district manager

implementation specialist

application developer

account executive

implementation consultant

A couple of people from my training group left before hitting their 6 month mark.. several others dropped off just after 6 months. I can boil it down to these reasons:

ADP is one huge call center, and the CSS position comes with all of the negatives associated with a call center.  Everything was glorified during the interview process. You will have call handling monitored of course. All service managers have to monitor these things, but some micromanage more than others which adds to the stress.  Listen carefully during on-the-job learning (OJL) during your 10 weeks of training, because associates will try to hint to you these things.  It is stressed that associates don't "scare" away the new hires, so use your own judgment and listen beyond what you actually hear on the floor so that you're prepared when you're taking calls on your own.

Client Services is one of the most stressful positions-- training is a good foundation, but it still doesn't prepare associates for the overload of information.  Other departments have the luxury of becoming experts on their subject matter to help the client. Client Services has to assist with many subject matters (payroll, basic tax and local regs, time off, special calcs, general ledger) that it is overwhelming.  It's great info if you're able to stay long enough to retain it and carry it on to another job. So many of my coworkers had reported feeling completely lost or made to feel embarrassed by clients because we sounded frantic and unsure of ourselves on the calls.  Not to mention the fact that getting assistance from other depts was like pulling teeth. Certain departments are notorious for making CSS associates feel low when all we need are answers to assist the client yelling in our ear. 

You're expected to handle your case loads while staying in "Ready" on the phones.  Sufficient follow-up time is not provided, which negatively impacts TNPS scores.  It's a never ending cycle.

30 minute lunches provide no time to decompress, so it's a snowball effect every day until you reach burnout. Bless those who made it through year end with perfect attendance. 

Good luck requesting a Friday or Monday off in advance.  There are time off bids at year end for the upcoming months, and they're taken quickly.  I can recall having a legit appointment that I had to take an occurrence for because the limit was reached already for that particular day... and I had requested over two weeks in advance. 

This position has taken its toll on mental health for several of my peers.  Constantly fighting to get through casework just to be slammed with yet another case that we're unable to work through on our own is depressing.  Trying to flag down an SSS with the right attitude and with enough time on their hands to assist with getting the case closed before the client has a chance to formulate a bad opinion can cripple you with anxiety. Not having enough break time is exhausting.  

While overall it's a great corporate culture, I do feel like younger millennials and recent grads are catered to.  They seem to be the happiest crowd in the building.  Not for nothing- a recent grad doesn't have a decade of work experience to compare this job to, so it's all roses and glitter as it's sold to you in the interview process. "Moving up" at ADP doesn't get you out of call center roles unless you want to become an SSS or manager.  If you don't mind this, this could work for you.

I am disappointed that I didn't get the experience that I had hoped for with ADP.  We don't drink the same kool-aid in Client Services as everyone else apparently.

ADP has historically been a wonderful place to work until this year. I felt like their initial response to COVID was appropriate and like they really had our backs. I enjoy most of the people I work with and consider them friends.

The world of work has changed and as the leading provider in the Human Capital Management space its shocking at how unwilling ADP is to adapt. Particularly as it relates to continuing a remote work environment and flexible schedules. They are being very persistent about returning to a 4 day in office approach which has not been received well by many. We are experiencing extremely high turn over, attributed predominately to being overworked while feeling undervalued. I believe negative attrition can also be attributed to the rigid return to work plan. We have very little positive attrition and often see outside hires brought in for higher level promotions. This not only continues to back up internal growth but also discourages internal employees. The employees who have stuck around are being extremely overworked and have to deal with very unhappy clients regarding things that are overall an ADP problem and not something associates have any real control over. The anxiety going into our busiest season is at an all time high and the people who are in the trenches feel helpless, especially for the clients that will ultimately suffer. 

More recently, a significant portion of the associates that I interact with have felt more in fear for our jobs this year than during the height of the pandemic. Particularly as it relates to the vaccine and body autonomy. ADP continues to push out communication that is inconsistent and misleading. And this is only found out when associates reach out directly to HR to clarify. I understand business decisions need to be made but to manipulate communication to seem like it’s being transparent when it’s really not has been very disheartening, unethical, and quite frankly, goes against the very values that ADP is supposed to stand upon. 

