Creating an Inclusive Culture

We believe that building a sense of belonging, value, and opportunity is integral to people thriving in their lives and at work—and to what we can achieve as a company. We take an intersectional approach to the policies, programs, and strategies we create for our employees, selling partners, suppliers, and customers to build inclusion into our business.

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Driving Inclusion With Our Leadership Principles

Amazon’s culture of inclusion is reinforced by our Leadership Principles, which remind team members to seek diverse perspectives, learn and be curious, and lead with empathy.

Amazon's Leadership Principles featured on a wall in an Amazon office building. A woman is walking in front of them.

One of our newest Leadership Principles—Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer—specifically calls on leaders to work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment.

Our Inclusion Commitments

In 2021, we set enterprisewide goals to rapidly scale a more inclusive culture for employees across Amazon.

Commitment
Ensure that 100% of employees take companywide required inclusion training
commitment
Retain employees at statistically similar rates across all demographics
commitment
Build a scalable mechanism in Connections—our real-time employee listening tool—to inspect inclusion sentiment by demographic for all employees
commitment
Build scalable mechanisms that address new instances of noninclusive terms in our code and document repositories or development tools
Affinity Groups

Our affinity groups are Amazon communities where employees can share experiences and ideas to passionately and positively impact the company.

Affinity Groups
100,000+
Amazon employees participated in our affinity groups in 2021

Our dedicated DEI teams consult with affinity group leaders to improve our inclusion efforts internally and externally, and each affinity group has an executive sponsor who supports them with engagement efforts.

LGBTQ+ Equality

Amazon and our employees stand together with the LGBTQ+ community.

A group of people walk in a parade with t-shirts that say "glamazon." At the front are two people holding a "glamazon" banner.
Our Progress
As of 2021, there were more than 100 global chapters of Glamazon, our LGBTQ+ affinity group

As of 2021, there were more than 100 global chapters of Glamazon, our LGBTQ+ affinity group. We’re committed to advancing equal rights and have a long track record of advocating for protections for the LGBTQ+ community.

In the U.S. and India, Amazon provides transgender-inclusive health benefits and gender transition benefits based on the Standards of Care published by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Amazon also holds a gender identity conference to build community, educate those outside of the LGBTQ+ community, and provide professional development opportunities for those at Amazon who are transitioning openly in the workplace.

Spotlight
The work of DEI requires everyone to disrupt biases that build barriers and create inequities. This includes representation in the workplace, as well as in the media we consume daily.

Working closely with the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, the International Documentary Association, and Gamechanger Films, we created the Inclusion Playbook to help people recognize biases that occur across the lifecycle of a series or movie—from production to launch.

Outlining how to think about a story, casting, crewing up, and how to track and report inclusion successes, the Playbook is specifically designed to advance the visibility and responsible depictions of underrepresented communities. We view it as an evolving document that will be updated over time, offering a much-needed tool to guide decision-making in creative hiring practices.
On Amazon Studios
Mentoring for the Military Community

Amazon recruits experienced military leaders from all branches and all backgrounds.

Jennifer Mackay wears an Amazon military t-shirt in front of an Amazon building.

Together, these leaders form important pipelines of talent. We offer veterans the Military Mentoring Program (MMP), a career-development resource that connects new employees with experienced employees who help them translate and apply their knowledge to Amazon.

New veteran hires who join the MMP complete a brief profile before being matched with a mentor, who then collaborates with them throughout their first year at Amazon. Mentors also assist mentees with progressing in the Military Ambassador Program, a 12-month development program focused on sharing resources such as writing exercises, videos, and virtual huddles.

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