Starbucks Hires 26 Baristas with Disabilities in Q1 This Year

Store Manager Choi Yena, a hearing-impaired person working at Starbucks Seoul National University Dental Hospital branch.

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Starbucks Korea announced on the 17th that a total of 26 disabled baristas were hired through the first quarter 2022 disabled barista recruitment process conducted in collaboration with the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled.

Starting from January this year, Starbucks began the 2022 first quarter disabled barista recruitment process, and after about five weeks of document screening and interviews, up to three weeks of in-store training, and final evaluations, they hired 26 disabled baristas, including 20 with severe disabilities and 6 with mild disabilities. These baristas were assigned to stores near their residences and have recently started working as baristas.

Since beginning the hiring of disabled baristas in 2007, Starbucks signed an employment promotion agreement with the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled in 2012, becoming the first in the industry to implement quarterly disabled hiring regardless of the type or degree of disability.

As of this month, based on the legal disabled employee count standard which doubles the number of severely disabled employees, the total number of disabled partners is 823. Currently, 374 severely disabled and 75 mildly disabled partners are working at Starbucks. Among them, 50 partners have received equal promotion opportunities and are working in managerial or higher positions.

Starbucks’ disabled employment rate is 4.3%, the highest level in the industry. Recognizing these efforts, Starbucks was selected as an excellent employer for disabled employment for three consecutive times in 2015, 2018, and last year.

In December 2020, Starbucks opened the ‘Seoul National University Dental Hospital Store,’ a comprehensive interior store aimed at improving awareness of disabilities. In March last year, Starbucks signed a tripartite MOU with the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled and Seoul National University Dental Hospital to mutually cooperate in promoting disabled employment and raising disability awareness to realize social value. The disabled employment rate at the Seoul National University Dental Hospital Store exceeds 50%, with 7 out of 14 partners being disabled partners. Additionally, Choi Yena, a hearing-impaired store manager partner, won an excellence award in the field of disability human rights at the ‘2020 Seoul Metropolitan Welfare Awards’ hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Park Chanho, head of Starbucks Talent Acquisition Team, said, “It is very meaningful to start hiring disabled partners this year by recruiting excellent talent with unlimited potential,” and added, “Going forward, store managers will regularly conduct interviews with disabled partners to help them adapt to their jobs and create a stable working environment.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.