SAP : Why MOD Pizza Invests So Much in the Employee Experience

MOD Pizza is much more than a pioneer of artisan pies with any toppings that customers want. For more than 8,000 'MOD Squadders' (employees) in the U.S. and UK, the company is an inspiring place to work. It's no exaggeration to say that positive social impact is in its DNA.

'Our purpose is not to just have great pizza. It's to serve people in the community, whether it be through second chance hires or being a hub within community organizations… We contribute to the betterment of the community,' said Ryan Muller, senior enterprise systems analyst at MOD Pizza.

Purpose Benefits Entire Community

As a people-first, culture-centric business, MOD is focused on positive social impact. This includes providing opportunities to people who often face barriers to steady employment - those exiting the justice system, individuals with intellectual development disabilities, 18- to 24-year-olds who are not in school and not working.

In addition to fostering a diverse, inclusive working environment, the company partners with organizations to address childhood hunger. Just this past year, during the company's annual meeting, employees packed over 40,000 meals for local backpack programs.

'Our CEO shares with us the concept of enlightened capitalism,' said Tara Gambill, senior director of Enterprise Systems at MOD Pizza. 'This means we are unapologetically for profit, but our purpose is to make a positive social impact. Being authentic to the purpose means we engage and inspire people. This transfers to our customers, which translates into success. Then we can do more!'

Integrated Cloud Platform for Intelligent Business

MOD Pizza's rapid growth is a testament to its successful strategy. However, additional stores surfaced new challenges in finding, hiring, and nurturing employees, as well as managing the resultant explosion of data. Muller and Gambill explained the company's cloud-based journey during separate presentations at the recent SAPPHIRE NOW and ASUG Annual Conference.

'We needed an integrated cloud solution to handle our HR and back-office ERP needs,' said Gambill. 'The power of SAP SuccessFactors and SAP S/4HANA Cloud was a very compelling and tipping factor. It allowed us to leverage that intelligent core, and weave together so many of our end-to-end processes.'

Focus on Employee Experience

Bringing in SAP SuccessFactors solutions for recruiting, onboarding, and human capital management (HCM) has made the People team at MOD Pizza more strategic. Employees have access to relevant, connected data to partner with other business teams. The benefits extend to store managers, who are responsible for hiring and managing people in our stores.

'To have a system where managers can be easily trained so they can focus on interviews with candidates and be out there partnering with their teams was a huge component,' said Gambill. 'They have the ability to expand the viable universe of rich talent… and automatically connect the dots between onboarding and other processes. Bringing this single, cloud-based platform to manage all these activities is a game-changer for our People team to manage at scale.'

Time-Saving Business Outcomes at MOD Pizza

Gambill said that MOD Pizza now jump-starts employee engagement much earlier.

'Newly hired employees need quick access to the right systems, and SAP SuccessFactors is positioning us to better manage that journey, enabling that experience right out of the gate,' she said. 'Over time, we are constantly changing to keep up with opportunities and consumer demands. You have to be nimble and quick providing the necessary information for employees.'

Gambill credited SAP SuccessFactors software with significant benefits around managing critical hiring processes as well as supporting employee engagement. In the meantime, the entire company can monitor, use. and distribute important people data.

'In support of diversity and inclusion, you need systems to be available, accurate, and secure,' Gambill said. 'You want employees to easily learn, use, and have access to continuous innovation - those are important factors for us in having SAP SuccessFactors and SAP S/4HANA Cloud. At the end of the day, we want our people to focus on people.'

This story originally appeared on SAP BrandVoice on Forbes.