Chok Yeeling, a Starbucks regular, is no easy customer. A self-professed coffee connoisseur, she's exacting in her demands on how her drink should be prepared according to her needs and her mood of that day. She expects customised orders such as double tall two pumps vanilla low fat latte, which she dishes out fluently, to be received with the same confidence by the person behind the counter.
For someone who has a role in training Starbucks employees to deal confidently with demands such as hers whilst maintaining a zesty, perky outlook, one would find her fastidiousness justified. Chok is the head of partner resources at Starbucks Coffee Singapore, overseeing the learning and development as well as human resources functions of the company - a role she took on in August 2004 after her promotion from master trainer.
Chok is well aware that she is in for a big challenge as her role of developing and executing people strategies and building organisational capabilities has direct impact on the business. Ask any Starbucks employee its secret for success and they will tell you it's the coffee and the people. Worldwide, 28 million customers a week pay as much as $5 for a cup of Starbucks coffee. One would be rather naïve to think that today's highly discerning, spoilt-for-choice consumers would be willing to part with that kind of money for just a good cuppa; the other important part of the equation to the retailer's success is its ability to deliver the Starbucks experience - a calculated strategy aimed at making customers feel welcome, valued and special - which in turn helps strengthen the company's unique identity and build brand loyalty.
That experience is winning over customers around the world, as evidenced by the company's significant growth rate. Currently, there are 8,900 Starbucks stores in 35 countries around the world employing 85,000 people. The company reportedly aims to open another 1,500 stores in fiscal 2005. A large part of its success in the initial stages was attributed to the then director of retail operations and marketing, Howard Schultz (Schultz is now the chairman and chief global strategist) who, after an enlightening trip to Italy in 1984, convinced its founder to test the Milanese coffeehouse concept in downtown Seattle, where the first Starbucks was opened in 1971. It was a hit. Three years later, Starbucks had 17 stores and the number has kept on multiplying since. In Singapore, where the first store opened in December 1996, there are now 32 stores employing 700 part-time and full-time employees.
Even if there are enough customers willing to pay a premium for its handcrafted beverages to fuel the chain's exceptional growth, questions about its ability to recruit good people to staff the workforce remain. Can a company so dependent upon the personalities of its employees possibly find enough qualified candidates to support the growth of its workforce in the coming years?
Chok says that the company is in a good position to deal with the talent squeeze. She says, "Our corporate values speak to a lot of people, and as an equal opportunity employer, we hire from diverse backgrounds, including students and homemakers. Moreover, most of our recruitment policies and practices are aimed at helping Starbucks achieve ‘employer of choice' status. (Starbucks came in 11th on Fortune's 2005 Best Places to Work list)." Her admission somewhat affirms the widespread belief that Starbucks is one of the most generous employers amongst F&B retailers.
Starbucks is also known to be generous towards its part-time employees, extending to them the same benefits package offered to full-timers. Notably, part-timers get access to the same number of learning and development hours and health care entitlement as full-timers. The organisation was one of the first retail companies to do this in the US in 1987.
According to Workforce Management magazine, Starbucks covers 75 percent of the cost of health care coverage for its US employees. In a separate report in BusinessWeek Online, Schultz revealed last October that in the next two years, Starbucks will spend more on employee health care than it does on coffee.
Whilst this practice of offering both flexibility and benefits typically given only to full-timers is an employment bolster, it must also leave other employees who have fully devoted their careers to the company feeling a little short-changed. What's in it for someone to join Starbucks full-time or convert to working full-time instead of keeping their career options open?
Chok says that one of Starbucks' key priorities is providing equitable treatment to staff regardless of their employment status with the company. "Our core values emphasise equal opportunities for all our employees, full-time or part-time. Hence, we choose to focus on individual recognition." However, she maintains that full-timers, which make up only 20 percent of the Starbucks workforce in Singapore, have greater career prospects because "they spend more time working in the company, thus accelerating their experiences and helping them gain more exposure".
To ensure hiring managers recruit those who posses the desired attributes and core skills needed for the job, Starbucks is very conscious of the need to communicate its culture and guiding principles to every employee. Chok says the latter is what every major decision is anchored on. The education starts from the time one joins. "Every Starbucks partner (as Starbucks calls its employees), whether in operations or support, has to undergo a cultural immersion programme to learn about our guiding principles and the value of their contributions to the company." "During the programme, new employees, including the four percent of support or non-operation staff in Singapore, get their chance to experience what it is like to be a barista - an Italian term commonly used in Starbucks to refer to a bartender of a coffee bar. They will learn either in a simulated environment or in store, the techniques of preparing an espresso the Starbucks way. "I recall the time a new colleague on the programme asked me to taste her first cup of Frappuccino - she presented the drink to me with so much pride and satisfaction," recalls Chok. She adds that after the cultural immersion programme, corporate staff are encouraged, but not required, to work in a store during their free time to help them stay in touch with the frontlines of the business.
