Tech & Innovation Blog
Life @ ADP EP6: Why did you come to ADP, and Why do you stay?
Life @ ADP, Career Advice, What We Do
In this episode, our hosts invited Sreeni Kutam, Chief Human Resources Officer, and relative newcomer, Chief Economist, Nela Richardson, to share why they joined ADP and why they stay.
Life @ ADP EP6: Why did you come to ADP, and Why do you stay?
Here comes the final Season One episode of Life@ADP.
Many of us feel great pride working for ADP, but sometimes it’s hard to put into words the cultural elements that resonate with us that make our company more than just a place to work.
In this episode, our hosts Kate and Ingrid invited Sreeni Kutam, Chief Human Resources Officer, and relative newcomer, Chief Economist, Nela Richardson, to share why they joined ADP and why they stay.
Nela Richardson, Chief Economist (left) and Sreeni Kutam, Chief Human Resources Officer (right)
“I looked for the opportunity to bring technology and people together, and that’s why I came to ADP. Innovation is the word that sums it up,” Sreeni said. “There are three things one looks for in their career. First is meaningful work. Second is a group of great people they work with. Third is the opportunity for growth. I’m lucky to check all three boxes at ADP,” Sreeni said.
“The reason why I came is, I felt that ADP was uniquely positioned to answer some of the biggest economic questions coming out of the pandemic. As important as why I came is why I hope to stay. I came to a company that valued people and as an added bonus, they are people who, crazy enough, seem to enjoy the data as much as I do,” Nela said.
We recommend this episode to better understand our culture and why ADP is a wonderful place to work. Sreeni and Nela will also share why it’s a great time to join the organization.
According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Workforce Learning Report, employees who move into new jobs internally are 3.5x more likely to be engaged employees than those who stay in their current positions.
Sreeni shared some great examples of our executive committee members who grew from humble beginnings within ADP to lead our company. “There are many great leaders and opportunities to grow at ADP. For example, Debbie Dyson started as a customer service representative, and she is now the President of our National Accounts business unit,” Sreeni said. “Another great example is John Ayala, who went from working in customer service to leading the function as the Chief Operating Officer.”
Sreeni said there will always be learning opportunities for associates, no matter their start date or department, while Nela shared, “I enjoy the global perspective here at ADP. You can always leverage the experience from one role to another here, knowing your teams will support innovative ideas.”
Tune in for the full episode here. Support us by subscribing to both the podcast and the tech blog. You wouldn’t want to miss more interviews on Season Two, coming up this Spring!
Life @ ADP is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music.
What are you waiting for?
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current openings.
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.
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“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.
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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
How AI/ML are Driving Innovation and Opportunities at ADP
Innovation, Voice of Our People, Future of Work
The future of learning will involve more personalization and customization based on learning styles, competencies, and preferences.
How Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are Driving Innovation and Opportunities at ADP
Julio Hartmann joined ADP as a software development manager in 2004. Seventeen years later, he is now the Vice President/General Manager, head of ADP’s global software product development center and innovation lab in Porto Alegre, Brazil. His team works across the global product and technology portfolio, always looking for new opportunities. Julio leads product innovation and research, exploring growing technologies and evolving trends. He and his team aim to create the next generation of human capital management applications that drive learning and training in the workforce.
How it Started: Human Capital Management (HCM) Software
Steve Jobs said, “Things happen fairly slowly. These waves of technology, you can see them way before they happen, and you just have to choose wisely which ones you’re going to surf. It takes years.”
People tend to assume technology evolves linearly—growing at the same rate over time—but it develops exponentially instead. Some examples of exponential technologies include 5G networks, 3D printing, robotics, and blockchain. As the speed of technological innovation increases, it creates frustration in product development. People perceive a gap between expectations and performance, then quickly learn the products are not the problem. We inflate our expectations beyond what technology delivers. Despite uncertainties in the environment, the emerging tech follows an exponential growth and improves until it reaches a pivotal moment of breakthroughs.
For many, the pivot point may be challenging to foresee, and companies are caught unprepared. With market research observation, we know breakthroughs happen for a number of reasons. The moment is often tied to technology becoming cheap enough to reach mass consumption. In other words, a breakthrough occurs when a component becomes more viable with a combination of factors, creating the perfect environment to throw the innovation into disrupter status.
