CLIENT
INDUSTRY
Hospitality
Consumer markets
FEATURING
AI
Workday
Paradox
20,000
employees hired in approximately two months
2x
more candidates applied with the new simpler system
75%
time reduction for filling an in-restaurant position, helping save $1M per year on manager admin
Better data visibility across platforms gave Chipotle a foundation it could trust
SITUATION
From patchwork to purpose-built
Chipotle had big growth plans and needed a nimble talent strategy to accomplish them. But its legacy technology couldn’t keep pace with high-volume, high-urgency, and high-complexity global expansion. The system wasn’t just outdated—it was causing problems on various fronts. Candidates were dropping off, managers were buried in administrative tasks, and HQ was frustrated.
These user pain points snowballed into real operational strain. Outdated, disconnected platforms couldn’t effectively communicate with each other, resulting in minimal data visibility. A cumbersome, multistep manual process caused internal friction and inefficiency. Seasonal surges, especially 20,000 hires in two months for March-May’s peak “burrito season,” overwhelmed the system. Meanwhile, a 35 to 45 day hiring timeline was out of sync with the expectations of Gen Z applicants, who comprise more than 70% of Chipotle’s workforce. They frequently secured jobs elsewhere before Chipotle could reply. On top of that, the infrastructure couldn’t support long-term plans to double to more than 7,000 locations in North America. Put simply: Chipotle had outgrown its technology.
New software alone wouldn’t fix the problem. Chipotle needed a new hiring strategy
Chipotle’s fun website with laughing employees drew in candidates, but the complex hiring process turned them off. The company wanted its first impression to reflect the speed and efficiency of its restaurants and the bold, energetic vibe of the brand, while streamlining the internal process.
So, the company tapped PwC not only to deploy new tech, but also to reimagine the overall recruitment model—from roadmap to rollout.
SOLUTION
The right ingredients
PwC’s deep experience in fast-casual, quick service restaurant (QSR) hiring provided a clear view of the operational challenges Chipotle faced, from high-volume demands to seasonal surges. PwC’s team served as advisor, architect, and orchestrator to help build a new recruiting process that was as fast and fresh as Chipotle’s food.
Together, PwC and Chipotle developed a holistic transformation roadmap—a step-by-step plan that aligned processes to business needs, including faster seasonal staffing and global scalability. PwC then applied frontline hiring benchmarks from similar high-volume environments to guide system design and anticipate known operational pain points, including rehire checks, duplicate candidate handling, and multivendor dependencies that required careful coordination. That strategic groundwork helped set the stage to build, launch, and scale.
Two-sided solution, one seamless experience
PwC helped bring the transformation to life across two key fronts: Workday Recruiting as the backend engine for managing candidate data and workflows and conversational AI agent Ava Cado enabled by Paradox, now a Workday company, as the Gen Z-friendly face of the candidate experience.
To implement this new hiring hub, PwC came equipped with a complete set of tech enabled delivery solutions: 700 prebuilt integrations, a Workday migration toolkit, configuration templates, test scripts, and a governance model built for multivendor projects. Also, critical? PwC’s track record: over 1,400 Workday deployments across more than160 countries, and zero failed engagements.
Together, the team reconfigured legacy manual processes, such as rehire checks and interview scheduling, into Workday’s automated workflows. From there, they built out 18 system integrations connecting Workday to Paradox, Chipotle’s career site, various job boards, a Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) tool, and internal analytics platforms.
But these integrations weren’t always straightforward. While individual vendors understood their own tools, they couldn’t always speak to upstream and downstream cross-system impacts—or how changes might affect Workday and other integrations, like credit-reporting agencies and recruitment analytics platforms. PwC helped bridge these gaps, resolving integration issues and orchestrating back-end logic so that candidate data, statuses, and decisions moved smoothly from one step to the next.
And the guac on top of the burrito? Ava Cado, a conversational AI platform for handling initial recruiting tasks. The feature enables candidates to skip traditional application forms altogether and quickly apply, complete screening, and book interviews entirely via chat; no desktop required. Behind the scenes, Paradox’s agentic AI handles early-stage coordination—like follow-ups, interview scheduling, and candidate communications—to help streamline the experience. The result: Candidates gained a faster process; Chipotle made a sharper impression; and managers got back valuable time.
RESULTS
A loaded solution with various toppings
The transformation paid off—unlocking speed, scale, and simplicity across the talent acquisition process. Application volume doubled compared to the legacy system, driven by a smoother experience that more candidates completed. Time-to-hire dropped by as much as 75%, thanks to automated workflows.
Real-time custom dashboards and analytics now provide Chipotle with visibility it had lacked—helping track bottlenecks and hiring momentum. Days of manual lag time were replaced by instant handoffs between Workday, Paradox, and other integrated applications. And it all came together in just nine months.
Extra everything
The innovative apply-by-chat approach speaks Gen Z’s language, while multilingual Ava Cado speaks four more: English, Spanish, French, and German. The tool can answer candidates’ questions, collect basic information, coordinate interviews, and even send job offers. Overall, the process is faster, the experience is friendlier, and candidates stick around.
Now, the unified platform runs reliably across five countries with localized job templates, multilingual offer letters, and built-in pay transparency where required. The tech just works. No drama, no handholding. Plus, it’s future-ready, with support for Prism Analytics (for deeper insights), Workday Learning (for onboarding and upskilling), and evolving AI (as it advances).
Agentic AI like Ava Cado isn’t just streamlining talent acquisition—it’s also helping reshape how candidates engage and what they want from the application experience. And Chipotle’s platform is built to evolve right alongside those shifting expectations. The new hiring system is as configurable as a Chipotle burrito and ready to roll, whether it’s burrito season or not.
“I'm proud of the team that came together. With help from PwC, we found the technology, the design, the configuration, and the ready-to-go moment in just nine months.”
PwC AND WORKDAY
Your one-stop-shop for Workday-enabled business transformation.
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