Amazon's Relationship With Graebel Companies, Inc.

Overview

Eight years ago, Amazon entered into a relationship with the Graebel Companies, Inc. to provide global relocation services. In the first year of this relationship, Amazon moved just under 1,000 employees. That number will exceed 20,000 employees in 2016. While Graebel has handled that growth without major service issues and provided an excellent experience for Amazon employees, a number of areas have been identified as critical to ensuring they can manage Amazon’s projected 5-year annual growth rate of 50%. These areas include Graebel’s overall capacity plans, management of Graebel’s supply chain, management of the account, service level agreements, technology enhancements, household goods claims resolution, global financial support,

That represents a growth rate of slightly more than 200% between 2016 and 2021. While that growth is not equal to the growth experienced in the first eight years of the relationship, it still represents significant growth in total numbers (i.e., 408 employees) and therefore, it is critical that Graebel’s plan to manage this growth is clearly defined. The underlying foundation of Graebel’s philosophy is based on the utilization of multiple locations around the globe that can support Amazon’s mobility program. Today, Amazon is supported by operational centers in Denver and Seattle (Americas), Singapore and Shanghai (APAC) and Prague (EMEA). Starting in 2017, additional support will be provided in the Atlanta and Houston offices for the Americas and Ireland for EMEA. The benefit of utilizing multiple locations is twofold. First, no single operations center will be required to hire a substantial number of new employees. This will limit the amount of onboarding required to meet the capacity needs. Additionally, utilization of a single global platform based on standard processes helps ensure that the Amazon employee will receive the same great service experience regardless of the Graebel service center. Second, multiple locations allow for a primary and a secondary service center for each type of relocating employee. Appendix 2 details the

All front-line training resources have been redesigned and new training materials created. This has led to a significant reduction in the time it takes for a Graebel associate to become proficient, which is supported by Graebel’s ability to manage the significant growth of this summer as it far exceeded the projected 20% (actual growth was 50%).

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