The phenomenon played out clearly in smartphone market. When the iPhone arrived, that changed everything. We live in a time when anything and everything is possible. Modern technologies drive the future and bring endless learning opportunities to the next generations. To prepare ADP for the next move in the industry, my team continues to develop, recognizing the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The Future of Learning: HCM Systems
Julio at the Beach
The future of learning will involve more personalization and customization based on learning styles, competencies, and preferences. In other words, artificial intelligence (AI) and adaptive learning are the future. These powerful technologies will affect both humans and machines in the coming years. Our goal at ADP is to develop a combination of tools that harness the power of AI and facilitate learning, ensuring companies and employees grow at a fast, steady pace.
The job market is shifting due to the broad impact of AI, automation, and robotics. There is a reduced demand for specific jobs, such as factory roles that can be automated. On the other hand, there is an increasing demand for particular jobs that belong in the future. According to the report by the Institute for the Future, 85% of the jobs in 2030 do not exist yet. It’s time for leaders to identify skills gaps based on current trends to prepare organizations and professionals.
In fact, we might be heading towards a disruptive breakthrough in artificial intelligence and data usage in human capital management (HCM). We are not far from a pivotal point, meaning we can expect many advancements with the power of AI and data information in HCM for the upcoming years.
As an industry leader, ADP looks forward to the future. My team supports innovation through our mantra — always designing for people. HCM solutions provide opportunities for companies and workers to grapple with the demands of a futuristic workplace. AI helps companies manage their workforce while anticipating changes and preparing their employees for upcoming challenges. Specifically, my team is working on technology that allows companies and employees to navigate a variety of scenarios. It combines traditional training and cutting-edge tools that connect people with mentors and experts in various communities.
We can’t talk about the future without understanding users’ needs. The good news is human capital management systems and training tools have become more predictive with ground-breaking developments in event-based systems, meaning they carry on as usual until they require inputs. For instance, a system can recognize users changing their addresses and further instigating necessary documents and paperwork. Another example is for the system to alert managers of a potential alarming pattern that shows an employee has not filled out a timecard.
AI’s Applications in Real Life
AI’s applications in real life are everywhere. Companies like Walmart hire a significant number of workers every month, experimenting with augmented reality (AR) and other technologies in new hire trainings. Wouldn’t it be more efficient for new employees to see the procedures before joining the company? The new hires at Walmart could see the supermarket’s organization in a virtual environment through a peer-to-peer reality before their first day at work.
Human resources (HR) managers may also benefit from using AI. From recruitment to employee experience and talent management, AI can automate routine HR tasks, deliver personalized experiences, and gain actionable insights from HR data. For example, AI may serve as a helpful tool to help track the workforce and notify managers that they need to hire more data scientists.
Another scenario is using AI as a user interface (UI) through natural language processing for seamless interactions between humans and technology, for example, using chatbots as the user interface. AI can be a powerful ally to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity among employees if leveraged carefully.
These are all opportunities and concepts that will change the future of jobs.
Challenges in AI Technology
Julio and his family
“With greater power comes with greater responsibilities.” There are risks with using the tools. At ADP, we have an ethical committee that looks at privacy issues and built-in biases. The technologies are developing quickly, which makes predicting outcomes challenging. Nevertheless, we always try our best to watch for violations and learn as we go. The teams at ADP are investing in a well-detailed approach to monitor how the machine learns and develops, ensuring all technologies evolve in the direction we expect.
Looking Forward: ADP’s Future
Technology development plays a huge role in ADP’s transformation into a technology company. There is more capital available than ever before, and the cost of building innovative products has become lower. In other words, we have more funding to experiment which leads to more breakthroughs. We are on the cusp of seeing more efficiencies on a massive scale through AL and ML.
The possibilities of using AR and VR during the company’s onboarding training are exciting! I can imagine applying AR and VR in digital workplaces for associates who work from home. The technologies bring efficiencies, save costs, and improve learning. Workers will have the ability to see the office and understand procedures even before joining the team in person. The implications are astronomical for national and global companies.
As we research more possibilities in tech, humans will benefit from using technologies in the workforce. The foundational trends include faster computing power, increasing data volume, low-cost communications for everyone and everywhere. These opportunities are life-changing, and we’ll see this come to fruition soon. I look forward to how the industry creates unique jobs in the workforce and breakthroughs. In the future, technologies at ADP will continue to help companies and workers adjust to changes, improving their job performances and making tasks easier.
Interested in a tech career at ADP?
Click here to search for your next move and visit Who We Hire.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Steve R., Major Incident Manager, Leads Through Changing Technology
Innovation, Voice of Our People, Career Insights
ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a framework created around standardization, focusing on best practices in planning, delivery, maintenance, and the IT services lifecycle.
