I listened to the podcast. She comes off as a hackneyed motivational speaker who downs five cups of coffee before noon, speaking in constant meaningless platitudes. And she ends all her thoughts with the word "etcetera" - reminded me of the yada yada Seinfeld episode.
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Angela Ahrendts Says Apple Store Employee Retention Rate Rose to Historic High of Nearly 89% During Her Tenure
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Only on MR would high employee retention rate be spun as a negative.
Par for the course, here. The perpetually unhappy need their morning whine.
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Every store I've walked into or by has always been jammed with customers.
Angela’s claim to fame was selling high end fashion. I think you’d agree that Apple stores are a different animal. Apple had just developed a gold watch. Connect the dots. I don’t care about her gender.
What do you wanna be when you grow up. An Apple store employee! Really? Want some fries with that too? Lol. Who really cares what Apple claims. You can’t even believe the customer sat claims that Cook makes at every event. It’s 100 percent customer sat! Isn’t that wonderful? He says with a straight face.
I live in a decent size city, and we have three Apple stores within my region. Apple bases their store locations to being prime locations that have a trajectory of high traffic flow. They won’t just put stores anywhere, it has to be strategic and generate enough of a customer base where it’s accessible, typically near very convoluted shopping malls/inner-city locations.
That’s so true. Are you done with your whine?
Nice try. I'm not complaining. I enjoy watching the antics!
Reality will (hopefully?) hit those retail employees at some point in their life, and they will move on. It’s a decent job to help with tuition though.
well duh. they hired a bunch of non-tech people to fill these roles, gave them pre-approved scripts to read so that non-tech understanding customers come in the door it sounds legit, and pay them pretty decently compared to what they were making at their last no skill job. you don't have to think or have any skills, and you get to act uber snobby because you can say you work for apple. no brainer, i wouldn't leave either
We usually agree, but not here. Apple is still going to hold executives responsible for entire business units like Apple Retail to sales numbers.
I don’t believe her numbers. She was quoting 81% back in 2016 for 2015. She joined in 2014. Does that mean it went from 61%-81% in only 1 year?
(Here https://fortune.com/2016/01/28/apple-retail-ahrendts-employees/)
I left during her tenure 6 months short of my 10 year anniversary. I know many other long term people that left as well.
When I go to my last Apple store I recognize less than half the faces. I’m curious what her definition of retention is.
(Here https://fortune.com/2016/01/28/apple-retail-ahrendts-employees/)
I left during her tenure 6 months short of my 10 year anniversary. I know many other long term people that left as well.
When I go to my last Apple store I recognize less than half the faces. I’m curious what her definition of retention is.
I am completely opposite. I think she is an attractive person. But the glasses. The glasses do her face an injustice. She squints when she smiles, which is endearing. Unfortunately, when you combine the general shape of her face, the squinty smile, and the blockiness of the glasses... you get Carl Fredricksen from Up.
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She retained 21.5 million in stock awards for 2018. Ka-ching!
Agreed, who would buy a gold digital anything? Unless it came with a lifetime "guts exchange".This is at best misleading, not to mention irrelevant to HER as an executive. I know many many employees and customers that found her irritating and are happy to see her leave. The retention rate has ZERO to do with her, and 100% to do with the flat economy for younger generations entering the work force or older workers laid off in the 2008 disaster.
Apple isn't a bad gig in your 20's and even early 30's as far as retail goes (health care, 401k, tuition reimbursement and the usual benefits package even at part time).
My time in an Apple Store I've meant some highly educated super bright employees, and often wonder why is he/she here doing this? I often let them speak and ask questions, even though I need limited help I'm interested in the company as a share holder. I find many of employees over qualified, extremely bright, over worked, and worst of all directed to be over attentive to a point of awkwardness by what id imagine is a directive from upper management?
