Providing different channels of communication will
allow our company to explain issues and results properly to all members of Amazon.

Employees Recommendation and Response

Beginning with our employees, Amazon should send a company wide email communicating that
management is aware of the issue at hand. In doing this, Amazon will be able to contact each worker
ensuring that every employee is on the same page. By addressing our employees first we will then be able
to show our customers how we are improving. We believe the best solution is to change how we offer our
employees feedback, and to hire more employees to reduce the workload.

Customers Recommendation and Response

In response to our customers concerns for ethical treatment, it is important that we communicate our
awareness of employee mistreatment in our fulfillment centers. Our customers value organizational
responsibility and ethicality. By implementing a social media campaign to highlight and commend
employees at every level of our organization, we will be able to communicate our efforts towards
improvement.

Stockholders Recommendation and Response

To ease our stockholders worries about how the current issue could affect profits we plan to address this
concern at the annual shareholder meeting. At the meeting the company will inform them of the internal
changes Amazon is going through as well as outlining the overall gain in profits.

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In order to maintain successful operations, the key issue of employee treatment needs to be addressed. We
plan to communicate to our three stakeholder groups using three specific plans that we are aware of the
issue and are working towards favorable resolutions.

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Introduction
In conducting business, the internal and external narratives surrounding Amazon have centered around
providing the customer with the best value. However, in our efforts to satisfy the customer, our
employees are unhappy and overworked. This has uncovered a misalignment of narratives in relation to
employee treatment. Recently, the media has exposed employee dissatisfaction within our company.

It is important that we communicate to our stakeholder groups that we are aware of this issue and are
going to make changes to improve how the company treats its employees. In this report you will find a
summary of the key issue, and our plan for communication regarding this issue with each of the three key
stakeholder groups.

Situation
The internal narratives Amazon portrays include growth, profitability and providing the best customer
value. The external narratives include poor employee treatment, a possible monopoly regarding the
Whole Foods acquisition, and good customer reviews. The internal and external narratives run parallel
regarding customer satisfaction, but the disconnect is in how Amazon treats its employees and the
consumers distaste for this mistreatment.

Amazon strives to offer customers the lowest possible prices, the best available selection, at the utmost
convenience. But in doing so employees have complained of poor working conditions and a less than
satisfactory organizational culture. Employees at the fulfillment centers are complaining of being
constantly monitored, being told to reach higher and higher targets and walking over 13 miles a day. Due
to the increased popularity of Amazon Prime employees at these fulfillment centers are having to work
harder to please the customer and meet the two day shipping promise. It seems as if Amazon is using its
mission statement of pleasing the customer as an excuse to push their employees beyond reasonable
limits.

Background
Key Issue
The main disconnect between Amazons internal and external narratives is the poor treatment of Amazon
employees. Employee treatment is the key issue for Amazon and an opportunity for growth. This issue
stems from Amazons mission to offer customers the best service and the best product, in doing so
employees are left to carry the burden of this demanding responsibility. Amazons organizational culture
of customer satisfaction and its poor working conditions have both played a part in Amazons negative
treatment of their workforce. In order to understand this issue it is critical to understand what factors
influence Amazons culture of poor employee treatment. These factors include coworker feedback,
performance reviews, and a demanding workload.

Amazon implements several tools and procedures that have lead to the manifestation of the poor standard
of employee treatment that has become normal at Amazon. To begin, Amazon uses several feedback and
performance evaluation tools that are used to rank their employees. These tools include Amazons
Collaborative Anytime Feedback Tool and Organizational Level Reviews. The Collaborative Anytime
Feedback Tool is Amazons internal feedback tool. It allows employees to critique and commend their
coworkers in real-time. However, this tool is often misused for its intended purpose. Employees report the

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tool is often used to deliberately undermine colleagues and that the feedback they receive is often
incorporated into their performance reviews including Amazon's Organizational Level Reviews.

Organizational Level Reviews are used by upper management to evaluate the performance of employees
and determine promotions as well terminations. The issue with the these reviews is that employees find
that they are not based on actual performance or capability but rather on reputations and feedback that
they received from their colleagues using the Anytime Feedback Tool. Due to the fact that this feedback
may be inaccurate and demeaning, employees feel the need to constantly defend their reputations and
even target their coworkers during their reviews if necessary. The next contributing factor of our key
issue is the heavy workload and expectations placed on employees by management.

