 |
||
|
|
||
| |||||||||||
Whole lotta checks Automatic Data Processing (ADP) has become tone of the largest computing services firms in the world with over 450,000 clients and $4.5 billion in annual revenues. ADP Employer Services is the leading payroll and tax filing service in the world. The company files the tax returns of more than 260,000 clients each year. While payroll and tax services generate about 60% of ADP's revenues, the company also operates a brokerage unit that offers quotation, record keeping, and proxy services for 2,600 brokerage firms. ADP's automobile unit provides accounting, inventory, and other services for dealers throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Double digit growth since the '60s Founded as a manual payroll service in 1949, ADP has enjoyed double-digit per-share growth for the past 35 years. The success stems from both a booming economy and the growing trend towards outsourcing mundane business tasks such as payroll and tax processing. ADP has grown by acquiring smaller payroll and data processing firms throughout the nation and the world. In 1994, ADP bought the popular accounting computer program Peachtree and V-Crest, an auto dealer computer network system. By 1996, ADP's spending actually began to alarm the Federal Trade Commission, which warned that ADP's auto salvage yard network system constituted an "information monopoly." ADP goes PEO ADP is also strategically branching out into the related field of professional employer organizations (PEO). These companies handle employee benefits and claims. In December, ADP bought Vincam Group, a major player in the field, for $295. Employee benefits make up the third most common business to be outsourced, behind payroll and tax processing services - two areas ADP already dominates. In July 1998, ADP announced a partnership with Avert, Inc., a company that performs background checks on prospective employees. ADP had earlier been offering Avert background checks to its Boston-area clients as a pilot program, but decided to expand the program to its clients nationwide. Going global In 1999, ADP launched the first effort at a cohesive global network of high-quality payroll and human resources service providers designed specifically to meet the needs of clients around the world. Called ADP Global Network Program, charter members include Australia's PayConnect Global Solutions and Argentina's Lobruno Recursos Humanos, the largest payroll and HR solution provider in the country. ADP is looking for partners that can provide services in regions where ADP does not operate directly. ADP on the WWW ADP is learning to do all of its business electronically, from monthly meetings to its payroll services. Webcasts will soon be used to coordinate sales strategies at the 2001 National Automobile Dealers Association convention since only 20 percent of the sales staff will be able to attend. The dealer service division already uses Webcasts for training sales staff on product launches, industry updates, and sales strategies and techniques. In other auto news, ADP partnered with IBM to introduce myautogarage.com, a Web-based service that allows consumers to schedule service appointments, access binding service price quotes, and view service histories for their own vehicles. Soon the 27 million people receiving paychecks printed by ADP will also be able to receive brokerage, tax and financial planning, 401(k) investments, and job searching services through the Internet. This means updating ADP's network, which has been building at a growth-rate of 125-150 percent per year.
Automatic Data Processing's regional offices conduct their recruiting and hiring practices separately. ADP's corporate headquarters considers applicants responding to openings advertised in the Sunday edition of the Newark Star-Ledger only. ADP's headquarters does not accept faxed resumes. In addition, ADP holds a number of job fairs throughout the country. "If you attend a job fair, the key is impressing the screener," says one insider who successfully made it through the hiring process. "If you make it past the screener, you can talk with people who can decide if you'll be hired." Prospective employees can search the company's web site at www.adp.com/home/careers.htm. The site is searchable by location and position. Applications are usually accepted in one of two ways: email with the resume in the body of the text, or by an on-line application. Each job description specifies how to apply.
Large employer problems ADP is nimble enough to have reached the top of the employer services field, but some employees say the company's size has its drawbacks. "You may feel that the company is big and too slow to take advantage of business opportunities. The problems that plague big companies - a heavy bureaucracy, slowness to change or to get things done, politics - also appear (at least on the surface) to be in ADP," says one employee. "ADP could be considered a very conservative organization with a legacy of more than 50 years," adds another. Not that the company is stagnant. "The culture here is changing. We're now encouraged to be more open. We have quarterly all-hands meetings with the president," confirms another source. Grow with the company ADPers say their work isn't the best paying. But when you own a piece of a company that's grown steadily for the past three decades, you're rewarded in other ways. "We're not known for paying the most in the marketplace, but it is fair and there is a lot more to a job than money," says one employee. But what's "a lot more?" Concludes one informant, "there is a very noticeable focus on participation in the various stock purchase/stock option programs, which have proven to be very profitable for employees over the years."
Human Resources
Brokerage Services;Claims Services;Dealer Services;Employer Services
Ceridian;Fiserv;Paychex More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
