Howard Schultz grew up in the projects of Brooklyn, and his father was injured at work and lost his job with no health insurance, no benefits, no dignity. That experience shaped everything about how Schultz built Starbucks — and especially how he hired.
"We are not in the coffee business serving people. We are in the people business serving coffee."
Schultz never called his employees "employees." They were partners. He gave part-time workers health insurance and stock options when no other company in the industry would. The logic was simple: if you take care of your people, they'll take care of your customers, and the business will take care of itself.
"Hire for heart and train for skill. You can teach someone to make a perfect espresso. You cannot teach them to care about the person standing across the counter."
His hiring philosophy flows directly from this belief. At every level — from barista to SVP — the first thing Schultz looks for is warmth and a genuine desire to serve. He wanted interviews that felt like conversations, not interrogations, and he wanted every candidate to walk out feeling respected regardless of the outcome.
"I never called them employees. They were partners. That distinction drives every hiring decision we made."
Schultz pays particular attention to adversity. Having grown up with nothing, he believes that people who have faced hardship and come through it with empathy intact make the best team members. Not bitterness, not entitlement — empathy. That combination of resilience and warmth is, in his experience, the most reliable predictor of who will thrive in a culture built on human connection.