Employees struggle to keep up with their responsibilities while also adhering to Amazons 14 Leadership
Principles. Employees state that it is not uncommon to work 60 hour weeks and to see coworkers
emotionally and physically distressed on the job. By allowing discouraging coworker feedback, overly-
critical performance reviews, and, heavy workloads, Amazon has created and maintained a poor standard
for employee treatment. If this issue goes uncorrected it can have a significant impact on business
operations and profitability. It is crucial that Amazon address the issue of employee treatment and
communicate to its stakeholders that they are implementing corrective measures. The three main
stakeholders identified as the most important to address in regards to this issue are Amazon employees,
customers, and shareholders.

Stakeholders
Employees
The first and most important stakeholder to address are Amazon employees. Amazon employees play a
crucial role in Amazons ability to conduct profitable business. If our employees feel that they are being
treated poorly it can have consequences that can proliferate into other stakeholder groups by driving
customers away and decreasing the value of Amazons stock. In order to effectively communicate with
employees it is important to understand who an Amazon employee is, their main communication
channels, and their wants and needs. To begin, Amazons workforce is largely white and male dominated
as illustrated below in Figure 1, with the average employee being a 31 year old white male.

Figure 1:

Source: https://www.amazon.com/
Furthermore, employees generally use three distinct communication channels while at work; face to face
verbal communications, email messages, and formal meetings. Lastly, and most important to understand,
is that the current tenure of an Amazon employee is only one year, which ranks second lowest among all
Fortune 500 companies.

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It is important to understand what is causing employees to leave at such a high rate and what they want
out of an employer. Employees are leaving to seek better treatment, clearer communication with
management, and a less competitive environment. Amazon needs to communicate with its employees and
make efforts to address these wants before the effects spillover and impact Amazons ability to conduct
business by driving customers away from Amazon to more ethical companies.

Customers
Amazons second biggest stakeholder are their customers. Customers are fundamental in Amazons
business and if customers boycott or switch to other retailers, it will affect Amazons ability to generate
profits. More specifically, we focused our research on Amazons millennial customers who read or watch
the news. The reasoning behind this selection is due to the fact that 71% of Amazon Prime Members are
millennials. It is essential to understand the millennial consumer as a whole as well as what they look for
in a company when making purchasing decisions.

Millennials are the largest generational cohort in the United States with nearly 80 million individuals.
They are also the first generation to grow up with modern technology, making them the most
technologically sound and socially connected generational cohort. As shown in Figure 2 below, this
generation has a strong online presence, and make an effort to shop from ethical companies.

Figure 2:

Source: http://webershandwickseattle.com/

Millennials are also expected to inherit nearly 20 trillion dollars while simultaneously moving into the
workforce, awarding them significant buying power. If Amazon does not communicate with this group
and strive to meet their needs, it could lead to lost business and a loss of profit for the company.

Stockholders
The third biggest stakeholder we identified regarding the issue of employee treatment are Amazons
stockholders. Amazon has nearly three million shares issued on the New York Stock Exchange making it
one of the largest and widely traded companies traded on the exchange. Although Amazons stock has
performed well in the past, shareholders want to ensure long term economic growth and success.

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Shareholders realize that in order to maintain the current level of growth, employee treatment needs to be
addressed and rectified. Stockholders are aware of the fact that millennials and consumers are shifting
their buying habits to purchase from ethical companies. Due to poor employee treatment at Amazon,
customers may begin to patronize more ethical competitors. If Amazon loses customers to rival
companies, the value of their stock price would decline and new and existing shareholders will look to
invest elsewhere.

If Amazon continues to treat their employees poorly financial projections indicate that the price of
Amazons stock could plummet from $1,004 to $400 per share in the next ten years. However, if Amazon
takes corrective actions to improve employee treatment their stock price could experience record growth
and prices up to $3,000 per share. In short, Amazon needs to communicate to their shareholders that they
are working to improve employee treatment. Corrective actions will lead to happier employees, more
customers and increased profits which will raise the stock price thus benefiting our stockholders.