Senior Leadership is extremely disjointed and disconnected from associate painpoints. When unfavorable communication gets rolled out mid level leadership is very reactive and often times say they were not briefed ahead of time so they are unable to prepare internal teams ahead of time to help ease blow. Things continue to get pushed out from the top down without much consideration of the impact it has overall while our direct leaders get hung out to dry. SLT also seems to be experiencing a significant amount of turnover and constant restructuring. It’s a very uneasy time to be an employee at ADP.

Recognize your employees who have stayed with something more meaningful than a paperweight. Money and actions talk. Listen and follow up with action that is consistent with what your employee base actually wants. Don’t just listen, empathize, and then move on. Stop slapping bandages on the problem. Remove internal roadblocks and hold people accountable for poor performance and work ethic. Pay people what they deserve according to the skills and value they bring to the company. Don’t underpay your most successful employees and wait to proposes raises and promotions only when you’re backed into a corner and they already have one foot out of the door. Be more proactive as it relates to compensation specifically for high performers. True transparency in communication. Don’t make us dig for information by having to ask follow up questions relating to company and covid policies. Overall, do better!

This job is in the Retirement Services (RS) division of ADP.  This group is relatively small compared to the rest of the company, but the clients that do elect the Retirement Services product are very invested in it.  If something goes wrong between the payroll side and the retirement side, this can affect the entire relationship with the client.

My position was in the Operations group in the Retirement Services (RS) division of ADP.  I liken the Payroll Research position as a grab-bag, everything-including-the-kitchen-sink job.  

Typical Day:  

daily maintenance on ADP Resource region/ ADP Enterprise product,
correct erred change records from ADP Retirement Services

review requests from client services in queue, pick up tasks
typical task types:  
>support RS client service reps on conference calls with clients regarding RS > payroll transmissions
>pull data from RS databases, payroll region databases
>review/format/clean up data for client service reps
>research disconnects between platforms
>assist in implementation of new RS (typically at year end, due to volume)
>pull data and identify incorrect values; determine possible cause for compliance test failure
>general questions regarding payroll and payroll products, especially compatibility between RS and payroll products

long term projects 
participating in identifying/determining connectivity issues with new products, between RS and payroll.  
working with programming to produce effective reports and tools for client services
partnering with the payroll regions when groups are spun off into a new region to identify actions needed to ensure RS has connectivity with the new location/region

What I learned:
I learned pretty much by doing; as we only had 4 people on our team, we didn't have a training program.  We had a new hire for the team just before I was laid off, and he attended the client services training.  
I started out as a temp, doing calculations for missed earnings due to incorrect trading.  Between that first job and the last job, I learned about balancing the books versus the accounts; finding the variances and making corrections; processing transactions; QC'ing stock trades (the higher the risk, the greater the potential for negative consequences due to errors).  
There are lots of opportunities to learn at this company.

Management is focused on providing the best payroll product in the world.  Most jobs can be quantified, but there are some that resist measurement.  This job was one of those.  I had managers that treated me well, and who knew how to get the best out of their people.  I can only reflect what I experienced.  

I have a lot of friends in the company.  

The hardest part for me of the job was to tell clients that no, the systems are not perfect, and there are several steps between point A and point B, and that they do need to pay attention to their reports.  The clients assume that everything is all in one box, whereas this is a world-wide organization, and data is housed in hundreds of locations.  

The best part of my job was helping the client service managers give the client what they want, and the feedback from them was very encouraging to me.  I made their job easier by being able to satisfy their clients.

