Welcome to Starbucks TRAINING ANALYSIS & IMPLEMENTATION

Katie Marcucci Final Paper

Katie Marcucci 16 JUNE 2012

INDEX
CONTENTS PAGE

Executive Summary Introduction Needs Assessment & Implementation Recommended Training Strategy &Design Career Management Systems Organizational Development & Interventional Activities 6-7 Cost Benefits Analysis & System Redesign Training Evaluation Plan Conclusion Exhibit 1 Citations 9 10 11 12 34

45 56 6

78 89

Katie Marcucci Final Paper

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Sitting in a bar with where you watch the bartender pour the perfect mug of beer with the right amount of head is just as pleasurable as sitting at a coffee shop on a cool morning holding a mug of the perfectly crafted coffee with just the right amount of bitterness and foam. Starbucks aims to create an atmosphere where the believe that when they are fully engaged, they will connect with, [] and uplift the lives of our customers even if just for a few moments. It starts with the promise of a perfectly made beverage, but our work goes far beyond that. Its really about human connection. Given the opportunity to continue to make this connection Starbucks has asked for a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of their current training program and for improvements in building a better relationship with employees and customers by helping to build and instill a passion for great coffee and service. By breaking down the process of training to the starting levels and allow for a transformation of the current program to help current employees at the store level to understand how to enhance their career and time with Starbucks to better their working experience as well as the customer experience.

Katie Marcucci Final Paper

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Starbucks, what can I get started for you today? Combined with a welcoming smile, that is what often greets customers that walk into their local shop. Starbucks is an internationally known company with a strong reputation around the world. The mission of Starbucks is: To inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup and one community at a time. The plan to accomplish the mission of Starbucks is to make quality coffee, be passionate about the product and service as its not just a job, and finally to uplift the customer with a good cup and a human connection. The goal of Starbucks is to remain focused on Global Responsibility and

to be a catalyst for change both locally and globally. During the month of April each
year starting in 2010 the business focuses on bringing that change to their local areas, with the belief that acting locally will expand to acting globally. Found in the local grocery store, across the street from your office, on the

ferry or anywhere else you can think of, the Starbucks product is being sold at a
startling rate, even despite the economic downturn. Key to this success is that Starbucks believes that employees are the ambassadors of the company and they need to know about a "perfect" cup. The Starbucks Training Program holds a few key core beliefs about training employees. Starting with well-roundedness; Starbucks puts new employees through a strict training regimen in their first 2-4 weeks on the job. During this time, new recruits complete at least 24 hours of training. Employees are an extension of the brand; initial training includes sessions on coffee history, coffee knowledge, customer service, retail skills, and a 4-hour workshop about how to brew a perfect cup of coffee. Next is to show the employees how hands on learning is important, because it allows the coffee giant the opportunity to show the full impact, of hands-on

Katie Marcucci Final Paper experiences that allow workers to learn through trial and error. The willingness of Starbucks to experiment by trial and error allows for changes to evolve as the company continues to evolve. Their dedicated concern to bettering the system and keeping in line with their goals to reach out to the broad

spectrum of people in the coffee community allow them to continue to strive towards being the top in their business. The observation assessment should be done first and possibly it should be considered to be done in a fairly anonymous manner. For example, the employees should know that someone will be assessing them in an observational manner, but they wont know who it is, or when it may occur. This would be similar to the idea of a mystery shopper.

NEEDS ASSESSMENT & IMPLEMENTATION

Subsequent to discussion of the background of the company, the employees should receive feedback as a whole. Additionally, the employees should be given the opportunity to submit their answers to the assessment questionnaire. These questionnaires were made up of three parts: observational assessment, assessment questionnaires, and finally an interview session. The needs of the training program were evaluated for how well the employees communicated effectively with customers, co-workers, and supervisors, and how that motivated the employees to share information with the customers about products and/or recommend company products to the customer. Assessment questionnaires are a good way to get a solid feedback from employees about how they believe the company is in response to their needs and concerns. Some of the key questions that were asked were: 1. My company believes in positive reinforcement.

Katie Marcucci Final Paper 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. My supervisor communicates with me on a regular basis. My supervisor gives me information that is important to me. I have the skills necessary to perform my job properly. My training has been in a uniform manner and consistent. Team goals are supported throughout my organization. Individual goals are assessed for improvement or recognition. I clearly understand what is expected of me. I am rewarded for good performance.

