Meet the Amazon teams preparing your festive orders

Our people have played a critical role in serving customers in these unprecedented times.

During 2020 we’ve created 10,000 new permanent roles across more than 50 sites, taking the company’s total UK workforce to more than 40,000.

We’ve also opened two new fulfilment centres in the North East of England and one in the Midlands as well as new delivery stations in Carlisle, Ipswich, Redruth, Aberdeen, Deeside and Dublin.

And we’ve hired thousands of talented individuals in a diverse range of jobs from operations managers and tech professionals through to associates who handle customer orders.

To help us continue to meet customer demand and support small and medium sized businesses selling on Amazon during the festive period, we’re hiring for more than 20,000 seasonal positions. We’ve also opened pop-up fulfilment centres in Bedford, Doncaster and Nottingham.

Amazon provides some of the most advanced workplaces of their kind in the world, with industry-leading pay, processes and systems to ensure the well being and safety of all employees.

Fulfilment centres combine the brilliance and dedication of our people with cutting edge technology to ensure customer orders are picked, packed and shipped to millions of homes on time.

Pay starts at a minimum £9.70/hour and £10.80/hour depending on location for all full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal roles in Amazon’s fulfilment centres, sort centres and delivery stations.

Employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and an employee discount – which combined are worth more than £700 annually – as well as a company pension plan.

Amazon also offers employees an innovative programme called Career Choice that provides funding for skills development through nationally recognised courses of up to £8,000 over four years.

You can take a virtual tour to see what it’s like behind the scenes – and what happens when you click ‘buy’ - here.

Hear from our associates about their Peak experience

Andrew Norman, FC Associate, Hemel Hempstead, served in the Royal Navy for 20 years: “I retired in 2018 at 58 years old, and after a year of cooking, cleaning and decorating at home, I was completely bored. The site is a two minute drive from my house, so I thought I'd give it a go and I'm having an awful lot of fun. I've been an instructor for two months - the diversity of the people I meet blows me away from the chief exec of an advertising company to a housewife who has just started her first job, everyone is coming together.”

Marian Popescu, IT Support Technician, and Andreea Cristina Neagu, Trainer, Peterborough. A husband and wife team, who joined Amazon together as FC associates: “We’ve both been encouraged to develop and take on new roles and responsibilities; it’s a great place to work. Working the same hours and being able to take the same holidays has also been a help. ”

Man James Li, FC Lead, Hemel Hempstead: “This will be my 7th Peak at Amazon. Peak is really where the party is - we're all in it together. I love the energy and the buzz that comes with it all.”

Anson Barratt – Carter, Sortation Associate, Sheffield. A bricklayer who joined Amazon after finding himself out of work due to COVID-19: “It is a good place to work, everyone is polite and everyone is helpful. I am looking forward to Christmas because it is a busy period and it is a new work experience for me.”

Sarah Jones, WHS Coordinator, Swansea, has worked for Amazon for almost 10 years: “The company offers so many training and development programmes that could help me progress and because Amazon contributes 95% towards the cost of the course, it’s been a no brainer for me. It’s fantastic to have access to funded opportunities to pursue my dream career.”

Finlay Shouler, Sortation Associate, Sheffield: “It is my first job and it’s a good environment to be in. I am looking forward to Christmas because it is going to be a busy and fun time.”

Craig Urquhart, Operations Manager, Dunfermline: “Amazon was only intended to be a stop gap for me but I found what I really wanted to do at Amazon and the rest, as they say, is history! I’ve loved my time with the company and the many different training and development opportunities have made it possible for me to progress from a temporary associate to a regional manager.”

Igor Franciskovity, Area Manager, Tilbury: "I worked in various warehouses before joining Amazon. I joined Amazon because of the many opportunities that came with it. I have enjoyed my time here and I’m still having as much fun as I can."

Natalie Emmerman, Area Manager, Tilbury. She joined Amazon in 2017 and has been promoted three times: “My journey within Amazon has provided me with the ability to progress my career within a fast-paced environment whilst being able to spend the time with my family and succeed at home, as well as in my workplace. It’s been fantastic.”

Graeme Ferry, FC Associate, Peterborough: "Working for Amazon has been, for a motivated worker, the best working environment I have ever encountered. Amazon gives the scope to allow you to excel at work, but also maintain a life away from it.”

Dean Barnes, FC Associate, Durham. A DJ who joined Amazon to top up his income when COVID-19 struck: “I’ve enjoyed working at Amazon and learning new skills so much that I would like to stay on after my gigs resume. The flexibility in shifts at Amazon will allow me to have a stable source of income alongside my DJing career.”

Imtiaz Hussain, Stores Coordinator, Durham, works alongside his three daughters: “I have enjoyed my time at Amazon so much that I have recommended it to my family and friends to work here. I have been offered various opportunities to advance my career and skills here and the leadership at Amazon are amazing. This makes Amazon the best place to be as you feel like part a large family.”

