Starbucks anti-bias training not a new concept

Starbucks is back open — on normal business hours – after closing thousands of its stores nationwide for mandatory training about racial bias and diversity.

Starbucks announced the training shortly after two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks in April.

Some 8,000 Starbucks — including most in El Paso and Las Cruces closed at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Company CEO Kevin Johnson apologized for what many called a clear case of racial profiling and the company’s founder said the store closings were a necessity.

The coffee shop closure caught a lot of El Pasoans off guard this Tuesday afternoon.

ABC-7 spoke to customers who left empty handed and also spoke to Workforce Solutions about anti-bias training.

Workforce Solutions assists employers in finding quality employees. They also help train people with skills necessary to thrive in the workplace.

The company isn’t involved with the Starbucks training but they are very familiar with sensitivity training.

At the Starbucks on Mesa and University Street, cars drove off and customers walked away disappointed.

“We were just going to relax and have a drink and we’re really bummed,” said customer Crystal Thompson.

Others were left with questions.

“Why are some open and some closed?,” asked customer Robert Mendez.

“It’s been a priority. I think customer service in general has covered that topic,” said Leila Melendez, chief operating officer for Workforce Solutions.
Melendez said the training usually focuses on listening to employers’ and customers’ needs.

The training is “not necessarily basing our solutions or responses on our own biases or our own history, but just really taking a different perspective into offering different types of solutions and having a more open mind, if you will,” Melendez said.

Melendez tells ABC-7 the training will sometimes involve role playing.

“We’ll role play and a person will say this was actually said to me, or this was said to me and we kind of study the situation and we say, ‘How could you have handled that differently?’ or ‘What can be some advice you would give?’,” Melendez said.

Some customers like the idea of anti-biased training.

“I think it’s good for the company. If they are trying to fix issues, it shows the company’s trying,” Mendez said.

Others feel the coffee shop shouldn’t have had the training during the workweek.

“Having anti-bias training is something that should be already assumed maybe when you join? Get hired? During the hiring process, not something that you have when all of a sudden you had to close it, it (can) be quite an inconvenience,” Thompson said.

Melendez says an important tip for employees is to remember the values the company represents and to really take the time to think about how you’re coming across.