Employee Engagement in Every Cup – A Starbucks Case Study

The modern workplace continues to evolve, in both technological advances and a shifting work culture. Companies across the globe are becoming more concerned with efficiency, and productivity, culminating in the quest for new opportunities for collaboration and resulting in employee engagement via internal social media.

Social media can be effectively used internally within an organization to engage employees, the same way it is employed externally to engage customers. Increasingly, organizations are adopting internal social media platforms such as Workplace by Facebook to inspire symbiotic relationships of mutual support and trust. These platforms can help foster the necessary conditions for collaboration and facilitate cross-pollination of ideas and information throughout the organization.

Starbucks is a prime example of how employee engagement via internal social media can yield beneficial results. As an internationally renowned company, Starbucks understood the importance of internal employee engagement for their bottom line and wanted to cultivate better communication and collaboration throughout the organization. As such, Starbucks adopted and embraced the social media platform Workplace by Facebook.

Within a few short months following the introduction of Workplace, Starbucks witnessed a huge uptake in the platform amongst partners and staff. According to Adam Brotman, Executive VP of Retail Operations for Starbucks, “…we have over 80% of our store managers using workplace on a weekly basis. We can communicate directly with our store partners and then they are better able to serve our customers.”  Even leaders of the corporation, including CEO, Kevin Johnson, regularly use the Live broadcasting feature on Workplace, to connect with thousands of store managers, facilitate knowledge exchange, and build a culture of community. The application of Workplace was so successful that Starbucks decided to expand its use, deploying it on a global scale with operating partners such as Alsea in Latin America.

Lessons for Others

The adoption and integration of internal social media has helped Starbucks connect partners across an international geographic landscape, create transparency within the organization across all levels, and facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange between staff, managers, and headquarters. By empowering staff via internal social media, Starbucks has improved the company, it’s reputation, and its interests.

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