Tech & Innovation Blog
How to Determine if Returning to a Company is the Right Choice?
Voice of Our People, Career Advice, Career Insights
“To me, ADP is a tech-first company where innovations are always welcomed and are prioritized first.”
To Boomerang or not to Boomerang: How to Determine if Returning to a Company is the Right Choice?
David C.
According to a recent article, The Rise Of Boomerang Employees During 2022, published by Forbes, experts noticed a rising number of boomerang workers—meaning people who left their jobs and are returning to the same company.
We recently met David C., Senior Director of Application Development, at our tech New Hire training and discovered his boomerang story and learned more about his career journey. With more than 20 years of experience in a wide range of technologies, including DevOps Solutions, Datacenter Architecture, Product Architecture, Storage Architecture, Cloud Architecture, virtualization technologies, Active/Active, and Standard Disaster Recovery Solutions, David shares key elements to consider before returning to a company.
Coming to ADP
David’s ADP career began in 2000 when he worked as a consultant in product engineering, installing web-based applications into the hosting center. He had different roles throughout his career and landed in Development, leading MyADP/Mobile DevOps teams.
“I went from analyzing products for installing, building, and testing Disaster Recovery Sites to working for client support, infrastructure, deployment delivery, automating process, and moving to AWS,” David said. “It’s always fulfilling to grow with different teams at ADP!”
His team worked to support production clients and development groups for deployments, delivery, performance, and monitoring, where they tracked the daily health of all environments residing in the hosting centers.
Migrating all our data center from Roseland to Bridgewater in 2002 was a memorable milestone in his career. “I was so proud to receive the President’s Award for growing our data centers to support our products,” David said.
Over the next few years, he worked with more teams and helped launch the MyADP product. David was extremely honored and proud to be nominated for ADP President’s Club hosted in Spain, where they celebrated Sales and IT’s achievement in 2014.
David and his wife in Spain
Taking a Turn
David’s career journey took a turn in 2019 when he left ADP to work in DevOps for a bank, supporting more than 150,000 users. The new environment was a growth experience for him.
“I’ve learned about supporting structure, especially crisis management and reliability-related topics in the banking industry,” David said.
A significant difference he noticed between working for a bank and ADP was our environment and emphasis on tech. “I value our focus on tech. To me, ADP is a tech-first company where innovations are always welcomed and are prioritized first,” David said.
It was difficult for him to leave ADP after 19 years, and he’s so glad to be back. “I came back after two years at the bank. The leadership teams at ADP always make me feel included. Friendships and the culture were the biggest reasons I decided to come back,” David said. “The bonds you build at work are irreplaceable.”
David and His Family
Boomerang Self-Assessment Questions
We were curious about David’s decision-making process before he returned and asked him to share some insights.
He gave us these five questions to ask before returning to a previous employer:
1) Why did you leave the company?
2) Has the direction of the company changed since you left?
3) Were you concerned about the company’s previous direction? What were the concerns?
4) What role are you taking when you return? Are you moving to a position you previously couldn’t?
5) Do you see yourself growing in the new position? Does the path lead you to the future you envision?
You might be interested in exploring other good reasons for returning to your former employer. Recommended reading: What to Do When You’re Returning to a Company You Used to Work For by Harvard Business Review.
Returning to ADP
David took a big step by returning, and he’s happy to grow his career within DevOps as they build the infrastructure for automation. When we asked for details on why he returned, he shared with us how amazing it was to see the teams expanding in a great direction. During his two years away, the team continued building a solid support system for clients. Every day was a learning experience through virtual, in-person networking and mentorship.
“As an associate, I enjoy working at an organization where they value each employee, providing guidance and support programs,” David said. “I was especially grateful for ADP’s support in my education. I worked full-time while taking classes online and graduated with an Associate Degree in Business Administration.” The balance between family, work, and personal growth is the foundation for David’s passion as a Senior Director of Application Development at ADP.
Welcome back, David!
Interested in a career in Application Development? Let’s work together!
Learn more about working at ADP here and our current openings.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Is Data Science the Right Career for You?
Voice of Our People, Career Advice, Career Insights
Data Science is perfect for you if you enjoy storytelling and solving complex problems with data.
Is Data Science the Right Career for You?
Mark P.
By Mark P., Lead Data Scientist, Product Development DataCloud
As a Data Scientist at ADP, I use workforce data to tell stories, using curiosity to analyze and display the data. In this blog, I’ll share my observations of experiences and trends in the growing field of data science.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, data science will continue to grow, and the number of jobs is estimated to increase by 28% through 2026. In other words, data scientists are in demand, and our role will continue to impact many industries.
What comes to mind when you hear “data science”? Numbers and graphs? Machine learning and big data?
Let’s dive into a quick definition.
What is Data Science?
My perspective on data science was shaped years ago. People started referring to themselves as data scientists and posting jobs for “data scientists” around the same time that machine learning with big data was spreading to industries and companies beyond tech.
