district manager

implementation specialist

payroll specialist

software engineer

project manager

Working in the COS department was extremely busy with unlimited workload.  The most efficient employees are saddled with the most volume of work.

The learning opportunities are endless as there are regular online courses and internal training sessions offered.  The employee education program is one of the best in the industry and certainly one of the strengths of the company.   Through hands on training or by networking with other associates within the organization an individual can pick up the knowledge and experience that would take years or even decades to attain elsewhere.  ADP is an unofficial payroll learning factory.

Management is very supportive when it comes to dealing with client concerns.  There is an understanding that job quality will suffer due to the high volume of work.  The mandate of management is to minimize or completely eliminate overtime pay.  Employees are expected to balance between volunteering their time for free or let service levels suffer as the work cannot be completed within the standard working hours.

Another great strength of the organization is the employees.  ADP has some of the hardest working, knowledgeable and most supportive employees in any company.  Coworkers rally around each other to assist during peak periods.  There is a very close bond between coworkers that is very special and unique.  I would be happy to work with any of my former ADP colleagues should another opportunity arise.

The hardest part of the job is knowing you can either give 100% of your attention to 80% of your clients or provide 80% of the quality needed to your entire client base.  It is a constant challenge to balance the level of customer service provided and to whom. Usually the loudest clients get the most attention since it is a very reactionary work environment.

Building relationships with clients and coworkers was by far the best part of the job.  Some of the connections made could very well last a lifetime.  The motivation comes from knowing a good job was performed with most of the acknowledgement coming directly from the client or fellow coworkers. 

There is a recognition system “My Moment” which allows associates to recognize the effort of their coworkers which is quite nice.  However, given the great financial success of the company the true measure of recognition should be reflected in the salaries and bonuses.  This is an area that is sorely lacking as most employees could make 15% to 25% more on the open market given their skillset.

ADP is a great company to learn the craft and increase your value as a professional.  The employee benefits and opportunities for growth are quite good.  In the past there was a lot of job security but with many Canadian jobs being offshored to India and the Philippines it is similar to other large for profit organizations looking to cut the budget.  Overall ADP is a decent place to work but it is not for everyone.

Regrettably, ADP Canada is a highly political, blame oriented organisation. If you are in a management, director role - you are given all the responsibility when it goes wrong, but none of the resources to fix things, and an overwhelming workload - with senior management merely shrugging when you tell them that something has to be moved off your plate. You are told that it is all your responsibility and nothing can be dropped.

The Canadian president works in the 1980's Bullying management style. It is a culture driven by fear.

Career advancement means finding a role that does not have prime responsibilities, then using all your time to smile, act in control, and use thick loads of political schmoozing for your own advancement. Also it will help if you can artfully take credit for yourself... and learn to blame others. 

Before being fired, one VP Marketing (DM) blamed his staff of directors for the gross budget mismanagement. Sadly - his directors were excellent budgeters... but DM failed to accept responsibility for budgeting incompetence to the tune of $1M over for 2 years in a row (and $1M underbudget for the first year). Fortunately, he spent 100% of his time on politics and planning out his next career move. Great talker - incompetent leader/marketer!

Overall - ADP came from the banking industry, and has maintained the old 1980's culture and political system. You DEFINITELY want to avoid working here!

Working at ADP has been a wonderful experience for me. I was in a different industry before; therefore ADP has given me a great opportunity to learn the payroll world and also funded my PCP certification. I also earned multiple promotions during my tenure at ADP and I always had a great work relationship  with all of  my leaders. 
The daily work balance is hard to manage on busy weeks but if you're good at time management, prioritizing, and organized, you can somewhat manage. During year end, you may find difficulties managing your work as it becomes chaotic and not enough support around. I would not recommend the payroll coordinator position if you are not able to manage stress. While you learn SO much in this role, the workload is demanding and way too hard to manage even for senior coordinators. The implementation jobs are definitely easier to manage as long as you have proper training and know how to manage your workloads (prioritizing etc). 
The best part of the job for me was gaining all the payroll experiences and how crucial it is to be accurate and pay attention to details. My job at ADP has given me the opportunity to gain more people skills for sure. 
What I really did not enjoy about the job is the lack of support from the support team (they were overworked) and being underpaid based on the market range 

Leadership says they want change but then do not empower or enable their team members to actually do it and are wholly out of touch with what it takes to change a static and slow moving organization.  Ideas are top down, and you do best if you agree with whatever your leader has to say.  Recent changes in leadership have promoted the most exemplary 'yes men' to executive leadership positions, and their primary focus is making themselves look good in front of the new president.  Big egos, arrogance and scant on new ideas, the leadership in field enablement (and service) are singularly focused on old ideas and get their teams to act on them, piling more and more work on to people that are maxed out.  If you disagree, it doesn't bode well for you.  But, if you have a great idea, they appropriate it as their own and don't share credit.  