Keeping questions short and open ended gave the employee a written cue that it was acceptable for them to list their concerns and or needs. If staff feels comfortable to have an open dialog with the company then this can help Starbucks avoid small problems that may become major issues earlier on. At the end of the assessment questionnaire period, the employees were interviewed one on one using the same open ended question format. Largely, the employees expressed their thoughts on certain aspects of the business and their training programs. Some of those questions may include: 1) Are there ideas that you have about how to better do business that you have felt able to share with your supervisor? 2) Do you feel you have a space to be creative in your work? 3) How do you feel about the pace of your job compared to your training level? After all the assessment portions have been completed I will analyze the information and feedback and prepare a report for the board to suggest changes and follow up actions on implementing any changes that they might be open to making.

RECOMMENDED TRAINING STRATEGY & DESIGN

The most important training strategy for the start is to identify those employees that would like to have a career with Starbucks. Do they want to eventually work for the corporate offices? Do they want to own a store? Do they want to ascend the ladder in their respective areas, and how? As the training strategy is being evaluated and developed for employees, such as baristas and lower level management in the Starbucks stores, a traditional

Katie Marcucci Final Paper classroom setting is important due to the hands on responsibilities of a barista. The need to keep baristas up to-date on new coffees, chocolate pairings, and even beverage creations is important to the ever evolving nature of the coffee business. Employees would benefit from either quarterly or semi-annual classes to refresh the

worker on current information. Those classes would also serve as great opportunities to train on more practical matters of coffee such as new beans, new supply sources, and even environmental considerations that may be affecting the sourcing of the product Starbucks sells. Coffee being in such demand means that it is the second largest commodity in the world. ("Top 10 most," 2011) Combined with the barista being an extension of the Starbucks brand, these educational classes in a traditional setting are important to ensure proper knowledge. Opportunities to perform (Ford, Quinons, Sego, Sorra,
1992) are a great type of training session because they allow the workers who want

to excel the opportunity to show their performance on the job. As will later be discussed under the Organizational Development section the opportunity to show the level of activity and also the level at which the employee is trying to incorporate more knowledge into their arsenal is going to show the attention to detail needed in the coffee business. Finally, after the two training methods discussed above are combined and evaluated in practical processes of the job, the management has a solid base to see what concepts need to be taught more frequently, what concerns are being missed altogether, and a path is even created to being able to add new information to later trainings altogether.

CAREER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Action planning would be the best option because it allows the work to be more

Katie Marcucci Final Paper intentional. This is a concept that other businesses may call Standard Operating

Procedures (SOP), the SOP would allow for the management systems and programs to work directly with the baristas and other shop employees to help set up goals and plans for project completion. It is also helpful to pinpoint concerns that may need to be addressed in training, thus linking the action planning back to the original discussion on traditional classroom trainings.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT & INTERVENTION ACTIVITIES

Team building programs are able to take a separate approach to addressing performance strengths and weaknesses and then setting a time line to address concerns or issues. The best way to find out if team building is going to be effective is to evaluate the criteria that the program wishes to meet. The main goal should be to improve employee effectiveness. Alongside the team building exercises, career planning and goal setting is vital to the baristas and store management to help achieve the results that Starbucks is looking for in their employees. Goal Setting should be based on the employees desires to move up within the company. Obviously, an employee that is there just for the paycheck may not be interested in setting goals or creating a career plan, but those whose interests are to stand out can start by working with management to create an Individual Development Plan (IDP). The IDP allows the employee to set short term goals for the current year and long term goals for time outside of the year with a target date for completion of items set forth in the plan. These goals can be work or personal in nature, but should always act as a vehicle to meeting their professional goals. In order to reach the goals in a realistic manner the employee would be required to set out a series of developmental activities that match the competencies set out to evaluate the members style of meeting their goals. At the review time, the

Katie Marcucci Final Paper manager and the employee would sit down and evaluate the progress and decide where to change, improve or note completion of a goal. The IDP program could then be linked to a similar incentive program to find out who may be a good candidate for

later supervisory positions and could potentially be admitted to an Emerging

Leaders Program.