Steve R., Major Incident Manager, Leads Through Changing Technology
By Steve R., Lead Major Incident Manager
Coming to ADP
ADP Trip to Paris 2019
As a Lead Major Incident Manager at ADP, I have more than ten years of experience in critical incident management and application-based troubleshooting, following Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Agile ideology. July 2021 marked my nineteenth year of service at ADP, and I took the opportunity to reflect on my career journey.
My first position was with an inbound call team at the beginning of ADP’s fiscal year 2004. Our team label has changed throughout the years, and I was a member of what was known as “E-Tech.” We worked directly with clients who had challenges with payroll deadlines throughout the day. Although we supported only a single product out of the hundreds ADP offers, it was apparent from the start that the company had countless potential growth avenues. I was incredibly grateful for different development programs and resources; one of them was ADP’s substantial employee referral program, which helped me land a role in the lead position. I loved my team and learned from the strongest performers, shadowing good leadership.
Speaking of the culture here, I’m happy to share this is a place where everyone cares about the clients and their experiences. I am proud to be a part of the organization where the leaders encourage us to learn, improve, explore new skills, and challenge ourselves. As technologies evolve, I see growth opportunities both in and outside the organization.
Growing Opportunities: ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)
As our product and customer scope grew, my team became the second-tier escalation group in the larger, global corporate organization. There was no global incident management standard during the mid-2000s, so product teams like mine handled their outage recovery and communications. That’s when I joined a global Incident Management team.
ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a framework created around standardization, focusing on best practices in planning, delivery, maintenance, and the IT services lifecycle. We built the initial foundation and framework using the ITIL methodology, ideal from the Incident Management perspective. The methodology accommodated our needs, including managing events and resolving procedures. We collaborated with stakeholders within each segmented step of an initiative using Agile project management. We were proud to achieve genuine process improvement by considering client feedback and ensuring that any changes would lead to the desired outcomes. Using Agile methodology with an ITIL foundation, the hybrid model is in place today and continues to evolve. While it is effective in today’s ADP climate, we are open and ready to adjust as clients face changes.
Steve and his family
The Beginning: Incident Management Group
Not everyone on my team was a part of the new Incident Management group. While each E-Tech individual was highly skilled as an individual contributor, the desire to shift focus to Incident Management was not widespread. I was proud to manage the situations when outage events occurred with the products. Most of our team thrived in a “hands-on,” very technically minded role, and others became outstanding product experts. Both were vital to support our hosted applications and maintain a positive Client experience. The incident management group allowed me to collaborate with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Each incident event was different, challenging, and fast-paced.
I was with the application team for nine years and I am in my 10th year of incident management. My specialties include written communication, conversational command & control, and documentation. These problem-solving skills have brought me a sense of achievement and fulfillment. I’d also like to credit a leadership team member for recognizing my strengths. He assured me I was going in the right direction and inspired me to become a better leader myself. I’ve thrived in my new role, and I am grateful for his mentorship.
The Future: Continuous Growth
Steve and his son at football game
There will always be challenges when we grow and expand our knowledge in technology. The most important quality to develop is empathy, especially for all global readers. It is the foundation to understand and to communicate – an ability to empathize, show the big picture, and overcome roadblocks as a team. I am grateful for ADP’s leadership teams, celebrating user-first values, our mission, and a passion toward transformation.
A positive working environment inspires associates to work on their career advancement. As ADP continues to evolve in a rapid industry change, I, the CIRT Lead Incident Manager, am on the leadership path. I encourage associates looking to do the same to reach out since the support I received at ADP has been crucial to my career success.
Both personal growth and further learning opportunities are essential. Successful leaders share their methods, providing examples and guidance. I’m grateful for ADP’s mentorship program, which pairs associates with seasoned leaders to exchange perspectives and knowledge. It’s perfect for associates who are looking for professional connections! I constantly remind myself a great leader prepares his people with the right resources and helps them obtain the tools to navigate challenges. As the future unfolds, I look forward to becoming an integral part of ADP’s leadership community, supporting other associates in their learning and career success.
Interested in an Incident Management career?
Click here to search for your next move and visit Who We Hire.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Life @ ADP EP5: Extraordinary Careers: Mentorship, the Power of Connections, and more
Life @ ADP, Career Advice, What We Do
Tawana, VP of Implementation, shares her perspective on career growth, mentorship opportunities, and power of connections.
