Swatch Reviews

Pros

The company is ethical and recognised worldwide

Cons

Lower opportunities of growth and promotion

Advice to Senior Management

Employee recognition

Pros

The employee discount is a nice benefit. Your first year with the company they allow 15 days personal time, but these are a combined with your sick days. So if you don’t get sick often or have a lot of appointments this will work out well.

Cons

The commute to the office is long (bus) or expensive (ferryboat) if you live in New York City. You are expected to work remotely during your vacations. There is a large amount of ravel, from some that can be a problem. The company is still developing a system for the large roll-out of stores.

Advice to Senior Management

The upper management in the US office has a hard time managing the expectations of the Swiss office. It would be better to explain realistic goals than to have employees burnout from trying to accommodate things that will not happen.

Pros

easy entry level work, typical upbeat retail environment, interesting products with a nostalgic pop feel, lots of interesting people being in a mall type setting

Cons

Poor bonus structure with even worse motivation practices by management, sales contests are unfair for part time employees which managers usually win due to hours combined with manager only contests it leaves very little or nothing for sales associates. Sales commission is only 1.5% which is just a bonus for sales goal and double that amount if you surpass sales goal by 20%, yet they push commission as its a large bonus for employees when only managers see any real bonus for the extra sales. Managers also get bonuses for employee secret shopper scores which is nothing upon their reflection of management skill but personal employee professionalism. Human Resouces dept is impossible to get ahold of and will not send health insurance forms in on time for employees to fill out and still qualify.

Advice to Senior Management

stop being nice face to face yet rude and callous over the phone, motivate employees with real incentives, increase commission, fix logistic performance of the Weehawken wharehouse, clean up lines of communication, have an Human Resources dept that actually gets back to employees, stop making money by not providing adequate health services to employees

Pros

Team player.
Most of people like to share their experience with other colleagues.
Good opportunity for development and promotion.
Could purchase watch at low price.

Cons

Salary increase ratio is very low although China's market is very good.
Hard to apply new headcount and sometimes need more overtime.

Advice to Senior Management

They should give employees more bonus when the market is very good.
Give staff more opportunity for training and promotion.

Pros

Great and reliable swiss made products, known everywhere in the world. Proud to say that we are working for this swiss company.

Cons

Like every big companies, validation and decision process of projects is sometimes complicated and long. Something should improved in that direction.

Advice to Senior Management

Nothing particularly. SInce the growth is actually very good, it means the leadership took the right decisions for this company.

Pros

the people are really easy going for the most part and that atmosphere is fun on a daily basis. THere is definitely plenty of work to do, but you shouldn't have a problem with the social aspect of daily swatch life.

Cons

As long as you're not looking to ever get a raise, you're probably straight.

Advice to Senior Management

give us summer fridays again!

Pros

Well known company, fun, proud to have worked for.

Cons

Lack of career advancement, politics, favorism.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect and value your employees.

Pros

The benefits are fantastic. As for the work envirnoment, you are not alone in feeling the lack of support. Also, the ladies in HR are always available to help and try their best. Some of your best allies will be the "little people" mail room guy, receptionist, people in accounting, the employees that most people do not pay attention too. You also get a great discount on all brands and the friends and family sale is good. Finally, if you come in early you can leave early.

Cons

Every brand is treated differently. The rules do not apply to everyone, even those on the same working level. The benefits are fantastic. However, there are not many holidays. There are six in total for the whole year. Also, company expenses are reimbursed to your paycheck. There are no company cards and some brand managers can take months to approve expenses leaving you without the money for quite some time. Also, for those in public relations, it is not a major concern for brand managers. The sales representatives are the main concern and their needs are a top priority. This unfortunate behavior ways heavily on the internal staff and positive reinforcement does not happen. Building moral has been said to be not important.

Advice to Senior Management

For my senior management I would advise him or her to give position reinforcement to the in-house staff. Building moral is important and crucial to keeping your staff feel appreciated. Also, if you are not familiar with the all industries, than do some research. Do not tell your employees, who's job it is the get maximum brand exposure, "that's no big deal" after viewing their work. If you do not see the benefit of the work done than ask. Just because you lack of knowledge in many areas does not mean you should ignore those areas, instead oneself should try reading, researching or have a colleague explain the industry.