Schwarz Group | Digital staff scheduling | plano Campus

From Excel, WhatsApp groups, and magnetic whiteboards to smart, digital staff planning at the Schwarz Group!

What a fantastic presentation at our plano Campus 2026 in Ilmenau!

A huge thank you goes to Can Kücükler and Tobias Jordan-Reutter from Schwarz Digits for these in-depth and inspiring insights into real-world practice.

Since 2021, Schwarz Digits and SSZ Beratung, led by Guido Zander, have been working closely together with a shared goal: to develop groundbreaking WFM strategies and, among other things, to establish tools like plano WFM as true “employee-first” tools, thereby putting more flexibility in the hands of employees via the app.

The results speak for themselves:

Schwarz Group restaurants:
580 employees are already being scheduled efficiently and according to demand using plano, while fully complying with all legal requirements.

Lidl Customer Service:
The plano Optimizer was a real game-changer here! Instead of 12–13 hours per week, scheduling now takes just 3.5 minutes.

Future of Work:
With smart forecasting and self-rostering, employees become an active part of the planning process. This sustainably improves work-life balance.

Facts, Figures, and Data at a Glance:

• 4 time zones
• > 400 teams
• 20 clients within the Schwarz Group
• 27,840 absences per year#
• 1,423,500 time entries per year

THANK YOU, Schwarz Digits, for the fantastic, forward-looking partnership and this impressive showing in Ilmenau! Together, we’re shaping the future of digital workforce planning.