The Starbucks Standard Workforce Management System  

Famous for their vast online following - their Facebook page has over 37,000,000 million likes - and ability to release products, such as the Unicorn Frappuccino, that go viral on different media platforms.

With a strong brand identity that’s fully integrated into the tech world, Starbucks is at an advantage - considering their app is labeled as an ‘essential’ app for all those downloading their applications through Apple’s app store.

Starbucks is one of the most recognizable brands in the world - the iconic siren logo, the green aprons and the penchant for an always-evolving menu full of luxurious ingredients.

Clearly, the Starbucks model of implementing applications to their audience space works - by being a pioneer in incorporating applications into their business model, they have been able to:

• Establish a vibrant online community
• Create exciting rewards incentives for consumers
• Spearhead mobile ordering and payment for consumer convenience

All of the functions help on the consumer end - but a particular Starbucks location in Ontario, Canada has taken the implementation of app technology and introduced it to their employee-side.

Unique Circumstances for an Attendance Management System

“We are on the highway so we’re located in a difficult place.” She said, referencing the difficulties with transportation in her particular location. “We’re on the northbound end, so we need more people on like a Saturday versus like a Monday, Friday, Saturday night.”The diversity between Starbucks locations means that different stores have different needs - when the Shyft Team sat down and interviewed Bairavi McMullen, a shift supervisor at an Ontario Starbucks, she shared with us the unique needs of her store and how Shyft has been able to help address those. If you're interested in more interviews from successful store managers and how they manage employee scheduling, check out the Shyft Blog.

When we asked her about other employee staffing issues she ran into, Bairavi shared with us that “A lot of our staff are in high school, or in university or college, so their schedule makes them unpredictable due to class, traffic, just general day-to-day stuff. A lot of the full-timers we have are mothers, so a lot of them are unable to work after a certain time, or on the weekends or evening shifts.”

Mobile scheduling technology has been able to help with these distinct circumstances by letting her team mark the specific times they’re able or unable to work. If someone’s availability changes, they’re able to quickly and easily transfer their shift to another employee: all in the palm of their hand with the Shyft Employee Scheduling app.

Instead of playing phone tag between employees if unable they’re unable to make a shift, or that a coworker is picking up a shift, the Shyft app lets managers approve shift swaps and know exactly what team they’ll have on deck, shiftplanning at it's easiest.

Shiftplanning For Regulars

“I think the customer interaction is a lot more intimate, I’ve had more regulars, and I have a relationship with them,” Bairavi confided. “I’ve made really good friends here just from the interactions I’ve made daily.”

Scheduling technology makes it possible for customers and employees to develop these types of personal connections through a constantly available schedule. In previous iterations of this particular locations' scheduling, the only way to see the team schedule would be the old-fashioned, on-paper way. This has proved to be a highly-inefficient way for the entire team to know "when i work."  Managers are looking for a free app that makes schedule distributon easy.

“I have customers who come in five days a week, Monday through Friday, sometimes Saturday. They know me by a first name basis.” Bairvari shared - and with the implementation of Shyft, all employees at that location have that same opportunity to develop these deep-rooted and business-friendly connections.

An Extension On App Tech

By utilizing the Shyft app as an extension to the already-existing app technology that Starbucks uses, Bairvari and her team have been able to:

• Manage work-life balance for working parents and students. Typically, students need a schedule consiting of shorter shifts, to work around when they have class. Working parents need that added flexibility to be there for their family whenver a last-minute crisis inevitably arises. 
• Make scheduling transparent and straightforward, instantly notifying each and every Starbucks barista of when they work, once the schedule is posted. Workforce management solution at its finest.
• Cater to a technologically savvy workplace. Managers are always looking for the easiest way to schedule employees and let them know when they work. Shyft solves this scheduling issue. 
• Develop first-name-basis connections between customer and employee

Overall, the success of implementation at this location made for happier employees and more satisfied customers. And with such a technologically innovative parent brand, this individual success sets up a model for Shyft to be a perfect fit for any Starbucks location.

If you're looking for one app to rule them all, we at Barista Life highly recommend you trying out the Shyft App. It's free and will solve your problems with employee absenteeism; guaranteed.