Life @ ADP EP5: Extraordinary careers: mentorship, the power of connections, and more
What are the mentorship opportunities at ADP? What does it mean to be a leader? What is the power of connection? We have the answers for you in Life @ ADP Episode five.
In this episode, our hosts Ingrid and Kate invited Tawana, VP of Implementation, to share her career journey. You will hear Tawana talk about her sponsorship connection with Debbie Dyson, President of National accounts at ADP. The mentorship experience transforms Tawana’s professional life and inspires her to take on new opportunities in every role she accepts.
“I’ve been in small business, retirement services, and global business transformation. I’m now in major accounts implementation, an amazing place to learn, grow, and shift perspectives,” Tawana says, reflecting on her career development. “I see myself growing at ADP, continuing to be successful, and leading more associates to advance their career paths.”
Tawana is grateful to be a part of the inclusive culture at ADP. She shares her involvement with ADP’s Business Resource Group (BRG), learning new information and forming connections. “I am an active member of six BRGs. For example, we discuss topics going on in the world at the Cultivate BRG,” Tawana said. “The community respects and supports our internal associates. It’s a safe space to ask questions and exchange thoughts.”
We recommend the episode for associates and future candidates to get a deep understanding of ADP’s culture. Tawana shares her personal experience as a single mother to a 15-year-old son when she talks about work-life balance. “I remember getting promoted to a new role and was ready to dive right in. ADP accommodated my schedule changes, knowing we had to relocate in the middle of the school year,” Tawana says. “I appreciate the flexibility and understanding ADP had. They allowed me to take the time and get my son acclimated to the new school first.”
A positive working environment consists of caring people and leaders. Tawana takes the time to speak more about leadership and the power of connection with the hosts. Whether within Tawana’s global team or balancing relationships outside of ADP, she highlights the importance of celebration, emotional intelligence in communication, and showing appreciation to teammates.
“Not only do we connect at work, but also we connect on a personal level. We always allocate time to catch up and learn about each other,” Tawana said. “This has allowed my team to stay connected during COVID. We take care of each other during difficult times.”
Life @ ADP is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music. Stay tuned!
Support us by subscribing to both the podcast and the tech blog.
What are you waiting for?
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current openings.
Why Employees Are Dedefining What Work Will Look Like in 2022
Why employees are redefining what work will look like in 2022
As the wants and needs of workers evolve, employers will need to keep up next year.
Topics: 2022 preview | Career Development | Company culture | Coronavirus | Diversity and Inclusion | Employee Benefits | Engagement | HR Technology | Learning and Development | Recognition | Recruiting | Retention | Talent Management | Top Stories | Top Stories
Over the past nearly two years, there have been tremendous changes in how and where work gets done, along with a rising digital transformation accelerated amid the global pandemic—both of which fueled businesses to streamline workflows, empower and engage teams, and optimize for future growth. This pace of change is now quickly becoming the norm, as innovation builds further momentum. As we continue to see such significant change, what will the world of work look like in 2022?
Author Aaron Smith
The answer to that depends upon the fact that the global workforce itself stands changed as well. In fact, ADP Research Institute found that 64% of the global workforce was negatively impacted by COVID-19, including 28% who lost a job, were furloughed or were temporarily laid off, and 23% who took a pay cut. These labor market shifts have led workers to reprioritize their needs, further redefining how and where work gets done and adding pressure for employers to meet their emerging demands.
As we head into 2022, employees are driving work’s transformation. Leveraging ADP’s data into the workforce, here are four key trends shaping the evolution:
Employee visibility will be redefined
According to ADP Research Institute’s People at Work: A Global Workforce View study, in just one year, three-quarters (75%) of the global workforce made changes or plans to change how or where they live, with that trend even greater (85%) among Generation Z. Additionally, ADP surveyed small and mid-sized U.S. employers and found that 66% already have a hybrid work model in place, helping to account for this shift.
Related: What ADP Research indicates is fueling the Great Resignation
With workers no longer sharing one central location and many businesses currently operating across a mix of hybrid, on-site and remote locations, businesses will need new opportunities to increase employee visibility. To better understand the needs of a dispersed workforce, managers will use people data to gain insight into how teams are performing. This data provides employers with the real-time insights they need to drive employee engagement and performance.
People and purpose will drive workplace culture
As changing work models shift workplace culture, employers will look for new ways to build connections. ADP Research Institute found that U.S. workers who feel they are “strongly connected” to their employer are 75 times more likely to be “fully engaged” than those who do not feel connected. With connection driving engagement, employers will need to refocus squarely on their people and center initiatives around the larger purpose that unites the workforce.
