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Tech & Innovation Blog
2022 IN REVIEW – Top Ten Blogs from Innovation to Leadership
Why ADP, Tech Trends, Career Insights
From Tech Trends, Women in STEM, and Career Advice, to Award Stories, we will continue sharing stories with the community.
2022 IN REVIEW – Top Ten Blogs from Innovation to Leadership
Cybersecurity, hybrid work, and diversity – business is changing.
We started the year with a video on workforce trends, sharing that 75% of the global workforce changed how or where they live. Workers who trust their team and leaders are seven times more likely to be strongly connected. 
With a new year ahead, we continue building a transformed workplace, designing for everyone. Here’s a video on ADP leaders sharing insights about our DE&I strategies and how to lead with inclusive language.
Top Ten Blogs of the Year
1) Looking for an Internship or First Job? Here’s the secret to getting hired
What do I do if an internship requires a specific degree? What if the job required two years of relevant experience and I only have 1.5 years?
Liz Gelb-O’Connor, Global Head of Employer Brand & Marketing, shares hiring stories and qualities recruiters look for in top candidates!
2) How Al/ML are Driving Innovation and Opportunities at ADP
The blog is tailored for technologists interested in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
“The future of learning will involve more personalization and customization based on learning styles, competencies, and preferences.”
Hear about the future of Human Capital Management Software and AI applications in the real world from Julio Hartmann, Vice President and General Manager of ADP Brazil Labs.
3) Career Journey from a Filmmaker to a Conversational Designer (CxD)
What does storytelling mean? Meet Azfar R. as he shares his inspiration and career journey from a filmmaker to a conversational designer.
“For anyone who wants to work as a conversation designer, the first step would be to understand how human-computer interactions (HCI) work.”
4) Team APIs: What They Are and Why They Matter to Teamwork
We live in a world where people always look for the next best thing.
Regarding leadership, we know that if you’re engaged with your team, they will be engaged too, which translates into a lack of passion and excitement in the products they create!
Charles explores various team management methodologies in this blog, including four different team types and three interacting models.
5) The Five Key Elements of a Product Champion
Is coding a requirement for working in tech? I come from a non-tech background. Is there a role for me at ADP Tech?
“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.”
Read the five key elements in product management and search for your next move!
6) Devi R., Senior Director of DevOps, Builds Products with Empathy
“STEM, to me, is beyond degree and credentials. It’s about applying and leveraging engineering knowledge and empathy toward every product.”
How does Day in Life look for the Senior Director, DevOps? What is a piece of advice for young technologists?
Meet Devi R., a technologist who enjoys exploring the world and inspiring others. She joined ADP in 2020, building the ADP’s flagship MyADP with her team in Global Products & Technology.
7) Life @ ADP S2EP4: Let’s Talk #ADPTech
Have you subscribed to Life@ADP? Click the play button and grab a drink.
The episode is great for associates and applicants interested in the scale ADP operates at, including the leadership teams’ strategies and their focus on data security.
Lohit Sarma, a Senior Vice President of Product Development, spoke about various areas in #ADPTech, from User Experience (UX), Security Engineering, to Site Reliability Engineering.
Life @ ADP is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music.
8) 2022 Workforce Trends – Future of Work
We identified the top trends reshaping the future of work:
- Data & Expertise Power Resilience
- Innovation Accelerates Growth
- Employee Visibility Refined
- People & Purpose Drive Culture
Rewatch the workforce trends in 2022 here. For more insights, subscribe to the tech blog and receive monthly newsletters.
We were proud to celebrate Pride Month in June by featuring Taylor, the Information Security Project Manager, and her story of how she has always been met with kindness here at ADP.
“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.”
10) APIs vs. Web Service: What’s the Difference?
We live in a digital age where almost everything is done through an API or Web Service. Have you ever wondered about the differences? What’s the future of using API standards?
We spoke to Leslie E., Senior Director of Application Development, and she shared her take on integrations for our Human Capital Management (HCM) products.
We’d like to thank our associates across the globe for contributing! From Tech Trends, Women in STEM, and Career Advice, to Award Stories, we will continue sharing stories with the community.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our tech blog and receive monthly newsletters!
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current openings.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Moving Forward, Welcoming & Connecting: A Leader’s Journey
Women in STEM, Voice of Our People, Innovation
‘¡Bienvenidos! ¡Pase, Adelante!’ – Welcome, come on in! Feeling connected and belonging allows us to feel comfortable and bring our authentic selves.
“We must use our lives to make the world a better place to live, not just to acquire things.
That is what we are put on the earth for.” – Dolores Huerta
ADP is proud to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month (NHHM) by recognizing the cultures and the histories Hispanic Americans contributed through generations in this country.
This year’s theme is Unidos: Inclusivity for a Stronger Nation, which means making positive impacts together. We connected with Isabel Espina, Vice President of Product Development, WorkMarket. She’s a dog-lover, a traveler, and a leader who always focuses on paying it forward.
Here’s her lens on giving back to the community.
Moving Forward, Welcoming & Connecting: A Leader’s Journey
By Isabel Espina, VP of Product Development
Isabel and her family in Abu Dhabi
Adelante, in Spanish, means to move forward. It is also commonly used to welcome someone into your place. ‘¡Bienvenidos! ¡Pase, Adelante!’ – Welcome, come on in! Latinos value family as a source of strength and protection. Welcoming others and making them feel at home is part of our DNA. The sense of family and belonging is intense and is not limited to the immediate family but the extended grandparents, cousins, friends, and friends of friends.
These families very often extend to our work families. Feeling connected and belonging allows us to feel comfortable and bring our authentic selves to the experience. ‘Estás en familia’– you are part of the family. You are safe, and we have your back. These values were core to my experience growing up.
I was born in Cuba during the height of the Castro Revolution. My parents were the first from their respective families to leave, seeking freedom of expression and opportunity. They left their homeland and family for a better life in the United States. They wanted their daughter to grow up with freedom and opportunities.
