Amazon India, on 27 Aug 2019, announced the Military Veterans Employment Program in partnership with the Office of the Director General of Resettlement (DGR) & Army Welfare Placement Organization (AWPO).
Amazon is already known to have hired military veterans in various roles across the company in the past. Transportation, company’s fulfillment, sortation, and delivery centers, facilities management, and security operations are a few such areas. Amazon believes that former defense service personnel bring qualities like honesty, integrity, discipline, and dedication to the duty to the corporate world.
There are also a few higher positions like Senior Managers and Director across its various business verticals, where Amazon utilizes their natural leadership skills and affinity for getting the job done against all odds.
Examples of Former Military Personnel Employed at Amazon
- Col Arun Nair, CPP, CCTP, India Security Manager, Amazon Corporate Security, APAC Region. [Click here to read an excerpt of his interview]
- Shivani Bhatia, Senior Program Manager, Delivery Station Regional Management, Amazon India
- Manoj Rajendran, Senior Corporate Counsel (Labor and Employment), Amazon India
- Vijay Subramanian, Senior Manager, Program Management, Amazon Logistics – Global Strategy
- Suman Yadav Sr. Manager HR for Amazon India
- Vinod Mathews, Director, Real Estate & Facilities, Amazon India
As per Akhil Saxena, Vice President (Asia operations, Amazon), this program is primarily a way to formalize these efforts already underway and help create hundreds of career opportunities for military families who have served the country.
Military Veterans Employment Program – Global Objective
Amazon already has a program in place worldwide under which over 17,500 military veterans and spouses are actively engaged with the company. By 2021, the company’s global objective is to hire an additional 25,000 former veterans and souses and Military Veterans Employment Program introduce in India is a part of this global objective.
Those hired under this program will be a part of an affinity group “Amazon Warriors”. This is a global network for military veterans who are joining the corporate world.
Over the last couple years, similar programs and initiatives of recruiting country’s former military personnel have been undertaken by various other companies like Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, RPG Enterprise.
To sum up, I would say, it is truly a great initiative by Amazon and really worth appreciating.
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