To build a workplace where everyone can thrive, employers will embrace people-centered initiatives. This includes maximizing workforce flexibility through working arrangements, benefits programs and policies, and giving workers the tools they need to be successful. As businesses look to foster connection, the focus on diversity, equity and inclusion will continue to evolve, broadening perspectives and driving true, measurable progress.
Reliable data and expertise will power resiliency
The already-complex regulatory environment will see additional operational and compliance considerations in 2022, as employees continue in their remote and hybrid work arrangements. ADP’s HR Survey Series with HR Outsourcing found that nearly 20% of U.S. companies with 25-99 employees concede they are currently facing challenges with compliance and regulatory issues. That percentage could increase as regulations change.
See also: Want real change? Look to data and analytics
Leaders will need to rely more heavily on real-time data to guide decision-making and stay ahead of compliance mandates. Timely, quality data will enable businesses to act on important decisions with confidence. For example, to better manage return-to-the-workplace policies including vaccination tracking and testing, employers are using people data.
Greater innovation will accelerate growth
As business models evolve amid global shifts, organizations will turn to technology to help drive efficiency and expand capabilities by eliminating task work and refocusing efforts on strategic growth initiatives. This evolution points to the rising trend of adopting technologies that create efficiencies while enhancing the employee experience.
We’ll additionally see a surge in skills-based hiring as roles continue to evolve amid a digital transformation and the pandemic’s impact on the labor market. ADP Research Institute found that more than one in four workers (28%) report having taken on a new or changing role due to pandemic-driven labor market shifts; for Gen Z workers, the number jumps to 36%. Since the pandemic began, many workers were required to learn new skills and take on additional or alternate duties beyond their usual jobs to adjust to new work models, many of which have become permanent operational changes.
Workers understand that these new skills make them even more attractive in a tight job market, and they will continue to pursue new opportunities—internal and external—where they can apply their unique strengths. Businesses wanting to retain valuable employees and accelerate employee performance will need to make sure they are providing opportunities to develop newfound skills or embark on a new career trajectory within the organization with more potential for growth. Additionally, employers will also rely on technologies, such as machine learning, to identify workers with the right skills in unique places, such as former applicants who may have previously applied for alternate roles.
Looking forward
As the dynamics of work continue to shift in the year ahead, employees will play a large role in how businesses adapt. To drive business performance and growth, people are the key to success. Without people who feel connected to the work they’re doing and empowered by their employers to succeed, growth is but a goal. Only when working in tandem can businesses and their people achieve their fullest potential.
Aaron Smith is senior vice president of Product Development at ADP.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Future of Conversational AI: Here’s What You Should Know
Voice of Our People, Innovation, Career Insights
The more we understand what drives our situational awareness, consciousness, and creativity, the more we will evolve conversational AI and sentiment analysis with more robust outcomes.
Future of Conversational AI: Here’s What You Should Know
By Azfar Rizvi, Conversational Designer
“I’ll be back.”
We first heard this iconic line in the 1984 Hollywood blockbuster The Terminator, and it’s become a part of our collective consciousness ever since. It was mainstream media’s first attempt in depicting a fictional artificially intelligent system (Skynet), thus catapulting the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Then the depiction of AI went downhill. At least for a while.
People started to fear AI taking over the world through sentient neural networks. There are entire television series dedicated to playing on our fears about how antagonistic AI can be. And rightly so – drama and destruction sell more headlines. That’s the realist ex-journalist in me, LOL! As AI continues to fascinate humanity, our understanding of its limits and potential is evolving, and within it, there lies hope.
Azfar Framing in Action
This year, we finally transitioned from fearing robot overlords to cheering for sentient non-playable characters (NPC). The most recent Hollywood movie, Free Guy with Ryan Renolds, is a step in this direction. The story starts when an NPC develops self-awareness and strays from its programming. The NPC interacts with elements around itself in the game – it starts to think and feel. While this is interesting to posit, NPCs can’t develop sentience and act beyond their programming without human interventions.
The juxtaposition of the extremes has challenged us to think about the boundaries in AI. Corollary, these strides have been a significant force behind the digital transformation of businesses and entrepreneurship. We managed to bootstrap humanity’s collective learning with these recent advancements in AI and deep learning, manifesting the true meaning of the term global village. We’re truly connected and have transitioned from merely if/then/else chatbots to contextual ‘Conversational AI.’