We arrived in Spain in December, a time of year meant to be joyous and surrounded by family. Instead, we were alone in a foreign country. Fortunately, we had kind neighbors who welcomed us into their homes, helped us with warm clothes, and invited us to ring in the New Year. They even showed up on January 6 (Feast of the Epiphany) with a small gift that ‘Los Reyes’ had left in their home for ‘Isa.’ This kind gesture from our Spaniard neighbors meant the world to my parents. We were not alone. We had support and felt a sense of belonging. The sense of inclusion gave us tremendous comfort.
This connection quickly grew into a community that gave us insight into navigating employment in Spain. Although we were not Spaniards, we connected to our neighbors through language, ancestry, and family values. With the help of the newly established community, we thrived in Spain and prepared ourselves for the next leg of the journey to the US.
The values ingrained in the Spanish culture of family, support, and solidarity translate directly to how we lead organizations.
ADP’s Research Institute has studied the data and developed a measure of Inclusion Measuring the ‘I’ in D-E-I. They define connection as one’s feeling of being seen, feeling heard, and feeling valued for their uniqueness. The study found that strongly connected people are 75x more likely to be fully engaged at work.
Isabel and her family traveling to Alhambra
It’s been 25 years since I first came to ADP. Key to the culture here is the sense of inclusion, which is why I stay. I joined to create innovative products, and I did. Every time I hear there are millions of users now with the ADP Mobile Solutions app, I think of the days when I brought it to life with my previous team. Although the app has evolved beyond what we did, I find it rewarding to hear how much people love it today.
The more comfortable one feels with the team, the better the ideas flow. The creativity and excitement then lead to an amazing product. We must attract a workforce representative of our clients and the communities where we live and work. These communities allow us to understand and provide insights into building better products.
One way to gain a sense of community is to join and attend events sponsored by a Business Resource Group (BRG). I am an active member of Adelante, a Hispanic community that allows us to connect based on shared values. These may be direct connections because you are Latin American/Spanish or have shared interests in the music, the food, and the culture. What matters is we can come together and share in a community. I can’t think of a better way to grow one’s professional network and learn.
Isabel Espina
In the course of my time with Adelante, they invited me to do a panel to support STEM women and mentor young students. I also recently attended the Grace Hopper Celebration, where I met wonderful women technologists from diverse backgrounds working together to support each other. It was an extremely rewarding experience! I’m reminded of that sense of inclusion I felt when my family first came to the US. I’m inspired to give back to my support network.
As a technology leader, I always think about attracting great talent in this highly competitive environment. Digital transformation and advanced technologies continue to shape current and future jobs across industries. I encourage my team to grow together, meet other associates across different communities, and always support one another.
Giving back to our communities is good for not only our business but for all of us. I invite you to explore ADP and all we offer, including our BRGs. Be a role model, grow professionally, and pay it ‘Adelante.’
We look forward to continuing sharing stories from Latino and Spanish technologists.
Interested in Product Development?
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current openings.
#nationalhispanicheritagemonth #givingback #careerjourney #productdevelopment #ADPTech
Tech & Innovation Blog
Life @ ADP S2EP4: Let’s Talk #ADPTech
Life @ ADP, Voice of Our People, What We Do
A podcast episode for applicants interested in the scale ADP operates at, including the leadership teams’ strategies and their focus on data security.
Life @ ADP S2EP4: Let’s Talk #ADPTech
Our hosts, Ingrid and Kate, invited Lohit Sarma, a Senior Vice President of Product Development, to the show to chat about what’s happening in #ADPTech.
Lohit’s ADP journey began in 2014 when he helped build our Next Gen team, Lifion, in New York City and scaled up the organization to about 700 associates.
“I can’t believe it’s been eight and a half years,” Lohit said. “It’s been an incredibly humbling learning experience, and I’m super excited for what’s ahead.”
Lohit Sarma
The episode is great for associates and applicants interested in the scale ADP operates at, including the leadership teams’ strategies and their focus on data security. Lohit spoke about various areas in #ADPTech, from User Experience (UX), Security Engineering, to Site Reliability Engineering.
“Our clients trust us with some of the most sensitive information in the world,” Lohit said. “Security engineering is a huge focus for our products. Reliability DevOps is just across the board.”
You wouldn’t want to miss out on the episode, especially if you are interested in learning more about ADP’s Next Gen products and ADP’s role in the US financial system. From launching the iHCM, a cloud-based platform that simplifies Payroll and HR management in one scalable, compliant solution, to our next-generation time and payroll products, ADP has transformed into a technology company.
“We attract talents based on our adaptation of modern software engineering, product management, and UX practices,” Lohit said. “We’re able to not only hire but also retain and contribute back to the industry.”
From sponsoring the Grace Hopper Celebration to hiring female engineers and managers, ADP’s leadership team is building a culture that welcomes and nurtures tech talent. Further reading: Seramount Names ADP One of the Best Companies for Multicultural Women.
In addition, ADP is continually enhancing and evolving the way we do things. “We’ve been heavily investing across the board in pure engineering and management practices,” Lohit said. “That’s reflecting the quality of our products.”
Life @ ADP is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music. Listen to the full episode here or on your preferred podcast player!
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current openings.
HCM Technologies, Women in STEM, User Experience, Product Management, DataCloud
Podcast: ADP’s UX Leader on Data-Driven Design
Podcast: ADP’s UX Leader on Data-Driven Design
Transcript
Mark:
Welcome to PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM Technology Report. I’m Mark Feffer. My guest today is Joe Kleinwaechter, the vice president of Global UX for ADP. Among other things, it’s his job to make data accessible and useful. So he’ll tell us about those efforts, about how you make use of tens of millions of records and whether analytics and HR deserves all the attention it gets, on this edition of People Tech.
Mark:
Hey Joe, it’s good to see you again. Could you tell me what you’re working on right now? ADP’s a big company, deal with a lot of data. You are basically in charge of helping people get access to the information. So what’s that translate to on the ground right now?
