human resources manager

assistant aux ventes

Paris Jewellers

My experience at Paris Jewellers has been quite the rollercoaster of information and training, and I am steadily learning and adapting to the culture and practices of working in a retail company operating within a mall. A typical day at the job consists of your usual run-of-the-mill operations seen in any other retail occupation: operating the point-of-sale system, taking inventory checks, maintaining a clean workspace, etc. However, what sets Paris Jewellers apart from any other retail store I've worked at in the past is its emphasis on training and building intimate, long-term relationships with every visiting customer in a small, personal environment of camaraderie with one or two other associates working with you throughout the day. I've so far made many friends throughout my time working here, and find that there are many times where myself and my coworkers are able to maintain very deep conversations as we're doing something as uncomplicated as cleaning the display cases. Having a work environment where I'm able to enlighten myself in the personalities, interests, strengths, and weaknesses of my fellow coworkers allows me to conduct training exercises with them in a way that feels uniquely tailored to each person, and fosters a sense of comradeship that most would not expect to receive when working in retail. 

In regards to training, I was quite shocked initially when my store manager plopped three workbooks of material before me, telling me that this was the required training expected of EVERY Brand Ambassador here at Paris Jewellers. Though it may have seemed excessive at first, I am tremendously appreciative of the standards and attention to detail that the company has placed in ensuring that every employee is trained to the highest of sales and customer service standards. I am not embellishing at all when I say that you will feel as if you took a semester of sales education after completing all the workbooks - it goes super in-depth and it is worth every minute of your dedication! 

As to the management and workplace culture at Paris Jewellers, I would say that for the most part the leadership is satisfactory and provides me with a sense that should I require anything logistically that I can expect a fairly immediate and attentive response through our email or telephone communications systems. The only criticism that I have is that the headquarters of the upper leadership is located in Edmonton, which sometimes creates issues in time difference, especially when one needs to get a hold of them or needs a response to a particular problem. For instance, one might need to call head office in the evening only to find that no one is at their desks due to everyone having left for the evening, which in emergency situations could really impact reliability, though I should note that this is no fault of their own as they cannot control time itself. One other factor that this issue compounds is the feeling that sometimes arises that one is all alone in their store's problems. Though you may have a store manager on the front lines with you who understands all the hurdles to overcome for a given day, week, or month, it can sometimes be difficult to communicate these same issues with a head office located in a city kilometers away from you and get the most ideal response. Again, being that their head office has to be located somewhere within the country and being that it's a company of thousands of employees it's totally understandable that things may not be perfectly solved every time, but regardless of that it can still be a frustrating experience when you feel that head office cannot fully "put themselves in your shoes" when expressing a concern with a particular issue. What this overall creates is an 'outpost' culture where one feels that one store operates mostly independently from head office, which has its benefits and hindrances. The positives of this kind of culture is that it allows the store to operate with some level of flexibility and relieves the Brand Ambassador, and more importantly, the store manager of unnecessary or excessive oversight, ultimately allowing in-store leadership to grow and thrive on their accord, with adherence to store policies and training, of course. The negative aspect that this culture brings, however, is a sense of isolation from headquarters, which depending on the morale of their store on a given day, can create a sense that the concerns voiced by a particular store are unable to be effectively heard and responded to due to the distance. 

In conclusion, working at Paris Jewellers has been an overall positive experience, and I hope that my elaborate, and honest review of my experiences in the company has convinced you to consider applying to be a part of our family. My favourite part about working here are the daily interactions and relationships I get to build with my clients and coworkers, while the hardest part of the job is most definitely the crushing morale hit that's experienced when sales targets are not being met due to the occasional lack of traffic within one's mall. Hope this helps!

When i started working at Paris I learned about their vision and core values. I thought "wow. What a great company. These values are important to me too. Over time i have started to feel a push to only increase sales unstead of  creating happiness like we are initially taught to do. I am not a pushy person, and i feel like more and more often we are being encouraged to be pushy. Especially with financing. For the first 5 months of 2021 my team made our targets easily without much financing and we were still reprimanded for not pushing financing enough. Which has become demoralizing.
Training is another sticking point for many of us. During the interview process they make it clear that training is important to this company . What they don't make clear is that the training will be repeatitive, redundant, exhausting, and will often require you to do online , (sometimes)2hour zoom sessions from home on your days off. This is also a minimum wage position that supposedly has commission after reaching targets. But that commission is often unattainable because the targets are unattainable. The pressure imposed by and the expectations demanded by head office exceed the demands required of any other minimum wage job i have ever had. Even when you are the type of employee who goes above and beyond for the company, be prepared to fight tooth and nail for the better part of a year to get a raise. Even then, do not expect it to happen. Raises are hard to come by and employees are expected to excel without being treated as though the company believes they can. For a company whose vision is yo create life long happy customers, why are they then not also creating life long happy employees? 

After almost 15 years in the jewellry business (and 2 companies) I needed to re-home myself with a company that I could represent in line with my own ethics and values. At first I didn't look a whole lot this way, but then....after taking the time to really find out just what Paris Jewellers has to offer and learning about the company and the passion that this family has for their business and the fact that employees are NOT just another number. I am so excited and full of gratitude to be a part of a company with so much to give. Not only for their customers but for community and employees as well.
Our work place culture is full of support and guidance to empower new and existing staff to be the best they can and to be able to provide and celebrate each customer with every purchase they make. With leadership from upper management and amazingly easy contact with all head office team members, we are able to connect and direct ourselves in leading our business to success.
The most enjoyable part of my job is a.) really being able to share and celebrate with each customer and b.) being able to share my knowledge and passion with my staff and with a head office that values our thoughts and opinions.
Paris Jewellers is one of the last Canadian, family owned and operated jewellry companies and I am proud to be Paris Jewllers Ambassador.

