Pros
This company truly takes everything and everyone into consideration when making decisions. Even part time Brand Ambassadors have the ability to make suggestions to the heads of the company by utilizing the “Big Ideas” tab in Zipline (Company/ Team communication tool) the training has changed a lot since I started a year and 6 months ago, but for the better! It evolved into a simplistic format for leaders to approach the onboarding and training process more efficiently. And yet, the training videos and content are still very detailed and include all of the most relevant information needed to get started at AEO. Not to mention, the ongoing training content available is unbelievably thorough! If there’s something that you need to learn or want to learn about your position or really, any job that needs to be done at American Eagle, you can find that content. And the videos are short and sweet while containing all of the most pertinent information. They aren’t boring or cheesy, the way a lot of companies training videos tend to be. If we’re talking about pros, I absolutely cannot leave out the benefits offered full-time employees. I’ve worked for several companies and AEO by far offers the best, most comprehensive benefits to its full-time employees. They take everyone into consideration when offering these benefits, and your options are plentiful. I must also mention that they do offer many benefits to their part-time employees as well, One major benefit offered is free counseling services. They Definitely take mental health very seriously, and make it a point to ensure that all employees have the proper mental healthcare- if needed- available to them. They also have the AEO foundation which takes donations towards providing mental health services to youth in under privileged communities And underfunded programs that need more mental health support. I believe the processes and procedures are very thorough for sales teams and service merchandising teams. Sometimes a little too thorough for merchandising, but see the cons below for that information. The follow through is always top-notch. Asset protection (Which they have the best asset protection department of any company I’ve ever worked for, they are on top of their game!) to Payroll department (I have only had to interact with them one time and it was a very quick and efficient follow up in conclusion to solve my problem. very easy to deal with them) As well as the IT department who are always very nice and very helpful whenever we have an issue and they usually resolve it very quickly. They are also great about announcing companywide issues that happen and also when they are resolved.
Cons
This year specifically we had a big problem with customers returning Items that they ordered but received the wrong item. This issue came to us at least minimally five times a week during the holiday season which is very excessive. So I will say that maybe the online ordering team/warehouse team whoever is putting these orders together is not doing their job Accurately and causing issues in the stores with our customers because they have to return it to us and they are frustrated. Especially the ones that did not have time to re-order their items and get it delivered to them in time for Christmas. We had several unhappy customers this year Leave the store still upset because there was nothing we could do to get them their item on time for Christmas. And nor was it our fault that they got the incorrect item shipped to them in the first place. I truly just believe this was a this year issue and I’m sure the company will fix it as soon as possible. Another thing I find to be troublesome is as a merchandising team leader. I feel that the Floor set process is a bit too much. Every time we change floors set, which is typically monthly, We get documents that tell us how to set the product to the floor however, no American Eagle is the same as the next and there are three different tiers Tier 1 (These stores typically get the largest inventory and the most variety) Tier 2 (The stores are in the middle and get a little bit of Tier 1 and a little bit of Tier 3 mixed and never actually get their own set of documents but instead have to decide which elements of each Tier they will take from each time) and then Tier 3, which is what my store is. We are the smallest and lowest volume stores, so we receive the least amount of inventory and the least variety of product. When the documents come out, Tier one and tier 3 are combined and we must sort through them by hand after printing over 300 pages down to maybe 100 pages if that. Which is a lot of throwing away paper that just isn’t necessary to begin with. The other option is to leave it on the tablets which are iPads, but then you have to scroll through all of the other documents in there and hope that you don’t accidentally use a tier one document and not your tier 3 document. I know it has been brought up in the Big Ideas so many times they probably can’t even count in yet. Nothings been done about it and it doesn’t seem to me that it would be a very difficult thing to separate and send out only the necessary documents to each store because they send out specific information per store all the time with other things, not sure why this one keeps slipping through the cracks, but it’s very time-consuming and very confusing sometimes. I don’t have a better suggestion for the way marketing is communicated however, the application that we use to find new promos to set and which promos are ending are not ever complete or correct. There’s always something that’s missing and we end up having to override a price or adjust a promo For a customer because it’s ringing up differently than what our application tells us. So again, just something that’s a little frustrating and Not a very efficient communication tool to effectively set promotions. this is probably just an Indiana thing, But for the work that we expect from even our part-time employees, We’re not paying them enough. They can go almost anywhere and get a job and make more than what we can offer them as starting pay. I know it’s the bottom of the barrel position to be a brand ambassador at American Eagle retailers and a lot of those positions are filled by 16-year-olds. But for a business like that to efficiently run, we have to have more experienced employees on staff as well. And no experienced retail worker will take a job starting at $11 an hour to basically be the one who takes on the most work because they are the best worker. I wish there was a way for us to give special case employees who are exceptional at their job and because they ultimately do the most and willingly, a pay increase. My final item that I am displeased with is some thing that I feel that I have been displeased with at many employers is hourly allocations. Our bonuses are based on if we are under or over payroll for the quarter. I am sure that if a business has to be run as effectively and efficiently as they want it to be the hours that the allocate to our teams to get the work done is not enough at all. And yet we manage to make it happen And meet and even sometimes beat our goals each quarter Because we feel obligated to do so, and because we are a strong team (by we I mean my Store Team Lead and I, we were hired as a package deal pretty much as Manager and Assistant Manager who worked together for 8+ years before working at AEO) We are a power couple when it comes to leading teams to success and we do it no matter what the limitations are, However, I do wish that we were able to give our teams more hours to get the work done that is being asked of us as opposed to cramming all in to the most minimal amount of hours and overworking all of our people while they’re there. If we had more hours to allocate employees, they would have more time to execute and deliver all expectations and we would have more time to develop our team to be the best on the sales floor to give the best customer experience possible. Some of our ambassadors work, maybe one or two shifts a week. This is not enough to develop a strong sales person who is knowledgeable about the store and our product and can execute the customer journey to the best of their ability. These things take practice and experience which cannot be gained on one to two 3 hour shifts a week. Nor Are we able to complete all of our managerial tasks and projects when we only have two person coverage due to not having enough hours to schedule more than two people at a time. It is impossible to have full zone coverage Plus an LOD when you only have two people working. And this happens more often than not, especially during weekdays due to lack of hours to schedule with. This Ends up being an issue where we are not able to provide the customers with the experience that is expected by the Company. The customer experience expected by the company is a masterfully thought out customer journey that in writing and in video looks perfect and would be without fail effective in gaining sales year after year season after season if it could be executed thoroughly every day. But with our store being given as a little hours as possible to run a lot of times with only two person coverage, this is just not obtainable, unfortunately. Because it is a genius concept and sales model. And I want more than anything to be able to have enough time with associates to truly develop their skills to perfect this model.