Page 174 - The Starbucks Experience

Leave Your Mark

line in opening stores, harvesting coffee, and conducting busi-
ness. These leadership actions—including employee benefits
decisions, C.A.F.E. Practices policies, development of rela-
tionships with environmentally conscious and socially diverse
companies, and community involvement—have been
addressed in earlier discussion. It’s important to see how these
commitments help Starbucks leave its mark in communities
throughout the globe.

Benefits for Partners
When Howard Schultz and senior management made the
decision to offer health-care benefits to all employees who
work 20 hours a week or more, they were going beyond the
call of duty. A strong business case could have been made that
such benefits were not necessary. Other quick-service restau- 159
rants did not provide that level of health-care coverage.
Entry-level jobs in this sector are typically minimum-wage
positions without any health-care benefits. While retention
problems plagued the fast-food industry, many analysts
believed that Starbucks did not need to go as far as it did to
hold on to employees.
Indirectly, the company’s decision to offer health-care cov-
erage to “part-timers” put pressure on other companies to
provide similar compensation packages or deal with the con-
sequences. Some communities object to big retail superstores
invading their neighborhoods on the basis that their effect is
to lower the salaries of employees in existing businesses. By
contrast, communities often appreciate Starbucks because its
arrival in a neighborhood usually raises the expectations for
other similar employers.