ADP is degree driven. If you have a degree (no matter what it's in) and no real work experience they will value you more when it comes to negotiating your pay and potentially advancement, however they are not very competitive with their base pay but to some people (like myself) they make up for it with the benefits which are great.  If you are an experienced professional beware that most of their managers lack industry experience but have a community of employees that they can bounce around to get the answers that they need to get the job done (which can be a bit frustrating), the biggest issue with lack of experience is that they aren't strategic thinkers and they can't back you up when it's needed. I don't agree with the logic that someone that has never done the job can be more effective at managing a team because they have a degree in some random unrelated field or tenure with the company no matter what department they're being promoted out of but usually the team of employees lead the managers so if you're on a strong team you'll all be effective until the client comes complaining, at that point it's going to be "The Client Is Always Right". ADP uses CoE and that's a waste of valuable time when it's not efficient and right now it's not effective (IMO). Like most jobs ADP has it's diversity issues (The advertisement is a bit misleading), but in the world today they're doing better than most.  You have to be tech-savvy or you will sink and you'll have to be pretty self sufficient because the training is minimal and they take their most knowledgeable team members to usually do small trainings, but most of the time those employees have no business training acumen. I also think the the Leadership is disconnected  from a lot of the human interactions of the daily functions required to have an efficient work day throughout many departments within the company and only rely on the data to assume they know what's wrong (huge miss). The most enjoyable part is you can manage your work and as long as you know what you're doing you will be just fine as they usually don't micromanage and the systems that they are building or constantly updating usually give you a nice little break throughout the day.  The key to growth is being seen, take the trainings, volunteer for projects, brown nose and get the work done if there's a deadline.  ADP is very data driven and that's how they know who's doing what so your work results will been seen just have a personality to go along with those good results and you'll be just fine. If your used to being a third party provider ADP is the place to be but if you're used to a corporate connection with the managers that you support or partner with, ADP may be a struggle.    

Annual blackout period from around Thanksgiving to the end of February. So you cannot request off during that time. No opportunity to work from home in most positions. You only get 6 holidays off in the year (Christmas day, New Year's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day). Comprehensive Services business unit is regularly understaffed so it isn't unusual to be overloaded/overworked. I've worked here for 2 years and already I am one of the most tenured people on staff on my team due to the high turnover (people leaving). I know more people than not who are doing the work of at least 2 people. Training will never prepare you for your position and I often feel under-supported when I need help. Corporate is tone deaf. They wave their pom poms and tell us how much they care about us, but their actions don't support that claim. Especially in payroll, they continue to lean more and more on us. The job title "Payroll Solutions Specialist" is essentially a managerial role without telling you that it is. You're in charge of the clients' experience with ADP and comprehensive services. When someone isn't doing their job, everyone (including ADP employees) is looking at you to "fix" it or to tell that person to do their job. Most of my coworkers are medicated to help cope with the stress, anxiety and depression that takes its toll from working here. The low morale does sometimes create camaraderie among my coworkers since we are all in the trenches together. Some of my closest friends have been made from working here. 
The pay is okay (I make 46k a year). Benefits are alright (seeing doctors is still an insane amount of money). 2 weeks vacation starting out and they allow you to make up 2 hours a week (if you need to go to an appointment and don't want to use your paid time off.) They call it "flex time". The break room has complementary coffee packets (similar to Keurig but some other off brand) in different flavors. Pretty hard to get fired, but the number one reason people do get fired is from "stealing time". You are allowed two 15-minute breaks a day and 30 minutes for lunch (unless you opted for the hour lunch - which I didn't because I like working 8:30 to 5). If you are not at lunch, in a meeting, or on break, you NEED to be logged into the phones to take calls. The managers can see everything that we do in the system, so if you think you're getting away with anything, you're not. Don't try it. I see more people get fired from that than anything else. But like I said, most people quit.

I was very eager to work for ADP,  I thought I landed my dream job. The first year was amazing, our team had great management and team leads, shortly into my second year it started to go downhill. New management came in, old management were either let go, transitioned into another role or they left ADP on their own. 

I believe in hard work, you help customers as quickly and efficiently as possible, but management now has formed a clique to promote the lazy workers for which they have had an abundant amount of complaints from ADP customers. Once someone puts you into a specific category over you advocating for a customer, it's very difficult to get out of that category. 

Management makes it very clear who their favorites are by lack of assistance to those who are not. If you do not brown nose, you will bullied to the point of crying in your private time. You can bust your rear for this company to basically be told you're worthless. Although you try to march on, after being belittled so many times, it's hard to be the best at your job. 

