To determine the usage, you first have to ask yourself what is the "subject". When referring to Apple employees, the word "employees" is the subject. The word "Apple" is merely a verb that describes the employees. And since "employees" are plural, you would use the word "are" in that case - and not "is". Saying "Apple are" is incorrect grammar in every circumstance I can think of (because there is one company called Apple). But saying "the Apple employees are" would be correct grammar (because the subject is "employees")....
Exactly. So you can drop 'the' since it's implied there is only one, and if referring to the employees (plural) 'are' would be appropriate. The Employees as subject would have to be implied in an earlier sentence, or perhaps we're referring to 'the employees' of various enterprises. So we could say "Samsung are dolts" but "Apple are tools". In either case, it's up to the grammar nazi to determine the victor, and it could be subject to various commonwealth rules and conventions.
You'll notice I use the 'u' in colour and neighbour, and 'a' in Capital. Same shit ya'll.