Recommendation
In the future, it is crucial that Amazon focuses on this internal issue and how it affects the business that
they are conducting. It is important that we effectively communicate to each of our stakeholders that we
plan to address and fix this issue. We have listed various recommendations below on how we plan to
communicate to these stakeholders.

Employees
Our employees are responsible for the quality of work delivered to our customers. Without the support
and trust from our our employees, it is difficult to conduct business as we have done in the past. The
leaders within Amazon need to communicate to workers that employee treatment is a key issue that needs
to be resolved. We plan to resolve this issue by changing the way we provide feedback, shifting from the
Collaborative Anytime Feedback Tool to in person meetings discussing goals that are mutually agreed
upon. Also, Amazon needs to hire more employees in order to alleviate the workload of each employee.
We found that conveying our plan to our workers is most effective through email. In doing this, we are
able to contact each and every employee to report our views on mistreatment and how we aim to rectify
the situation.

Another option is to mention the same information that is obtained in the email to our workers directly in
their performance reviews. This may be a helpful alternative for employees that want the issue to be
discussed in person as opposed to an online memo. Regardless of the route, each and every employee
needs to know that the company is aware of the issue and attempting to fix it. By improving the working
conditions, our customers will be more happy shopping from us.
Customers
In Amazons efforts to put the customer first, it is also important that we incorporate the wants and needs
of our consumers into our business practices. Following the digital revolution, one of our largest
consumer segments now consists of the millennial generation, the largest generation in United States
history. With the majority of this generation following the news on the internet, and using social media,
tales of employee mistreatment spread quickly. Among many other values, the ethicality and social
responsibility of a company are two standards millennials look for during a purchasing decision. Thus,

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hearing of unhappy employees and dire working standards could prompt Amazon to lose this large
consumer segment.

To remediate this, it is crucial that we communicate both our awareness of the employee treatment issue,
and the actions we are taking to fix it. With such a large online presence, social media is the best way to
reach the millennial generation, Amazon should consider a social media campaign highlighting individual
employees at all levels of the company. By acknowledging and displaying appreciation for our
employees, Amazon could once again be seen as an ethical company. By retaining our consumer base and
keeping sales high, our stockholders will be happy with us.

Stockholders
Amazons efforts in addressing this issue must consistently align with stockholders wants and needs to
keep the company profitable. Ensuring that our employees are being treated properly will only benefit
shareholders. If the company improves the wellbeing of workers, Amazon will continue to see success in
the future. If this issue is not taken care of, negative comments and media attention may affect the returns
stakeholders receive from the company. In order to keep these individuals aligned with this idea, we can
inform stakeholders of the progress we have made regarding employee treatment at our annual
stockholder meetings. This will give executives the ability to discuss the current issues surrounding the
company and how they plan to address them in the future. Amazon could also acquire information from
stockholders on how they would like to see certain issues taken care of.

Response
A summary of our communication plan can be found in Figure 3 at the end of this section.

Employees
The best way to address our employee concerns is by letting them know we are aware that this issue
exists and are working to correct it. In order to begin fixing the issue and improve working conditions the
first step we suggest taking is to communicate through a company-wide email we plan to hire more
employees and change the way we provide feedback. Because we identified our employees as the most
important stakeholder, we suggest to begin forming the company memo within the next week to allow the
company to begin the hiring process at the fulfillment centers the week after in order to prepare for the
busy season.

Amazon needs to hire more employees at the fulfillment centers in order to lessen the workload as that is
a main concern of current workers. According to our research, it cost on average $7,000 to hire a new
warehouse employee. If the company hires 25,000 fulfillment center employees this would cost the
company $175 million. However, if we could increase the average tenure 2 years and with a total of
90,000 employees in the fulfillment centers this would end up saving the company $455 million in hiring
costs. By doing this our current employees wont feel as overworked by the current demands.

