Starbucks's Staffing Strategy Starbucks, the Seattle-based premium coffee company named after the first mate in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, has expanded from just 84 stores in 1990 to over 100 times that number today. Starbucks's ability to get high prices for its coffee drinks depends on the firm hiring the right employees able to provide high-quality customer service. Reflecting its focus on its employees, Starbucks refers to all employees as "partners." Starbucks even calls its human resource function "Partner Resources." Another guiding principle at Starbucks is to develop enthusiastically satisfied customers. More than coffee, Starbucks sells an experienceand that experience is completely dependent on the partners who greet and serve over 30 million customers around the world every day. The challenge facing Starbucks as it pursues its aggressive global growth strategy is to find enough qualified and desirable candidates to increase its current U.S. workforce and double its workforce in the Asia Pacific region by 2017. Because Starbucks depends on the skills and personalities of its people, it is a daunting challenge for it to continue to successfully recruit and staff its global workforce. As Jim Donald, Starbucks's president, states, "My biggest fear isn't the competition, although I respect it. It's having a robust pipeline of people to open and manage the stores who will also be able to take their next steps with the company." How can Starbucks use staffing to pursue its growth strategy and maintain its competitive advan- tage? What kind of staffing strategy would you recommend Starbucks pursue to help it continue to hire the right people? After reading this chapter, you should have some good ideas to share with the company. 34