Chok says that what attracts people to work at Starbucks locations around the world and what keeps them there once hired are the practices and culture the company has developed as a result of the strong mission and value statement that emphasises creating a respectful and positive work environment. For her, she says joining Starbucks was an informed and deliberate choice upon learning the company's commitment to "nurturing the human spirit". "My first contact with the brand was in the 1990s even before Starbucks had come to Singapore. It was during the time I worked in Singapore Airlines as a flight attendant. After five years with the airline, I was on the lookout for a place that offered more challenges. I read up on Starbucks and found myself drawn to its values." Chok joined Starbucks in 1997 as a shift manager and progressively moved through retail management roles to become its senior store manager in 2000, where she managed nine stores. In 1999, she was the first Singaporean partner to be awarded the Manager of the Year accolade, and was rewarded with her first trip to Seattle for a leadership conference. Earning the opportunity to meet Howard Schultz was, she says, a high point in her professional life. Chok later became a learning and development trainer, and was promoted to learning and development manager. The role expanded to encompass partner resources. In August 2004, she was promoted to her current role of partner resources manager.
Chok says one of the most significant programmes she started in Singapore was the Coffee Master programme beginning in 2002 - a global Starbucks initiative devoted to building the largest group of coffee experts and developing career development paths for employees. Although the programme was rolled out internationally, it had to be tailored to suit every country's statutory requirements and cultural sensitivities, whilst paying attention to the strategies that worked well in the location's context.
Under the Coffee Master programme, which centres on encouraging "coffee passion" and learning as well as coffee communication to the general public, one starts as a coffee explorer to gain basic knowledge about coffee, its heritage and origins. Once these basic concepts have been grasped, the employee can look forward to becoming a store coffee master. Next up is district coffee master, who is responsible for managing a cluster of stores in a particular geographical district and inspiring learning amongst his or her team members. To promote further interest in coffee learning, an annual competition amongst district coffee masters for the coveted title of Coffee Ambassador has also been implemented. Last year, the ambassadors for 2003 and 2004 were posted to Starbucks cafés in the Olympic Village of Athens to represent Singapore in the global star team consisting of the best performers from several different countries.
Developing the learning programmes, communicating the objectives and creating excitement around coffee are primarily HR's responsibilities, says Chok. She adds that although the theme of the programme varies every year, it is always aimed at meeting the objectives of learning and career progression. Last year, for instance, three of its district coffee masters visited a coffee roasting plant in Northern Thailand to learn about coffee farming and how the farmers lived and worked. "It's going back to the bean," as Chok explains it.
Such a programme would be futile if employees lacked enthusiasm for it, so one can imagine Chok's challenge in creating excitement around it - a task she describes as "not easy" - given the need to engage all 700 staff. As to where a programme so centred on coffee knowledge leaves non-coffee drinkers, Chok replies that there are different learning motivators. "Some people will be drawn to the history of coffee, its origins or simply its aroma. There are so many different ways to enjoy coffee, other than taste." Moreover, she says the learning programmes also focus on the interactions over drinks - "It's beyond the cup."
As Starbucks strives to keep the coffee passion alive amongst employees, the question of whether or not the brand will continue to grow is still very much dependent on how much consumers continue their love affair with the beverage. Judging from the healthy growth of retailers such as Starbucks, it is apparent that consumers are still very much in love with the drink. However, what seems to be of greater concern is the competition a flourishing coffee culture will drive, motivating other high-end retailers to attempt at replicating, even surpassing the dominance of current market leaders.
An optimistic Chok is confident that Starbucks will continue to thrive amidst the competition. "We have very strong values and if our people continue to believe in Starbucks' core values, I'm not too worried," she says. Her strategy for now is to focus on what they've been doing best, that is, maintaining the genuine connection between the company and its staff, and front-liners and customers as well as to continue providing a conducive environment in Starbucks stores for people to enjoy the third place - the oasis between work and home.
Biographical data
Chok Yeeling
1992
Worked in Singapore Airlines as a flight attendant and was promoted to
leading stewardess in 1995
1997
Joined Starbucks Coffee Singapore as a shift manager and was promoted
to senior store manager in 2000. A year later, she became the company's learning and development manager
2004
Promoted to manager, partner resources, Starbucks Coffee Singapore
Completed a Certificate in Payroll Administration with Singapore Human Resources Institute and is presently pursuing a distant-learning programme in Master of Business Administration at Southern Cross University