Joe:
On the ground, my job is a lot of questions. Asking lots of questions and trying to really understand. One of the greatest challenges with us as human beings is that we think we have a really good understanding of others and we only understand it through our lens. And so trying to dismiss that and constantly realize that people do things a lot differently than I do on a daily basis. So my job is to figure out when they need data, when they need access to something, why do they need it? What are they ultimately trying to do? Not necessarily, yeah, maybe they’re trying to get their pay slip, but why are they doing that? What’s the bigger picture?
Joe:
Because it’s in that understanding of what they’re actually trying to do and those emotional states they have, that I can maybe get them there quicker to the end, rather than through a series of steps such as this is the way you always get your pay slip. So I really focus a lot on trying to listen for things that don’t make sense to me or are cognitive dissonance to the way we think about the world.
Mark:
Do you have an example of that cognitive dissonance?
Joe:
Yeah. It’s funny. You think that, listen, if I wanted to pay in the old days, if I wanted to pay somebody, I would have to go to my wallet, give them money because that’s where the money was, in my wallet. And it was only until you realize later that the money was just there because that’s all we had. People didn’t want to have a wallet. People didn’t want to have money. They wanted to ultimately give something in exchange for something else. They didn’t even want to spend money. They wanted to go get a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Joe:
And then Starbucks figures out guess what? If I have a card for you, I can keep on file for you, or I can know about you. I can maybe help you get there better, not just in paying for the money, but maybe there’s something else. Your favorites, your history. How you operate. Things that make you happier as a customer that maybe you didn’t think about when you pull out your wallet with your Starbucks case, $20 for my coffee. But at the same time, what were the other things along the way that maybe could have been easier for you? So in my job, it’s not just about how do I go and look at my pay. I got to figure out what are they really trying to do? Are they trying to figure out if they have enough money to pay something? Or better yet, maybe they have some ambitious goals to try to accomplish and I can help them along that way. And that’s exactly what we’re doing in wisely right now, in our wisely product line.
Mark:
Now, obviously ADP has a ton of data and that’s kind of factored into your work, I would think. How does it factor in? How do you approach making all of this data digestible and useful?
Joe:
By ignoring most of it. I know that sounds kind of contrarian, but you could get absolutely awash in all of the data. Data’s a really fascinating thing. They say from a mathematical sense, data never lies, no, but, reading it does, right? Somebody could say something perfectly legitimate, but you can interpret it a lot of different ways. So the danger you have with lots of data is that the more you read, the more you make it confused. And what you have to do is take the data and figure out, okay, what can I start with as a hypothesis? Does the data support this? Does it not? And if it’s not, how do I change and pivot on my hypothesis? Those pivots often come by taking that hypothesis and trying it out with people. Seeing does it resonate?
Joe:
Okay, this says, this says this about the great resignation. This is what we know about it. Is that really what’s happening down there? And that’s where UX comes into play. Because we then go out and say, okay, we have this hypothesis, the data says this, what really is it? Is it really true or not? Maybe there’s other ways to interpret that data. And that’s probably one of our biggest challenges, there’s many ways to look at data and you can make data loo, however you want, right? The old statistics line, right? You’ve got to figure out a way that it’s unequivocally true for the people that you serve and localized to their needs. That’s the hard part about data.
Mark:
Okay. Can you tell me a little bit about the technology that’s behind all this? What’s going on under the hood?
Joe:
You mean gathering the data?
Mark:
Not just gathering the data, but putting it together and presenting it in a way that’s usable.
Joe:
Yeah, I think the biggest thing we have to focus on really is what are people actually doing versus what does the data? So the data gives us a starting spot, but really the really good data comes from what they’re actually doing as they’re using your software, for instance. How are they using it? What are they doing? So the best data is the one that actually follows them doing what they’re trying to do, rather than maybe some larger data set that gives you great demographics and breakdowns, but doesn’t really get personal enough. So what we typically do, I’ll give you a great example. In one of our latest products here called Intelligent Self-Service, we actually go back and look at all of our calls that come into the service center. And we find out which ones are the most plentiful, because those are the ones that are probably, our hypothesis is, nobody wants to call into a service center. Nobody wants to call cam Comcast, right? Or call Google. They don’t want to do that. So therefore, how can we subvert those calls ahead of time?
Joe:
Well, okay, we go and look at the top 10, and this is what they’re calling in for. It doesn’t really tell me why or what their circumstance was, or other characteristics like do they really need a human, maybe they need some confidence. We then take that data and apply it in, let’s say hypothesis. We say, listen, people want to know, for instance, who their HR benefits person is whenever they do this. We then watch the way they behave using our software and say, okay, at this time we think they want this. And that combination will help them not call. So it’s a series of hypothesis driven design along the way that takes the data that we see in the call center, combined with the demographics of what we know from our products and how they use our products. Combined with what the user did at that moment, that triggers us wonderful little in, we use the AIML phrase, this black magic that happens with AIML that causes us to say, oh, these things when together have a high degree of confidence that what he’s trying to do is this. Give him this.
Joe:
Now 20 years ago, I mean, we’ve been try AI for a real long time, right? For a very long time. And what makes it really good today is that the models have gotten so good that we’re right far more than we are wrong. Remember the old days of Clippy trying to figure out what you were trying to do? Hey, it looks like you’re trying to write a resume. Irritating as all get out. But now we know what you’re actually trying to do with some high degree of confidence, because we have so much data that built that model so great that we actually have a good idea that maybe not only can we tell you what you need, but maybe we can actually do it on your behalf if you want us to.
Joe:
And that’s really where the state of experience is going to, can we be predictive? Can we be insightful? Can we be intuitive to what they’re trying to do and then be bold enough to offer to do it. And then when we find out that we’ve got really high degree of confidence, that we can do it every time, maybe recommend doing it on their behalf, without them knowing about it, if that’s what they want. That’s the model that the experience is going to.
Mark:
Well, how does this all fit into ADP’s efforts overall?
Joe:
In which respect? In terms of the UX, the experience model, this intuitive model?
Mark:
Yeah.
