Potbelly partners with WorkStep to develop frontline leadership and drive business results

About Potbelly

Potbelly is a national sandwich shop chain with over 5,000 employees across 33 states. With a focus on talent, culture, and capability, Potbelly aims to create a people-first experience for both customers and employees.

The challenge

Coming out of the pandemic, Potbelly was in rebuilding mode. With nearly 350 company-owned locations, the national sandwich chain needed to reestablish its people processes after an unprecedented period of disruption.

According to Pat Walsh, Chief People Officer at Potbelly, “We found that we just didn’t really have a lot to measure, particularly any kind of leading indicators from [the] people side. We looked at turnover, but we didn’t have a way to gauge what was working, what wasn’t, or what folks would tell us about our work environment in a systematic way.”

One of the most pressing challenges was at the General Manager level. As the key leadership role within each store, General Managers had an outsized influence on both employee experience and business outcomes. However, Potbelly lacked any structured mechanism to measure General Manager effectiveness as people leaders or to coach them on improving their leadership approach.

The turning point came when Potbelly faced a labor organizing drive in one of its markets. “That solidified the hypothesis that we needed to get a better pulse on what our folks would say about our work environment and how we could address any opportunities,” said Walsh. Leadership knew that to build a thriving people-first culture, they needed more than lagging metrics like turnover—they needed real-time, actionable feedback from the frontline.

The solution

Potbelly launched a formal continuous listening program—Potbelly Pulse—powered by WorkStep. After evaluating several vendors, including legacy HR solutions, Potbelly selected WorkStep for its modern, nimble approach built specifically for frontline workforces.

“WorkStep felt like a tool that was built for the frontline,” Walsh explained. “It was clear the team was continually innovating, taking customer feedback seriously, and building a product that could grow with us.”

The program was designed to do two things: reduce frontline turnover and develop stronger, more people-centric leadership at the store level. Potbelly identified General Managers as the single most impactful role in driving both employee and business outcomes.

“I’m a firm believer that the biggest determinant of someone’s experience is the leader responsible for that part of the business,” said Walsh. “At Potbelly, that’s our GMs.”

The Impact

Since rolling out WorkStep, Potbelly has transformed how it develops leaders and listens to its workforce:

• 30+ point reduction in frontline turnover: Potbelly improved frontline retention dramatically, reaching levels more than 15 percentage points better than the fast-casual industry average.
• Continuous feedback loop for GMs: General Managers receive regular, systematic feedback on their leadership and work environment, making people management a core leadership competency.
• Integration into core business processes: WorkStep insights are now embedded into people reviews and performance discussions, creating accountability and development opportunities for store leadership.
• Balanced recognition culture: In addition to surfacing areas for improvement, Potbelly uses positive feedback from WorkStep to celebrate top-performing managers and reinforce what great leadership looks like.

“At first, it was uncomfortable because this kind of feedback wasn’t something our managers were used to,” said Walsh. “But now it’s institutionalized. Our managers expect it, benefit from it, and it’s become part of our leadership culture.”

Potbelly has also leveraged WorkStep’s AI-powered tools to correlate employee feedback with business outcomes like sales and customer satisfaction, providing even deeper insights for operational improvement.

Why it matters

For Potbelly, WorkStep has proven to be more than just an engagement tool—it’s a leadership development engine and a driver of business performance.

“WorkStep has helped us focus on the things that matter and ensure that we’re pushing our leaders to lead the right way,” said Walsh. “We’ve saved hundreds of thousands—if not millions—in reduced turnover costs, and more importantly, we’ve created a better work environment for our teams.”

Walsh offers a final takeaway for other restaurant operators: “You don’t have to be a massive chain to invest in something like this. WorkStep is accessible to businesses of all sizes, and if you think you’re not sophisticated enough to benefit—you probably are. This program has been a great fit for us as a growing business.”