I view data science as the methodical analysis of an extensive dataset to understand a subject of interest. Machine learning is a powerful means of such analysis, but not the only one. I focus on a different area, writing query code and dynamic calculations to produce interactive visualizations. To me, the significance of big data is more of a spectrum than a boundary. Science is a systematic study for understanding, and we can understand things with smaller amounts of data too. But big data like ADP has made the insights and applications deeper and more reliable.
Pragmatically speaking, data science can be whatever an employer considers it and communicates through the specific skills they seek. No definition of data science can replace an employer’s expectations, the candidate’s expression of their experience, and conversations about career fit and advancement. With evolving technologies and models, there are a growing number of opportunities in this career. As a Data Scientist at ADP, it is certainly rewarding to have occupational, organizational, and demographic facts on over 30 million US workers to explore – anonymized of course!
Mark and his niece
Top Trends in Data Science
Currently, two of the most visible trends in data science are cloud-based development and the advanced application of natural language processing (NLP).
Cloud-based platforms and services such as Amazon Web Services and Databricks make it easier to source data, develop analyses and models, collaborate with colleagues, and deploy products. We work closely with these partners and have often spurred innovation in their products as we expand our capabilities.
NLP has many current and potential applications in human capital management, including client support, occupation and skill classification, job posting development, and candidate recruitment. Since jobs are diverse, overlapping, and constantly evolving, building and maintaining comprehensive, systematic knowledge can be challenging. NLP can make our solutions more scalable and data-driven than classifications created by human experts alone.
Day in the Life as a Data Scientist
My research on restaurant employment and wages during the COVID-19 pandemic represents many common day-to-day components of data science work. While it is well-known restaurants were one of the most heavily impacted industries, ADP data shows some cities fared better than others. You can see this in the 18-month employment trends for 3 of the largest 50 US metros.
Visualizations like these are the tip of the iceberg: the most visible part of the work requires much more underneath. In addition to conceiving and developing metrics, models, and graphics to create knowledge, data scientists need to find good data sources and write code to retrieve and process their information. They need to understand the limitations of their sources – things like sample bias, predictive labels, outright errors – and communicate and correct them.
Restaurant employment change, monthly since Jan 2020
And data scientists need to query people as well as data! For example, interviewing local restaurant association executives for their expert perspectives and calling US Bureau of Labor Statistics economists to discuss statistical methods.
How can I gain experience in Data Science?
If you are interested in data science, you can find a ton of resources, including boot camps, online courses, Medium articles, and YouTube videos. If you look up #datascience on TikTok, it has 89 million views! Of course, classes are a great way to acquire vital education, but they can be a significant investment in time and money. You may wish to test your interest with a project that involves either a question you’d like to answer or a problem you’d like to solve. You’ll gain not only motivation but also a proof point to share with potential employers.
As an example, when 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang proposed a universal basic income, I was curious to know who might benefit from $1k a month and how to quantify the benefits objectively. I searched for household spending data, turned up relevant data and code from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and then used free versions of SAS and Tableau to create a public dashboard to answer that question.
Data Science Team at ADP
I’d advise anyone interested in data science to follow their curiosity and search the web for public data and free tools. You’ll face technical challenges along the way, but sites like W3 Schools and Stack Overflow can help you tackle them as they arise. Of course, many people prefer the structure of classes to an open-ended, “many-options-no-right-answer” type of project. The former is fine – but if you can take the leap and try the latter, you’ll gain a good experience of what real-world work is often like!
Final Thoughts
Data Science is a great option if you can:
- Think creatively and enjoy solving complex problems with data
- Problem-solve in a team environment
- Communicate effectively in programming languages
Three self-examination questions for Data Scientists interested in ADP:
- Does working with one of the most comprehensive employment data sets excite you?
- Are you inspired by transforming the understanding of and opportunities for millions of workers?
- Are you a technologist who continually breaks down challenges, champions creative approaches, and collaborates routinely with a diverse team of professionals?
Interested in a career in Data Science? Let’s work together!
Learn more about working at ADP here and our current openings.
Tech & Innovation Blog
My ADP Coming-Out Story
Culture, Voice of Our People, Inclusion
Whether it is Women’s month, Pride month, or every month over, under, or in-between our personal lives and our professional lives, every moment matters. You matter.
My ADP Coming-Out Story
By Taylor L.M., Information Security Project Manager
Woman. Femme. Queer. Daughter. Wife. Mother (of two). Sister (of seven). Friend. High school drop-out and Wellesley College graduate. Political science major. Data Security Professional.
I proudly shared everything listed above except for the queer part when I started working at ADP nearly eight years ago. That’s not to say I didn’t celebrate everyone else’s “out” statuses. I was in ADP’s Pride Business Resource Group (BRG), where I walked in parades. I rejoiced when we won Obergefell v. Hodges and laughed hysterically with friends when Melissa Ethridge handed Ellen a toaster oven. Yet I continued to “hide” that part of myself in the corporate environment. I was in a relationship with a man, so most assumed, and no one asked. When that relationship didn’t work out, I began dating a woman. I just switched her pronouns to him. But that little omission began to feel like a lie, especially as our relationship grew more serious.