Joe:
So I would say right now we recognize that the big position that ADP has different than a lot of others in the industry and competitors, is that data, is the wealth of data. It would not be wise for us to ignore the fact that’s a competitive differentiator. So we use that data all over the place. So what’s really key? Our data sciences inside of ADP are pretty, pretty high level. And I say that with the great degree of confidence, because I’ve seen it operate on myself. Our AIML models that we have out there for telling where you’re going to go separates from everybody else. Now, since we have all that data, now the question is what’s the right thing to do with that data? What is the proper thing to do with the data?
Joe:
And our view is really simple. If it helps our clients, our customers, our users out there to do something that they wanted to do or to make them aware of something that they want they should know, then that’s good. Right? So it’s the alignment of that big data through a good model to get into the data at the right time. That’s across the whole product line. That’s across everything ADP is trying to do. We’re trying to become, a little bit like a barista at Starbucks where we know you enough that maybe we have your coffee ready for you because you always do that. You come and say the usual. Okay, good. Here’s the thing that took you half an hour to spout out before, now happens as you get in line. And that’s what ADP is really trying to do, is to be there before even you are there.
Mark:
I mean, obviously there’s a lot of technology behind this and that makes me wonder, how has the technology evolved over the last 10 years say. Which as the technology was evolving, it seemed also that the use of data was spreading. And I’m curious about, first how the technology became more of a foundation. But also how did the growing demand for it influence the technology and vice versa?
Joe:
Yeah, there’s a couple of things. It’s funny having been in many industries that relied on data. There’s a good natural checks and balances with the using of data as we know. There’s good ways to use data. There’s bad ways to use data. And it’s different for every person. I used to, and I still do, refer to something called the creep factor. Something is creepy. Back in 2002, if somebody told you that you need to get in your car because your flight is going to leave in a half an hour and the roads are blocked, you’d be kind of like, well, that’s kind of creepy. How did it know all this stuff, right? And you go, well, that’s creepy. But there’s a point at which you say but that’s useful. Okay.
Joe:
In the early days, we didn’t expect people to have all of that data. Now we’ve come to the point where we are growing up with societies where our kids and all others just assume you have that data, just assume that data is out there. It’s a different world about what we assume the data. Right or wrong, or whether you have that data, they make an assumption that data is there. Therefore, why wouldn’t you use it for me? How dare you not use it to help me become better? And that’s a far cry from where we were in the early 2000s, where how dare you use that data, to the point we said that data’s actually pretty useful. I kind of like the fact that you can do this for me. And then you start allowing a little bit more data, a little bit more data. And next thing we have data fields all over the place that are being mined for lots of different reasons.
Joe:
First, it was just concrete data, physical data. Now it’s behavioral data. How you operate, where you move, where you go. And to the point that it’s useful, great. But there’s always this paranoia that it’s not being used in the right way. And that’s something that I think is really healthy. I think that’s a really healthy check on making sure that we are good ambassadors of that data.
Mark:
What do you mean by paranoia around the data?
Joe:
Well, I think anytime somebody knows something about you that you either A, didn’t want them to know or didn’t know that they know, there’s a natural paranoia in us that asks how are you going to use that? What are you going to do with that, right? And knowing that if this were a benevolent world where everybody was going to use it, right, we’d have no problem with it probably. Not everyone, but a higher majority. But now we’re in the place where we have to be very careful about those that want to use the data to harm us or to use it in a way that annoys us at the very least, right? The scam calls that you get all the time, all the phishing techniques that are being used, things like that. There’s a whole black science of UX out there to trick you to go do things because they have some data, right?
Joe:
There’s reason HIPAA was set up, right? There’s a very valid reason why HIPAA was set up and needs to be needs to be respected and done because of the bad that you could do with that data they aren’t governed correctly. So we treat governance with data incredibly, incredibly important. It’s at the top of what we do in all of that governance. We know we have an ethics board. We have our chief data officers constantly making sure that we are using data in an ethical way. And that it really truly not only is just ethical, it’s got to be valuable. It’s got to be something valuable for our clients and our customers. Otherwise, it’s just data.
Mark:
I’d like to shift gears a little bit for the last few questions. Delivering data in the flow of work, the whole notion of in the flow of work is gaining a lot of traction. A lot more vendors are exploring ways to present their products that way. Does that pose any particular challenges for a data service or is it better? What’s your response to it?
Joe:
Yeah. There’s a fascinating thing that I learned, again back in the early 2000s, I worked at a company that we decided at the time Google had come up with Appliance, right? That you could put inside your internet and all of sudden you could use as a search engine localized to your internet. We put the Appliance up there and it didn’t perform well at all. We let it run. We let it run for a couple of months and it kept getting data. It could never, the finds were just not good. They weren’t even close to what you would get on the internet. And what we learned from the Google data scientist at the time was the reason that the internet is so valuable as a search tool and so accurate, is because it has so much heterogeneous dat. Data that doesn’t appear related but in a way is, and that heterogeneous data gives us a much greater chance of finding that needle in the haystack that you’re looking for.
Joe:
Whereas inside of a company, it all looks like the same thing, give me the latest dev report, give me the latest financial report. It’s more of a monocosm of stuff, and therefore you couldn’t find things. As we start meeting people on the go, where they are, we now have the chances for other types of data to improve that. Now depending upon where you land on the privacy of knowing where you are, geofencing and things like that, there’s a lot that can be done by knowing where you are. The question is by knowing where you are could you also use that for nefarious means? Yes, I guess so. Sure.
Joe:
So you’ve got, I think the real challenge is, as we learn all this new data, what’s right to keep and what’s right not? And that’s not necessarily our choice, right? That needs to be our client’s choice of what’s valuable because again, going back to the creep line, if I know where you are and I can offer you this new service, it should be your choice, whether you want to exchange that data for that service. Not we’re going to take this all from you.
Joe:
Companies have gotten in trouble in the past. We’re going to take this data. We’re going to read where you are and not tell you, and we’re going to give you a great product. Even if it may benefit you, the fact that you took that without my knowledge makes me suspicious that you may take it to do something else. And I think we’ve got to be really, really careful that having an honest conversation, a full disclosure and a strong ethics policy behind your data is really going to make the difference. Now with that in place, now I can meet people where they are. I can see where they are. I can get a lot more information.
