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rom volunteering to vocation: How

Starbucks is helping young people become

employable 08/12/2014 Category:

Leadership articles

Mary Appleton caught up with Lisa Robbins, UK HR director at Starbucks, to find out how the

global coffee chain is helping young people across the country become employable, gainconfidence and be open-minded about careers in hospitality and retail.

Click to jump to section

1. Starbucks' employee drive 2. Engaging with young people

3. Encouraging employment through volunteering

4. Partnering in local communities

5. Influencing the influencers6. Celebrating apprenticeships

7.

Global work experience

8. Making change

Starbucks' employee drive

To be yourself at work and have the confidence to do so is an ambition that Lisa Robbins, UKHR director at Starbucks, wants all the coffee giant‟s employees to embody. As part of its agenda

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to drive a spirit of inclusivity, the organisation refers to staff members as “partners”, while

recruiting for attitude and training for skill are at the top of its agenda.

Having been in the role for just over a year, part of Robbins‟ mission is to help Starbucks

become the coffee industry‟s employer of choice, a goal that she admits is ambitious. Steps so far

have included plugging the future talent pipeline with service driven talent, changing the “lastresort” perception of careers in retail, and becoming actively involved in community schemes to

enhance the employability of young people.

“We [businesses] need to work harder on raising awareness about the careers available within

our sectors and the different pathways into work,” she says.

Engaging with young people

Starbucks has around 750 stores nationally, while half of its 7,500 employees are under 25 years

of age. “Our business is based on young people, so we have a real duty to help prepare them for

work,” says Robbins.

While she acknowledges that Starbucks is perceived as a “cool brand” that attracts a lot of

applicants, she is keen to emphasise the “responsibility”, as she sees it, of large employers to

encourage young people to consider different types of careers. She believes they must help

candidates gain the kinds of skills that are applicable for roles in these areas. “It‟s not OK just to be complacent because we‟re an attractive brand,” she says. “We need to do more – and so does

the rest of business.”

Robbins‟ passion is profound and she‟s deeply frustrated by what she describes as the “chicken-

and-egg scenario” – where if young people do not have any skills or experience, they are

unlikely to get a foot in the door with employers. Part of her objective is to “think outside the box” and drive several initiatives to help young people enhance their employability.

Encouraging employment through volunteering

For the past year, Starbucks has been working closely with the London-based volunteering

programme Headstart.

The scheme encourages 16- and 17-year-olds to become active in their community doing

something they enjoy, while giving them the skills to succeed in the workplace.

Participants undertake 16 hours of volunteer work, then join an employability workshop to learn

how their new skills can be articulated in a job interview. This leads to a guaranteed interview

with Starbucks or fashion retailer New Look.

“If they are successful we can offer them a job – but this is not the driver,” insists Robbins. “Wewant to help young people get interview experience and tangible feedback, so they are clear

about how to sell themselves – wherever they choose to work.



“We want to hire people who are enthusiastic, who think for themselves, who can work as a team

and who have confidence,” she says. “Volunteering can help people develop those skills which

are valuable to any workplace.” She argues that employers should look beyond “traditional”assessment methods. On-thej-ob trials, for example, give candidates the opportunity to see what

life as a barista is really like, while allowing Starbucks to assess candidates‟ attitudes and

motivations.

In June of this year, Lord Young released the report Enterprise for All, which aims to link the

relevance of enterprise in education. Young advocates the introduction of a new „EnterprisePassport‟ – a digital record of all extra-curricular and enterprise-related activities that students

participate in during education – representing a differentiator for employers seeking „proven‟

employability skills.

Of those that complete the volunteering and employability workshops, four out of five are hired

by Starbucks. Since only one in five interviewees for the company are ordinarily successful,

Robbins believes this is a win-win situation for both the organisation and young people

themselves. “It‟s helping young people be more equipped to be successful – and to be confidenta bout their experience,” she explains.

On the back of this success, Starbucks has guaranteed 50 jobs in the next tranche. “It didn‟t take

long to realise the benefit. We want to do more,” she says. Although currently limited to London,

Robbins is also keen to replicate this model elsewhere. “I would love to see this expand,” shesays. “We should absolutely use our scale for greater good.”

Partnering in local communities

One such community partnership is currently piloting in London, where Starbucks works closely

with Westminster College to help those already in education enhance their employability skills.Experienced partners from the local districts – from store managers to district managers – offermentoring guidance to students.

“We want to help students understand how to develop their skills for interview. Experiencedleaders from the company meet students who have had no exposure to the world of work to help

them understand it,” explains Robbins.

