Starbucks announced its commitment to hire 10,000 veterans and spouses of active-duty members over the next five years as the company plans to more than double its global workforce.
“The value we are creating for shareholders is tied to the values that guide us as an organization,” stated Starbucks Corp. CEO Howard Schultz. “As I look at the opportunity ahead of us, we’re going to need to hire men and women with like-minded values and the right job skills in order to continue our current levels of growth.”
Starbucks will also be sharing a portion of its profits with non-profit organizations helping veterans in five locations near joint-base communities.
The company is seizing on the trend that over a million Americans in military service will be transitioning to civilian life over the next five years as troops are brought back from Afghanistan.
Joint Base Stores
Starbucks is turning two of its coffee shops, one near Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) and one in San Antonio, into community stores Wednesday. The revenue-sharing stores will donate a minimum of $100,000 annually.
Ten cents from each transaction will be given to Operation GoodJobs at the JBLM location, going toward a program to help veterans with job searching. Over the next three years, 8,000 people will be discharged from JBLM each year.
In San Antonio, Starbucks is partnering with Vested in Vets. These are the sixth and seventh stores of their kind, out of the almost 20,000 Starbucks stores globally.
Starbucks currently employs close to 200,000 people globally and plans to reach a workforce of 500,000, continuing its expansion.
Training
The hiring program will focus on establishing a system to match the skill sets of the veterans and military spouses with the needs across the company.
“Veterans and military spouses represent one of the most underutilized talent pools in our country and, without the proper career path, will continue to go untapped,” stated former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, now a Starbucks director.
Starbucks will use and expand its mentoring program, the Armed Forces Network established in 2007, to help veterans access resources and information from their peers.
Tax Credit
Under the “Returning Heroes Tax Credit” signed into law Nov. 2011, companies get up to $9,600 for hiring a veteran.
Veteran unemployment has declined since, but fluctuated through the first half of 2013. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the veteran unemployment rate was 6.5 percent Sept., lower than the national 7.2 percent.
Other companies started similar hiring plans. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and ten other companies launched a 100,000 Jobs Mission initiative in 2011 and have hired over 92,000 veterans in three years. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. expects to hire 100,000 veterans by 2018.
JP Morgan Chase joined the Department of Defense (DOD) Military Spouse Employment Partnership Nov. 6 as well, a program helping military spouses find jobs. According to the DOD website, military spouses have a 26 percent unemployment rate mainly because of frequent relocation.
The tax credit is set to expire at the end of the year.
