Reinventing itself for generations.
Founded in 1803 by George Wood as an iron foundry, Wawa evolved from selling cannonballs to producing dairy products to operating 950 convenience stores in 6 states. Privately held for more than 2 centuries, Wawa values taking excellent care of their employees as well as their customers. Because half of the corporate dividends are shared among workers, hourly employees enjoy competitive long-term earning potential.
With the Workday professional services team, we can budget, plan, and spend dollars more predictably than with any other agency.
HR Systems Leader
Tackling challenges with fewer funds.
When Jim McKnight joined Wawa as the new leader of HR Systems, he accelerated the momentum of existing initiatives. One project he started was completing an overhaul of decades-old HR processes. Initially lifted and shifted from a small application to Workday Human Capital Management (HCM), the processes needed to be modernized with the help of the solution’s capabilities. Wawa was also about to deploy Workday Recruiting to streamline hiring, as well as Prism Analytics and People Analytics to improve business insights and employee experiences. However, three weeks after McKnight started planning, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, resulting in dramatic cuts to HR Systems’ budget. HR and IT teams also had to start working from home.
When my team needs help for any reason, I have a contractor on demand through Workday Services.
HR Systems Leader
Birds of a feather work well together.
To meet immediate goals with a significantly smaller budget, Wawa engaged Workday Services to train their IT team. Jumpstart engagements provided critical project planning and prototyping. Review and Recommend sessions showed staff how they could redesign and streamline inefficient workflows using untapped capabilities in Workday. “We developed and deployed many new modules and features during the COVID-19 pandemic with the help of Workday consultants,” McKnight explains. “And with Jumpstart, we can see a prototype in our tenants in half the time it would take to either do it ourselves or onboard a contractor to build it for us.”
As HR Systems staff needed quick help with specific tasks, they connected with other Workday customers in Community and enlisted consultants through Office Hours. “With the Workday professional services team, we can budget, plan, and spend dollars more predictably than with any other agency—and we get a full menu of options,” says McKnight. “When my team needs help for any reason, I have a contractor on demand through Workday Services. And oftentimes, we work with the same people.”
When we launched Prism, we enabled VIBE. It’s given us new insights about our hiring process that are eye opening.
HR Systems Leader
One-stop convenience that saves more than time.
With Workday, Wawa has a single solution for accelerating core HR workflows. For example, compared with the application employees previously used for performance management, Workday saves HR staff time and gives them quick insights via easy-to-use employee talent cards. “These changes are well received and have made significant improvements to workflows, completion times, and outcomes,” says McKnight. The company is also enabling remote access to HR tasks including payroll, onboarding, hiring, and bonus-pay management.
Tracking corporatewide staffing trends.
The CEO and other executives review metrics on the company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives from the Value Inclusion, Belonging, and Equity (VIBE) dashboard in HCM, which uses Prism Analytics. “When we launched Prism, we enabled VIBE,” McKnight explains. “It’s given us new insights about our hiring practices that are eye opening. And we’re in the process of rolling out the dashboard companywide.”
Well stocked for the future.
Today, Wawa uses Workday Adoption Planning to outline their cadence for adopting more Workday capabilities. This includes educating their internal staff about how to streamline HCM processes they had previously outsourced or managed with manual steps. Wawa is also planning training improvements with its existing implementation of Workday Talent Optimization. “There’s often a lot of ‘meat left on the bone’ when it comes to Workday deployments,” says McKnight. “By using what we’ve already bought, we can build out our internal team instead of spending time and money on external consultants or bolt-on applications. We can also continue to evolve and adapt—for a third century.”