ADP was amazing during the pandemic, allowing associates to work remotely during the height of everything. They gave a nice non taxed bonus, which was so helpful sing overtime was cut out completely. They are LGBTQ friendly and openingly supports Pride, I do like this aspect of the company. They have a judgement free work environment if you live an alternative lifestyle. The Town Hall meetings are always encouraging, the CEO, VP and most up upper management are great, it's the basic hands on management that is terrible and should be closely monitored. 

One ADP is a joke, if you dare contact another team for assistance aside from doing the dirty work for a customer, you will be reported to management. One ADP gives the impression that we're all one team helping one another for the best customer experience on the outside, but definitely frowned upon if you do it. 

The antiquated survey system is comical, and the surveys are a joke. You have no recourse on a bad survey if you received one in error without having any interaction with the customer. It stays with your for the life of your employment at ADP. 

This is my honest opinion, it's not solely based on my bad experiences, I know how to separate the good from the bad when it comes to decision making. They are an amazing company if you fit into their clique, if you don't it can be a nightmare. 

I moved on not too long ago to a company that has better management, they support their employees and I am much happier. 

ADP was amazing my first 6 to 9 months as the training was decent but all computer based, and the workload was reasonable, if not too lax. I had time to enjoy the gym, onsite lunch with coworkers, and join Business Relationship Groups BRGs. I could build my network and take training for new skills.

Then, the real workload was poured on and my wonderful team completely fell apart. The external attrition rates were ridiculous as everyone was so frustrated that there was absolutely no support or guidance to do your job. ADP had basically let go of all of their seasoned employees in past years, and the rest of us were treading water waiting for a miracle. Management assumed training was adequate and treated all implementation team members the same regardless of tenure or role level.

"Integrity" is literally a word written all of the office walls along with other "mission statement" words. But the reality is that ADP started a pilot program with no notice to their clients that everything about it was brand new. The methodology to implement it and the implementation team members were new and we had to pretend to the clients we were experienced. Obviously, no pilot goes smoothly and clients had many errors and grievances. My team and I had never tried so hard before and been so frustrated to try to make things work. Nobody wants their clients upset. The relief of no longer working their 60 to 70 hour work weeks on a regular basis and starting with a new company who has happy employees of all experience levels is night and day for me. Essentially, ADP burns them and recruits again never learning their lesson along the way. 

The culture is unfortunately pure talk about the love of their people, but the actions, the many annual layoffs, the long hours, the horribly outdated technology and insane attrition rates of people quitting with few internal promotions paints a completely different picture of their real culture. 

Overall, I was shocked for a company of this size and that has been around this long to be so dysfunctional. A waste of several years of my career life other than meeting some really great people there.


● Work-life balance
There is no work life balance at this company during year end (dec-feb). They change your schedule to allow for a mandatory extra hour worked everyday during this time and management  doesn’t stop to think about the fact that people have families and obligations outside of ADP.

● Pay & benefits
This job is perfect for young professionals who don’t have much financial responsibility. Anyone with a family would be basically living paycheck to paycheck with the compensation given in this position. Client support literally does everything and we still do not get paid adequately!! Now, they’ve started assigning cases and increasing the workload in this department, but now allowing overtime. So how are we supposed to get anything done!? Benefits are a joke. Deductible is very high!! The copay is a percentage instead of a flat dollar so you still end up paying hundreds of dollars in copay fees by the end of the year.

● Job security and advancement
Job security is a plus here because they will always need someone to answer phones for clients. As long as you’re good at your job and stay on a straight and narrow your job is secure. Good luck getting promoted though! Job advancement is highly talked about during on boarding but once you’re in the role it takes forever to get promoted to something outside of client services. It’s sad that senior leadership and management give people this false sense of hope just for associates to have something to look forward to. Maybe the company should be completely honest up front about what this job entails and they would have a much better retention rate. What they tell you in training is all smoke and mirrors.

● Management
Management doesn’t know a thing. They are starting to promote more managers internally that know a bit about payroll, but they still have a long way to go.

● Culture
Working from home is not encouraged but covid has proved that it’s definitely feasible and should be offered more.

● Overall
ADP is awesome at building high hopes when you are initially hired. They preach fast advancement, understanding management, autonomy, not typical call center etc. Then boom! once you get in the role manager’s tend to micromanage, there are blackout periods where you can’t even take PTO from dec-feb and you are constantly in the phone or getting assigned cases to work. Office politics are at an all time high. There’s never really downtime here. Good place to work if you need a job and to learn tax/payroll entry level.

