Apparently, one of the manifestations of this “family feeling” is the use of the term “partner” - instead of “staff”. And believe it or not, the partnership is firmly established in the lives of Starbucks employees: here even former colleagues keep in touch with each other, noting together weddings, childbirth and other important life events.
Of course, this is not such an outstanding fact to write in such detail, butGordon Lyle insists that such things do not happen by chance: in his opinion, Starbucks employees are much more involved in the company's business than in other organizations. And this happens precisely because of the cohesion and partnership of employees - everyone is on an equal footing, everyone can express their opinion.
By the way, one of the opportunities for company employees to be heard is the Partner Blend program. Twice a year, one representative from each of the 50 British districts is selected to meet with Starbucks top management. Delegates can make their own proposals, which are then evaluated by voting. An interesting variation on the topic of a regular meeting of employees - only here there is an opportunity to quickly respond to their priority requests.
Somehow one “deputy” asked to add pockets to the aprons of the waiters. “Our team designed and painted the apron, we all figured out and were happy that we were able to solve someone’s problem so quickly,” recalls Lyle. - For us, the coffee business itself is not important, but people who work with coffee. And we believe that it is thanks to caring for them that everything turns out so wonderful. ” A curious fact: the giant company believes in the power of small things ...
The legs of this "little things philosophy" grow from the head office in Seattle.Even before its expansion beyond North America, the company earned a reputation as an attractive employer. In Seattle, she achieved this through the introduction of corporate medical care and options that were provided to both permanent and temporary staff.
However, Lyle decided not to dwell on this and created a mutual material assistance fund.
“Now we can help partners who have had force majeure circumstances,” explains the HR director of the company. “Yes, we have corporate medical care and an option payment scheme, but we want to go beyond the basic needs of people and take care of our partners even better.”
