Starbucks Coffee Case Study

1) Training and development, compensation, and benefits are the most critical HR practices for Starbucks to maintain the coffee experience and customer service that its’ known for. Barista employees interact with Starbucks customers every day. If customers do not have a good experience with an employee they will most likely not become a repeat customer. In order to ensure employees provide quality products with excellent customer service a company must provide excellent training. A company must also retain good employees and decrease turnover by providing competitive compensation and benefits.

2) During the recession Starbucks focused on treating employees “right” by providing a great work environment. There were many cutback made to the work force and the benefit program during the recession. To increase employee morale, Starbucks cut the bonuses of top executives to show that all employees were being affected by the recession. Starbucks focused on increasing the quality of their staff and their products by holding an extensive training day. Other industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, and R&D would benefit from imitating Starbucks’ HR practices. Maintaining quality employees and providing customers with excellent customer service and products can help the bottom line across many industries.

3) There are many competitors within the “coffee” industry that a customer can easily switch to. Bad service and poor products can influence where a customer buys coffee and coffee related products. If Starbucks did not focus on employee training, customer service, and quality products they would not have been successful. Starbucks HR policies must continually improve on training and development to ensure customers are happy with service and products. Starbucks must also ensure that they have competitive benefits and compensation so they can retain quality employees that make a customer’s visit to Starbucks excellent.