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS & SYSTEM REDESIGN

Employees are invariably the most valued asset and resource to a business or organization. As a result it is important for Starbucks to make a commitment and investment in providing continuous learning opportunities. Section 201 of the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004 amends 5 U.S.C. 4103 and adds a new section 4121. These changes require Federal agencies to training programs and plans in order to promote a

regularly evaluate and modify

more strategic approach to the integration of training programs into overall mission accomplishment. (OPM, 12) Exhibit 1 shows a chart of the basic cycle for Starbucks to follow in order to make their transition into their system redesign more seamless. The first line of business in system redesign is the analysis of the cost. Will the fiscal cost of implementing these changes be worth the end result and will this benefit Starbucks employee bottom line and financial bottom line? There is no reason to make any changes if the foundation of Starbucks training program will not reap the benefits of the proposed changes. The cost of taking employees from the work place (especially baristas) during any sort of peak service time can cost quite a large amount of financial upset. The cost will encompass the pay for workers in the training program, and the cost of the teacher, which can be large. The fee of an outside trainer is usually $3000 and up depending

Katie Marcucci Final Paper on if the training is onsite or offsite and how many people will be in each training

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session. Starbucks has such a specialized business model and service that they would have to be sure to follow up with finding out how the knowledge and skills of the employees are improving. The return on investment in this situation can come

from tracking the change in types of coffee sold at the store level, feedback from the customers on the expertise of the employees in suggesting new flavors, and also in the quantities of each type of

beans ordered as compared to before the training.

When a product is sold the cash register has a system that notes what product is sold in what quantity each day, which is the basis for how Starbucks orders items from their suppliers and knows which type of food items are willing to be bought by the consumer. The return on investment should be able to fairly quickly be noted and within a quarter the management should be able to start singling out the employees that are excelling and qualify for career planning and further goal setting.

TRAINING EVALUATION PLAN

The Kirkpatrick four level framework of evaluation is used to evaluate a training program, and the company must decide how it will determine the program's effectiveness.(Noe) Level 1 measures the satisfaction of the trainee. For the purposes of Starbucks new training program Level 1 should also be used after the training is implemented so that Starbucks can compare the level of knowledge and satisfaction with the employees to what it was prior to the initial trainings. Due to the comprehensive style of the Kirkpatrick framework it is the best fit to analyze how the changes have affected Starbucks in its professional format but also in its store training formats. The real extension of their faith in their employees being the ambassadors to the company will have a visual and emotional effect. According to the Noe text The hierarchical nature of Kirkpatrick's framework suggests that higher

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level outcomes should not be measured unless positive changes occur in lower level outcomes. For example, if trainees do not like a course, no learning will occur. (Noe) Criticism is often assumed to be negative but the feature of creating a dialog between all levels of employees allows Starbucks a wide window in which to evaluate the outcomes in an orderly manner and allows for other changes to be made in the training program with some flexibility. An important part of the training process after the initial changes were made is to see where improvements or changes need to be made in order to tweak the program to meet the goals of Starbucks.

CONCLUSION
Starbucks is a worldwide brand with wide reaching goals and services. In the 2011 Year in Review CEO, President, and Chairman Howard Schultz reviews the Goals and Progress in Ethical Sourcing. "Starbucks approach is grounded in Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, our comprehensive set of more than 200 social, economic and environmental indicators. In 2011, 86 percent of our coffee was C.A.F.E. Practices verified." The significance of this is that small changes in farms that operate in the C.A.F.E. program with Starbucks allow for making sure school aged children attend school instead of work. To continue to be the best company that Starbucks can be from the top down and the bottom up, Starbucks needs to make some changes to the current training program. The needs are clearly outlined and the Implementation process has been laid out to help Starbucks to address the concerns and trails faced by the baristas and store employees. Execution of this plan will lead to better communication and

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achievement of goals at all levels which will help the store employees to be the best ambassadors to the company as possible.

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EXHIBIT 1

The cycle for determining training concerns and needs is broken down into five steps including: 1. Setting Goals 2. Develop Management Training Systems 3. Integrate Training 4. Costs and Method of Evaluation 5. System Redesign

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CITATIONS
1. Top 10 most traded commodities. (2011). Retrieved from

http://www.tiptoptens.com/2011/01/31/top-10-most-traded-commodities/
2. Ford, J. Kevin, Quinons, Miguel A. Sego, Doughlas J. Sorra, Joann (1992). Factors

affecting the opportunity to perform trained tasks on the job. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1992.tb00858.x/citedby
3. OPM. (12, 10 20). Training and development policy. Retrieved from

http://www.opm.gov/hrd/lead/index.asp
4. Raymond Andrew Noe (2010). Employee Training and Development [5] (VitalSource

Bookshelf), Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/0077586808