Source: Alex Wong / Alex Wong
Philly.com- Starbucks should identify potential patterns of discrimination in its hiring and survey the communities surrounding its stores to see whether residents — particularly those of color — feel welcomed, said a report released Monday that details how the company can address bias.
The report comes a little more than a month after Starbucks shut all its U.S. stores for an afternoon to conduct anti-bias training. The training followed a national outcry over the arrests of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks in April.
Among the recommendations:
Conduct in-store tests to see if staff are treating customers of various backgrounds differently.
Allow for an independent review to examine the company’s policies and racial diversity.
Identify patterns of discrimination in employee recruitment, hiring, retention, pay, promotion and grievance procedures.
Improve communication between staff and the corporation. After the Philadelphia incident, the report said, “it became clear that front-line store employees were aware of rising tensions from a shift to more stringent enforcement of customer-only policies well before the incident occurred.”
“What happened to us shouldn’t happen to anyone,” said Donte Robinson, one of two black men arrested when the store manager called police. “While we cannot change the events of April 12, we are committed to doing what we can to increase opportunities in our community and to prevent other African Americans from being profiled at Starbucks or any other business.”
Source: Philly.com
