Challenges.
After decades of rapid growth, Panera Bread was expanding even more into the adjacent $1 billion categories of catering, small-order delivery, and consumer products. The company needed to manage three separate businesses and a workforce with high turnover, multiple jobs, and varying pay rates—but its systems couldn’t keep up. Its growth demanded an agile system that would sustain the business as it continued to evolve. After rigorous evaluation, Panera selected Workday in 2014 to support its innovation and growth.
There is a high desire for more Workday at Panera. In fact, we selected Workday Financial Management based on our [Workday] HCM project success.
Director, HR Technology
Why Workday.
Panera selected Workday because it offered a single system that was configurable and flexible. It also provided a proven and reliable cloud-based finance, HR, and payroll system. Its robust mobile functionality and universal access also contributed to its appeal, as well as the improved analytics and insights it provided. All of these factors led Panera to choose Workday because it was scalable enough to be a successful partner for the growing business.
Workday in action.
Real-time visibility into Panera’s workforce brought top-line benefits back to the business. Before Workday, café managers only saw employee time punches on a weekly basis. With Workday, they gained up-to-the-minute insight into employee hours and overtime, which helped them make real-time staffing decisions. Panera also realized that associates worked more than eight hours a day in some markets, negatively affecting overall café health metrics. But with real-time, accurate data accessible on any device, managers were able to achieve optimum employee and café health and drive more sales.
Real-time, accurate data accessible on any device
HR team became business partners
Improved café wellness with accurate, visible time data
Reduced payroll cycle from 4 days to 1.5 days