Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelsen, senior vice presidents of U.S. operations, shared this letter to Starbucks partners on creating a safe, welcoming and kind third place.

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You’ve been open and honest with us about your experience – from what you need to feel your best at work, to the many inspirational and heartfelt examples of how you are creating memorable moments for one another and our customers. You’re also seeing firsthand the challenges facing our communities – personal safety, racism, lack of access to healthcare, a growing mental health crisis, rising drug use, and more. With stores in thousands of communities across the country, we know these challenges can, at times, play out within our stores too. We read every incident report you file – it’s a lot.

We want you to know that creating a safe, welcoming, and kind third place is our top priority. Because simply put, we cannot serve as partners if we don’t first feel safe at work. The question on our minds is: How do we continue to show up for our communities while protecting our partners?

This is the most important work ahead – and your input directly shapes our policies, programs and benefits to ensure you feel more supported and empowered, including:

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We hear the challenges facing you in stores, and we all have a lot more to still figure out – but we know we’ll get there because YOU have shown us, time and again, that our stores can be a place of hope, optimism and community for all. As we move forward, we will continue learning together, and share regular updates on this important work.

Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelsen, senior vice presidents of U.S. operations, shared this letter to Starbucks partners on creating a safe, welcoming and kind third place.

Message to Starbucks partners: Safety in our stores - Starbucks Stories

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Message to Starbucks partners: Safety in our stores

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For the week of April 25, Starbucks senior leaders and chief executive officer Howard Schultz traveled around the country to listen, learn and exchange ideas with store partners (employees) in collaboration sessions that will shape the future of the company. This week, collaboration sessions were in San Diego, Dallas, Boston, New York, Atlanta, Schaumburg, Illinois, and are continuing Friday in Maryland and San Francisco.

Co-creating benefits for partners of all ages

In his 12 years at Starbucks, Vic feels like he’s taken advantage of several significant partner (employee) benefits: a career-development opportunity to be the first manager of the downtown Disney Starbucks store in Anaheim, Calif.; a degree through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan; and tens of thousands of dollars in reimbursements as he and his wife went through adoption and in vitro fertilization.

“It’s what makes me proud to be a partner, it’s absolutely amazing,” said Vic, now a store manager in San Diego. “But the reality is that not all of our benefits apply to every single partner.

“We need to start reevaluating what some of our younger partners want in terms of benefits so that they stay with the company longer, and they feel proud 12, 15 years down the road, like I feel.”

Vic was one of 16 store partners who shared their thoughts at a collaboration session Wednesday in San Diego, as Starbucks partners and leaders continue to meet in facilitated groups across the country to re-imagine and co-create the future of the company. The meeting took place in an upstairs conference room at the Feeding San Diego food bank, a partner in Starbucks FoodShare program.

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Like most of the sessions, the time in San Diego was split in half, with the first spent sitting in a circle reflecting on the current retail experience and the second standing up – workshopping, imagining and discussing solutions. The group focused on the themes of more relevant benefits and the eroding partner experience, exacerbated by the COVID pandemic.&nbsp;

'Creating uplifting human connection in a world that needs it.’

As he reflected with the group, Starbucks chief marketing officer Brady Brewer, told them, “The past two years have taught us so much about where we’ve invested and where we haven’t, and what we need to do to be who we want as a company.”

After the session ended, Brewer continued the conversation with a barista who’s worked part-time for 17 years. She told him she’d love to see a thank you to all the store managers who’ve made it through the pandemic.

“That hit me,” Brewer said. “We need to meaningfully honor what we’ve been through together and ensure that our partners in the stores feel truly appreciated for all they have done and continue to do each day.

"There’s so much we can do as a company to have a positive impact on this world,” Brewer said. “I don’t know of any other brand at our scale that puts human connection at the center of its purpose. I think there’s going to be an increasing premium on genuine human connection over time. That is one of the most exciting opportunities for Starbucks: creating uplifting human connection in a world that needs it.”

Close-up of colored sticky notes with handwritten suggestions

As Starbucks senior leaders and chief executive officer Howard Schultz wrap up a month of dozens of collaboration sessions with store partners around the country, they’re focusing on taking ideas and turning them into action.