I came in as store manager and was very excited to work for a company who is family run and put alot of focus in family. My first day there I was alone with the district manager running the store with no training and learned on the spot how to run point of sale. The district manager and I ended up running the store all week alone as all staff was being tested for covid. I felt I crushed the point of sale system and we were trying to fit in training when we could. District manager was with me for 14 days and had to go on holidays... she never returned. Another store manager came in to train me for a few days and we tried our best to get me caught up on management training. I was not ready when she left. I was left to run the store and hire all new staff in the course of 2 months and was let go with no explanation. Had I had the proper guidance and training I could have been very much prepared to manage the store and make it successful. The way I was let go was degrading in every way and all I did was try my best. The store was making targets within the first month of me being there but I guess that was not enough.

Relatively small company with the heart of a lion.

I have felt valued and appreciated during my time with the company. Have met really amazing people and found camaraderie and humbleness from the owners. The first generation started with very little and made their way up with lots of hard work and dedication. Second generation is leading now with those same values that were instilled in them since very little.

There is no bureaucracy or titles, when there is  something to get done, it's just a lot of hands working together. All of them.

There is a culture of gratitude, ownership, kindness ,sincerity with everyone, customers and piers. There is a lot of focus on where the company is going and clear objectives to accomplish. When one of the teams achieve something or hit a milestone there is celebration all the way! 

We get to share and celebrate with customers their most meaningful life events. There has been celebrations and tears that will remain in my memory and I will cherish forever.  

Paris is a great place to work at. I have enjoyed my experience and grown as a person and professional.

The manager is nice, but there is a very strong emphasis on numbers and sales targets. Unfortunately, this can leave employees feeling more stressed and less encouraged or excited to reach their goals. 

I do wish it had been made more clear during the hiring process that this is such a high-pressure sales environment.
If you take that pressure away though, it’s really beautiful to see people enjoy their jewelry and leave happy. 

The ASM actually made things feel really enjoyable while the manager was away, and it was nice to experience that kind of positive atmosphere. I wish that positivity continued once our manager returned, although I do understand they are under a lot of pressure from corporate to maintain strong numbers.

It’s also sad to see certain toxic behaviours enabled simply because some employees bring in good sales numbers. It can be really difficult for the rest of the team to deal with, and that is the unfortunate part.

I had the privilege of working closely with the co-owners of the company and based on my experience I can say Paris Jewellers is one of the few companies that truly lives it values. The management is open and transparent in its communication and always has the employees best interests at heart. 
The co-owners are not just open to honest feedback but encourage it on a constant consistent basis in their communication. Feedback is given with the intent of helping you succeed vs it being reprimanding. All communication is respectful and kindness and celebration are a big part of who they are and what the company culture is all about!!
Paris is a great place with an amazing training program in place designed to help each employee succeed. 
The best part about working for Paris is that you always have opportunity to grow both professionally and personally!! 

CONS:
They pretend to be this great company with goals and achievements but in reality they are absolutely horrible. They make false promises to employees about giving raises but in the 3 years I worked there I did not once get a raise. The managers at store level are emotionally abusive and use threatening and intimidation tactics with their employees. District manager doesn't do anything about the managers despite complaints because they cannot afford to lose a manager. SO MANY RACIST AND DISCRIMINATORY employees and managers. I've personally seen my manager make racist comments about people who either come in as a customer or are handing in a resume. Employees are afraid to complain about their managers because they fear backlash from management. They overwork you and break you down until you burn out. 

PROS:
staff discount is good but they still profit on you from that. you get customer service skills. You can make a few friends.

Praise in creating a safe work environment post-COVID-19, in regards to PPE.
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Terrible micromanagement organization with no direction, the senior management wakes up with different ideas regularly and makes it a KPI, you'll have nearly two dozens of KPIs to chase. Targets are unrealistic and made up.

Spending hours on weekly conference calls with next to no value. They are just repeating the same points from last week and the week before that, which didn't work.

Salary is below the market with the expectation for management to work a ton of hours. Working 50+ hours a week is the norm, don't be fooled by the early praises, they will stop. There are no overtime or banked hours; however, if a shortfall in the minimum monthly hours, the employee will be docked pay, regardless if it was a personal emergency.

Management nor sales people make any bonuses as targets are absurd, with manufactured year over year target increases. The stores in the company have never achieved or come close to it.

Paris Jewellers claims to have great values, which no one upholds. They have excellent training programs in place, which they expect to be completed in not enough time.

Definitely room for advancement, however, as I did advance within the company. To achieve this, I had to sacrifice my entire personal life, and neglect any non-work relationships.

The company is very willing to invest in you if you show promise, but have very high expectations about your work in return.

The company in general has very little focus, often unable to decide where their efforts should be applied. This leaves the employees scrambling to keep up with whimsical directions the company is headed.

I recommend this job to anyone who is looking for a reliable part-time job, where you are willing to do the work but not invest yourself too much.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Human resources manager 1 salary reported	$57,500 per year
Assistant aux ventes 1 salary reported	$16.25 per hour

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