Although I knew ADP supported the community and made huge cultural and legal strides, I was still afraid. I was afraid my co-workers would see me differently – afraid my team would wonder why I had been keeping this secret. Mostly I was afraid that my experience didn’t really “count.”
Did I deserve to be a member of this community that I was simultaneously supporting and keeping at arms-length? In hiding who I was, would people think I had been ashamed before I told the truth, even as I had rallied alongside this community and stood up for their and our beliefs? Had I somehow been complicit in the negativity, ignorance, and distrust of those who do not support us?
I no longer wanted to hide when I fell crazy, madly, deeply in love with Jennie. I wanted to stand up and shout to the rooftops. I wanted to bring my whole, authentic self to work. To be clear, I didn’t climb on the roof at Windward Parkway (don’t do this, it’s dangerous, and you will likely end up hospitalized or in jail). Instead, I chose to take incremental steps to test the waters, as they say. I started by telling one person, then another. I gradually changed he/him pronouns to she/her pronouns in conversations. I showed up at our team’s holiday party with Jennie on my arm.
Jennie and I got married last September, and I proudly displayed one of our wedding pictures on my laptop. Every time I screen-share, I share the bliss of two people in love. I never did see a raised eyebrow, a smirk, nor detected a micro-aggression. That’s not to say that those things don’t still happen all over the place. If you or someone you know is facing discrimination at work, research your rights and get help.
Taylor and Jennie
I’m glad to share that my experience of “coming out” at ADP has always been met with kindness and acceptance. We live in a time when labels can be ascribed to all of us – each is a unique, complex human, yet we are all the same. We struggle. We rejoice. We feel pain. We feel joy. We heal from the past, and we look to a brighter future. More than anything, we all love and seek to be loved in return. In this journey, I’ve learned that every experience counts. Every step I took made me feel better than the one before it. I could have stopped anywhere on that progression, and the outcome would have been the same: I belong, and so do you.
Whether you are “out” to one or all, not yet ready, or a faithful ally – you too belong. Everyone who celebrates love has a role in our community and this movement. Whether it is Women’s month, Pride month, or every month over, under, or in-between our personal lives and our professional lives, every moment matters. You matter. (And our community is always giving out free toaster ovens.)
Tune in to Life@ADP Podcast S2 EP3: PRIDE in Giving Back.
Let’s work together!
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current openings.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Career Journey from a Filmmaker to a Conversational Designer (CxD)
Voice of Our People, Innovation, Career Insights
For anyone who wants to work as a conversation designer, the first step would be to understand how human-computer interactions (HCI) work.
Career Journey from a Filmmaker to a Conversational Designer (CxD)
By Azfar Rizvi, the Conversational Designer
If you look at my current role at ADP, you might be surprised with my professional background. For a decade, I was a journalist and a screenwriter traveling and producing films for global news and media networks. In collaboration with World Wildlife Fund and the British Council, my last films toured across Europe and the UK, garnering a mention from editors at Rolling Stone Magazine.
Who would’ve thought I’d be a good fit at ADP?
It wasn’t until 2015, when I was asked to consult as a screenwriter for an Amazon Prime Video project, I realized how transferable my skills were from screenwriting. Being part of a writers’ room at a significant streaming network pushed me to explore my fictional dialogue and screenwriting chops! And I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.
What Is a Writers’ Room?
A writers’ room is a workspace where TV writers brainstorm
each element of a TV series including episode breakdowns,
the series arc, the season arc, character development, and
various substories within each episode or each season. A writers’
room is where the direction of the season is determined and refined,
& where all the creative minds—the showrunner, producers, and writers
—brainstorm the ways in which they can help create an excellent show.
– MasterClass
As I emerged from my journey through Hollywood, I consulted on a year-long Conversational AI project for Google Assistant. This was a daunting undertaking. My Conversational Design work surfaced in front of over two billion users worldwide overnight. The new GA experience combined text and voice interaction ranging from songs and jokes to easter eggs and riddles. We pioneered an interface to bridge the gap between human conversational intelligence and artificial intelligence. Millions of these users were migrants from diverse backgrounds – so embedding grace in the experience to produce content that resonated with everyone took a significant amount of self-reflection and research. When we launched, we hit it out of the park. That was the day I truly understood what it meant for content to converge in the sweet spot between AI tech and storytelling.
I fell in love with this new universe and this journey eventually culminated at ADP!
Q: Why did you come to ADP and why do you stay?
This is a great question, and the answer constantly evolves for me. Arriving at ADP during the pandemic, I saw the team’s efficacy in the work of Conversational AI. Thousands of users and clients were trying to access accurate financial information using our existing platforms, and I saw an opportunity to be a part of these exciting acts of service – to be able to make lives easier by serving the best possible solutions in the most empathetic manner.