I worked at ADP for several years.The culture has become confusing, belittling and cut throat and that has to do with the lack of actual management. If you're looking to be treated as a professional do not go here because you will be made to feel as if you are a number and that your opinions mean nothing. They hire young people or recent college grads with no experience. If you're older than 35, this is not for you. If you're a woman and looking to be a manager, this is not for you as the management hires mostly  white males in their 20's. There are 2 sets of teams-a client based and a dm facing team. Each time a client based team got ahold of the lead you were working on, it was awarded to them, regardless of how much work you actually put into it. I was a senior employee ad received many accolades and even won the Presidents Club trip. Shortly afterwards, they plotted to get rid of me. Probably because it was an expensive trip. They fired me a few months later. The prior DVP of Sales was quite intimidated by anyone with any thoughts of their own. If you spoke out of turn, you knew she was out to get you. You would get the stink eye all the time, or the managers or the DVP would chat about you in her cube. You could hear everything because no one had an office. It would be her cronies, or Sales Execs who ultimately fire you, not her. I was fired for being under $1000 away from my goal that month, but in reality they activated it an hour after they cut my throat. I found out later that they replaced me with someone else and gave them a much lower goal. It's about politics and whose butt you kiss at ADP. If you step out of line at all, expect to be plotted against and fired. They are very sneaky, and will turn employees against each other. I have been there to see employees who are looking to be promoted have tattled on others and received promotions.  Also, they hire and promote their friends. I've been around to see them promote people to management positions who were handed deals to close including the former DVP of Sales's husbands business. It's amazing that people still work there. Unfortunately people need to pay their bills. It's a paycheck, nothing more. They will let you sink. They will raise goals so high that it's unachievable for most. They give preferential territories to their friends. It's all not worth your time. Trust me, i wasted years there. I regret the time i wasted there. Forget about a work-life balance because you will not have one.

PROS: ADP has integrity. ADP provides thorough Confidentiality
 and Business Ethics online courses. There is a confidential report line.
Great Managers.
My job actually made positive changes for the employees who called in.
The Client provided their Corporate Culture, Benefits with description,
The insurance carriers supplied their version and any updates.
These were the tools we used to determine how to help the employee who called in.
Regardless of the Benefit, I had major successes, and was able to obtain several thousand dollars refunded over 10 years for the employees.
I worked with employees, the provider offices, insurance carriers, the Account Managers for the Insurance Carries, and when needed,the Client.
Loved my job, my team. Great Managers. Positive Team! Due to the Advocacy, not restricted to calls taken and time on phone call. Project time was immediate for urgent issues.
: Some of the issues were very complicated, and the employee always important. During our busy seasons, Open Enrollment, Appeals Wellness Season for the employee to register, comply for the next year's medical premium discount, it wasn't as easy to continue working the issue immediately after the call due to the high inbound call volume. Management worked with us, and then had to explain to corporate watchers why we were off the phone.
Explaining the concept of advocacy during the busy seasons was more difficult for management.
My management had our backs! The stress was shared, and we continued on successfully.  
We also had a love and respect for the Corporate HR who work closely with my management team.

 Sometimes it wasn't an issue to be resolved, but what the employee had confided, and I would go home and in bed and wonder what kind of additional assistance was available for them. Prayer.  A lot of the time I could find additional resources, and would call back to that employee and make a suggestion. Somebody would always assist. 
Loved the employees who called in, and they knew it. That helps....


The early retirement package was very generous.
Of course because this Corporation, CEO, are committed  to Integrity, the well-being of their employees , communities, veterans..This Corporation pays for a volunteer day, and offers payroll deductions with corporate matches.
A Corporation with a heart, integrity, generosity.
A work place that was home away from home.
Thank you.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
District manager 133 salaries reported	$72,972 per year
Implementation specialist 6 salaries reported	$85,100 per year
Application developer 22 salaries reported	$110,947 per year
Account executive 31 salaries reported	$89,942 per year
Implementation consultant 19 salaries reported	$72,868 per year

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