Week in Review: After a month of listening and collaboration sessions, Starbucks looks to the future

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For the week of April 18, Starbucks chief executive officer Howard Schultz and other senior leaders continued to meet with partners around the country during sessions designed to co-create the next chapter of the company. At each session, partners talked about their day-to-day realities with leaders and shared their hopes and ideas for the company.

When Bria joined Starbucks as a barista in Bronxville, N.Y., almost eight years ago, she remembers how her store manager at the time, Manny, created an environment that felt like something more than work.

“He was one of those managers that was inspiring,” she said Wednesday. “It was really not just a work environment. It was a safe haven. I always said if I were to move up, I wanted my store to feel like that as well.”

She had the vision for what she wanted to create and, when she became a store manager, more than four years ago, that’s exactly what she did. “I made it a place where partners could come if they needed to, where partners were safe, where partners felt like they always had a voice,” she said.

Bria shared her story during conversation in White Plains, N.Y., with other Starbucks partners and leaders on how to co-create the Starbucks experience. The sessions, which are happening around the country, are designed for partners to give feedback – and also dream of the company they want to build as Starbucks enters a new phase. As Bria created in her own store, they are a place where partners truly have a voice – and leaders are listening.

In addition to New York, Starbucks leaders this week also talked with partners from stores in Orlando, Fla., and at the Starbucks roasting plants in South Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Collaboration sessions were also held throughout Canada.

During an open forum at the York, Penn., plant, partners shared ideas for improving retention, pay and training – topics that have been <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2022/week-in-review-starbucks-partners-share-ideas-on-restoring-trust/">raised in collaboration sessions and visits</a> since they began. In a session Tuesday in Florida, a partner who was hired right before the pandemic and saw how the company had to pivot quickly to more “to go” service, shared hopes that now Starbucks could return to focusing more on coffee culture and being able to share tastings with customers. “I’d love to be able to share that and have time to be able to share that with everybody on my team,” the partner said.

Partners create their ideal Starbucks

During the collaboration session In White Plains, about 25 miles north of Manhattan, the 15 store partners were a mix of baristas, including some in role for just a few months, and seasoned shift supervisors and managers. During the more than three-hour session inside a hotel conference room, they were asked for their ideas to build their ideal Starbucks store from the ground up, and to identify changes to current practices that could improve their professional and personal lives and make them feel more supported.

They wrote their ideas on sticky notes, put them on a scroll on the wall and “upvoted” their favorites with green dot stickers. Among the recommendations they discussed:

‘What happens next is what builds trust’

During the Florida session, Schultz apologized to store partners for “not keeping up with demand and putting you in a situation where there is anxiety and pressure. I can promise you that we are doing our best to try and accelerate these ideas and the other ideas we’ve heard to make things better.”

Marcus Eckensberger, regional vice president for Northeast – Region 8, who attended the New York session Wednesday, acknowledged, “It’s OK to listen and it’s great, but what happens next is what builds trust, what builds value.”

When the White Plains session ended, the partners grabbed box lunches as they left the meeting. In a hallway, Bria shared her aspiration for the company.

“My hope for Starbucks is that we are equipped with transformational leaders,” she said. “My hope is that every single partner can have the same story as me, where they feel like they had a leader that really listened to them, they had a leader that helped them believe in the company, and they had a leader that helped them believe in themselves.”

Howard Schultz posing with group of people, all smiling

Starbucks ceo Howard Schultz and other senior leaders continued to meet with partners around the country this week.

Week in review: As collaboration sessions continue, Starbucks partners share hopes, ideas

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For the week of April 11, Howard Schultz and senior leaders continued meeting with partners throughout the company, listening and promising to work with them to co-create a new Starbucks. Communicating across multiple channels, partner voices are more critical than ever.

Meeting with U.S. Store Managers

On Monday, Schultz appeared in a biweekly virtual meeting of Starbucks U.S. store managers and retail leaders. He shared his thoughts on his first days back at the company, went over learnings from the <a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2022/inside-collaboration-sessions-with-starbucks-ceo-howard-schultz-and-partners/">collaboration sessions</a> that are taking place over the course of April and promised to act on partner (employee) feedback. Schultz spoke passionately of Starbucks longstanding culture of caring for and nurturing a direct relationship with its green apron partners, who have been the heart and soul of the company.