I continue to stay and grow at ADP because I love the learning opportunities provided by our UX leadership. The people-centric open-door policy here is unlike anywhere I’ve worked. I collaborate with an amazing team where people and culture triumph in service to overcome personal challenges every day. What more can one ask for!
Q: Let’s talk about using your creative and technical skills at ADP!
My role at ADP is a combination of conversation design and process ideation. From a CxD perspective, I collaborate with Product Owners and Managers. At this stage, we dive into what use cases we need on our roadmap and the tradeoffs. Internally, with the User Experience team, it becomes more hands-on as I design the conversational experiences and mockup the technical and functional base of what a multimodal experience could look like.
For the conversation design process, I leverage skills acquired across my previous work: UX writing, VUI design, interaction design, and audio/visual design. I like to think of my role as that of a bricklayer – understand the user needs, embrace the tech constraints, figure out the underlying logic (APIs, etc.), and design a detailed specification document that represents the complete user experience. The last step is to curate this experience and work with the developers to produce it. This journey forces me to leverage a combination of both industry chatbot standards, and the direction our ADP UX leadership wants our virtual assistant, A.V.A, to take.
Q: What is a piece of advice for candidates looking for jobs in Conversation Design (CxD)?
For the past decade, Conversational AI has been incorporated into a diverse collection of form factors empowering users to interact more organically with automated systems. This is when A.V.A, ADP’s virtual assistant comes in place. A.V.A combines digital concierges and AI-powered chat solutions, extending our users’ significant level of intelligent service automation and personalization.
Conversation Design (CxD) at its core is the craft of delivering a comprehensive experience users might engage in to arrive at a pre-determined automated outcome. It is the discipline of producing a series of detailed design flows/outcomes leveraging the businesses’ purpose and underlying logic to curate a holistic user experience.
CxD is a new field so there are quite a few pathways into the industry. For anyone who wants to work as a conversation designer, the first step would be to understand how human-computer interactions (HCI) work.
A good place to start would be to get comfortable with ambiguity. Begin with diving into UI (User Interface) and UX design. Understand the basics of a storytelling arc. Read, write, and analyze dialogues and screenplays. Utilize existing CxD platforms where you can design interactions, preview prototypes, and implement the final experience. Both Google and Amazon have detailed design tutorials for their Assistants. Use these resources to create experiences for your portfolio and start sharing these with peers on LinkedIn.
Q: What is some overlapping, essential skills required in both filmmaking and designing?
Before ADP, I produced conversational experiences for virtual assistants at Google and Verizon. A significant part of my skills is a continuation of my learnings from screenwriting and storytelling — understanding the user journey, how can we use context to create an empathetic user experience, and how can we continue to iterate on the results. Take a feature-length documentary as an example: you start with a core narrative, shoot the right visual, and edit to create a final product. The same logic applies to conversational AI chatbot. Before coming to ADP, I spent a lot of time poking holes in my own work – showing it to friends and family and asking them what works and does not work for them.
Q: What are leaders like at ADP? What is your team’s dynamic?
The UX leadership at ADP is unlike none other I’ve worked with in the past. These are some of the most empathetic and seasoned professionals in the industry who continue to push the envelope. The conversational AI technological roadmap is constantly being iterated upon and is just one of the hallmarks of ADP’s current work. We have a Design Guild where we show up to support each other’s work, experiment with emerging CxD and UX use cases, and future-proof ADP’s brand. Our leadership is committed to uplifting all of us through weekly 1-on-1 sessions and biweekly feedback walkthroughs.
Q: What inspires you outside of work?
My curiosity and passion for storytelling inspire my day-to-day outside of work. Before we were plunged into the Covid world order, I was working with emerging entrepreneurs to empower them to share their stories outside of their communities. ‘Life of I’ is my passion project that has fueled live storytelling events across cities in Canada, the US, Afghanistan, Australia, and Pakistan. I personally work with a select few storytellers who narrate a personal story of their choice in front of a live audience. We’re currently pioneering a new remote storytelling format in collaboration with a local NYC-based co-working space!
In addition, I am still involved with my original screenwriting team. We’re putting together a spec script for Netflix about a girl who travels across different magical worlds through a portal in her bedroom’s closet. The team’s super excited about this story of resilience and empowerment, and we start shooting in September. Fingers crossed!
Q: What do you look forward to the most in the future?
Deep down, I identify as a storyteller. I started my career as a radio producer around 20 years ago. Back in the day, it took me over two hours to line up the right theme music and queue up the correct songs for a 45-minute radio show. Today, the same can be accomplished in less than 5 minutes. The days of DATs are gone!
Behind all this evolution is the power of AI and automation.
AI’s technological development has constantly been transforming the way businesses nay the world operates. Developments in VR/AR space, the Metaverse, and the haptics have proven humanity’s desire to continue to push the proverbial boundaries. Over a decade ago, the first smartphone was launched, and it rendered keypads on mobile phones redundant. With this change in the traditional user interface, it was evident that technology will continue to evolve, reducing the size of our devices. Every ten years, human-computer interaction completely changes – Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Bixby, and other AI-powered virtual assistants are a testament to this change. And A.V.A. our virtual assistant is a step in that direction.