ADP: Leading Digital Transformation
We provide payroll solutions for over 38 million workers worldwide. That means one in six US workers interfaces directly or indirectly with our universe. From a chatbot/conversational AI perspective, it means even more people will potentially interact with A.V.A., ADP’s virtual assistant. That’s where someone like me comes in and introduces Conversational Design (CxD).
Azfar Rizvi, UX Designer
ADP’s Service Technology leadership makes enormous strides to invest in the right infrastructure and create the right teams, producing trustworthy conversational AI platforms. We’re reimagining AVA to ensure our CxD is inclusive. Our persona aims to be innovative and empathetic, allowing intelligent responses to meet user expectations. Unlike conventional chatbots, ADP’s conversational AI understands the context of conversations and answers scenario-specific questions for users.
ADP provides our clients with the best payroll and HR experience, reflecting our processes and outcomes. Our teams work with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the AVA experience has enough context and intelligence to solve our customers’ problems and help us learn for future iterations of our products. As a CxD and Persona evangelist, I relish the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues and industry leaders, envisioning what AVA could represent to the workforce. For many employees, AVA is their first touchpoint with ADP. I write, design, advocate, and build an empathetic experience for this reason. We want to set the tone right for a great experience from the beginning.
The Future of Conversational AI
In one of his letters, Ernest Hemingway wrote: “A man’s got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.”
That quote summarizes the journey in conversational AI – with chatbots starting ambitiously and, as time passed, aligning more with market expectations. The CxD universe that was first created by telling jokes during the formative years of chatbots has now segued into more transactional experiences. We are iterating rapidly at ADP, and the learning allows us to create better, more empathetic conversational AI experience with higher engagement levels. While I may have transitioned from narrative film production and journalism, not a day goes by when I don’t think about the quintessential role storytelling plays in creating holistic CxD.
The chatbot market is projected to grow from USD 2.6 billion in 2019 to USD 9.4 billion by 2024 – with an overwhelming 80% of businesses expected to have some chatbot automation by the end of 2021. According to insights on MarketWatch, “The chatbot market is driven by factors, such as advancement in technology coupled with rising customer demands for self-service and 24*7 customer assistance at lower operational costs. However, lack of awareness about the outcomes of the use of chatbot technology with various applications to restrict the growth of the chatbot market.”
Azfar Visiting School
Good news: ADP is ready for the challenge! We’re working to humanize AVA, our conversational AI. We will continue to create more empathetic, accessible experiences as we build from the number of experiential and transactional use cases every year. Whether enhancing value around payroll or helping to create workforce management automation through AVA, we are determined to harness AI as a tool to boost productivity and enable even better support to our clients!
A significant part of these #ADPTech enhancements depends on our ability to incorporate sentiment analysis and predictive analytics to intelligently understand our users’ conversations and the intents behind those queries. These enhancements allow us to deliver a more robust solution to standard enterprise functions such as employee onboarding, HR-related questions, and global help desk.
All this gives me hope for the future of AI AVA’s global footprint allows us to continue innovating and designing more holistic experiences. As one of the pioneers in Conversational AI, ADP is constantly evolving at a pace limited only by our understanding of how the human brain works. The more we understand what drives our situational awareness, consciousness, and creativity, the more we will evolve conversational AI and sentiment analysis with more robust outcomes. As a storyteller who fell in love with AI, I remain enamored by the possibilities of our collective AI future.
In the weeks to come, let’s talk more about the opportunities around AI storytelling, leadership, and mentorship at ADP. I’ll be back! 🙂
Interested in a Conversation Design career at ADP?
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Tech & Innovation Blog
Inside DataCloud: How ADP Shapes the Future of Work
Innovation, What We Do, Future of Work
ADP continues to play a crucial role in shaping the future of work, impacting people’s lives.
Inside DataCloud: How ADP Shapes the Future of Work
By Amin Venjara, General Manager, Data Solutions, ADP DataCloud
Over the past two decades, fields like marketing and finance have seen an explosion in data-driven decision-making. Data informs everything from measuring performance to the microtargeted ads we see in our social media feeds. Data and analytics have even reshaped the world of professional sports as a “Moneyball” approach to building and deploying teams are now deeply integrated into most management teams and coaching staff.
In a similar vein, a data-driven approach to HR and talent decisions, known as people analytics, has grown rapidly over the past decade. As one of the largest providers of human capital management offerings, ADP has the data assets to lead in the people analytics space. Last year, we processed 69M W2s and moved over $2.3T—that’s over 10% of US GDP. With over 920K clients, we pay more than 38M workers worldwide, and just in the US alone, we reach nearly 20% of the private US workforce.