Richard Burtenshaw, FC Associate, Durham. He has been nominated in The Northern Echo Together Awards 2020 in the Health & Wellbeing Category for activities that he put on during lockdown for the grassroots football team he coaches: “Since joining Amazon I have really enjoyed getting to know people from all corners of the globe. The company offers a great amount of diversity and it’s a great place to work with lots of opportunities for individual growth.”

David Gonzalez, Temp FC Lead, Tilbury: “Peak time is amazing, the team work in this place is incredible. I’m proud to have been given the opportunity to step-up as FC Lead in the pack department over peak time, helping our teams pack and wrap Christmas presents and get them to our customers on time.”

While we’re here to make sure our customers get what they want, when they want, where they want, nothing is more important than the safety of our employees. That’s why we’ve invested millions of pounds in additional safety measures since the start of the pandemic. We’ve implemented more than 150 new measures – from masks to sanitiser, social distancing to temperature checks – to help our employees stay safe.

We’re also providing testing for all our Operations employees in the UK and have built our own lab in Manchester to provide additional testing capacity to what the government is already offering.

To build and manage the programme, we’ve assembled a strong cross-functional team who have left their day jobs to focus on this important initiative — including research scientists, engineers, procurement specialists, operators and financial analysts.

Fran Williams-Tanton, Temp Operations Supervisor, Penrith. Fran joined Amazon as a sortation associate in June before moving up temporary operations supervisor. During lockdown she was continuously searching for jobs, she remembered that a close friend who works at Amazon had told her great things and she decided to apply: “I think the safety measures are great, especially the ones we have in place for COVID-19. All the site safety measures we have are to keep us all safe, so who can complain about that!”

Martyn Janes, FC Associate, Hemel Hempstead: "At the beginning of COVID-19 I isolated for two-weeks with full pay because I've got two step children with cystic fibrosis, a lung disorder, so I had to be careful. When I came back a tent had been set up at the entrance of the building for temperature screening. I was really impressed with the measures in place.”

Dan White, Delivery Station Operations Supervisor, Penrith: “My first day at Amazon opened my eyes to how safety orientated the business is. The amount of COVID-19 protection the company offers to its employees, visitors, drivers and customers really impressed me. I knew from the first day that I was joining a company that values their employees and customers' safety.”

Diana Campean, FC Associate, Dunstable: “Thank you, Amazon, for helping us come to work safe by introducing new safety measures, for example: sanitising and cleaning stations, creating a team of social distancing marshals, staggering break times and providing special training on COVID-19 safety measures.”

Alex Van Krimpen, Temporary Delivery Station Operations Supervisor, Penrith. Alex joined Amazon as a sortation associate in July when the restaurant he was managing had to shut its doors: “I was positively surprised at how much effort Amazon puts in to make the delivery station as safe as possible for everybody.”

Glenn Johnson, Stores Coordinator, Warrington: “I have felt safe working at Amazon thanks to how as a site we adapted to the changes outlined by government guidelines. The temperature checks at the main entrance are good, efficient and help me feel safer at work and the free COVID-19 tests we now offer are a great addition!”

Ben Farbrother, Finance Assistant, Rugeley, recently joined Amazon after running his own business producing software for travel agents: “My experience since joining Amazon has been faultless... And Amazon’s prep for being COVID-safe has been far better than anywhere else I’ve heard about; it’s exceeded my expectations.”

Morag Kitson, FC Associate, Swansea, also delivers Sign Language workshops and is an advocate for creative safety ideas: “I love working at Amazon because I enjoy knowing I work for a company that thinks about more than just profit. Amazon stand by their dedication to sustainability and safety. Amazon protects people worldwide from illness such as COVID-19 using safety measures that go above and beyond those recommended by the Government.”

Danelle Ferguson, FC Associate, Durham: “I think Amazon is doing a great job with the COVID-19 safety measures. They are really good with hand sanitiser stations, there’s a lot of them around the building and people are always asking if everything is okay.”

Liam Fletcher, WHS Coordinator, Warrington: ‘‘I feel safe working during the pandemic due to the steps taken to ensure all associates are safe. Masks are freely available, hand sanitiser points and washrooms are available throughout the facility. Amazon worked to put in place technology to aid social distancing too.

Raimonds Duboks, FC Associate, Peterborough: “Amazon is a warm, clean and safe place, filled with kind, well-trained personnel who are always in touch with you and ready to help make your work day as comfortable as possible.”

Lorcan Keating, FC Associate, Durham. He joined Amazon in search of a change from his bartending career: “It’s a much more professional environment than previous places I’ve worked at. We get regular COVID-19 tests so I feel safer going home to my family knowing that I’m not asymptomatic.”

Antonio Kanaris, FC Lead, Tilbury: "This is my 14th Peak at Amazon. You can’t really put a price on safety at Amazon, you only have to look around and know that you can come to work and provide a valued service especially in today's critical times and feel totally safe.”

Shannon Willett, FC Associate, Sutton-in-Ashfield: “Everyone, every company, has had to learn how to deal with the pandemic and Amazon is doing it really well. The way it’s being handled makes it a very safe place to work and it’s very reassuring; it provides peace of mind.”