Joe:
A great example. One of our customers has a lot of field workers, right? And they have their phones on, they got GPS on their phones. If they want to transmit their GPS information, great, they’ll be great. They can do it. We can tell when they’re going to clock in, when they’re going to clock out and maybe even clock them in automatically. So we get rid of the single biggest call, to most HR departments, is I forgot to clock in. Can you clock me in? I forgot to clock out. Can you clock me out? Something as simple as that, just by turning on GPS location. Is that valuable or not? Well, that’s kind of a client thing, isn’t it? You tell me. Is it something you want to exchange for that? Then I have put governance about what I’m not going to do with that data. That’s just as important. And maybe I’d say is even more important. Because just because I have the data doesn’t mean I can use it however I want. I’ve got to use it in a prescriptive way,
Mark:
Joe. Thanks very much. Really appreciate it.
Joe:
My pleasure, Mark. Thank you.
Mark:
My guest today has been Joe Kleinwaechter, the vice president of global UX for ADP. And this has been PeopleTech, the podcast of the HCM Technology Report, a publication of RecruitingDaily. We’re also a part of Evergreen podcasts. To see all of their programs visit www.evergreenpodcasts.com. And to keep up with HR Technology, visit the HCM Technology Report every day. We’re the most trusted source of news in the HR tech industry. Find us at www.hcmtechnologyreport.com. I’m Mark Feffer.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Life @ ADP S2EP2: No One Ever Forgets Their First Job
Life @ ADP, Career Advice, What We Do
A podcast episode for rising seniors looking for internships and first jobs. Come to the ADP booth and learn about the six-week extended GPT Development Program.
Life@ADP Season 2 Episode 2: No One Ever Forgets Their First Job.
And…caps off, class of 2022, congratulations!
For rising seniors, it’s your turn to walk across the stage next year. Not sure about where to begin your career? Are you looking for a place to grow and apply learned knowledge? We recorded a podcast episode for you.
Our hosts invited Lisa S., Senior Director of Talent Acquisition, on the most recent podcast episode to share insights for undergraduates and master’s students looking for an internship before entering the professional world.
ADP Recruiters at Campus Recruiting Event
In the podcast episode, Lisa introduced the Global Product and Technology Development Program, a training program designed for students to connect and learn from tech professionals at ADP.
“The students will go through a full-time, ten-week internship program with us in the summer. They will get an opportunity to work on meaningful projects, delivering results to showcase if they are a good fit for our organization,” said Lisa. “We have an amazing opportunity for software engineering and computer science major students.”
The goal of the internship is to convert the students to full-time hires through Global Product and Technology Development Program, a six-week training to begin their career at ADP. You will also hear Lisa’s advice for candidates attending fall campus recruiting events. Listen to the full episode now.
Here are three tips from our campus recruiters:
#1 Add Keywords to your Resumes
Make sure you read every job description carefully and select the exact keywords for your resumes. Using the same keywords will make your profile stand out, recognizing a match and listing you as a top match.
#2 Practice your 30-second Elevator Pitch
You may only have 30 seconds to make a first impression, so come prepared! What defines you? What are your strengths? What roles are you interested in learning? Your elevator pitch will help recruiters remember who you are and what you are looking for in the company.
#3 Do Your Research
Recruiters know when you’ve done your homework! Come with a list of questions to show your interest. Make sure to view the current job openings and register (if any) before attending an event.
Apply these tips as you prep for the upcoming recruiting events. If you attend this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration, bring a copy of your resume, and stop by ADP’s booth. Let’s connect!
Interested in our Campus programs or ready to start your next chapter?
We give the students the tools and technology they need to succeed. The recruiters don’t expect interns to know the same programming language or tech stack. We are proud to support every individual through the learning process and are here to provide growth opportunities. Have no fear!
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current openings.
Life @ ADP is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music.
Further reading: Career Fair: Perseverance is the Key in Job Hunting.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Devi R., Senior Director of DevOps, Builds Products with Empathy
Women in STEM, Voice of Our People, Innovation
“STEM, to me, is beyond degree and credentials. It’s about applying and leveraging engineering knowledge and empathy toward every product.”
Devi R. is a technologist who enjoys exploring the world and inspiring others. She joined ADP in 2020, building the ADP’s flagship MyADP with her team in Global Products & Technology. She’s been to 54 countries and all seven continents. Devi loves traveling to South Africa for natural scenery and Portugal for the history, art, architecture, and food!
Coming to ADP
Engineers build products with a purpose in mind and the goal of designing for people. I came to ADP with that mindset and found myself in a place that shares the same value.
I have been a consumer of ADP’s payroll product since 2006, so I was excited to hear about the MyADP business app project and took the opportunity right away. I thought, “I want to work on this!” It’s been two years since I came to ADP, and I’m incredibly grateful to be in a culture that values every voice.
I lead the MyADP Product SRE & DevOps teams within Global Products & Technology. For those unfamiliar with MyADP, it is a global, high traffic and volume unified UX web/mobile solution using Cloud technology. Our product is in the Top 10 business applications in the app store. Millions use the product to perform human resources, financial services, onboarding, performance management, payroll, time & attendance, benefits, retirement services, etc.
If I asked myself how my passion began, I’d say it was the endless possibilities in the field that continue to inspire me, including innovation awaiting discovery. When it comes to DevOps, I appreciate the opportunity to perform transformation across various products because it motivates me to strive for better results with my team.
Day In Life as Senior Director, DevOps
To give you an overview of my day, we get an average of between seven to 10,000 transactions every second on our product platform. My team keeps track of the error rate, meaning even 1% can be a considerable number in this user pool. The task makes my role as a technologist critical. It’s no longer about the technical skills that determine if someone is qualified; instead, it’s about empathy for what one is building.
Behind every product my team makes, we understand there are real users and the real impact the product brings to their lives. As a technologist, I make sure the technology is practical and human-centered. With a large amount of data and information, I am proud to say we handle data with security, precaution, and care. We use the data to help people, making user privacy our top priority.
