Teams set up in Luxembourg are by definition multicultural and diverse. Amazon, one of the country’s largest employers, shares its views on the benefits brought by this diversity.
Lena Mårtensson
E-commerce specialist Amazon had around 3,000 employees at its European HQ in Luxembourg in 2020, and expects its team to grow by 20% in 2021 to 3,600. Activities hosted in Luxembourg include, among others, the company’s central e-commerce and operations functions, Amazon devices, cloud computing activities, and legal and financial support services. “We have employees from all over Europe as well as from the US, India and the rest of the world,” explains Anne-Marie Husser, Director for Human Resources and International Consumer in France and Luxembourg. “If you want the best talents, you need diverse people, and we believe that our company should look like the society we live in and like our customers.”
If you want the best talents, you need diverse people.
The benefits of this heterogeneity are multiple. “When you bring in diverse people, you also bring diverse perspectives,” says Ms Husser. “One of our leadership principles is ‘disagree and commit’ – we like to have healthy debates, and they happen when you have people around the table with different perspectives, experience and cultures. At the end of the day, you make better decisions and offer better services to clients than if everyone was thinking in the same way.”
50% of open job positions at Amazon are filled by internal transfers, and the rest with local and international hires. “Luxembourg has a very strong professional services market so we find great candidates here, but we are also open to international talents,” says Ms Husser. “People from abroad enjoy the quality of life and security in Luxembourg and the country’s central location in Europe. We fund courses in Luxembourgish and English to assist employees who need to improve their language skills.” The company also offers school fee subsidies and coaching for spouses looking for a job.
People from abroad enjoy the quality of life and security in Luxembourg and the country’s central location in Europe.
Photo: © Luxinnovation/Laurent Antonelli
