Workday Hits a New Milestone: A Conversation With Carl Eschenbach

It’s an exciting day: Workday has joined the Fortune 500 list for the first time, ranking us among the largest U.S. companies by revenue. Fun fact: Workday is used by more than 60% of the Fortune 500—so we’re honored to be included alongside hundreds of our amazing customers! This milestone is really a testament to our customers, partners, and over 19,000 employees.

We sat down with our CEO Carl Eschenbach to talk about this milestone and how Workday will continue to move the world of business forever forward.

What does it mean for Workday to be a Fortune 500 company?

It’s a huge honor to join this prestigious group of companies, and I want to thank our customers, partners, and especially my Workmates for making this possible. To me, the Fortune 500 is more than a statement about the company’s revenue, it’s a reflection of our values in action. When we collectively focus on our employees, customers, innovation, integrity, fun, and profitability, it puts us on an exciting growth trajectory. While this is a significant milestone, it’s a point in time recognition. We need to always be focused on the future.

What is your vision for growth?

It’s simple: our growth comes as a result of our customers’ growth. Workday is focused on delivering meaningful business results to our customers across industries, and around the world. In fact, a recent third party analysis found that Fortune 500 companies that used Workday grew revenue more than 50% faster on average than those that didn't. 

It’s inspiring to see the significance of our work, and that motivates us to keep innovating. I tell my Workmates there is a reason why the windshield in your car is bigger than the rear-view mirror. We are constantly looking ahead to what’s next and driving long-term, durable growth for Workday—and helping our customers do the same.

What drew me to Workday and what continues to excite me today is the incredible opportunity, as we go after a $142 billion total addressable market. We are uniquely positioned to bring Workday to more companies outside of the U.S., expanding our partner ecosystem, doubling down on Workday Financial Management, and investing in AI innovation. 

Every company is thinking about how AI will transform their organization. How is Workday accelerating the pace of AI innovation to meet changing business needs? 

Customers trust Workday to help them navigate huge transformations. They did so with the cloud and now they’re turning to us to help them responsibly leverage AI to drive productivity, efficiency, and cost savings. 

Workday gives them the ultimate advantage here. We've been delivering AI capabilities to our customers for nearly a decade. We’ve built AI into the core of our platform which means AI features and functionality are embedded natively in all of our applications. 

And with more than 65 million users generating more than 800 billion transactions per year on our platform, the volume of clean, trusted data that Workday and our ecosystem can leverage for AI is truly unmatched. Today we have 50 AI use cases available to customers, and 25 generative AI use cases on the roadmap to help our customers make confident decisions faster, increase efficiency, and drive productivity. 

Also, our recent acquisition of HiredScore gives Workday customers a comprehensive AI-powered talent acquisition and internal mobility offering which is helping them realize a 25% increase in recruiter capacity. 

When you speak to leaders around the world, what are they worried about when it comes to implementing AI?

We know that AI innovation won’t truly reach its full potential unless it’s used responsibly and ethically. I’m proud that Workday has been leading by example in our commitment to the responsible development of AI technologies for our customers, the deployment of AI for our employees, and the ongoing advocacy for AI regulation that positively impacts the world.

Leaders are eager to realize the benefits of AI, but they want to work with partners they can trust. Workday has a long history of keeping our customers’ most critical data—about their people and their money—safe from the beginning. We take this same trustworthy approach with Workday AI.

You've had an unconventional path to leadership. How does your personal experience influence your perspective on the value of skills in today's talent landscape? 

It may come as a surprise to some, but I do not have a traditional college degree. I left a four-year university and got a technical degree at DeVry University. In every job I've had I’ve worked hard to prove myself. With this being part of my personal career story, you can imagine that I connect with the idea that we should be hiring for skills versus solely focusing on pedigree. Millions of workers are often overlooked by employers because they don’t have a conventional degree.  

Workday is on the journey to become a skills-based workplace and we’re sharing these learnings with our customers as they also adopt skills-based approaches. It’s a win-win for us all—opening up access to new pools of talent, giving employees opportunities for internal mobility, and helping businesses achieve greater efficiencies. Workday Skills Cloud helps make a skills-based economy a reality—and I’m proud of that.

What excites you most about the opportunity ahead for Workday? 

I truly believe Workday has the opportunity to be one of the most enduring and profitable businesses of our time. We’re building a platform our customers can trust to not only build their businesses and work effectively, but also create fulfilling and inclusive workplaces.

Together, we can elevate humans and supercharge work for over 65 million people around the world. I’m honored to serve this amazing company in its next chapter by helping it achieve its audacious goals, while protecting and extending our special-values driven culture.