Patagonia
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About the Client |
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Industry Retail |
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Employees 10,000 |
Patagonia, founded in 1973 and headquartered in Reno, Nevada, operates as an apparel store offering clothing suitable for alpine climbing, fly fishing, hiking, skiing and snowboarding, surfing, trail running, and yoga, as well as other outdoor activities. Dedicated to building the best products, while also protecting nature, by striving to cause no unnecessary harm without bounds by convention.
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The Challenge |
- Patagonia collaborated with Kognitiv to create a consistent and comprehensive solution to their annual EEO-1 reporting process. Previously a laborious process, Patagonia lacked the proper resources to effectively produce and file the data in its Workday® system. Further, manual validation of the reports was required to avoid potential fallout from any inaccuracies in the filings.
- Further, like so many businesses lacking a standard, scalable process for these filings, Patagonia found it difficult to keep up with the constantly evolving government mandated requirements.”[We needed] a tool that automates something that was a manually driven process in the past” explained Cynthia Hartmann, a Workday superuser in Patagonia’s HR team. “We had never explored doing it any other way.” From start to finish, the entire filing process consumed valuable hours and effort through manual management and validation of the data, consolidated from a variety of scattered sources.
- Patagonia began its partnership with Kognitiv in 2021, leaning on Kognitiv to develop powerful integrations and expert post-production support for their Workday systems. As a result, Patagonia engaged the Kognitiv team to deliver a reporting solution, and ultimately served as an instrumental part in the development of the Kognitiv compliance for EEO-1 reporting tool. Together, we were able to:
- Reduce overall EEO-1 filing time
- Create a streamlined and automated filing process
- Enhance education and develop best practice methods for data maintenance
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The Solution |
The Kognitiv compliance solution helped standardize and streamline Patagonia’s process to allow for swift and efficient filing. We were able to transform a once manual and segmented process into a simple, one click solution by supplying the data in an electronic ready to file format, no tweaking required. With the data now compiled and housed internally, Patagonia has been able to utilize their report for supplemental use internally, in addition to enhancing their preparation for the years to come.
Estimated time and effort savings
- Since implementing the tool, Patagonia has been able to reduce their total filing time by 25%.
- This time savings has allowed for the reallocation of resources to develop an internal team dedicated to managing and preparing the data each year which will build the foundation for additional purposes of the data down the line.
- The addition of the Kognitiv Compliance tool has assisted in streamlining these reports which allows for a quick and seamless filing process. Patagonia is now able to produce and file their reports internally within a matter of hours, not days, with one comprehensive workflow.
“Used to spend about 10 hours start to finish. Cut it down to 25% of the time it used to take.”
– Cynthia Hartmann,
a Workday superuser in Patagonia’s HR team
“I can see how it will allow us to come into it more prepared next year by reviewing reports throughout the year and when it comes to filing it should be a quick, smooth, and easy process.”
– a Workday superuser in Patagonia’s HR team
Preparation for next year’s filing- Ongoing data reviews and analysis
- With the guidance and support of our experts, Patagonia is better equipped to tackle EEO-1 reporting. Looking ahead, superuser Cynthia explains that “[next year’s filing] should be pretty fast, a fraction of the time that was required in the past. There is another person in our team that was interested in working with the data, possibly looking at doing that going forward to have someone else other than myself on the report. The presentation is very user-friendly.” Kognitiv’s one click solution has allowed for additional visibility into the data, allowing Patagonia to manage and validate their reports year round. Which also lends itself to additional use internally, continually reducing the burden of the process each year.
- We were able to take this annual requirement to a whole new level through initial clean up and validation of the manually managed data. In addition to implementing best practices and providing expert support so that anyone with “limited understanding [will] be able to take this process over successfully.”
Seamless Transition and Immediate Benefits
- Moving forward, the Kognitiv team will continue to deliver enhancements such as administering any updated government EEO reporting requirements or new Workday® reporting functionality, and therefore removing the relearning efforts to improve the filing process each year. Cynthia stated that “she learned a lot this year” in terms of preparation, data tracking, and reporting. Our experts were able to deploy the solution in a matter of days, with customizable reports and dashboards to ensure data accuracy.
- Even as the company continues to grow nationwide, the team relies on the guidance and support from Kognitiv to help maintain and improve the process overtime. With over 100 new employees in just a few months, the data is constantly evolving. However, end use is seamless and Kylie from the Patagonia Digital Solutions team states that “the biggest [benefit]- took something manual that lived with Cynthia and made it something that can be easily transitioned to someone else.”
“I think the tool is beautiful, it really took the annual requirement to a whole new level and made it easier in so many ways, and visibility of the data was incredible.”
– a Workday superuser in Patagonia’s HR team
Workday Customers Can Save Time, Money, and Frustration on EEO-1 Annual Reporting
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