Case Study: First Watch Restaurants Inc. achieves a resilient "You First" culture and stronger employee engagement with ADP

A recipe for a strong organizational culture

First Watch Restaurants Inc., a 400+ location breakfast, brunch and lunch chain with about 10,000 employees, faced the challenge of preserving its "you first" culture and keeping an hourly workforce connected through COVID-19 furloughs, pay disruptions and a renewed focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. Leadership needed ways to maintain employee engagement, provide timely pay access and gather data to guide DE&I and retention efforts while operations were paused.

First Watch used ADP Vantage HCM, the ADP mobile app, Wisely pay cards, StandOut and ADP DataCloud to run targeted outreach, enable early and on-demand pay, institute weekly manager check‑ins, launch an emergency assistance fund and analyze DE&I metrics. The tools helped 100% of directors and 75% of long‑tenured employees return at reopening, delivered nearly $850,000 in tax‑free grants, drove strong mobile engagement (70%+ regular users), strengthened retention and earned the company ADP’s 2022 Culture at Work award.

First Watch Restaurants Inc.

Laura Sorensen

Chief People Officer