STEM, to me, is beyond degree and credentials. It’s about using engineering knowledge and empathy toward every product. I stay at ADP, where I surround myself with associates who value client feedback and user experience.
Devi and her husband in Antarctica
Women in STEM
With various tech roles in the industry, I recommend young technologists invest in education and explore as many options as possible in life. The field continues to evolve and challenge the leaders with innovation, changes, and automation.
All the elements above make working as a woman technologist meaningful. I remember serving as one of the women and telecommunication junior board members for a year in my previous company. We collaborated across the nation to understand and research women technologists’ career paths at that time.
Six of us dove into why there are not enough female technologists in the field and quickly learned that many young girls get distracted from pursuing STEM early in their education. The first drop in interest in Tech happens between middle school and high school. We saw a 70% decline in enrollment to 10% by the end of that period. I encourage educators and technologists to inspire young girls, especially at around 8th grade in middle school; the earlier, the better.
As we did more research, the 10% enrollment in STEM when they first enter college drops further by the time they reach junior year. I had the same experience and recalled being one of 15 girls out of 100 students in the classroom. By the time I graduated, there were only three of us left. I kept thinking this would change over time but soon realized we are not there yet. Research conducted by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) shows why gender gaps are particularly high in the computer science and engineering fields. Download the Why So Few Women in STEM Report here.
Devi at Miscanti Lake near Atacama in Peru
Experience the Reality in the Industry
So, what can individuals do to help close the gender gaps in STEM?
I am passionate about finding out what and how to make young talents focus on STEM early in their career, including providing the right tools, giving concrete advice, and demonstrating the reality in the industry. If you are a student or a recent college graduate, check out our campus programs here.
ADP offers a Development program where young talents get an opportunity to meet with leaders and understand our products. Some of them already have a STEM career, and we provide a taste of the real world before hiring them at the end of the program to become full-time associates.
I’m motivated to mentor these recent college graduates and show how much impact their decision to pursue Tech can bring. When facing intersections in their choices, I tell the young women technologists to try everything. It’s essential to understand what interests you and remember that true passion brings you further in life.
Whether building a product or entering a new career track, I encourage you to be empathetic towards the people you work with, creating a product for everyone.
Interested in a tech career at ADP?
Click here to search for your next move and visit Who We Hire.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Remote Work Era: Three Challenges to Overcome
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Time to grab on to the perfect opportunity to learn organizational skills, independence, and self-motivation!
Remote Work Era: Three Challenges to Overcome
By Amy H. Chiu, Tech Brand Content Developer
In May 2022, Airbnb’s career page received 800,000 visits since its remote work announcement. What’s the hype? When people say, ‘I work remotely,’ do you think of working from home in pajamas and not worrying about being stuck in traffic?
Remote working is more than that.
As we embrace hybrid and remote workspace, there are more conversations you and your team will be having, including challenges and solutions. As a full-time remote associate who works from a different time zone, I’ve learned methods to stay connected with my team.
My friends in tech often ask me what it’s like working remotely because some of them are considering switching their workstyle. My short answer is remote working is not for everyone.
The story began when I started working remotely as a freelancer a few years ago. Without going to the office, I engaged and experimented with various strategies to complete projects with accuracy and efficiency.
Challenge One – Communication
Are you afraid of missing the hallway conversation that could potentially build trust and work relationships among the team? As an extrovert, my solution is to speak up and share my updates during virtual happy hours and video calls. For example, I challenge myself to say more than “how are you” and answer more than “I’m good.” Having a real, human-to-human conversation during virtual happy hour has taught me to be more empathetic and understanding. I’d check in with my coworker from the other side of the country who caught the flu and adjust the calendar priorities accordingly.
I imagine reaching out can be a challenge for those more reserved in a new environment when they first start in a full-time remote position. This is when turning on video cameras can be helpful during online meetings. We recognize facial expressions during conversations that help us understand the tone of voice without saying too much, and smiling is always a plus!
Challenge Two – Time Management
Another challenge comes in time management, which is especially important for those who work with teams from different time zones. I recommend productivity and time tracking tools such as Toggl and DeskTime that allow you to log the time you spend on each project. The key is to build a schedule for yourself and stick to it. It’s easier to have a routine despite having scheduled meetings on the day or not.
Knowing when to start and pause working is the key for ambitious individuals. Since there’s no hard stop or visually seeing your coworkers packing up to leave at five in the afternoon, give yourself the reminder and permission to finish tasks during your working hours.
Challenge Three – Work Motivation
For those who enjoy the office atmosphere, I recommend joining coworking spaces such as WeWork and Galvanize. You could find a variety of office layouts and meeting spaces, using them to focus on your business. The community can also be an excellent opportunity to network and increase motivation at work.
I work from home and dedicate a space for work only. Having the habit motivates me and sets me in business mode every morning. According to a Social Psychological and Personality Science paper, the researchers asked subjects to change into formal and casual clothing before cognitive tests. They found wearing formal business clothing increases abstract thinking. On the days when I need an extra energy boost, I put on business clothing, even off-camera. The formal attire makes me focus better, and I tend to complete my tasks faster with accuracy.
Welcome to Remote Work
Remote working requires self-discipline, communication skills, and an open mind to collaborate. There will be challenges working with time zones and across teams when you are not sitting across from your coworker in the same office. However, the rewarding feeling of accomplishing projects remotely with the team makes the experience valuable. Please grab on to the perfect opportunity to learn organizational skills, independence, and self-motivation!
We are hiring!
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current remote openings.
Tech & Innovation Blog
What Makes You Stay at Your Job?
Life @ ADP, Career Advice, What We Do
Keep an open mind in your career journeys, explore international opportunities, and work outside your comfort zones.
What Makes You Stay at Your Job?
According to Harvard Business Review, two reasons why employees stay at their companies are job satisfaction and the company environment.
Why does it matter that we understand both? At ADP, we strive to give our associates a culture where they want to stay. It’s great to love what you do, but even better if you do it in a place that you love.
