Starbucks doubles parental leave amid massive transformation effort

Starbucks CEO Brian Nicol, who has been on the job for just four months, has taken on the difficult task of turning the company around. The world famous coffee giantUsing key strategies to drive change and create what he hopes will be “the best job in retail like no other.” The most important of which are: transparency and speed of decision-making.

One of his final decisions came from an email from an employee, called partners internally, requesting longer paternity leave.

“It caught my attention. I followed up with the team, and then we reached out to a few partners,” Nichol told FOX Business Digital in an exclusive interview. He quickly decided, “This is something we can take action on.”

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Starting this spring, the company will double its paid parental leave benefits. For some workers, the amount is up to three times the original amount.

For example, the duration of paid leave for birth mothers increased from six to 18 weeks. All other non-birth parents — whether they welcome a child via birth, surrogacy, adoption or long-term foster care — will receive up to 12 weeks of paid leave at 100% of their average wage, according to Starbucks.

To be eligible for benefits, employees must work an average of 20 hours per week, according to current company policies.

“We have a culture of learning. We have a culture of ideas, but we also want to have a culture of making decisions, taking action, and holding ourselves accountable when we execute,” Nicholl said. “This was kind of an agreement I made with people as I was going to stores, as I was answering emails, as I was making communications, whether it was a message or a video.”

Before Nicol took office, the company faced increasing pressure from union campaigns across the country Consecutive disappointing financial quarters With less traffic. Nicol, who replaced the previous CEO laxman narasimhan in august, It tries to enhance profitability and create a better environment for workers.

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In the first days of his new role… Nicol has been upfront with his team about the need for “transformation.”

“I need the best collective thinking from everyone so we have the right visions to change this business,” Nicol said.

Although he admitted that he did not have all the solutions, he was clear about his commitment: “What I am definitely committed to is identifying what we need to fix and taking action to fix it.”

When Nicol, who has held executive positions in some of the industry’s biggest bands, including heading Taco Bell and Chipotle, visits stores, he also makes it clear to employees that he wants their input.

“He tried to say, ‘Hey, call me, email me, you know, I can’t be in every store, but I’m willing to listen, I’m willing to listen,'” Nicol said.

One of the first suggestions he received was whether the company could bring back the coffee spice bar. By November, Nichol said the condiment bar would be back next year. At the same time, he announced that the stores would boast the former “café” aesthetic with “personal touches”, including serving coffee in ceramic mugs. They are reintroducing Sharpies and will stop Additional shipping To customize drinks with non-dairy milk.

“Sometimes when you get into a challenging environment, you almost go blind, like you don’t see some of these obvious things,” Nicol said. “You’re so focused on trying to change things, you’re skipping over some obvious things.”

While Nicol said not all suggestions will be accepted, he noted the importance of making quick decisions.

He believes that the most powerful words for creating a healthy culture are “yes” and “no.”

“If the culture starts to understand where we get ‘yes’ and where we get ‘no,’ it reinforces the kind of work, the kind of values, the kind of promises we want to make to customers and partners,” he said. “I try to keep it simple, and I try to get to the ‘yes,’” he said. “No, so we don’t have another meeting about this.”

In addition to offering certain benefits, the company works to improve scheduling and increase the number of hours per employee. The goal is for employees to get at least 24 hours of work per week, according to Nicol.

Their current challenge is making sure they have enough people at the right times.

Sometimes the problem, Nichol said, is that the “roster” of employees becomes too small because they try to distribute work hours evenly, rather than adjusting to the company’s natural ups and downs.

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As a result, Nichol said stores end up understaffed during peak times, even though everyone gets hours. He tries to make sure that people can depend on their schedules while also making sure that the company schedules the right number of people at the right times.

Among its latest goals of creating a positive work culture, the company has also committed to filling 90% of retail leadership roles internally, to ensure employees stay longer and grow with the company.

It also continues to cover 100% of college tuition for thousands of employees as part of the Starbucks College Achievement and Delivery Plan Company shares for qualified partners.

Since 1991, 1.5 million partners have acquired $2.4 billion in inventory. Shares are up 4% this year, lagging the S&P 500’s 27% rise.