The coffee giant says the new process has "eased the burden" on hiring teams and improved the candidate experience
Managing high-volume hiring across a national network of 80 stores, Starbucks faced the challenges of maintaining compliance with a diverse, visa-dependent workforce while delivering a seamless candidate experience to its largely Gen Z talent pool.
With the expectation of instant results and minimal delays, traditional recruitment methods were seen as long-winded and unnceccessary to get the results they wanted.
To address the issues, the coffee giant has turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline processes while enabling recruiters to refocus their energy on candidate engagement by partnering with CheckWorkRights to deploy an automated system that accelerates time-to-hire and ensures visa compliance.
This is something Starbucks Talent Manager Rod Roberts (pictured immediately above) says has "eased the burden" on hiring teams and improved the candidate journey.
“I prefer my teams actually talking to people instead of doing admin,” he said. “We want to focus on the overall candidate experience, so once an interview is finished, we can go ahead and move forward quickly.”
CheckWorkRights Managing Director Will Aldous echoed the need for integration, particularly in high-volume hiring environments.
“When you're onboarding dozens of team members quickly, manual processes can’t keep up,” he said. “To stay competitive, you need recruitment and onboarding workflows that are mobile-first, fast, and frictionless so the best talent doesn’t slip away.”
The partnership has already paid dividends for the coffee giant looking to further streamline their recruitment strategy, including eliminating bottlenecks at pre-employment stages, improved candidate experience with mobile-friendly workflows, and full visibility and compliance.
CheckWorkRights say the automated process has saved around two days per month of admin tasks, which Roberts told HRD helps the company move forward.
“Everything's triggered automatically," he explained. "As soon as the candidate inputs their data, we pretty much get a result."
With a large portion of Starbucks’ workforce Generation Z – and on a variety of different work rights, such as student visas – ensuring a seamless process is critical to engage with a younger demographic, Roberts told HRD.
“It’s critical for us. We’re lucky that we attract top talent – but working in hospitality, people expect quick results. Utilising AI helps us get an offer of employment out quicker, perhaps the next day. Especially with the demographic of a lot of our baristas and shift supervisors, they want things done quick and instantly.”
It was also noted the system helps with work compliance for a workforce with a large proportion of different visas.
“Our system continually checks to make sure everyone is compliant – which allows us to keep on top of things like expiring visas. Managers also have access to this, so it means we’ve got a transparent workforce where everyone knows what’s happening. This is beneficial when we’re constantly looking to grow and onboarding multiple staff at once.”
It’s this transparency, Roberts said, that gives staff the capability to support one another and ensure all time consuming admin surrounding compliance is done in an efficient and centralised way.
Roberts said using AI in the recruitment process means they can focus on the “important stuff,” such as onboarding and creating a positive work culture for their staff.
“AI is a great tool in assisting us, but it’s all about connection. AI can't, and I don’t think ever will, replace the soft skills that make us human. A simple ‘Hi, how can I help you?’ is something AI can never truly replicate,” Roberts noted.
As Roberts concluded: “You just don’t get that connection piece through AI, no matter how hard we try. People still need connection.”