Meet Lindsey B., Sales Channel Manager for ADP Marketplace in Northern Europe. She shares her incredible transcontinental career journey, the power of networking, and how ADP supported her career progression on our Life@ADP Season Two podcast.
We are excited to kick off our season with an international episode! You can expect to hear stories from associates across the globe. Lindsey’s story started when her aunt referred her to work at ADP. She began her career in San Francisco, moved to the UK, and is now in the Netherlands.
“As a Sales Channel Manager for ADP Marketplace, I work with our partners and internal sales teams across multiple countries,” Lindsey said. “I used my strengths and networking opportunities and learned from different teams with ADP’s support.”
Lindsey travels across Europe, working with product development and sales teams across the UK, Netherlands, and Ireland. When we asked her our “why come, why stay?” question, she said she came to ADP for the training and stayed for the people. “The more I move to different countries in different roles, the smaller and more intimate ADP becomes. I work with a group of wonderful people who develop innovative products and business solutions,” Lindsey said. “Every time I turn a corner, I feel like there’s a new job opportunity in a new part of ADP coming, bringing together different people.”
Lindsey describes ADP as an incredibly diverse company with teams of people from all backgrounds and cultures. As a leader, she highlights the importance of letting every associate come to work as themselves, which makes the workplace fun and creative.
Lindsey is on the committee for her local International Women’s Network (iWIN) in the UK and Ireland, one of ADP’s Business Resource Groups (BRG), which organized some events for International Women’s Day, including coffee connections networking opportunities. “We hosted various career progression events and talked to the HR business partners, identifying biases at work while inspiring attendees to grow their career at ADP,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey encourages everyone to keep an open mind in their career journeys, especially in exploring international opportunities and working outside their comfort zones. “If you can identify your strengths and what you enjoy doing, there is absolutely a job for you at ADP. I encourage everyone to listen to the podcast to check out what we do and whom we hire,” Lindsey said. “I’m happy to connect if you’d like to learn more about my journey and the culture! Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.”
Tune in for the full episode here.
Life @ ADP is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music.
Support us by subscribing to both the podcast and the tech blog.
Let’s work together.
Learn more about what it’s like working for ADP here and our current openings.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Driving Innovation with an Ethnography of AI
Women in STEM, Anthropology, Innovation
How might ethnography help advance our understanding of human and machine relationships?
Driving Innovation with an Ethnography of AI
By Martha Bird, Chief Business Anthropologist at ADP
Humans are typically curious by nature, but there’s a deep resource around human behavior that can be tremendously valuable as we design our strategies in business and life in general.
Cultural anthropologists combine curiosity and empirical science to deliver sustained value. We’re trained to interpret and translate why people do the things they do and how unconscious and overlapping motivations influence their actions, their attitudes, their approaches to the myriad people, products, politics, and places of everyday life. We do this by spending time in the places where people make meaning, a method of inquiry known as ethnography. It’s what gets us excited, and it’s where we impact academia and industry.
Part of our work focuses on challenging the things we take for granted and, in so doing, encouraging new ways of looking at ideas, interactions, and people we may have overlooked in the forgetfulness of the routine. Curiosity is our “rocket fuel.
My colleague, Jay Hasbrouck, captures the spirit of the anthropological mindset when he writes, “When used as more than a research tool to expose consumer needs, ethnographic thinking helps companies and organizations build on the cultural meanings and contexts of their offerings, develop the flexibility to embrace cultural change, focus their strategies at critical cultural phenomena, and test and develop business model changes.”1
Where Ethnography Comes In
For those of us in the tech sector, in particular, our focus is quite aggressively on questions around data biases, including how algorithms are constructed and, ultimately, who they advantage and who they don’t. It’s a much bigger issue than simply feeding the machine and imagining that the outputs are somehow free of judgment. They’re not.
But who should be responsible for exploring the roots of these biases that pre-exist machine learning — biases that are already deeply embedded in culture. We hear a lot of blaming in the popular press about this or that platform creating unfair advantages. Nevertheless, should we leave it to data analysts and computer scientists to untangle these social inequalities? It seems a more appropriate area of investigation for those of us who study culture and the power flows that animate it.
So, we begin to ask questions. What’s fair in a data-mediated world? What role does empathy play in communicating evidence and big data? What constitutes evidence in a global context, among others?
Placing blame on flawed algorithms and the companies on which data-driven services depend is really missing the critical point. We need to look outside tech and start to get serious about the very non-technical realities that contribute to an unequal present and, consequently, an inevitably unequal future.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the admittedly broad subject of AI viewed from an anthropological perspective. My main goal in doing so is to further challenge the cultural category of AI (big and small), while also exploring how ethnographic methodology (direct observation/active listening) might help advance our understanding of the human and machine relationships forming here and now and tomorrow.
Specifically, I’m thinking about two main question areas. First, a definitional focus: How might we begin to articulate an ethnography of AI, what role might AI technologies play in the service of ethnographic practice, and how might (and does) ethnographic inquiry inform AI technologies? Second, a philosophical focus: Who is responsible for bias in data, algorithms, and outcomes to include discussion around how work related to AI is currently organized within tech companies today?
As companies become increasingly reliant on data-driven insights to build their offerings, market their products, and guide the scope for future projects, we need to get serious about the reality that data isn’t raw or clean — but rather deeply reflective of the social and political circumstances from which they are pulled and to which they contribute. It’s an exciting time to be an anthropologist working in technology where the human is deeply enmeshed with the machine.
Get more insights from Martha Bird by reading Storytelling in Business: Capturing Organizational Wisdom.
Interested in a tech career at ADP?
The ADP Research Institute is the global thought leader for Labor Market and People and Performance research. Don’t miss the latest data-driven insights from the ADP Research Institute; sign up to get alerts in your inbox.
1 Ethnographic Thinking: From Method to Mindset (Anthropology & Business) 1st Edition, Routledge, 2018
Link to the original article.
