Sara Kelly, executive vice president and chief partner officer for Starbucks, has been with the coffee chain her entire career. She held a number of different HR roles with Starbucks before being appointed CPO in 2022, and says those where she worked directly with retail employees helped shape how she approaches her role today.

For about a decade, “I worked alongside our retail stores, supporting our retail stores, which was the best way to really get a full appreciation and understanding for Starbucks,” she said. Kelly described a “flywheel” between employee experience, customer experience, and shareholder returns that initially drew her to Starbucks. “If we invest in our partners and we deliver on that in-store experience for them, they will deliver on the experience for our customers,” she explained, using the term Starbucks uses to describe employees.

Keeping this flywheel turning is perhaps more complicated than ever today as Starbucks pursues a cost-cutting strategy that’s involved layoffs and store closures, and continues to face criticism and strikes from unionized store members over working conditions.

Kelly spoke about investments Starbucks has made to improve the employee experience amid these challenges, including improvements to the scheduling system and a pilot program focused on middle managers.

For more on how Kelly aims to fuel customer loyalty by investing in workers, keep reading here.—CV

’Tis the season to be jolly. Just not too jolly—at least not at the company holiday party.

“Ambulances had to be called, it was a whole thing,” Dani Herrera, a talent culture and DEI consultant, said of a situation in which an employee had a little too much to drink at a holiday party. “That person fell down the stairs and, I think, broke a leg or something like that. Not great, friend.”

Herrera has seen it all. And she shared it all—from what she’s seen, to what you, the HR professional, can do should you encounter similar situations—with Kate Noel, SVP and head of people operations at Morning Brew, during a recent episode of HR Brew’s People Person podcast.

For more from our conversation with Herrera, keep reading here.—VV

Is AI eroding the software development workforce?

Maybe, maybe not. Findings from a new survey by engineering talent acquisition firm Karat of around 400 tech executives in the US, India, and China indicate that the picture may be complicated—AI is having an impact, but it’s hard to pinpoint what it is.

For more on how AI is changing the workforce, keep reading on IT Brew.—EH