Perks for part timers - Starbucks Corp - includes related information

Business & Health, Sept, 1996 by Alicia Ault Barnett

The gatekeeper plan has no deductible and a $10 copay for a doctor visit and for a brand-name prescription. Preventive care is fully covered, and 90 percent of inpatient care is covered after the first $100. Out-of-network care has a deductible of $300 for an individual and $900 for family and covers 70 percent of physician fees and prescription costs. The point-of-service option also allows workers to see specialists without a primary care physician's authorization. Those who live out of Aetna's network area--only about 2 percent of Starbucks' insured employees--are served by a more expensive indemnity plan.

Dental care is also part of the package. Partners get 100 percent coverage for diagnostic and preventive care, 80 percent coverage for basic treatment and 50 percent for major procedures, up to $2,000 a year.

Starbucks is likely to keep looking for ways to keep its health costs in check, although spokeswoman Jeanne McKay says, "We like to think we are a healthy company, and if health care costs are any measure, we're healthier than the average company." Even so, its benefits costs are steadily rising. In fiscal 1994, the company spent $4 million on health care costs, or about 9.5 percent of its base paYroll of $42 million. In 1995, Starbucks spent about $1,800 per enrollee on health benefits--up from $1,500 in '94--and will probably spend $2,200 in 1996, says McKay. The firm has a mostly young and single workforce, but "as the company matures so do our partners and their life situations."

Starbucks' menu of employee benefits has been expanded over the years as the company quizzed workers about what they I want or need. Starbucks added vision care following an employee survey, for example; the plan covers one eye exam per year and pays part of the cost of contacts every year and frames every other year. In 1994, the firm added a minimal mental health benefits package that covers 20 outpatient visits per year (at a $20 co-pay). Inpatient visits are 90 percent covered after a $100 per incident co-pay. Patients must go through Starbucks' employee assistance plan, managed by Human Affairs International, to be referred for inpatient or outpatient care.

A CAREER CANDIDATE

The low turnover rate is but one measure of the effectiveness of Starbucks' generous policy. Another is the employees themselves, who seem genuinely enthusiastic about working for the company.

Take Heather Dimbat, a college senior who's been at Starbucks for four years in the entry-level barista position. At Seattle's University Village store, she works 20 to 24 hours a week. Dimbat has been impressed with the firm's flexibility. She joined the company just after graduation from high school and helped open a store near home, transferring later first to one, than to another University of Washington location. Although Dimbat was covered by her parents' health plan until recently, she was relieved to be able to enroll in the Starbucks plan for just $14 a month. The dental plan was particularly important to her. Dimbat has also cashed in on other Starbucks perks: The benefits program has been "a selling factor" for the people she has recruited-for which she gets a bonus. Dimbat herself is so enamored of the company that she plans to stay and aim for a management position when she gets her degree.