One of the reasons why employees will quit a company is because they feel like they have no where else to go within the organization, or that the company they work for has no interest in furthering their career or their skills. What companies can do is provide their employees with training programs to help them develop skills, or at least offer to pay or subsidize their education.
Well that’s what Starbucks is doing. The company has recently announced a new program in which they will start paying for their employees to attend online college classes at Arizona State University. While the program will be pretty much open to every Starbucks employee, there are certain requirements that they will have to meet in order to qualify.
For starters, the employees have to be working at Starbucks for at least 20 hours a week and have the necessary test scores to enter the program. Employees who have at least two years of college credits will have their tuition fees fully paid by Starbucks, while those who have less than two years will only be subsidized partially, but it’s still a good move by Starbucks anyway.
The ability to take the courses online will save employees time from having to commute from work to class and vice versa, which means it should help to cut back on any downtime in operations. According to Starbucks’ CEO, Howard D. Schultz, he believes that this move will help lower attrition and increase performance, and at the same attract and retain better employees.