Although just three months in, she is confident about the scheme‟s success and hopes to replicate

it in other areas of the UK. “Feedback from the young people has been phenomenal,” she

enthuses. “They feel more equipped to go out into the world of work or make a different career

choice.”

As well as community partnerships, Starbucks runs its own Youth Action Programme, incollaboration with charity UK Youth. This investment programme gives seed funding, trainingand backing to young people running projects in their communities across the UK.

This year, Starbucks has provided over £300,000 in funding to support an estimated 150

community projects across Britain.



Robbins adds: “We have linked with the National Citizenship Service this year and expanded the

programme to reach more than 10,000 under-25s. This means NCS graduates have the

opportunity to build on their community project or to start a new one, supported by £2,000seedcorn funding.”

Influencing the influencers

Underpinning Robbins‟ commitment to this whole agenda is a vehement belief that those with

influence – particularly parents and teachers – must be educated in the realities of career paths so

they can have more informed conversations with young people. She is particularly concernedabout “old-fashioned” perceptions of the retail and hospitality sector, which she argues can be

hugely damaging to young people‟s career aspirations.

“People think: „Starbucks is OK as a holiday job but you wouldn‟t want to make a career out of

working there.‟ I want to change that,” she says.

Starbucks‟ career paths allow people to progress quickly if they are capable and have the rightattitude, Robbins believes. She is keen to point out that neither background nor qualifications are

limiting factors: “Anyone can become a supervisor or manager.”

She is adamant that the organisation‟s route to work is about opportunity for all, with interviews

for in-store positions based on attitude and service capability. Robbins is sceptical aboutintroducing an in-store graduate scheme as she feels this might become a barrier to some people

applying.

“Unless you have the right attitude and values, you won‟t succeed, regardless of how

experienced you are technically,” she says.

Celebrating apprenticeships

While more businesses are investing heavily in their future talent through offering traineeships

and apprenticeships, Robbins believes that perceptions of vocational qualifications as “the easyoption” still prevail.

Starbucks introduced apprenticeships in 2012 and will have 1,000 in place by the end of this year

across the UK. “We now of fer Levels 2 and 3 in hospitality and service, which is equivalent to

five GCSEs at grades A*-C (Level 2) and two A levels (Level 3),” says Robbins. “I‟m now

seeing our first apprentices being promoted to store managers.”

She recalls a previous graduation which, like any event within Starbucks, was opened with a

coffee-tasting workshop, this time led by an apprentice.

“The young lady got up and delivered the session with such passion and conviction,” saysRobbins. “Her parents approached me afterwards and said: „We can‟t thank you enough for

giving our daughter a chance. We thought she would never be employable as she had no



confidence, but to see her standing there because of the experience you have given her is

amazing.‟

“Stories like this show we are making a big difference to young people. That girl could have

ended up as a NEET [not in education, employment or training] statistic, and once you‟re there,

it‟s so difficult to get out. We‟re also changing perceptions – this shows the responsibility wehave as an employer to help people make informed choices.”

Global work experience

Next, Robbins is looking to introduce work experience opportunities. Meanwhile, she reveals

that the coffee giant is offering a unique six-week placement for the son of one of the company‟s

coffee farmers from Rwanda. He will spend time in stores, with a district manager and in itssupport centre. Robbins is hugely excited by the initiative and hopes this will provide the

impetus to introduce work experience more locally.

“His father contacted us and asked if he could come and learn more about the coffee industry,”she explains. “He sees first-hand how the beans are grown and harvested, but beyond that it‟s all

rather unknown.

“If we put process before judgement, we might say, „this isn‟t possible, we don‟t do work

experience.‟ But it‟s a great opportunity to strengthen the partnerships we have with young people across the world.”

Making change

While Robbins acknowledges the “slow realisation” among employers that businesses have to bemore accountable for skills in the younger population, she argues that much more needs to be

done.

“There are lots of organisations that are active in their local communities but it‟s not enough,”

she says, expressing concern that the recent uplift in the labour market could propel businessesinto a state of “complacency” when it comes to hiring young people.

So what is her message to other business leaders on this agenda? “You can‟t afford not to get

involved,” she argues. “Youngpeople are our future workforce. You can‟t just rely on traditional

routes into employment. People‟s lifestyle changes are shaping their choices about employment

and if we don‟t help early on, the situation will just get worse.

“The impact I have seen in Starbucks is amazing – I wouldn‟t have thought it was possible.

Helping young people get into these jobs and seeing them progress is incredibly rewarding.”

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