Pioneering Workplace Mental Health at Starbucks

Does your local Starbucks barista make a mean frappuccino? Perhaps that’s because their company provides them with one of the most comprehensive wellness benefits packages around. Each Starbucks “partner” who works 20 hours a week is eligible for $5,000 for mental health support every year, among other perks. Here, Medcan Chief Growth Officer Bronwen Evans chats with Starbucks Canada VP of Partner Resources Cara Beck about the way the Seattle-based coffee company is bridging the gap between wellness and work.

Episode 94 webpage

LINKS

Check out Cara Beck on LinkedIn.

Explore these articles from Starbucks that delve into their healthcare plan and their mission:

Starbucks Canada’s Comprehensive Mental Health Initiative: A Timeline

Starbucks Canada Makes Historic Investments in its Partners, Building on Long-Time Belief that Success is Best When Shared.

Starbucks history: Great background.

Read more about Canada’s mental health stats from the Statistics Canada survey mentioned in this episode. 

Check out Headspace and Lifeworks, two of the tools available to Starbucks Canada partners as part of their mental health benefit. 

Watch this quick video to learn more about how the Starbucks Bean Stock works. 

INSIGHTS

 At Starbucks, all staff are referred to as “partners.” And it’s not just a name, either. Since 1991, all partners receive an annual grant of stock called “Bean Stock,” which makes them shareholders in the company Every two years of employment will earn partners one share of Starbucks, which they are allowed to keep or sell as they like.  [09:06] 

To better learn about the needs of its partners, Starbucks has a yearly partner experience survey and hosts open forums to get feedback. It was at a 2016 open forum that the company decided to increase the annual mental health benefit from $500 to $5,000 (a 900 per cent increase!). But that wasn’t the first time Starbucks had pioneered the way a corporation cares for the health of its employees. Back in 1988 Starbucks implemented a full extended health, mental and dental health care benefits plan for all partners. “If you work as few as 20 hours a week, you’re eligible for the same benefits as our VPs or any other partner,” says Beck. [12:19]

As well as the annual $5,000 mental health benefit, Starbucks offers its partners digital tools like open chat forums, and a Headspace membership which offers meditation and sleep aid tools. “I love the Headspace app… There’s some good stuff in there to help you find a way back to that calm state to go back to sleep, if you happen to wake up at 2 a.m., like I do,” says Beck. [14:49]

Also included in Starbucks’ healthcare benefit package for hourly partners is three paid shifts a year to cover personal or family care, and access to the LifeWorks program for all partners and their families. The platform offers support services in a variety of areas, like mental health counselling, financial or legal consultations, and childcare. There is also a mental health first aid course for management teams, “so they feel equipped with how they can address some really tough scenarios that they face,” says Beck.

Guest host Bronwen Evans asked about the return on investment that Starbucks experiences from the money that it spends on mental wellness for its partners. Beck did not supply numbers, but did provide greater context on the thinking behind the investments made by the Seattle-based company. “Our belief is firmly grounded in one primary thing, and that is, when we take care of our partners, they take care of our customers, and our customers take care of our business,” Beck says.  “And so, our guiding principles have always been that we prioritize partner care. And that comes in many ways. That could come through benefits, it may come through wages, it may come through the work environment that they experience. But it really is grounded in, our partners come first.” [25:35]