Why We Designed Our Company for Employees
In May 2001, after we launched the first Apple retail store, Steve Jobs said to me, “Ron, the store is beautiful — but the magic is in the people you’ve hired. They’re all so interesting.”
Steve was right. Today, with over 400 stores around the world, the Apple Stores are known as much for the people in the blue shirts as they are for the stunning architecture and the revolutionary products that people find inside.
When we first started building the concept for our new company, ENJOY, we knew it would be an opportunity to change the way people buy and enjoy amazing products. What we didn’t expect was that we’d also have the chance to change the way people work.
It started before we launched the company. One day, we had a surprise visit from Nitin Nohria, Dean of the Harvard Business School. During lunch with our team, I asked Nitin to give us one piece of advice as we build ENJOY. He responded with one of the simplest, most valuable tenets I’ve heard in my business life.
He said, “You have to make a choice. You can either be a company designed for customers or a company designed for employees. Most companies try to do both — but the best make a choice.”
Those words resonated for us. Being embedded in the new on-demand economy, we aimed to be among services like Uber, Postmates and Munchery, which have attracted nearly 20 million people to work as service providers. But we also wanted to be pioneers.
Today, many of these services find themselves at a crossroads. There is a growing perception that workforces are becoming rootless and marginalized — but the door is wide open for a company to succeed by taking a different path.
We recently launched ENJOY in the Bay Area and New York City. It’s a new approach to commerce beyond brick and mortar, pairing consumer electronics purchased at our site with 1:1 personalized delivery, set up and help — all for the same price as others like Target and Amazon. Each visit is conducted by an ENJOY Expert at the time and place of the customer’s choosing, tailored to their individual needs, existing devices and personal interests.
To get great people working a new company, doing a job that’s never been done before, we took a bold approach. We designed and built our company for the employees.
ENJOY, like many other on-demand services, provides flexibility in allowing people to work when, where and how they want. Where we differ is in how we invest in our employees. We made everyone who works at ENJOY a salaried employee, complete with benefits and stock in the company. We made it our policy to invest heavily in training and employee growth. We’ve focused on developing community tools, an employee-facing app and communication channels that give everyone equal say. Importantly, our employees help select the products we offer, and architect the way we interact with customers.
In short, we’ve gone above and beyond to provide the freedom and adventure that’s part of the mobile economy, along with the security and benefits of the traditional economy. We believe we’ve created a new model that’s redefines the way people work in this industry, and allows prospective employees to raise their expectations.
While employee happiness is paramount, this system isn’t entirely altruistic. It’s helped us attract the best of the best — people who are capable of delivering terrific customer experiences — , which is the bedrock of our business. Within thirty days of posting openings in the Bay Area and New York, 10,000 people had contacted us about jobs, which made it easier to find talented people who shared our passion for customer service.
This employment model is both a challenge and a risk. Hiring salaried workers isn’t easy. We can’t scale up or down in real time to meet demand or save money like other companies in the mobile economy. But I can go to sleep at night knowing that we’ve done everything possible to attract, train and equip those who can really make ENJOY something special — and a company that’s built to last.
On-demand services have many merits. They’ve helped solve logistical problems, and in the process have made interactions easier, faster and more convenient. I admire the qualities that have made these companies successful, but I can’t overlook the hard-won lessons from my time in retail — understanding what customers truly crave, and what kind of experience breeds loyalty.
By combining these two perspectives — the old and the new — ENJOY is pioneering a next step in the tech economy. It’s an exciting thing to be part of. I hope we’re providing an example for the next generation of marketplace and mobile startups that seek to do something similar.
So far, our journey has taught us that our real product isn’t the service we’re offering, but the people who power our company. We’re proving the value of an employee-centric approach, and its potential to change lives for the better.
By investing in our front-line employees, we hope to send the message that on-demand workers should demand something more.
