Employability and Retention of Workers at Starbucks - Case Study Example

Employability and Retention of Workers at Starbucks and Starbucks if an organization that sells coffee as the main beverage, but the firm has expanded its product base to tea, soft drinks, and snacks. The company whose origin is in Seattle in the United States was formed by Howard Schultz who introduced the sale of coffee as a beverage. Starbucks now has over fifteen thousand outlets in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The management of human resource in Starbucks is guided by the philosophy of using the right people to hire the right workers for the firm. This means that the company aims at having the right team that recruits the workers who have the required qualifications. This paper will examine the employability, retention, and recruitment of staff at Starbucks. Employability is a term that refers to the ability of a person to secure an employment position with a company. For a person to secure an employment position, that individual must have the right educational qualifications, experience, and skills. Therefore, it means that a person’s qualifications must match those required by a company for the organization to consider that person to be employable. Philips argues that for companies to determine the employability of prospective workers, they have to plan by first determining the objectives of their organizations. This is because workers who are to be selected must be capable of enabling the company to achieve its mission and objectives. The main objective of Starbucks is to provide its customers with an excellent experience while they are in the organization. This means that for a worker to be employable, that person must have the ability of serving customers in a friendly and efficient manner. Since the organization also deals with food stuffs, it means that employees must be capable of handling food efficiently, maintain a high degree of hygiene, and be knowledgeable about different brands of coffee, soft drinks, and other products that are sold in the company. The accumulation of these skills indicates that employable workers need also to have attained some education in food, catering, and customer care. It also means that prospective employees need to have acquired some experience in an environment that is similar to that of Starbucks. Employees at Starbucks need also to have certain personal skills that may be acquired naturally or in school. For example, these individuals must have the ability to communicate with all kinds of people successfully. Having the ability to communicate effectively enables workers at Starbucks to serve customers efficiently without experiencing any form of language barrier. Since Starbucks has grown into a multinational firm, it also means that workers need to be able to speak English fluently because this is an international language that is used in most locations where the company is located. Other skills that employable workers must have before being employed at Starbucks include leadership, confidence, friendliness, and ability to make the right decisions. Leadership and decision making skills enable workers to make the right decisions when serving customers in cases where the managers are absent for some reasons. This helps to reduce slow decision making in the company, which dissatisfies customers making them to leave and find similar services as those of Starbucks elsewhere. In fact, Howard Schultz, the pioneer of the company argues that dissatisfied customers may ruin the image of the company because they spread their bad experience even to the satisfied ones. Therefore, the company aims at preventing the catastrophe described by Schultz by employing workers who have the ability of retaining customers. Starbucks also aims at retaining the workers that it employs to avoid a high employee turnover. This is because when Howard began the company, he argued that dissatisfied employees lead to the dissatisfaction of customers. This is because when workers are not comfortable in their work environment, they serve customers in an unwilling and unfriendly manner. The coffee company retains workers by training them so that they can acquire the right skills that are needed to enable the organization to achieve its objectives. This means that when the company improves its business and introduces products that require workers to have new skills, the organization does not eliminate the current workers. Instead, Starbucks trains the current workers on how to handle the new products and activities. Training increases the satisfaction and confidence of workers because they become assured of job security. Starbucks also retains workers by giving them the right equipment to carry out their duties to ensure that they are safe. The equipment includes overall, gloves, working shoes, and head covers that protect their hair from damage. Head covers also increase hygiene in the company because they ensure that hair does not fall off and find its way in the food that is served to customers. Starbucks has also begun a move to pay for workers part of their school fees so that they can complete at least a degree in college. This strategy is helping workers to remain in the organization for long periods. The retention of the workers ensures that they serve customers efficiently, and this leads to an increase in customer retention, sales, and profits in the company. Starbucks is an organization that specializes in selling coffee, snacks, and other beverages such as tea and soft drinks. The company aims at employing workers who help it to achieve its main objective of giving customers the best experience. This is achieved by planning the skills and qualifications that workers need to have in order for them to be employed in the company. Prospective employees who are employable at Starbucks are those who have skills and experiences such as customer service, leadership, communication, decision making, hygiene, and efficient food handling. The workers may have acquired these skills by working previously in a similar environment such as Starbucks, in school, or just naturally. The managers of the coffee company also aim at retaining workers by providing them with safe working tools, safe environment, training, and education. These strategies also help to increase customer retention because the company believes that satisfied workers serve customers efficiently leading to customer loyalty. Read More