Tata Starbucks leads the way with a host of pioneering, women friendly initiatives

by Suman Gupta

India, March 11, 2021 – Since entering the market in 2012, Tata Starbucks has honoured its commitment to grow the representation of women in the workforce and encouraged a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion through various initiatives. Women make up 31 percent of Tata Starbucks workforce and 30 percent at its senior leadership level, a key gender diversity milestone toward its goal to achieve 40 percent gender diversity by 2022.

“As Tata Starbucks continues to grow, so does its commitment to be a positive force in contributing to the success of its women partners and make meaningful changes that enrich lives,” said Navin Gurnaney, ceo, Tata Starbucks Private Limited. “We believe it is important, as a company of our scale, to help bring more attention to this critical issue for women in India. We aim to ensure women at Starbucks excel in the workplace and personal life as we create richer career opportunities for India.”

Inclusion at Tata Starbucks

As a part of Tata Starbucks ongoing commitment to promote an inclusive and diverse workforce by empowering women leaders, the brand has launched all women operating stores in India. With a total of 5 such women operating stores in Mumbai & New Delhi, this initiative empowers female partners in a new and meaningful way and instils pride as they deliver the Starbucks experience in their Green aprons. The stores further aim to unlock the potential to hire more women, and challenge stereotypes around women’s capabilities in leading café/ restaurants.

By achieving 100% pay parity for men and women in 2019; Starbucks has also created a set of Pay Equity Principles that focus on areas like equal footing, transparency and accountability. Equal footing implies paying their partners based on their skills, abilities, experience and performance and never basing it on gender. Transparency includes publishing pay equity progress annually and using an offer standards calculator to determine starting pay range for roles. Accountability allows setting a goal to achieve pay equity, conducting comprehensive compensation analysis, analysing compensation decisions before they are final and more.

Empowering Women of Starbucks

Tata Starbucks diversity initiatives in India, Brew of Balance has over the years created opportunities for women returning to the workforce from a career break. The company also encourages hiring ‘second-career’ women through the Tata Second Careers, Inspiring Possibilities (SCIP) platform.  To encourage references for such talent internally, Starbucks offers an enhanced bonus for their references.

Starbucks is a pioneer in introducing women focussed programs including flexible employment options, a 5-day work schedule, access to Women’s Impact Network, extended maternity and sabbatical leave, as well as mentoring and accelerated development programs for key talent.

Transforming Communities

Apart from female partners, Tata Starbucks also believes in addressing the issue of girl child education. Tata Starbucks has collaborated with non-profit organizations, Educate Girls, to improve girls’ education in rural and underprivileged areas and VIDYA India, to provide volunteering and educational support to girls and young women from underserved communities in urban cities.

As part of Tata Starbucks ongoing commitment to creating equal opportunities, the program will provide girls and young women with the education, financial assistance and community support they need to develop their skills and find careers. Tata Starbucks plan to take significant steps to improve the developmental life cycle of a girl and impact the lives of more than 4000 girls and women.

Tata Starbucks Pvt. Ltd was recognized by Great Place to Work among India’s top 10 workplaces in Retail 2021 for their partner-centric values and work culture. The brand was also recognised among India’s 100 Best Workplaces for Women in 2020.

About Tata Starbucks Private Limited:Starbucks entered the Indian market in October 2012 through a 50/50 Joint Venture with Tata Consumer Products Ltd and currently operates 217 stores in India across 17 cities, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Lucknow, Amritsar, Kochi, Ludhiana, Bhopal, and Indore through a network of over 2,000 passionate partners (employees). Starbucks stores are operated by the joint venture, TATA Starbucks Private Limited, and branded as Starbucks Coffee – “A Tata Alliance.