Interested in a Conversational Design career at ADP?
We are hiring! Click here to see what we have available.
Tech & Innovation Blog
The Five Key Elements of a Product Champion
Career Insights, Voice of Our People, Career Advice
If you are passionate about making sure people have a smile on their face when they open their payslips, you might have what it takes to become a product champion at ADP.
The Five Key Elements of a Product Champion
We spoke to one of our Product Leaders who had years of experience implementing ADP’s product development approach, recently leading the GlobalView Core Payroll product for the APAC market. He shared five elements of our product development framework that helps turn product managers into product champions.
***
“When I first joined ADP, I had worked in supply chain and fintech for 15 years, but the payroll domain was new to me. As a product manager, I knew that my role was to envision how to build products and what features we needed, but I wasn’t sure how to best understand my end users to do my job better,” the leader said. “Fortunately for me, ADP has a framework that guides the learning and skill-building needed to take a person from a product manager to what I like to call a ‘product champion’—someone who takes ownership of their work, leading products team to make people happier.”
Although our product leader believes each piece of the framework is essential, he highlights two foundational components: passion and empathy. “No one does everything perfectly, but if you have passion and empathy, the following five elements will help you become a product champion,” he said.
1) Speak up for the customer
When developing new products, a product champion needs to put the customers first and advocate for them, especially when there are different ideas on moving forward. It’s common for a product manager to make many decisions on different architecture types and marketing strategies. Since users cannot give feedback at every stage, it helps if the product manager thinks from the customers’ perspectives.
A true product champion understands the users and their pain points. What makes their lives easier? What solutions are available? The goal is to save time and money, helping the customers better serve their employees. The shift in perspective helps solve the customers’ absence in the product-building processes. We are confident that we are solving the right problems when we advocate for the customers along the way.
2) Know the market
In addition to becoming a customer’s advocate, a product champion needs to be a market expert with a solid understanding of the trends and competitors within the space. We design irreplaceable unique strategies our competitors can’t easily copy in the development stages, creating long-term life cycles for our products and businesses. Remember that our products should make us stand apart, and understanding the market helps create this differentiation.
Product managers benefit from the massive amount of data we have here at ADP, enabling real-time understanding of what people want and need. In addition, we hire highly strategic research analysts dedicated to market research. A product champion connects and learns from these experts to benefit from their expertise, pairing qualitative data with quantitative analysis. This extra step helps a product champion paint a complete picture of what’s happening.
3) Zero in on the goal
We measure success by outcomes, whether a single feature or a whole new product. One of the most critical tasks in product management is to track the team’s steps and measure if they will lead to the desired objectives and outcomes. Progress is incremental, but we can increase business awareness and gain more sales and new users while increasing customer satisfaction with it.
How do you track whether 38 million people and 920,000 clients are happy or not? At ADP, we know when our users find and use new features. Even if a new function is three screens deep, we know immediately when clients navigate through them or have problems with the latest features through our deep user research. Product champions look for and understand these choke points, and they use artificial intelligence (AI) and other tools efficiently, monitoring the outcomes of the enhancements.
4) Build teams and consensus along with a product
Every product manager is a builder. Behind the scenes, we evaluate how fast and efficiently our teams are moving. A product champion sits at the center to coordinate engineering teams, ensuring we progress towards the final products and keeps everyone on the same page.
Coordination often becomes challenging when every team member has their vision of an ideal project. The solution to this challenge is what differentiates a product manager from a product champion. A product champion builds consensus allowing the team to work together while delivering what the customer needs.
5) Empathize and influence
Part of the building process is selling the product’s vision and communicating the customer’s pain points to the teams involved. A product manager who has empathy will speak up for customers and build consensus. If you know what makes the customers’ business operations difficult, you can identify their needs and improve their lives by providing better solutions. This approach also applies to internal teams. It’s also crucial to suggest alternatives when an expectation is not feasible.
***
At ADP, product managers have the opportunity to learn from people with deep expertise who allow us to elevate our work to the champion level. “We can’t quickly draw a line between what’s in our responsibility and what isn’t,” the product leader said. “A product champion claims both success and failure, always looking for improvements.”
Becoming a product manager is a huge commitment, so passion is a deciding factor in hiring. People who are passionate and dedicated will go the extra mile to become product champions. “If you are passionate about making sure people have a smile on their face when they open their payslips, you might have what it takes to become a product champion at ADP,” the product leader said.
Interested in Product Management positions at ADP? We’re hiring!
Click here to search for your next move and visit Who We Hire.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Great Place to Work® Named ADP Brazil Labs one of the Best Companies to Work 2021
Award, Brazil Labs, Why ADP
At ADP Brazil Labs, the top two areas ranked most highly were pride in exercising the profession and teamwork.