This rich data foundation explains why our monthly National Employment Report is considered a key indicator for the state of the US economy. It is also why economists from the Federal Reserve and leading universities are using ADP data to create more real-time measures on the state of the workforce. In a 2019 speech, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell described the Fed’s partnership with ADP: “We began to collaborate with ADP to construct a measure of payroll employment from their data set, which covers about 20 percent of the nation’s private workforce…. We believe that the new measure may help us better understand job market conditions in real-time.”
Our Data Solutions business unit and the DataCloud product team aim to amplify ADP’s data value, creating a more meaningful work experience for all employees. As one example, organizations are always looking to find and keep their best talent. Similarly, workers are looking for opportunities that best leverage their strengths and create opportunities to grow and thrive.
Skills Graph extracts, aligns, and normalizes key information such as skills, job titles and levels, education, and qualifications from non-structured data and infers missing skills and qualifications from context. Skills Graph powers ADP’s Candidate Profile Relevancy tool to help score, assess, and predict candidates who are the best fit for a job opening. While the model is not an algorithm that tells someone which candidate to pick, it helps identify those who are not the right fit, speeding up the application review process. This way, recruiters and hiring managers can focus more time on the human side of recruiting, having deeper, better conversations with candidates.
We have also used our data and analytics capabilities to help organizations address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) questions. From the earliest days of our analytics journey, we have included metrics that help organizations quantify and baseline their DEI. We have previously won the HR industry’s top technology award with our Pay Equity Explorer, which helps organizations understand pay equity gaps based on gender and race. Over the past year, we have continued to grow our DEI toolset, adding a question-based DEI Dashboard that helps organizations create and maintain turn-key answers to question like “How diverse is your workforce?”, “Which areas of my organization are not diverse?” and “How diverse is my organization’s leadership distribution?” from their HCM systems.
And what’s more – our focus on DEI with our clients has driven real outcomes. We’ve seen over 50% of our DEI solution’s active users act and realize a positive impact on their DEI measures. Active clients have seen pay equity gaps decrease by an average of 25% or more than $700K per client, making this a real investment for our clients based on our insights to enable equal pay for equal work.
The power of our data also extends beyond the world of HR. It is a powerful, real-time signal on the state of consumer demand, demographics, and the broader economy. Using our anonymized and aggregated data, we can construct views of migration patterns at the county level. For example, we found that before the pandemic, less than 3% of San Francisco and New York high earners making $100K or more moved out of the cities during the 12 months that ended in January 2020. After the pandemic, that number leaped to 14%. Those high-wage employees moved to the surrounding suburbs with a manageable commute to job centers. Large retailers and state governments use this data to shape their demand forecasting and to optimize their organizational agility in this rapidly changing world.
By putting our clients first and applying one of the richest data sets in the world to some of the most pressing societal and business issues of our day, our teams make a real impact every day at work. The client-obsessed and data-savvy product managers, engineers, UX designers, and data scientists that fuel our teams are constantly pushing the boundaries of technology to solve problems for our clients. At ADP, we are always designing for people, and in DataCloud and the broader Data Solutions team, data is the beating heart of everything we do.
Interested in a tech career at ADP?
Click here to search for your next move and visit Who We Hire.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Life @ ADP EP4: Support from Military Experience to Corporate Life
Life @ ADP, Career Advice, What We Do
An inspiring episode for those who are interested in learning effective communication.
Life @ ADP EP4: Support from Military Experience to Corporate Life
Ever thought about what it’s like to be on active duty and work in the corporate world? What are the company’s support systems? What is the common ground between the military and business? Meet Michelle N., Global Business Consultant and an active Staff Sergeant in the National Guard.
In honor of Veteran’s Day in the United States, our podcast hosts, Kate and Ingrid, invited Michelle to share her story with us on the show. In Life @ ADP episode four, you’ll hear Michelle’s journey transitions from the military to corporate life and how skills from the military help her succeed in business. She sends powerful messages and talks about the required skillsets in her two roles.
Michelle shares how she mentors other veterans and finds a supportive culture at ADP. “The way you interact with your peers and senior leadership is crucial to success. The mindset doesn’t apply only in the military or in the workplace, but also your relationships,” Michelle says. “The greatest skill most veterans possess is the ability to perform under pressure. Keep in mind that you don’t have to be in a leadership role to have leadership qualities.”
