Employees seek empathetic leaders, says Amazon's Deepti Varma The pandemic changed employees’ priorities and that change remains even as we have moved into the ‘return to work’ phase. Now, decision makers have to change their leadership styles By Sudeshna Mitra
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hen the onset of the pandemic made remote working the norm, employees' priorities changed drastically. Mental health and wellbeing surfaced as major criteria affecting employees' willingness to stay with an employer. This mindset has affected even the ‘return to work’ phase, leading employers to rethink their policies to retain talent in the competitive market. How are leaders recalibrating their policies around their employees under such circumstances? In an episode of People Matters Podcast, Deepti Varma, Director – HR for Amazon in APAC and Middle East described the approaches and expectations of leadership in a flexible working model. We bring you exclusive excerpts of the conversation.
When well-being and mental health surfaced as two major criteria for job seekers and employees, decision-makers had to rework their employeeoriented policies. How do you view this shift? It was always an employees’ market. We always need to work backwards from the employee base and come up with policies and processes that find favour with them. At Amazon, we say we strive to be Earth's best employer and what that actually
means is: “How do we make every day better for employees?” The pandemic did help us realise that all of us could work in remote setup and collaborate across the globe. But then, remote working or flexibility always existed at Amazon and has been a drawing factor for many employees. So the pandemic hit us, we were better prepared as compared to some in the market, to whom this concept was very new. And we were able to July 2022 |
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