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Apple Retail Chief: Here’s Why Our Employees Don’t Leave

Published

8 years ago

January 29, 2016

INSTORE Staff

The tech giant’s retention rate is at an all-time high.

Speaking with Fast Company, Apple’s head of retail Angela Ahrendts discussed the company’s lauded work culture in the context of its 81 percent employee retention rate, which is the highest it’s ever been. Apple’s goal, she says, is to simply make employees feel connected to the company. “They feel like one Apple,” she says. “They don’t feel like they’re just somebody over here working with customers. I don’t see them as retail employees. I see them as executives in the company who are touching the customers with the products that Jony [Ive] and the team took years to build.”

When There’s No Succession Plan, Call Wilkerson

Bob Wesley, owner of Robert C. Wesley Jewelers in Scottsdale, Ariz., was a third-generation jeweler. When it was time to enjoy life on the other side of the counter, he weighed his options. His lease was nearing renewal time and with no succession plan, he decided it was time to call Wilkerson. There was plenty of inventory to sell and at first, says Wesley, he thought he might try to manage a sale himself. But he’s glad he didn’t. “There’s no way I could have done this as well as Wilkerson,” he says. Wilkerson took responsibility for the entire event, with every detail — from advertising to accounting — done, dusted and managed by the Wilkerson team. “It’s the complete package,” he says of the Wilkerson method of helping jewelers to easily go on to the next phase of their lives. “There’s no way any retailer can duplicate what they’ve done.”