Melitta was born from a simple yet clever idea: Melitta Bentz’s pioneering invention of the coffee filter in 1908 transformed coffee enjoyment worldwide, profoundly influencing coffee culture. Melitta was truly ahead of her time, and her inventive spirit continues to inspire Melitta today.
As an international manufacturer, Melitta faced the complex task of harmonizing a wide landscape of HR processes, tools, and ways of working. Just as Melitta Bentz transformed coffee, her legacy continues to shape how the company reimagines its employee experience today.
The digital HR architects.
At the heart of Melitta’s Workday story is its HR Digital team, specifically built to “standardize and harmonize all the HR processes worldwide,” says HR HCM People Experience Specialist Rebecca Knauer.
They are the architects ensuring that any new digital feature or request is thoroughly checked and a solution is found within their Workday environment.
Melitta is dedicated to offering all employees a modern, straightforward, and accessible HR experience. The company is particularly proud that colleagues in production can now access information and services as easily as everyone else—whether at a terminal or on their smartphone, PC, or similar devices.
We are 6,000 people globally and 50% of them are production employees. Our biggest goal is to give all employees the same experience using Workday and to get in contact with HR services.
Manager, HR Processes & Projects
A unified experience for all.
Their goal was clear, but ambitious: “To give all employees the same experience using Workday,” says Lenina Rüpke, manager, HR Processes & Projects. This reinforces Melitta’s commitment to inclusion to ultimately foster a sense of belonging among its employees.
Initially, Melitta provided access via private mobile devices but soon realized that this wasn’t enough to drive adoption of all its non-desk workers. To bridge the gap, Melitta implemented kiosk terminals in breakout rooms, providing equal access to Workday for all employees.
Workday has played a crucial role in elevating Melitta’s employee experience with HR tools and processes, offering a suite of applications that the organization utilizes to their full extent. This includes Workday Help, Workday Guidance, Workday Journeys, and Workday Assistant. Workday Assistant, for instance, offers “big support for our employees to find the right tasks. They’re always looking for very quick and efficient information, and Workday Assistant delivers that,” says Rebecca Knauer.
Unleashing efficiency with AI.
To feed Workday Assistant with information, Melitta has fully embraced the power of Workday Illuminate™, particularly within Workday Help. A remarkable efficiency gain was the creation of more than 800 knowledge articles with the help of the AI functions within a single week.
This stands in stark contrast to the months it previously took to accomplish the same task. As Rebecca Knauer stated, “It made working so much more efficient for us.”
Beyond efficiency, Workday AI-powered translations have also made the knowledgebase more accessible as users can now find content in eight different languages.
Workday AI functionalities are a big help in our day-to-day work. They take off routine tasks from us such as content creation and translation.
HR HCM People Experience Specialist
A partnership for progress.
Melitta’s decision to choose Workday was heavily influenced by the cultural fit. The company found a strong alignment with Workday preconfigured processes and the broader Workday community, appreciating the way of working, connecting, and sharing opinions within the community and giving feedback to shape the Workday roadmap.
Furthermore, the flexibility of Workday and its business processes enables Melitta to “quickly adapt to new requirements in the business that makes it so much easier for us and our HR work,” says Lenina Rüpke. This ability to adapt and innovate is what has been at the core of Melitta’s culture since its inception in 1908.