Employee engagement key in Starbucks

KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Starbucks Coffee Company Sdn Bhd, the operator of Starbucks Coffee Malaysia is an advocator of employee engagement, an element which made it Malaysia's best employer.
Starbucks Coffee Malaysia was named Malaysia's best employer at the Aon Hewitt Best Employers – Malaysia 2015 Awards recently, bagging the "Best of the Best" title. Aon Hewitt Best Employers Award is deemed to be one of the most prestigious awards in recognising companies with high employee engagement, compelling employer brand, effective leadership and high performance culture.
"Our goal was to be among the best. But having won the 'Best of the Best' was something we never expected and it goes a long way in validating the fact that we have a lot of practices put in place to ensure that our people are happy working with us. We have a lot of engagement in the organisation and our people stay," Starbucks Coffee Malaysia & Brunei managing director Sydney Quays (pix) told SunBiz in an interview recently.
Quays said the average length of staff who stay in operations in the company is seven to eight years, while those in their support centre averaged 12 years.
"Not many companies can boast of that kind of (long tenure), especially in the F&B (food and beverage) industry. People move around a lot in this industry."
The Starbucks Employee Value Proposition is aimed at retaining, engaging and motivating partners in exchange for their productivity and performance. Known as the "Starbucks Experience", this includes extrinsic (rewards and benefits, opportunities for career development) and intrinsic elements (management style, work environment and culture).
"We believe when you join Starbucks, it's not a job. It's the experience and being part of the family. Today at 196 stores, we're still seeing the same culture. That Starbucks Experience is what makes us different from everybody else," Quays said.
Quays said while the company's basic benefits are similar with most organisations, the company ensures that it pays its operations personnel above-market wages. Operations personnel refer to those running the stores, starting from the store manager to the subordinates.
"We also provide a lot of other benefits like employee beverages. All our store managers have a fixed budget that they can spend to entertain their family and friends every month.
We also have incentive trips to coffee farms and incentive programmes to drive sales."
Quays said incentive trips provide opportunities to visit and live in coffee farms in Indonesia or Thailand where Starbucks buys its coffee from, learning about the whole coffee production process from bean to cup.
"We believe the store manager has to be an individual who is highly energetic, aggressive, someone who wants to progress and do well. They are entrepreneurs in the sense that we empower them to run the business and they are trained to make a lot of decisions on their own," said Quays.
The company has about 4,500 employees currently, consisting of both full time (40%) and part time (60%) staff. Quays said the company is now moving towards a balanced ratio.
And as the country's best employer, it is no wonder that it receives 600 new job applications per month for all positions, with the big portion of applications targeted at the barista level.