Recently, Starbucks was the subject of some very unwanted publicity after two African-American men were arrested in one of its Philadelphia stores for trespassing following a 911 call made by one of that store’s workers. No charges were ultimately filed, and the two men were released after spending a few hours in police custody.
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Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson later personally apologized to arrestees Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson in person, but the incident led to widespread outrage, protests, and boycotts of Starbucks stores around the country.
Is a Single Training Effort Enough?
As a means of addressing the issues, Starbucks initiated a diversity and inclusion training session, with a focus on identifying and addressing unconscious bias—the phenomenon by which people demonstrate bias toward certain groups without intending to do so or even being aware that they have done so.
Unconscious bias is a particularly difficult problem precisely because, by definition, we are unaware it is occurring. This means the first step is to help employees identify unconscious bias.
While some observers have praised Starbucks’ efforts to address unconscious bias and its investment in diversity and inclusion training, others have raised questions about the effort: Is the move to institute such training in a single afternoon going to be effective? Is closing all American stores to conduct the training simply a publicity stunt to counteract the negative press Starbucks received as a result of these arrests? Why wasn’t this training conducted earlier in a proactive, rather than reactive, manner?
These are all valid questions, but the fact remains that this type of training is important, and any steps to help educate and train employees in this area should be seen as a step in the right direction.
Time to Take Stock
Diversity and inclusion training has many benefits for businesses. While these efforts are often focused on executives and those tasked with recruitment efforts, the experience of Starbucks demonstrates how important awareness of unconscious bias is at the front lines, as well, particularly in customer-service industries.
Even if a company doesn’t experience the kind of highly publicized backlash seen by Starbucks, insensitivity—even though subtle or unconscious—to diversity by service staff can turn away business and hurt the company financially both in the short term and long term.
Is it time for you to be proactive in ensuring all of your employees understand the importance of taking an inclusive, nonbiased approach to dealing not only with employees but also with customers and the community at large?