Starbucks India Announces A Five Day Work Schedule For Its Partners

In a first-of-a-kind initiative among F&B retailers in India, Tata Starbucks has announced that it will be adopting a five day work week for their partners across Starbucks outlets in the country.

Partners behind The Counters

The Starbucks partners are the baristas that make hundreds of cups of coffee per week, blending and mixing to create your morning pick me up. To earn the green apron that makes them Starbucks partners, these individuals go through months and months of training to learn all there is to know about coffee. Partners can take things a step further and go through five levels of training to become ‘Coffee Masters’, who are given black aprons.

The Five Day Work Schedule

With this initiative, the 1200 partners across Starbucks stores in India will work on a five day work schedule, giving them an additional 52 personal days off.

“Both Starbucks and Tata share values of putting our partners (employees) first and sharing the company’s success. We acknowledge that our success would not be possible without the contributions our partners make on a daily basis to provide an exceptional third place experience for our customers and we are pleased to adopt a five day work schedule that also recognizes their commitments outside of their work,” Sumitro Ghosh, ceo, TATA Starbucks Private Limited. “We are proud to be a progressive workplace in India and will continue to engage in discussions with our partners to determine how to make their experience better and more valuable in line with the mission and values of both Tata Global Beverages and Starbucks.”

The Five Day work schedule will come into effect from 15^th May.

Other Initiatives For Partners

This initiative adds to the list of actions Starbucks has taken globally to aid partners. Early this year, Starbucks China allocated a monthly housing allowance for its partners, while in 2015, Starbucks UK started the ‘Home Sweet Loan’ program to provide interest free loans for partners to pay rental deposits. In 2014, Starbucks US announced an initiative that allows some US partners to study for their bachelor’s degree with a full payment for their tuition.

Additionally, in recognition of their efforts, Starbucks holds The Coffee Championship, which facilitates games and competition between Starbucks partners across the world to name a worldwide Coffee Champion. Read more about the coffee championships here.