OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Human Resource Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the human resource frame
2. Apply the human resource frame to your personal case situation

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

Currently, Starbucks has partners in stores across the US unionizing to gain better pay
and more hours. They also seek other benefits that the company has recently added like
paid time-off as soon as 90-days after starting, sick time accrual from day one, and a
higher pay rate. As an Assistant Store Manager with the company, I am given the same
training that a Store Manager gets and I can see that these demands could have been
easily met. This is also an issue of providing a work-life balance that we actually no
longer speak about in our onboarding as much as we used to.

2) Describe how the human resources of the organization influenced the situation.

One of the bigger Human Resource issues that led to partners wanting to unionize was
the cutting hours for partners who were used to working way more when we had fewer
partners in the store. The mistake the company made was they had us staffing for partners
who only work 20 hours a week when we have partners who have a broader availability
who can and want to work more. Instead of the Store Manager building those
interpersonal relationships and getting to know their partners to assess their needs and
how they can help meet them, they just assumed they all had the same ones as laid out in
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It wasn’t about the rate of pay, it was more about the way
upper management didn’t value that partner’s time. Some partners just want to work the
20-hour minimum that qualifies them for benefits to cover the ones they don’t receive
from their other job like healthcare for example. There are also some partners who only
need the 20-hour minimum to cover their school benefits.

Other partners on the other hand want to work as many hours as possible since this is
their only source of income and they have bills that need to be paid. They are top
performers with open availability who could have been scheduled 8 hours on 5 different
days. Instead, they are given 20 hours and are expected to come in to work when they are
called in on their day off because it is either busier than expected or another partner has

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 called out for their shift. This is where their time isn’t valued or respected because some
store managers will see this as them “not being a team player” and will schedule them
less to prove some kind of point. They are trying to show that they will give hours to the
people they call when they need coverage instead of giving the person who is a solid
reliable partner less than the hours they need.

3) Recommend how you would use the human resources for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

This is where I would sit down with each partner and find out what their needs are and
what they prioritized. How can we as leaders build interpersonal relationships that are
supportive to our partners so they will want to support our business? One thing I would
recommend is to have that conversation during the interview process. Find out why they
want to work for Starbucks so that you can tailor their experiences and schedule to
something that fits both the store’s needs. If you have unreliable openers who show up
late, have that conversation about their availability. Are they not morning people? When
is their brain more active? Maybe you find that they need a later start for their day.
Maybe they have another job that keeps them up late. How are we a store leaders going to
schedule them to make it mutually beneficial for both parties?

This is also when you need to be able to have that conversation with them about whether
this availability they committed to is still working for them. Maybe we need to change
the daypart you work on. Maybe I can give you four 8-hour days so you have to commute
less. We could also make the days and times the same so there is stability there for them
to be able to build routines in their lives that support the needs they identified as top
priority. With these unionized partners, I would have created a schedule that meets the
hour requirement they need. I would schedule in a way that made commuting to work
easier even going as far as to schedule with other partners that they could carpool with. I
would even partner with another Store Manager in a local store to see if maybe this
partner can pick up extra days in their store to fill the coverage gaps.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.

What I would have done differently than the Store Managers in those stores is get to
know my partners and treat them and their time with respect. They aren’t just bodies on
the floor or numbers in our PnL. They are people who have needs and wants just like us
except part of the job is to lead and develop them in a manner that helps suit their needs
and helps them build skills for the future. The first thing I would do is have a connection
conversation with each part to check in and see where they are in their life, career
journey, and what needs they have that are not being met. I would make sure to carve out

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this time and actually sit with them and not just have a conversation in passing. I would
get to know them and what their story is to see where and how I can help. Do you need
money to pay rent and bills? Ok then let’s look at your availability and see where we can
give you those hours. If someone else has that same availability then I would find them
hours in other stores or see if maybe transferring them to a store that has need for them.
Even if they are just trying to secure benefits or school I would make sure they got the
hours they need.

The other aspect is making sure that everything in the store is in good working order. I
have to work on the same machines they do and if they aren’t working correctly then it
makes the job that much harder. I would have used the interpersonal relationship I have
built with my District Manager to see if there was something she could do to escalate
those repair tickets to get the store in working order. I know that it would help meet her
needs in the work place because having machines in working order would then help
provide a better customer experience which would boost her metrics as well. We would
all be doing the right work to make sure it was easy to be a partner in the store which
would have more than likely staved off the need for unionization.

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 Reference or References
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