Great Place to Work® Named ADP Brazil Labs one of the Best Companies to Work 2021
Great Place to Work® (GPTW), a global authority on workplace culture, named ADP Brazil Labs one of the best companies in the Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. GPTW has a mission to build a better world by helping organizations become a great place to work for all. ADP Brazil Labs was ranked 20th in the medium-sized category and was recognized as one of the most successful companies implementing people management.
ADP Brazil Labs
How does GPTW rank companies?
GPTW uses a comprehensive method to measure employees’ work experiences and analyze the organization’s practices and culture, setting standards in the industry. The research includes a variety of criteria and ranks the best work environments. The survey covers associates’ evaluations on growth opportunities, quality of life, credibility, a sense of respect, impartiality, and aligning with values in the company. At ADP Brazil Labs, the top two areas ranked most highly were pride in exercising the profession and teamwork.
ADP Brazil Labs Associates Bringing Awareness to Breast Cancer
Over the past few years, ADP Brazil Labs has further strengthened its people management strategies and practices, including team development, improvements, and consolidation to encourage professional growth. The lab values people’s voices, promotes associate engagement and offers management tools. These practices sustain an organizational culture marked by associates’ self-development, leading to great recognition.
The award reinforces ADP Brazil Labs is heading in the right direction. “Being certified by the GPTW RS seal is only possible thanks to our associates,” said Julio Hartmann, the Vice president of ADP Brazil Labs. “They give their best day after day, fulfilling our purpose in building the future of work through technology and innovation.”
Interested in a tech career at ADP Brazil Labs?
Click here to search for your next move and visit Who We Hire.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Discovering Tech Bootcamps
Career Advice, Bootcamps, UX
Accessible Video Controls
Video: Considering a career in Tech? Try a Bootcamp
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[TEXT: Samantha, Senior Platform Engineer]
I went to boot camp at Hack Reactor in 2016. And there I learned how to code, so everything from just JavaScript basics just to really get our feet wet, to learning how to work on Node, which is what we use here, and front end frameworks, databases, all the really core pieces of what you do day to day.
[TEXT: Stephanie, UX Designer]
I attended one at General Assembly. It’s called User Experience Immersive. And for me, I didn’t have the ability to quit my job to do this full time. So I definitely took on the part time study. And upon completing the course and getting my certification, I started looking for opportunities within ADP.
[TEXT: Jack, Software Engineer]
When I graduated from that programming boot camp, I was just looking for a solid job. And I just really appreciated all that ADP had to offer. It was a really fun product, for one thing. As I got to meet what would be my fellow software engineers, I found that I really had a really solid rapport with them and got along with them well. So between the culture, between the people, and the product itself, it really just seemed like the right fit for me.
[TEXT: Aimee, UX Designer]
After I’d completed my boot camp program, I was looking for a way to network that worked for me. So I don’t really enjoy going to events and just sort of talking to random people. I thought the best way to be would be to be involved in organization and that people would get to know me and how I work by actually working with me.
And the way that I found out was Margot, the Director at ADP for User Experience Design. She was actually on the board, and I was as well, of an organization called User Experience Professional Association. And she happened to post about an opening under her department. And I reached out to her. And I told her, you should consider me if you haven’t hired anyone yet. And she just kind of put me through the regular recruiting process by starting with the HR person contact.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[TEXT: Ready to design what’s next? Visit tech.adp.com/careers.]
[LOGO: ADP, Always Designing for People]
[TEXT: ADP, the ADP logo, and Always Designing for People are trademarks of ADP, LLC. Copyright © 2020 ADP, LLC. All rights reserved.]
As a technologist at ADP, there are many different ways you can find yourself working in one of our innovation centers. One of those ways is by being recruited through a technology Bootcamp. Our Associates share how they found their first job in their technology careers at ADP through Bootcamps. Added bonus- the networking they were able to do through the program!
Tech & Innovation Blog
Advancing Your Career
Lifion, Career Journey, Leadership
Accessible Video Controls
Video: One Product Manager’s Take on Advancing Your Career
Video: One Product Manager’s Take on Advancing Your Career
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[TEXT, Chintan, Director, Product Management]
The opportunity that exists here, to anyone else you know starting out, I really kind of just showcase my journey here, which is that you have the ability to come into the organization as a developer, in my case, you have the ability to then contribute. If you decide to make a career change, you have opportunities within ADP to make those career changes. And I went from working in the development area to product management where I really loved it. And if you continue to enjoy what you do, be successful at what you do, then you continue to get more opportunities to continue to follow the path that you want to go down.
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[TEXT: Ready to design what’s next? Visit tech.adp.com/careers.]
[LOGO: ADP, Always Designing for People]
[TEXT: ADP, the ADP logo, and Always Designing for People are trademarks of ADP, LLC. Copyright © 2020 ADP, LLC. All rights reserved.]
Meet Chintan, one of our product managers in our New York City Innovation Center. He started at ADP as a Developer and since that time has grown into new roles, like his latest one as Product Manager. ADP has the ability to offer new experiences and untapped opportunities for those who want it.
