By Jessica Cheung, Jess Von Bank & Tara Coope

ADP, a leading provider of payroll and human capital management (HCM) solutions, recently hosted its September 2023 analyst update, where the ADP team shared their mission of creating people systems that elevate the human experience. What stood out most was ADP's vision to go beyond transactions and tap into human emotions to support a more people-centric workplace. Their commitment to this vision was evident in a number of ways, most notably in their strategic decision to have their former CHRO (and former ADP client), Sreeni Kutam, lead global product and innovation for the organization.

With a focus on global coverage with local expertise, ADP laid out plans to move toward a single global payroll engine. While this Herculean feat will take time to become a reality, it will be well worth the investment, driving greater simplicity and clarity in their offering while enabling global scalability for their customers.

In the meantime, ADP clients are thriving on the ADP NextGen HCM solution as evidenced by the live customer panel that featured brands ranging from a non-profit with 1,350 employees to a transportation & warehousing firm with over 20,000 employees. Helping to transform the HR and employee experience through a single platform that includes everything from recruiting to payroll to performance management, the customer panel highlighted key wins they’ve experienced, including improved analytics, better employee onboarding experiences, and intuitive self-service features that save HR teams time while making employees happier.

Innovation was also on display with ADP announcing their role-based AI copilot, ADP Assist, which is designed to help people work more efficiently and access information more easily through its conversational interface. And their new API Central offering makes it easier than ever to connect other systems to the ADP platform, driving greater insights and value, not to mention a better employee experience.

We rounded out the day with insights from the brilliant Nela Richardson, who heads up the ADP Research Institute and shared some of the latest findings from the wealth of data they work to anonymize and analyze. Key takeaways included in the growing importance of HR, the struggle to find talent for key industries, and the increased need for more recruiting staff. These insights and more are available to everyone through their ADP Data Lab, which gives people the chance to interact with data visualizations, as well as slice and dice the data themselves.

Overall, the ADP integrated roadmap and vision is getting crisper every day, and their commitment to people-centered technology for work is refreshing. We were impressed with their audacious goals, their latest innovations, and their ongoing pledge to protect people’s data. But we still see a big opportunity for greater innovation, especially inside their greater HCM modules like recruiting, performance and learning. With the expertise, strong leadership and amazing drive the ADP team offers, we believe they could push the boundaries of what’s been done and guide their customers on new approaches to solving old challenges, leading to a complete transformation of the employee experience that aligns with their human-centric vision.