Pros
ESS invests in its employees far more than other retail companies. If you're interested in advancing in a career with the company, you need only make it known and you'll be given lots of support to head in the direction you are most interested in pursuing. ESS is also extremely supportive and works to provide a holistic approach to staff development that involves cross training and multiple levels of support.
Cons
ESS works to grow as a business in several ways, over the past few years there has been a growing emphasis on key performance metrics as a way to do this. These metrics have often been made the focus of meetings, site visits, and training sessions--too much emphasis on this can lead to perceptions that the company is entirely numbers focused. While, this isn't the case when the metrics are the only message coming at field employees it can seem like there are no other messages of what's important to the company being presented.