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Apple retail chief Ahrendts says she treats retail employees like executives, 81% retention in 2015

Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts has recently sat down with Fast Company for a brief interview in which she discusses what her first two years at Apple have been like. Ahrendts previously was the CEO of high-end fashion retailer Burberry. Ahrendts notes of the strategies she’s employed to improve Apple’s retail chain, including her strategy of treating them just as she would treat an executive.

Ahrendts first notes that during her first six months on the job at Apple, she was able to travel to 40 different markets and spend time with retail leaders in each. She described that Apple’s retail stores are “uniting people and getting them to collaborate.” Having that power, Ahrednts explained, just by itself is “empowering” to her.

Perhaps most notably, Ahrendts said that in 2015, Apple retail had the highest retention rate it has ever had at 81 percent. She explained that she doesn’t see retail employees as simply retail employees, but rather she sees them as executives that are “touching the customers with the products that Jony and team took years to build.” This comment really shines on how important Ahrendts believes Apple’s oft-praised retail chain is to the company:

We just ended the year with the highest retention rates we’ve ever had: 81%. And the feedback [from Apple Store employees is that it’s] because they feel connected. They feel like one Apple. 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. Somebody has to deliver it to the customer in a wonderful way.

Ahrendts also noted that one thing she noticed during her first month at Apple is that the culture within the company is strong. The executive explained that everyone working at Apple is driven to “change people’s lives.” It goes deeper than just the products, too, with Tim Cook’s strategy of being involved in societal issues and leaving the world better than they found it:

The thing I didn’t know before I came in—a month in, I told my husband, “I now know why this is one of the most successful companies on the planet: Because the culture is so strong. The pride, the protection, the values.” The company was built to change people’s lives. That foundation, that service mentality, that drive to continue to change lives—that is a core value in the company. And Tim [Cook] then has added his on: He says it’s also our responsibility to leave it better than we found it. So you have these two amazing pillars and a culture built around that. It’s the same in retail and in [Cupertino]. That is the underlying mission, and how could you know that unless you’re inside? But it is deeper than you would ever imagine.

You can read the full interview from Fast Company here.

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Comments

  1. Uhm… 81% retention rate is a 19% turnover rate.. which really isn’t that good… That’s roughly one person in five quitting every year.

    • Zac Hall - 8 years ago

      I had this same thought.

      • Jon C (@JonCBK) - 8 years ago

        Retail is awful. 19% turnover doesn’t sound bad at all. I suspect if you go to your local gap the odds of the person serving you being there in a year is way less than 50%.

    • Aaron Loy - 8 years ago

      I suggest not comparing office turnover rates with retail’s.

  2. bjhemstra - 8 years ago

    Wooden tables and glass displays for watches, I’m really impressed.

  3. YU No - 8 years ago

    Only 4 women in that picture, and not any person with disabilities, or red headed… Diversity authorities are not gonna be happy.

    • virtualstorm - 8 years ago

      Come on!! They can’t have that in every single store. You need to look at a bigger picture.

    • J.latham - 8 years ago

      Oddly enough, I believe that is from the Dubai store opening. I remember seeing that picture before. In which case there’s a lot more diversity then I would’ve pictured originally. Just saying.

    • Chris Cooper (@clcooper) - 8 years ago

      This is an article on employee retention, not diversity. Save your political statements for an article that is relevant to your statement.

  4. virtualstorm - 8 years ago

    Would they be able to fly First Class for work?

  5. So Apple searches their executives’ bags before allowing them to leave work? Send Ahrendts back to Burberry. She total screwed up the Apple Watch launch.

  6. Steve V. Kass - 8 years ago

    People….. (the fools below), you CANNOT have it all and that is just one (a sample) picture. She is MUCH better than some of these other A-Holes (other retail companies) who doesn’t care about their hourly employees – I worked at J.Crew back-in-the-days of school and their main goal was to get hourly employees to bring in the profits and nothing else.

    • Aunty T (@AuntyTroll) - 8 years ago

      So do you think that at Apple the main goal ISN’T to get employees to bring in the profits and nothing else? Sorry to disappoint you Steve – Apple do it better than everyone else.

  7. The Indianapolis store is almost a hazard, even to ‘executive’ floor salespeople. They need to triple or quadruple the size. No reason the can not do so.

  8. Greg Pryor (@gpo613) - 8 years ago

    Do you want to reduce employee turnover? You to pay people a fair wage. If the fair wage allows a person to support his/her life then turnover will be less. Also you must give people hope for advancement. If a person starts out a say $15 an hour, but sees if he works hard gains some new skills he can move up the ladder and eventually make say $20-25 per hour then that person will stick around.

  9. vkd108 - 8 years ago

    ahrendts has strategically positioned herself between two people with African descent. There is a Chinese origin second to her right and a muslim third to her left. The only Indian descendant visible is away at the back. This could suggest racial prejudice. Why does she not surround herself with more diversity, especially more Asian origin employees, taking that that is the region most highlighted for both manufacture and sales of IT products? We never hear of Africa in the field of IT. Africa is more an American issue, related to when they were forcibly enslaved by the white skinned oppressors. Of course, nowadays all employees are subtly enslaved by the so-called demon-cratic social system.

    • Chris Cooper (@clcooper) - 8 years ago

      This is an article on employee retention, not diversity. Save your political arguments for an article that is relevant to your statement. Thanks.

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com