Vincent E. Pacheco Blog: Starbucks to hire 240,000

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Starbucks to hire 240,000—and, possibly, you

One might say Starbucks’ hiring goals have been injected with a shot of caffeine.

The company’s chief executive, Howard Schultz, marked the 25th annual meeting of shareholders—his last before successor Kevin Johnson takes over—by announcing the creation of 240,000 jobs.

Roughly 68,000 of those jobs will be in the United States, and the goal is part of Starbucks’ plan to open 12,000 new stores around the world (3,400 of those in the U.S.) by 2021.

In a press release, Starbucks touted its accomplishments with its hiring goals:

Starbucks strong financial performance over the last 25 years as a publicly traded company has allowed for strategic investments in social impact initiatives – driving greater connection between partners and the millions of customers it serves in 75 countries worldwide. The company has already reached critical milestones for its hiring initiatives for Veterans, Military Spouses, and Opportunity Youth and announced plans on building on this progress by expanding its hiring goals as it continues to grow the U.S. business. Creating opportunities and building a diverse and inclusive workforce has been critical to meeting the company’s mission to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.

In 2013, Starbucks set a goal of hiring 10,000 military spouses and veterans by 2018, which it announced it already reached—and now it’s expanding the goal to hire 25,000 by 2025.

The company also exceeded its goal (four times over) of hiring 10,000 youths who are unemployed or not in school, and promised to hire 100,000 members of this demographic by 2020.

Starbucks is also making good on its promise to hire 10,000 refugees by 2022: It announced partnerships with the UN Refugee Agency, International Rescue Committee, Tent Foundation and No one Left Behind to help meet its goal. Its original announcement sparked criticism.

Interested—and thirsty—communicators wanting to help spread the word of these lofty expansion and hiring goals could get a chance with this week’s featured position.

Starbucks is seeking a director of social media, marketing and brand management in its Seattle headquarters.

[ RELATED: Bring PR enlightenment to your team and become a hero.]

Candidates should have a solid grasp on social media, including analytics, and must be seasoned in crisis communications, partnerships and executing successful brand campaigns.

The position is meant for a veteran communicator: It calls for a candidate with 10 years’ experience in digital marketing and social media for agency and corporate positions, seven years of managing cross-functional teams and five years of managing social media teams.

Here’s Starbucks’ perfect candidate:

You have led the global social media discipline, overseeing the team’s strategy, vision, innovation and partnerships. You have in-depth understanding of established and emerging social platforms across the globe and have a broad awareness of industry thinking both current and historical to identify new brand opportunities in social. You’re a thought leader with expertise spanning all areas of social media engagement tools, including industry innovation and interoperability with other digital technologies, platforms, and processes. You have a deep understanding of research, analytics, and listening tools and methodologies and recognize the difference between insights and the merely interesting in digital trends analysis. Most importantly, you are an inspirational leader and are passionate about developing people and teams.

The company has several additional positions open for interested communicators, such as a digital program manager of marketing data platforms in Seattle.

Not the job for you? See what else we have in this week’s professional pickings:

Community manager—Warner Bros. (California)

Senior writer—Chobani (New York)

Global communications specialist—Hyatt Hotels (Illinois)

Editor—Idea Couture (Canada)

Senior account manager—Dodge Communications (Georgia)

Digital communications manager—W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Michigan)

PR account executive—Echos Brand Communications (Colorado)

Marketing intern—Yelp (Nebraska)

Senior account executive—Edelman (Washington)

Director of communications—Girls Scouts in the Heart of PA(Pennsylvania)

Senior account executive—Wordsworth Communications (Ohio)