The customers in these stores not happy with the service fail to understand the scale at which Apple operates, this is not a mom and pop shop. People buy these products in the 100's of millions, and they break them and things go wrong is a small percentage (true of ANY product). The expectation of the consumer is Apple's own doing, placate to every complaint for years and you have created the perfect monster. Angela created this dissatisfaction with her luxury brand background and hyper attentiveness and odd luxury item releases. A gold watch, really??
She has left the company's retail weaker through lack of vision of what the company has always stood for: Creativity, Innovation, and Being Freakin' Cool. All three of these are lacking in the stores as she walks off with her 73+ million dollar salary
I saw no noticeable change is Apple stores, besides decadent digs, over her tenure.
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Only on MR would high employee retention rate be spun as a negative.
Haters gonna hate
maybe these people did not get a job with an Apple Store I would also factor that retail employment has a high turnover rate, not saying that Apple is not a great place to work, but everybody has a different situation why they likely may or may not stay at a certain position. I wouldn’t gauge just _one_ Apple store because you left that you don’t see the same faces all the time, especially being retail positions at an Apple Store are more of an ‘in between’ job for something greater that are trying to achieve.
She comes from a fashion background and industry, that is what she does well. If anything Cook was the one who hired her for the position, it’s not like she applied for the job to leave her position as a CEO at a well established company for Apple.
I can tell you that they told employees to play dumb when questioned about the keyboard issues of the MBP. I had an employee lie directly to my face about it, and you could tell by his expression that he was lying.
Or just maybe people got promoted to and a change in location is part of it.
On a recent episode of the RBC Disruptors podcast with host John Stackhouse, Apple's former retail chief Angela Ahrendts revealed that Apple's retail employee retention rate rose from 61 percent to a "historic high" of "nearly 89 percent" during her five-year tenure at the company.
Ahrendts, left, with YouTube star iJustine
"I don't feel that Apple retail is facing near the headwinds that maybe a lot of other retailers are because we've spent the last five years almost changing and evolving, and refocusing if you will," added Ahrendts, citing strong retention rates, redesigned stores, improved communication tools, and more.
Of course, with Apple being one of the world's largest companies, Ahrendts admitted that "there's a challenge a day."
"I think when you run a business that big and that global, and nearly 70,000 employees when I left, there's a challenge a day. I think that if it is a challenge, it's your job to fix the challenge. So when I came in, there were a lot of systems that weren't connected, there wasn't a way to communicate."
Under Ahrendts, Apple introduced new communication tools for its retail employees, including a "Hello" app that provides a daily summary of "need to know" information and a "Loop" app that allows retail employees to share useful tips and tricks amongst each other to help do their jobs better.
Ahrendts also reflected on being recruited by Apple CEO Tim Cook, her early days at Apple, her vision of the retail industry as a whole, and much more. The full interview can be listened to on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts.
Ahrendts left Apple in April. Her position was filled by Apple's longtime human resources chief Deirdre O'Brien, who now oversees both HR and retail.
Article Link: Angela Ahrendts Says Apple Store Employee Retention Rate Rose to Historic High of Nearly 89% During Her Tenure
Ahrendts's smile makes me freezing my soul!
The employees may not be leaving en masse, but most are very unhappy - at least the ones I used to work with.
Yeah, True. It’s not uncommon for retail employees to be shuffled around where other stores might need assistance in that specific location or various positions filled.
i think you fail to understand why it doesn't matter if they understand that or not. If people are unhappy and don't like the experience they are having in your store, then you're doing it wrong. Plain and simple. If people are unhappy with their in store experience, then Apple was ill prepared to have a retail experience. Half the problem is that most of the people have retail experience but very little tech experience, and are just trained to read pre-approved apple scripts and responses. People who do have tech knowledge, but want apple to stand behind their warranties so they are forced to deal with this experience, do not appreciate being pandered to by someone who doesn't even fully understand how the device works that they are "geniuses" over.
Also, if i set an appointment, waiting two hours in a corner of one these hell holes to be seen is not a good experience for anyone. Makes it seem like maybe hiring retail employees for tech jobs is not the greatest plan.