Tech & Innovation Blog
Nicole P., Senior Director of Application Development, Shares Traditional Vs. Agile Methodology
Women in STEM, Voice of Our People, Innovation
Agile allows teams to move faster and build better products, enabling developers to work through the development cycle in a shorter timeframe.
Nicole P., Senior Director of Application Development
Coming to ADP
Nicole P., Senior Director of Application Development, celebrates her 15th work anniversary at ADP. She received her master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Georgia and started working as an Application Developer in 2007. “I look for the opportunities to grow, learn, and make an impact,” Nicole said. “I stay because I have never run out of opportunities to develop professionally. There are always interesting topics to tackle at ADP.”
Her current project transforms and streamlines the Sales and Underwriting process for ADP’s TotalSource business while providing a user-friendly, digitally guided Prospect Portal Experience to engage and delight prospective clients. “The project also reinforces our value by providing data-driven insights throughout the entire sales process,” Nicole said.
Defining STEM
Nicole and her family
“As a technologist, STEM is about problem-solving and innovating. It equips us to solve different challenges in the world,” Nicole said. Her first internship after graduate school later turned into a full-time job, creating device drivers that controlled satellite broadcast equipment. “I was amazed to create something out of nothing. With just bits and bytes, this equipment could control the equipment from anywhere in the world. I still feel the magic today in performing tasks with new technologies.”
Nicole believes her passion for always looking for creative solutions drives her in the STEM field. “There’s nothing more energizing than having a supportive team, a whiteboard, and a problem to solve,” Nicole said. “It is rewarding to make progress that helps drive business outcomes for our clients. I enjoy the opportunity to problem-solve in my daily job.”
Traditional Vs. Agile Methodology
“I learned about the differences between the traditional and agile methodology in one of my projects. We started with traditional waterfall and transitioned to using the agile methodology,” Nicole said. “As the project progressed, we solved the bugs we found earlier. My team found early testing and feedback to be helpful and led us to find problems sooner.”
Standard waterfall methodology takes a very linear view of problem-solving and application development with heavy upfront analysis followed by design and development. This process might require months or even years before the team ever got to collect client feedback. By then, client needs might have changed, and the solution may no longer fit their needs.
On the other hand, the Agile methodology allows teams to move faster and build better products. The method enables developers to work through the development cycle in smaller increments time-boxed in a few weeks. “The agile method allows us to code tests and get feedback early. As a result, we end up with a better product overall, incorporating the ability to pivot as a client’s needs change,” Nicole said.
Team Efforts: Collaboration
“One of the challenges in working with multiple teams across many initiatives is to make sure that we are collaborating in a way that allows us to leverage all the exciting innovation happening across the organization,” Nicole said. She ensures developers aren’t duplicating efforts and building the same things across different teams. “We must be certain to prioritize the right initiatives that drive the most values for our clients and business outcomes at ADP.”
Nicole tracks remote work and hybrid workforce models in application development, imagining the future. “We’re going to see a lot more applications and innovative technologies to help teams stay connected and engaged in projects, and helping companies manage their remote workforce.” Read about how AI/ML are driving innovation and opportunities at ADP and watch the 2022 Workforce Trends video here.
Proudest Project: Transformation
Nicole was proudest of a project called Greenfield. The project completely transformed the way that our TotalSource business services clients. “Our tech team for HRO and our TotalSource business teams partnered together to reimagine our internal business processes, service model, and technology, enabling our ADP outsourcing business to grow and provide best-in-class service for our clients,” Nicole said. “It was the most interesting, exciting, and challenging project for me. We came together to solve impactful problems for our clients and businesses while innovating with the latest technologies.”
During this time, Nicole’s team also underwent an exciting Agile transformation, releasing features at the end of much shorter development sprints. “We were putting valuable software into the hands of our clients and business partners much faster and more frequently,” Nicole said. “Ultimately, that allowed us to build an even better product due to a quicker feedback loop and the ability to pivot as business needs and priorities changed.”
“Using Agile, we involved our entire development organization, 15 scrum teams, and our business partners,” Nicole said. “It’s been about five years since we our transformation, and we still see the impacts today.”
Nicole (third from the left) at Grace Hopper Celebration
Tech Community: Campus Recruiting Events
Nicole attended the Grace Hopper Celebration twice and participated in ADP recruiting events there. She loved meeting other women technologists, and together with ADP recruiters, helped extend some of the 90+ offers made. Nicole even worked on a team for a couple of years with one of the technologists recruited from a Grace Hopper Celebration.
Nicole is also active on ADP’s campus recruiting program and new hire program, meeting future technologists. She works with Brandon P. from the recruiting team, going through all the resumes. “We have a great campus recruiting program with our talent team. I set up booths on different campuses at their career fairs, meeting the students as they stop by looking for either internships or full-time opportunities,” she said. “I share with the students what we do at ADP and help them identify good fits with their interests.”
The students ask frequent questions like: What technologies is ADP working on? What are the required technical skills? When students at career fairs ask, “I’ve only worked on Java for a year, should I apply?” she encourages future technologists not to let fear get in their way and to apply. “We expect that coming from school. However, we are more interested in candidates’ passion for technology and their ability to learn,” she said.
Advice for Future Technologists
Nicole P.
As for advice, Nicole said, “Find something you are passionate about and work hard. Be curious and persistent in pursuing your goals.” Nicole also said, “You can learn as you go; it’s impossible to know everything in advance but have faith in yourself—have confidence in yourself to learn different tasks as you grow.”
Nicole recalls her experience teaching Intro to Programming to undergraduate students while pursuing her master’s degree. She found teaching rewarding because she loved sharing knowledge with others. “Occasionally, students would come in and tell me they changed their majors to Computer Science after taking my class,” Nicole said, “Which was amazing.”
Other advice? She encourages future technologists to keep learning, stay open-minded, and look for mentoring opportunities. “I’ve been fortunate to participate in an emerging leader program and connecting with people who helped me along the way,” Nicole said. “I looked at my career differently through mentorship and appreciate my mentors who’ve guided me along the way.”
Interested in a tech career at ADP?
Click here to search for your next move and visit Who We Hire.