It is an inspiring, encouraging episode for those who are interested in learning effective communication. Michelle gives advice for active-duty members and people transitioning from active duty. She also shares with us the common qualities in military service and the corporate world. “My organization skills, time management, and ability to plan are essential in both roles,” Michelle says. “Every military occupation is translatable to the civilian world.”
In the second half of Michelle’s interview, she discusses her involvement with ADP’s military business resource group (BRG). “Before COVID-19 and deploying, we were heavily engaged with veterans’ shelters. Although outside the BRG space, I was on the panel to answer questions for others who were transitioning,” she says. “I’m always looking for opportunities to give back and be a contributing source.”
Michelle, thank you for your service. We are grateful to have you!
Life @ ADP is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music. Stay tuned! Support us by subscribing to both the podcast and the tech blog.
What are you waiting for?
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current openings.
Tech & Innovation Blog
How ADP is Using Data to Make Our Clients—And Ourselves—More Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive
Senior Leaders, Innovation, Future of Work
ADP has a culture where you can raise your hand and suggest something new no matter your role or background.
How ADP is Using Data to Make Our Clients—And Ourselves—More Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive
By Giselle Mota, Principal, Future of Work
With more than 900,000 clients around the globe, we at ADP often notice shifts in the working world relatively early on—and that was certainly the case with the increase in corporate attention toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. To help our clients and internal teams track DEI, we launched the DEI Dashboard in December 2020, which offers insights and actionable recommendations to form more substantial teams.
Giselle speaking on TED Talk.
Getting Started: Data-driven insights
The ADP team tackles the DEI with a natural approach from a metrics point of view; we have always been a data-driven organization. By gathering time and attendance information, we can give clients helpful insights into things like managing overtime costs so they can make operational decisions. Our human resources platforms contain a wealth of demographics, including team members’ races, ethnicities, genders, ages, and disability statuses. What’s more is we help our clients understand the employee experience throughout their entire lifecycle, from interviewing, onboarding, leadership development to compensation and retirement.
Going Deeper: A push for accountability
Our team added filtering options that allow clients to get more granular with their newfound insights. One such resource is our new Candidate Relevancy app, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to help recruiters organize the thousands of résumés they receive. This tool has become critical for helping mitigate unconscious biases. We train the model to eliminate discrimination by focusing only on the skills and competencies needed for the roles. At the same time, we’ve made sure all hiring managers have access to make human decisions on pursuing candidates. The same is true with our AI-driven Chatbots that provide pre-screening functions for recruiters.
Giselle M.
Looking Inward: ADP’s journey
Our team recognized the DEI Dashboard project as transformative for both our clients and for ourselves. Like many organizations, we have long championed diversity, equity, and inclusion. But we knew there was room for a renewed and enhanced approach—and it had to begin with the people creating the DEI Dashboard.
While our Data Science team took the lead on the initial build of the platform, we brought in experts from each of our products to help us understand how we could reimagine through a DEI lens. Our goal was to expand on EEOC requirements and consider anything relevant to our clients and their employees, creating more equity across the recruiting space.
With our goals in mind, the insights we gathered from the DEI Dashboard on ADP have led to several new initiatives and processes, including surveys, mentorship, leadership development programs for underrepresented groups, and the job auditing process for discriminatory languages. Not only did we hire recruiters who specialize in finding diverse talents, but we also focused on disability inclusion, from raising standards for vendor products to rebuilding product features. ADP is committed to achieving a fully accessible user experience across our products.
What’s Next: The inclusive future of work
Giselle M.
We have continued to evolve the DEI Dashboard since it launched, and a long roadmap still lies ahead. One upcoming project is benchmarking—leveraging the unparalleled scale of ADP’s data and insights to help our clients understand how they stack up against other companies in their demographics.
My colleagues and I continue to ask questions, regularly creating new projects for ourselves. For example: Should remote and hybrid workers be paid differently apart from their in-office counterparts? How can we move beyond pay equity to true financial inclusion by giving employees the guidance they need to build wealth? We should have a lot to keep us busy!
With global and social changes happening during the last year and a half, I have seen our team move quickly and respond with solutions. ADP has a culture where you can raise your hand and suggest something new no matter your role or background. My Future of Work teammates and I are living proofs. With this mindset and institutional support in place, I believe we lead the way to a more inclusive future of work.
Interested in a tech career at ADP?
Click here to search for your next move and visit Who We Hire.