ADP Women in STEM Profile: Manjula Ganta
Manjula’s mantra: “Don’t focus on fitting in; figure out how to stand out.” After reading about her hard work, success and leadership, you’ll see Manjula walks the talk — and encourages others to do the same.
Growing up, Manjula Ganta wanted to be a doctor. She loved science and biology and was fascinated by how the body works as a machine. But med school was financially out of reach, so she chose a career in mathematics. Manjula’s mother encouraged her and her sisters to learn computers.
“My mother was a visionary and could see technology evolving even before the internet existed,” Manjula said. “From her experiences and struggles as a homemaker, forgoing a job opportunity due to culture constraints, my mom inspired her four girls to be independent and encouraged us to pursue our careers. She is the greatest influence on who I am today.”
From India to Omaha
Manjula grew up in a small town in southern India near Hyderabad. In school, she was very outgoing, smart, and well-rounded – a trait she carried into adulthood and her career. Manjula pursued a bachelor’s degree, majoring in mathematics. She simultaneously enrolled into a Diploma in Systems Management program that introduced her to computers. Manjula later earned her MBA with a major in finance, and graduated as class valedictorian.
She moved to Hyderabad to work for a financial services company as a management trainee. Manjula was quick to learn the intricacies of the business and even as an intern courageously presented her ideas. Soon she had an opportunity to design the development of an integrated app to better manage the company’s branch reports. “Curiosity and rapid technology changes led me to learn relational databases and the integrated enterprise application software,” Manjula recalls.
A few years later, Manjula married her high school sweetheart, who had moved to Omaha, NE. She moved from Hyderabad to Omaha, and they started a family. “It was a big adjustment for me, both culturally and professionally,” Manjula said, “and it took a while to figure out how to balance my career and family.”
Manjula began working in Boston as a Peoplesoft consultant for the state of Massachusetts, going home only every couple of weeks. “It was a very challenging time in my life, being a young mother with a traveling job – staying away from home and my toddler son,” she recalls.
Manjula then worked as a Peoplesoft technical consultant for a project with General Electric (GE) in New York in variety of roles. She successfully implemented various Peoplesoft modules, leading offshore teams. After a few years, Manjula’s husband took a new job and they moved to Atlanta, where she continued to work with GE remotely.
Have grit and break your own expectations – expectations can be a weight on your shoulders.
– Manjula Ganta, Director of Application & Development, GPT
After her nine-year project at GE, Manjula joined ADP National Accounts Services (NAS) Outsourcing (COS) division as a senior business systems analyst. “It was a big shift going from development to a business systems analyst role,” Manjula recalls. “I would still get into the code and give the developers inputs about the issues.” She laughingly added, “I think they got frustrated sometimes, but it also helped improve our communication.”
Manjula’s role soon expanded to managing the same development team across analytics, robotics process automation (RPA) and other web/cloud tools and technologies, and she was tasked with managing diverse virtual teams as a single global team. “I was responsible for helping the team see and execute the vision, removing any roadblocks and partnering with other leaders to make it successful,” she recalls. Manjula’s ability to combine business acumen and technical competency, along with her pragmatic approach, enabled her to be decisive and impactful across the COS business.
Manjula then became the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the NAS Tools & Technology Operations, where she worked on several technology and transformation initiatives to develop, support, and enhance ADP’s internal and client-facing tools.
Manjula says she’s taken this approach throughout her career: “As a thoughtful leader, I strive to create a positive and collaborative work culture with emphasis on employee recognition – helping teams to look beyond their differences. Celebrating associate birthdays, work anniversaries and key project milestones helps everyone feel valued and included.”
Currently, Manjula is a Director of Application Development, Global Product & Technology (GPT), where she takes an even broader responsibility for building ADP’s core products from a technology architecture, design, quality and user experience standpoint, to make them more effective for ADP’s clients.
Developing Self and Others
“ADP has a unique culture in which they put their associates first,” she says. “Prior to ADP, most of my development was self-initiated, but here we have many career development opportunities, mentorship programs, stretch assignments, networking events through employee resource groups, technical workshops, etc. You just need to be motivated and find the time to develop yourself.”
Manjula had the opportunity to enroll in an external Pathbuilders mentorship program. “The program helped me to become more self-aware, building my own personal brand inside and outside of ADP,” she says. Manjula is thankful to the leaders, mentors and sponsors who invested their time by providing her exposure at the business unit level.
Carrying it forward, Manjula helps mentor others at ADP and through various non-profit organizations. She is an active volunteer for Women in Technology based in Atlanta, which helps girls and women succeed from the classroom to the boardroom. Manjula recently joined the ADP GPT Women in Technology Leadership Mentoring Initiative (WiTL) that helps develop a diverse leadership talent pipeline through a formal mentoring program. She also volunteers for the American Heart Association, Special Olympics of Georgia, and leads several ADP business resource group events in the Alpharetta location, creating awareness and raising donations for causes she cares about.
