November 6, 2024

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Mental Health Is Central to a Healthy Work Environment, Says Amazon’s Shantanu Chakraborty

Mental Health Is Central to a Healthy Work Environment, Says Amazon’s Shantanu Chakraborty

Amazon is a company of builders who bring varying backgrounds, ideas, and point of views to invent on behalf of our customers. Our diverse perspectives come from our diverse employee cohorts including gender, race, age, national origin, sexual orientation, culture, education, and professional and life experience. By bringing individuals from different backgrounds into our teams, we aim to build an inclusive environment that reflects and understands the needs of our diverse customer base.

While Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are good for business, our commitment is based on something more fundamental than that – it is simply right. When employees feel valued and respected for who they are and what they bring to the table, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated to bring their most authentic self at work and perform to their best potential. With this in mind, we continue to focus on providing individuals from different backgrounds, demographics, and social strata with equal access to opportunities and resources, enabling them with a level playing field to expand their horizons. We have many programs under the umbrella of ‘Together at Amazon’ initiative to enable this. 

To address the gender gap and create a more inclusive environment for women in the workforce, it is crucial to implement a holistic strategy that ensures equal access to opportunities, career development, and tailored support. At Amazon, we are committed to increasing the representation of women at every level of the organisation, from entry-level positions to leadership. We recognise that fostering gender diversity requires targeted initiatives that provide women with opportunities to grow, develop, and thrive in their careers. 

One of our cornerstone initiatives is ‘rekindle’, which offers women who have taken a career break the chance to re-enter the workforce. ‘rekindle’ provides structured interventions, including focused mentoring, flexible work options, and on-the-job learning, to help women regain their professional momentum. In the last year alone, over 200 women have joined Amazon India through this program, contributing to a more diverse and inclusive workforce. To further assist women in managing both their personal and professional lives, we have introduced the Ramp Back program, which supports new mothers as they transition back to work by offering flexible schedules and reduced workloads. This ensures that women can balance their personal commitments while continuing to grow their careers. We also provide flexible working options to support lifecycle needs of employees. 

Amazon offers several mentoring programs for women, such as the ‘Power of 10’. In this program, once a group of 10 women graduates, they support the next cohort of 10 women, with mentee becoming mentors. This initiative mentorship and knowledge exchange among women and senior leaders supporting their professional growth of women, and creating a pipeline of future female leaders. The ‘Pinnacle’ program aims to develop women for senior roles through a blend of learning, mentorship, and hands-on experience, contributing to an internal pipeline of diverse leadership.  

Our learning programs for women include ‘Catapult’, a curated initiative launched in partnership with Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning, aimed at mid-level women managers. It comprises curricular elements such as expressing leadership voice, leading with an enterprise mindset, and strengthening networks. We also provide the Women’s Leadership Program (WLP), which is designed for women in mid-management.  

Additionally, Amazon also has multiple networking platforms, such as affinity groups, allowing women employees across the company to come together and learn from one another as a community. Another noteworthy program is the ‘I am Remarkable’ sessions, designed to empower women and other represented groups to share and celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.  

These initiatives reflect Amazon’s broader commitment to building a workplace that not only embraces gender diversity but actively supports the career advancement of women across all levels. For us, it’s an on-going journey where we continue to seek inputs and find new avenues to make Amazon a more inclusive place to work.   

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