Starbucks this week became the latest company to announce a special hiring program for veterans, which aims to hire 10,000 veterans or their spouses over the next five years.JPMorgan Chase, Walmart, Boeing and several other companies have announced similar special hiring programs for veterans. Many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars face high unemployment when they return home, which has compelled some companies to try to understand the skills of service members.
Starbucks Plans to Hire 10,000 Veterans Over the Next 5 Years
Starbucks this week became the latest company to announce a special hiring program for veterans, which aims to hire 10,000 veterans or their spouses over the next five years.
JPMorgan Chase, Walmart, Boeing and several other companies have announced similar special hiring programs for veterans. Many veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars face high unemployment when they return home, which has compelled some companies to try to understand the skills of service members.
"It's real hard for veterans to say, 'I need help,' because we're taught from the very beginning to be self-reliant," Carol Stripling, a former U.S. army paralegal told NPR. "So it's difficult to say, 'I'm failing at this.' And basically, I feel like I'm failing at this."
Stripling retired in 2011 after 37 years in the Army, then worked briefly for the the state of Washington until she was laid off last year. Stripling told NPR that she faces several obstacles, such as age, having a military background and being female.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says it's complicated to determine why transitioning back to civilian employment is hard, but companies can help.
"Businesses and business leaders have an obligation and a responsibility to do something about that and to meet these people more than halfway," Schultz says.
Many of these hiring programs seem to be effective — hundreds of thousands of veterans have been hired through targeted programs in the past two years, according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University. However, job retention is another thing, which the programs often do not track.
Starbucks says it plans to have a program manager to help with veteran retention, and will provide updates on hiring.
In other Starbucks news, the company says it is investing in technologies that can help the productivity of its operations personnel as well as improve the experience of its customers.has announced plans to double its number of Clover coffee machines, which connect to the cloud, track customer preferences, allow digital update of recipes, and help baristas remotely monitor the performance of the machine. The company also plans to install connected refrigerators that alert staff when cartons of milk has spoiled.
Starbucks also was one of 20 major U.S. brands that called for the White House to follow through on climate change preparedness efforts outlined in the Climate Action Plan announced by President Obama on June 25.
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Mike Hower
Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Nov 7, 2013 9pm EST / 6pm PST / 2am GMT / 3am CET