Starbucks ties executive remuneration to diversity targets

Starbucks will tie executive pay to diversity targets that aim for a 30% share of diverse employees in its workforce on all levels.

CNBC’s Amelia Lucas reported:

Starbucks said Wednesday it is starting a mentorship program, piloting outreach workers in its cafes and tying team diversity to executive compensation as part of its broader plan to step up its commitment to inclusion and become a more diverse company.

By 2025, it’s aiming to have employees who identify as Black, Indigenous or people of color make up at least 30% of workers at all corporate levels, from managers to senior executives. The company will be setting annual targets based on retention rates.

Danielle Wiener-Bronner from CNN wrote:

Currently, BIPOC employees make up 18.5% of employees at the level of senior vice president or above.

In additional to linking executive pay to its diversity and inclusion efforts, Starbucks is launching a mentorship program connecting employees of color with senior leadership and including anti-bias materials into hiring, development and performance assessment processes, among other things.

Yahoo Finance’s Julia La Roche noted:

“While this reads mentorship, it’s going to feel like sponsorship, because we’re going to have to partner with our senior [vice presidents], who are the leaders of these individuals in the company, and have almost a three-way conversation,” Starbucks COO Roz Brewer told Yahoo Finance in a video call. 

Brewer, one of the top-ranking Black women in corporate America, joined Starbucks in March 2017 from Walmart-owned membership warehouse Sam’s Club, where she served as its CEO and president.