Introduction
Starbucks is one of the fastest growing and well-known companies in the world. It was started in 1971 by Gordon Bowker and Jerry Baldwin. The company did not pick immediately until in the 1980s when it rapidly expanded in the hands of Howard Schultz. Currently, the company has over 13,000 outlets in 39 countries. Starbucks deals with drinks coffee, tea, coffee mugs, blended drinks, small bites and other coffee accessories. The success as well as rapid growth of the company can be attributed mainly to its motivated and committed workforce. Starbucks' human resource management philosophy involves developing enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time, contributing positively to the environment and society at large, recognizing that profitability is vital to its future success, providing a positive work environment and treat each with dignity and respect, embrace diversity as a vital component in the way it carries out its business and applying the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of coffee (Anna, 2013).
People-Oriented
Starbucks values its employees as it view them as vital for the success of the company. Employees are the company's public face and each dollar of sales go through their hands. Howard know that employees are the one who make or break the company and hence he regards them as assets. If the customer perceives good relationship with the employee he will definitely come back and the vice versa is also true. Hence, the business executives have developed a mutual trust with employees and customer based on the true, right and genuine commercial operation basis in an effort to achieve long-term success. The trust and respect that Starbucks gives its employees is reflected in all its operations. Starbucks has suggested that every employee ideas should be taken seriously as a way to encourage workers to contribute ideas. Moreover, the company conducts regular company-wide opinion poll and a telephone survey and comment cards employees can speak out on issues and related management staff is supposed to respond to those issues in two weeks. Furthermore, the company has created an open forum for employees to discuss issues affecting them and give them an opportunity to ask senior management questions that they might have. Starbucks refers to its employees as partners (Zhang, 2005).
Staffing Process
This has made Starbucks to realize that it is crucial to recruit and hire the right employee, properly train them, motivate them to do their best as well as encourage them not to leave the company. To hire the right employee, the company engages in a vigorous and thorough staffing process. To begin with, the company carries out a job analysis which entails identifying the tasks, responsibilities and skills, knowledge and abilities needed for a given position. The managers use the information collected for the job analysis to prepare two documents: job description and a job specification. The next step involves forecasting the future hiring needs, which involves finding out the numbers of employees needed. The company engages in both internal and external recruitment of employees to find qualified candidates. To select the right employee, the company conducts interviews and employment tests. After passing the interview, the applicants have to go through a rigorous physical examination, including a drug test and background and reference checks. To attract talented employees, the company recruits qualified candidates and selects those who best fit the needs of the organization. The company also inducts new employees as well as train existing employees to ensure they remain competent. To retain the right employees, the company motivates them to excel, appraise their performance and compensate them accordingly (Chen, 2012).
Compensation
Starbucks pay its employees above the market. Starbucks is one of the few companies which offer generous benefits to full-time as well as part-time employees. Starbucks gives generous wages and benefits to its employees. The company offers various benefits to its employees including health, vision and dental insurance, paid vacations, paid sick leave, life insurance, employee assistance programs and disability insurance. Apart from enjoying generous wages and benefits, the employees at Starbucks can also buy the company's stock option at low price. Employees can buy shares at discounted prices, giving them an opportunity to become owners of the company. As a result, it employees are motivated leading to low employee turnover. Starbucks endeavors to do its best to provide satisfying jobs, good working conditions, suitable work schedules and equitable compensation and benefits (Zhao, 2012).
For my final report, I look forward to learning more about the company's training and development programs and performance appraisal. Moreover, I intend to carry out a SWOT analysis of the company to find out its strengths, weaknesses, threat and opportunity.