“We're going to make promises that we can keep,” Schultz told retail partners. “We're going to make promises that are real and we're going to solve the problems that exist in your stores to give you a better opportunity to succeed.”

Watch an excerpt of Schultz’s comments here:

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As leaders spoke, Starbucks partners reacted in the chat box for the virtual meeting. Here’s a sampling of the comments that were shared:

“Thank you, leaders for trying to lead this space with hope and empathy. Your transparency is appreciated.”

“Stopping the stock buyback should be a huge indicator to all partners that we are making a huge change in our approach and refocusing on partners.”

“I am a 20 year partner here. So glad to have you back Howard Schultz. I believe in you and your leadership and know this company can be great again like it was when I started. We can make these changes together, and I will continue to create the Starbucks Experience.”

“I am with you Howard…almost 19 years of trust and I’m not giving up on you now. 😊”

“...My hope is that the rebuilding of the foundation is lasting.”

“No shareholder is working harder than our partners.”

“Being clear about our values will help with the trust factor.”

“I am so grateful with this conversation around unions, it will help me in my conversations with partners. We have a long road to go to recover from the past, but we really have the best leader to guide us. I am grateful every day I put on the green apron. Thank you for your transparency and respect during all of these hot topics.”

“As a 21-½ year partner I can attest to the statement that I have benefited from the Starbucks Experience, and I pay that forward to the partners around me. #proudtobeapartner #ourbestyearsareahead”

“The talk of benefits relevance is appreciated, but I do not want to minimize the discussion around base pay. As we evolve ‘total pay,’ many hourly partners are as concerned if not more about wage than available benefits.”

“I think the lack of knowledge of our benefits is an issue with [store manager] communication. It's our job to let our employees know everything they are entitled to. The number of partners who don't know they can use sick time for doctors appts, etc. is insane to me.”

“The most relevant benefit for me and my family right now would be pay that reflects the complexity of the work I do.”

“We didn't have half the benefits when I started, I am proud of all the benefits we get. Our voice is why we have them. Thank you. Our best days are ahead of us.”

Collaboration Sessions Continue

On Wednesday, more than 15 area partners from stores in the Seattle region gathered at the Starbucks Support Center to provide their honest feedback and big ideas in a forum facilitated by Camille Hymes, Starbucks vp for community impact in the U.S. Following the format used in four previous collaboration sessions held last week, the partners (ranging from store managers and assistant store managers to shift managers and baristas with less than one to more than 15 years of experience) shared with Schultz their in-store experiences.

“This is a waste of time if you’re not honest and truthful,” Schultz told the group during opening comments, reiterating “this is not for show” and that insights would lead to rebuilding trust in each other and improvements to be announced as early as May 3.

The partners took his comments to heart, offering a range of emotions to describe how they were feeling as they work to uphold the company’s mission with customers.

While the forums can feel like a vent session, they are also designed to keep participants engaged and thinking forward. Schultz stays in the background for most of the two hours, but he pipes up when he is curious (“We have to look at this holistically. Do you prefer higher wages and more cash or less benefits?” and “Do you think Starbucks cares about you? Or are we just trying to make more money?”). The partners use sticky notes to jot down their ideas to three questions, adhere those thoughts to a large white scroll posted at the front of the room, then use stickers to vote for the concepts that resonate most.

Some key themes that emerged among this group include:

“I did not know Howard would be here,” one 10-year partner said after the session, adding, “It was a lot more conversational than I expected. I’m hopeful. There’s a lot of re-learning that needs to happen, though.”

Partner Experience Survey Launches

From April 11 to 24, Starbucks is conducting its bi-annual confidential survey among hourly partners to gather their feedback on areas of the partner experience that matters most, like their relationship with their team and managers or the adequacy of resources needed to be successful at their job. The goal? To give all partners, whether they participate in a collaboration session or not, the chance to make their voices heard and contribute to the co-creation of Starbucks future.

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Collage of Starbucks partners participating in collaboration sessions

In Howard Schultz’s second week back as ceo, company leaders continued the push to hear from green apron partners (employees) through a new survey, a hometown collaboration session and a national virtual meeting with retail teams.

Week in review: Starbucks partners share ideas on restoring trust

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