Starbucks Elevates the Employee Experience Through Extended Benefits
Starbucks is making strides to offer a more compelling value proposition to its associates, building out its benefits based on feedback gathered from its employees.
The developments involve several key initiatives designed to improve working life for Starbucks associates, including the quicker accrual of paid vacation time, ongoing investments in pay, new financial well-being and skills-building benefits, and employee-focused scheduling.
Elevating associate experience is a key component of the retailer’s recently revealed strategy, named “Triple Shot Reinvention With Two Pumps,” which focuses on scaling digital capabilities, elevating experiences via store initiatives and product innovation, growing the brand globally, and incentivizing workforce loyalty.
Details of the specific benefits and initiatives include:
Pay Increases: Starbucks raised the wage floor for all U.S. retail hourly partners to $15 per hour in 2022. Effective January 1, eligible associates will receive a minimum 3% pay increase, with those who have worked with the company for 2-5 years seeing at least 4% and those with 5 or more years of service receiving at least 5%.
Scheduling Protocols: Starbucks now collects associates’ preferred, minimum, and maximum hours to balance worker availability with store staffing needs, assisting store managers in drawing up schedules This approach enhances scheduling personalization, contributing to schedule stability, flexibility, and consistency for Starbucks employees, the company says.
Career Mobility: To enhance the growth and mobility of partners, Starbucks is actively investigating credential and certification programs, aiming to expand upon its Starbucks College Achievement Plan. Through this initiative, Starbucks covers tuition upfront for employees removing financial barriers. Over 10,000 partners have graduated, and the company aims to help 25,000 more by 2025, investing around $250 million.
Financial Wellbeing: The company helps associates organize and boost their finances by offering equity ownership through Bean Stock grants. Starting in January, employees can also opt for the Siren Card, a new banking experience that has zero fees and 24/7 customer support.
Vacation Accrual: Starting in February 2024, Starbucks hourly associates will accrue paid vacation time just 90 days after hire.
Brewing Success: Starbucks' Workforce Wins
Starbucks has made the news for its ability to retain staff in an industry notorious for high attrition rates. Addressing investors in September, Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan noted that barista attrition had actually improved by 11% year over year.
The Starbucks head attributed this improvement to its range of employee benefits, improved scheduling capabilities, and the implementation of faster, easier-to-use equipment and portable, handheld blenders which allowed associates to keep up with summer demand for frozen drinks.
“Through scheduling and staffing improvements, we are beginning to increase the number of hours per partner in store, critical to running great stores and improving partner engagement while also improving productivity,” Narasimhan shared at the time.
“Investing in our partners (employees) is what drives our success. It’s what makes us all partners. And an important way we do this is by investing in our partners’ journey, to bridge to a better future at Starbucks and beyond. This entails engaging with and listening to, their ideas and feedback while continuing to raise the bar by offering competitive pay and the best benefits package in the industry.” – Sara Trilling, executive vice president and president of Starbucks North America.