Gintare Lapinaite, FC Lead, Peterborough: “Amazon is always working hard to keep the focus on safety. Not only do I feel safe here, but I also know I can make suggestions for improvement which will be acted on; Amazon listens to team members.”

Michael Power, Temporary Flow Director, Peterborough: “The main challenge for new people when they join is getting used to Amazon’s COVID-19 safety precautions – it’s much stricter than anywhere else. Right from day one, Amazon started so many new measures from social distancing to sanitisation points to staggered shift times and now we even have our own testing; it’s a great thing to do.”

Stuart Sked, FC Associate, Dunfermline: After working in retail for 25 years, Stuart was looking for a change in career and decided to give Amazon a go. He now enjoys working in the customer returns department and is also a social distancing ambassador: “I was surprised to see all the safety measures in place when I joined, I never thought they would be so stringent but it is all for the greater good. I am really pleased with what Amazon has put in place and it means we can go home to our families safe.”

Donna McLaughlan, FC Associate, Dunfermline. This will be her seventh peak at Amazon and she previously worked as a nurse for many years: “I am working as a social distancing ambassador at the moment making sure people stay two metres apart and are keeping safe. It is fantastic working here and that we can have a COVID-19 test regularly on-site.”

As well as supporting our employees, we’re doing everything we can to support and showcase Small Businesses across the UK. Tens of thousands of UK-based small and medium-sized businesses sell their products in Amazon’s stores and to date they have supported more than 85,000 job opportunities in the UK. More than 60% of these businesses export to customers all over the world, and last year they achieved more than £2.75bn in export sales.

We're also providing 200,000 entrepreneurs, start-ups and small businesses with free training on a variety of topics to help them sustain and grow their businesses through the Amazon Small Business Accelerator.

To expand our ongoing commitment to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, through Prime Day and across the festive season, Amazon will spend more than £75 million on promotional activities to help small businesses around the world increase their sales and reach new customers.

Hear from some of these small businesses below

Tracey Hogarth, Founder of Nudie Snacks in Glasgow: “By selling on Amazon, we have been able to continue trading throughout the pandemic, putting our products in front of a huge audience in the lead up to the festive shopping season.”

Holly-Anna Coulton & Andy Wood, The Ilex Wood in Northamptonshire: “Selling on Amazon helps us reach more customers in multiple markets as we gear up for Christmas, helping to fuel our growth.”

Lavinia Davolio, Founder of Lavolio Boutique Confectionery in London: “For peak moments like Christmas Day, selling on Amazon is vital and enables us to scale.”

William Vaughan, Managing Director of Bluefin Trading in Yorkshire: “Selling our products on Amazon means we can reach more customers, in more markets, around the world. This is vital for our growth, especially at Christmas.”

Lord Mark Gowers of Tintinhull, MD3 Skincare, Somerset: “Amazon has been incredible at introducing us to new markets. We are now in the US, UK and EU, with expansion already signed for Australia, Sweden, Turkey and Japan as we head towards the festive season.”

Amazon is committed to building a sustainable business for our customers and the planet. In 2019, Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge—a commitment to be net zero carbon across our business by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.

As part of this commitment we recently launched Climate Pledge Friendly, a new programme which will help make it easy for customers to discover and shop for more sustainable products. Customers will now see the Climate Pledge Friendly badge on more than 40,000 products in Europe to signify that the products have one or more of 19 different sustainability certifications that help preserve the natural world, such as reducing the carbon footprint of shipments to customers.

Amazon continually works on behalf of customers to reduce and minimise the amount of packaging materials we use under our Frustration-Free Packaging Programme. As part of the programme we have worked with manufacturers around the world to design their products to ship in their own packaging without the need for additional packaging.

As part of the Climate Pledge we have also committed to reaching 100% renewable energy by 2025 and ordered more than 1,800 electric vehicles from Mercedes-Benz to make deliveries to customers in Europe. Amazon in the UK will receive more than 500 electric vehicles from that order, all of which are going to hit the road this year to reduce our carbon emissions.

Throughout the year, our people and logistics capabilities have helped communities across the UK. We have delivered more than three million COVID-19 testing kits free of charge, and have extended our partnership with charity Magic Breakfast, to help reach more children at risk of hunger. With Magic Breakfast, we will have delivered over two million free breakfasts to children in need by December, and we will continue to deliver healthy breakfasts as well as donations and school equipment, including during school holidays.

Our people play an active role in supporting our community efforts and in September, during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Amazon went gold to help raise awareness and funds for charity partners working to improve therapies and find a cure for the disease. The Amazon Goes Gold programme, now in its fourth year, engaged employees with a series of initiatives in support, from Pjammin’ parties at Amazon locations all over the country to donations of STEM robotic kits to hospitals where children are receiving treatment. Overall, Amazon UK has donated over £100,000 to leading organisations working in areas like advocacy for research funding, medicine development, direct care provision, family support and clinical trials.

You can find out more about the work we’re doing with small businesses and communities across the UK, including using our logistics capabilities to deliver more than four million COVID-19 testing kits free of charge, and over one million free breakfasts to school children as part of our partnership with charity Magic Breakfast.

Meet more of the people who are delivering smiles.