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Most people recognize the Starbucks name. Starbucks is a worldwide retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee, with more than 8,700 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim, and 90,000 "partners," its name for employees, worldwide. The company has been on Fortune magazine's list of 100 Best Places to Work for the last several years.
Even a coffee retailer needs IT support, especially to start new retail stores. Starbuck's customized point-of-sale (POS) system is an important part of each location. The POS platform was originally developed by a vendor, but Starbucks now owns the source code and does most new development internally. Additional business applications are also a combination of internally developed solutions and products developed by third parties. Starbucks employs over 300 partners in its IT department.
In 1998 the company teamed with sports star Magic Johnson's Johnson Development Corporation (JDC, Beverly Hills, CA) and formed Urban Coffee Opportunities, LLC (UCO) to promote the establishment of Starbucks retail stores in ethnically diverse urban and suburban neighborhoods across the country. The initial focus of the joint venture is African American and Hispanic American communities. There are now more than eighty UCO stores in the largest cities throughout the United States. UCO locations look and function like other Starbucks locations, but also reflect the character of the respective neighborhoods.
"To help with our diversity recruiting, Starbucks looks at colleges that have a high percentage of people of color. We have a presence at Howard University through our partnership with Johnson Development Corporation," explains May Snowden, VP of global diversity. "Once we have identified a school for campus recruiting, we look at all talent, including engineering and IT. We are a coffee company and a retailer, so many of our positions are in marketing, retail or field operations, product development, communications, human resources and sales."
Starbucks attends minority engineering society job fairs, and plans to expand that involvement next year. It also works with the National Association of Minorities in Hospitality. The company is looking at establishing affinity groups in 2006, Snowden says. Starbucks "makes sure that it has a broad and diverse set of groups to recruit from," says Snowden.
Starbucks provides eight-week summer internships to about forty undergraduates every year. Interns learn about coffee, work on real projects, and interact with senior leaders. The majority of internships are located at the main office and the Starbucks support center, both in Seattle, WA, and at the Kent roasting plant in Kent, WA.
"Our company culture at Starbucks is very open and accessible. We look for candidates who not only have the technical skills, but who will also grow and thrive within our fast-paced environment," Snowden asserts.
New employees' skill sets vary depending on the business unit and the position offered, but all partners at Starbucks are evaluated on eight core competencies in addition to their specific job responsibilities: customer focus, ethics and integrity, composure, personal learning, dealing with ambiguity, decision making, interpersonal savvy, and results orientation.
Each new partner at Starbucks, including the IT pros, goes through an individually designed immersion program to learn more about the company and culture. Immersion involves one-on-one meetings with team members and other staff in the partner's department and the company as a whole. A two-day new-partner orientation and classes in coffee knowledge, technical computer support and management training are part of the immersion as well. Additionally, each new partner is scheduled for an in-store immersion, which can last from three days to six weeks. They also are assigned peer mentors.
The best way to apply for a position is online at the Starbucks job center, Snowden says. There applicants can set up a personal account, create a profile, submit a resume and apply for specific positions. Profiles remain active in Starbucks' database for a year.
D/C
Starbucks Corporation
www.starbucks.com
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Headquarters: |
Seattle, WA |
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Employees: |
90,000 worldwide |
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Revenues: |
5.3 billion in 2004 |
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Business: |
Coffee roaster and retailer |
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