Best Advice
Manjula offers this advice for women starting their careers in STEM: “Have grit and break your own expectations – expectations can be a weight on your shoulders. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes; it’s important to learn. Life is not just about success; it’s also about failure, difficulty, and learning to recover. Focus on the present, stay positive, and keep going.”
Manjula also recommends finding a mentor. “Mentors have helped me realize my worth and have inspired me to speak up, be myself, and encouraged me to take on the next challenge. One of my leaders would say, ‘I wish you had had your voice earlier.'”
“Always find your support system, family, friends or coworkers and don’t be afraid to seek help or delegate,” Manjula said. “You don’t have to be a perfectionist or do it all.”
She is very grateful for her husband, Ranjith, and two sons, Abhitej and Ritvik, who have always supported her career, helped at home, and offered new and different points of view.
“Have fun, no matter how hard things can get. Humor and fun can always make the journey (personal or professional) easier.”
Through all the learning and big changes as an Asian Indian immigrant and a woman in STEM, Manjula’s best advice is: “Don’t focus on fitting in; figure out how to stand out.”
Read about other ADP Women in STEM and learn about careers at ADP.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Meet Anshuman: ADP’s Inventor of the Year
Inventor of the Year, Voice of our People, Career Path
Through ADP’s patent program, Anshuman’s name appears as an inventor on ten patent applications filed within the last five years, seven of which have registered.
Anshuman Gaur was named ADP’s Inventor of the Year. Through ADP’s patent program, his name appears as an inventor on ten patent applications filed within the last five years, seven of which have registered.
Since joining ADP 11 years ago in Hyderabad, India as a Test Analyst, he’s been an amazing contributor to our organization. We recently caught up with Anshuman to ask him about the patent process, his advice for other inventors, his cricket experience, and more!
What different roles you’ve had during your time at ADP?
I started as a Test Analyst in the Next Gen PayExpert team. From there, I moved to a business analyst role, and then a Sr. Business Analyst role within the same group. By this time, PayExpert had transformed into a single database Workforce Now (WFN) solution with HR, Payroll, Time & Benefits all running on the same platform.
In 2014, I moved to Alpharetta, Georgia, as a Product Manager for WFN shared products such as reporting, analytics, PaaS, etc. In this role, I had the opportunity to work on the launch of DataCloud, an HCM analytics product targeted at mid-market clients. After a short stint with the DataCloud product team, where I had the opportunity to pilot ADP’s compensation benchmarking and predictive analytics features, I went back to the WFN team as a Director of Product Management in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Video call with the team
In early 2018, life came full circle when I received the opportunity to lead the WFN Next-Generation product. We work on the future of work and pay every day, including some cool features like on-demand pay, punch to pay real-time calculations, etc. We have an awesome opportunity to challenge the status quo and lead in the market with a competitive next-gen offering.
In a nutshell, I’ve had so many roles and so much fun! 🙂
What did you think when you first learned you were ADP’s Inventor of the Year?
It was quite surprising, to be honest! Many great products and features are being built across the organization, so it’s an honor to be recognized with this award. Also, being on the same list as Frank Villavicencio, VP, Product Management, is an absolute privilege.
What’s your process for coming up with ideas that would be great for a patent?
That’s a great question, and something we focus on quite a bit in our day-to-day work. It’s a combination of client need awareness, market and competitive awareness, and problem-solving skills. I am lucky to have a great team of developers, UX designers, and product owners who bring these skills to the table. We look at how we can solve problems that give the customer a delightful solution and, at the same time, gives us a competitive advantage.
We recently filed a patent for a solution that not only eliminates some key challenges and pain points but also exceeds the competition. It’s worth securing those features with a patent.
What is the patent process at ADP?
It’s quite straight forward. Once you have identified a feature or an idea for a patent, you can submit an invention brief on our internal associate portal under the ADP Patent Program. In this document, you provide a brief summary of the invention, the problems it solves that couldn’t be solved before, and how the solution is unique.
Once this is submitted, IP lawyers make the magic happen coming up with claims, preparing the filing documentation, etc. You need to participate in reviewing these documents during the process. Once the application is submitted, you can easily track progress on the portal.
What advice do you have for other inventors?
We solve many large-scale problems here at ADP. Our inventions are unique to our size and our business, and so I encourage everyone to take a moment to ask a couple of questions as they discover new ways to solve problems:
“Am I creating an intellectual property?” If the answer is yes, “Does the solution solve a problem in a unique way that can be secured by a patent?”
These questions are a simple way to guide inventors through the decision-making process of securing IPs. There is no doubt that inventions are happening here. We need to take the additional and essential step in securing it.
What do you like best about working at ADP?
There are many things, from passionate people to amazing culture to great opportunities. But if I were to pick one, I would say it’s the large-scale problems that I love to solve working with various cross-functional teams.
What advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?
Don’t ever stop playing cricket no matter how hard and busy life gets! For the cricket fans out there, I used to bowl right arm, medium-fast.
What is your must-have app? Yelp & YouTube
Anshuman Gaur is a Senior Director, Product Management at ADP based in New Jersey.