In regard to feedback, Amazon needs change the way employees are evaluated. The company needs to
keep their expectations clear and consistent. In providing fair feedback our team believes that our
employees will be more content with their jobs, and open to feedback. The best way to improve feedback
is removing the Collaborative Anytime Feedback Tool to make the feedback less opinion based. Rather

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we suggest to base the feedback on mutually agreed upon goals between managers and lower level
employees that are stated prior to the period. By changing this feedback, we hope to foster a better
working environment that encourages employee growth. The budget to change the feedback process is
estimated to be around $2.5 million.

Customers
In order to let our customers know we are changing and becoming a more ethical company the most
effective strategy to reach them is through a social media campaign. In 2016, Amazon spent over $7.2
billion in marketing; this is more than Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Kroger combined.
Millions of this $7.2 billion is spent on social media campaigns. Our most important segment of
customers we identified were millennials because they will be instrumental to ensure Amazon stays
profitable in the future. With how much Amazon is spending on marketing, the return is definitely worth
the investment as the online marketplace produced 16.6% of the revenue from 18 to 35-year-old online
shoppers last year.

Specifically, we believe launching an Instagram campaign would be a good route to go about this as the
company can post pictures and videos of the improvements taking place at the fulfillment centers. Also,
on this campaign we can feature employees who are going above and beyond to show them we recognize
the hard work and value they add to the company. We can use this campaign as a way to document the
progress of the changes we are making for our employees. By doing this we can keep our millennial
customer base up to date on our improvements as well as keeping track of our steps.

This should take place after the company addresses the employees with the email and begin to make
employing more workers so we have content to post. Assuming we begin the early stages of the hiring
process the week after the memo is sent we should be able to start this campaign in mid December as it
can take up to a couple months to complete the hiring. This timing will match up well to begin as it is
right in the middle of holiday season and people will be online shopping the most. Instagram ad
campaigns can run from $350,000 to $1,000,000 per month. If we run this campaign for one year that
would range from $4,200,000 to $12,000,000 which is only a fraction of the current marketing budget.

Stockholders
Finally, to address the shareholders of the company we will inform them of our recent efforts to improve
our employee treatment. We found the most efficient way to communicate this with a majority of the
shareholders is to bring it up at the annual stockholder meeting.

This meeting takes place in late May which provides us enough time to begin implementing changes and
present the progress to the stockholders. Using this meeting will be both cost effective and efficient
because it will allow us to reach these people at an event that is already taking place which cuts out the
need to organize another event that could take months to plan. In order to make them feel secure about
our improvements we will let them know that the net gain from investing in our employees could reach
around $441.5 million.

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 Figure 3:

Response Action Timeline Budget ROI

Send Company E-mail 1-2 Weeks N/A Connecting with employees

Change Feedback 1-2 Weeks $2.5 Million (to perform Employees and management will
Mechanism new style of performance be on the same page, better
reviews) employee response to feedback,
increased job satisfaction

Hiring Process 1-2 Months $175 million Net savings after two years: $455
million, happier employees, more
efficient fulfillment centers

Launch Instagram 2-14 Months $4.2-$12 million Change public opinion; Portray a
Campaign more ethical image

Inform Shareholder of ~8 Months N/A Reassure investors; Notify them

Progress of company savings

Conclusion
The internal and external company narratives are related regarding the aspect of customer satisfaction.
While striving to provide the best customer value through fast delivery, employees are being overworked
in order to fulfill the expectations of the customer. Not only does this key issue affect our employees but
it also affects our two other stakeholder groups, customers and shareholders. Poor employee treatment is
unappealing to our consumers, and our shareholders want to invest in an ethical company. To resolve this
key issue we have to effectively communicate with each stakeholder that we are working to fix employee
treatment. It is important that we communicate this in a method that will resonate with each stakeholder
group.

Regarding our employees, we will communicate with them through a company wide email, receiving
employee complaints and suggestions to better the working environment. To communicate with our
millennial customers, we will launch a social media campaign on Instagram posting pictures and videos
of the improvements to our fulfillment centers. To communicate with our shareholders, we will have our
annual shareholder meeting in May where we will show them how we are improving the fulfillment
centers and working to resolve the issue of employee treatment. If you have any questions please feel free
to contact our team leader at alexandrahawk@email.arizona.edu.

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