Overall a de-motivating environment.  Working late in the office and then resuming the work at home is the norm, and it is never appreciated or acknowledged. The victims of this staid and undynamic environment are the clients and the people that work there. ADP's position in the industry is facing a significant erosion because the organization just can't get the servicing of clients right due to poor leadership lacking ideas, vision, or the confidence to let others bring new ideas to the table.  The company is great at celebrating its market leading position, but its competitors are beating them at every turn when it comes to servicing and communicating with clients.

Company has great leaders and  hardworking staff. The problem is, the products are designed by the US and pushed down to fit the Canadian market, so the workers are working doubly-hard to do band-aid solutions to pacify clients. The leaders are doing their best to improve the products but can only do so much since the headquarters in the US calls the shots. They try and take care of their employees - make it a fun work culture, give flexible working hours, give incentives - however, they have also cut down their onshore employees  over the years and offshored a lot of roles outside Canada. The offshore folks are not yet able to perform well, esp with product issues, so the problems get pushed back to the slimmed down onshore associates to resolve. This impacts everyone’s worklife balance. OT hours are normal..sometimes paid, sometimes you are given more time offs to compensate for the OT. Leaders are not paid OT. Black out dates from Nov-Mar, which means you cant take any time offs during that period. Leaders spend lavishly on their events, the normal non-associates not so much. Seems  like only leaders are valued and everyone’s just a disposable commodity. A lot of newcomers leave within the first 3 years on the job. The ones who have stayed are those who have seen better days and are still hoping for the good days to return. Or, they have worked long enough in the company that it would be hard to leave. 

An HR company, with no HR leadership in Canada? 
Zero accountability for leaders. The President is a figurehead who is not respected by his peers and is in way over his head. He is bullied by Sales. This lack of leadership is apparent at all levels of the organization and is a breeding ground for the toxic culture that they can't seem to shake.
No genuine concern or even basic interest in employees or their basic needs to be set up for success and engaged in their roles. 
Bro-culture. Priority for advancement is given to men - in all departments.
Racial stereotypes freely roll off the tongue of a particular executive while the President laughs and cheers him on in the sidelines. When advised how their behaviour acts against the inclusive environment they should be trying to promote, they dismiss it as not important. Humour over respect. Yet, they want their picture taken while they march in the Pride parade...tokenism at it's best.
Marketing lead for Canada has no marketing experience outside a narrow scope of product, which doesn't matter here because Canada really has no autonomy or decision-making authority at a strategy level. The matrix org does not facilitate that. 
If you're a white, straight, able-bodied, male...this job is for you! 
Don't even think about going on mat-leave here, this very American company will only give you a few weeks!

Great place to work with excellent training. ADP fosters a great culture and there are opportunities to advance your career within sales if you are successful and if you have a strong "brand".

"Brand" has a unique definition within the organization. At times this is based on strong sales results, working with ethics, supporting leadership, taking initiative on projects and helping your peers and leaders. At other times "brand" can refer to preferred treatment, friendships, and politics. If you don't do well with politics this may not be the place for you. If you are great at playing politics and are lucky to be preferred by your leader by agreeing with them holding your opinions and views to yourself and your focus is to help your leader this may be the right place for you.  Certain employees are held to different standards, if you are liked this can be an amazing place to have a career. The role is demanding and there is a lot of pressure to achieve numbers and targets with limited support from the same leaders who hold you to those targets.  Everyone is responsible to a number/target and your territory and leader determine the amount of opportunity you have.

ADP provides good training, if you are looking to gain basic sales experience and knowledge in payroll. However, this definitely is not a job for everyone. This a good job, if you are fresh out of school, and desperate for a job. It is a young culture and there is a lot of turn over. Boss will micromanage you, you cannot be 5 mins late but the management will expect that you work after hours. It is all about sales numbers and highest dials that you can make, expect at least 100 per day, that it will make you feel like you are working for a call centre. There is no work life balance. If you have a doctor’s appointment - don’t expect to go during work hours because they will tell you to do it during your personal time which is the weekend (and you are lucky if your doctor is even open on the weekend). Do you enjoy taking vacations? Even though you start with 3-weeks, they prefer that you break them up during the year (good luck trying to take a week off). The interview process is long, ADP will tell you that there is a lot of opportunities for growth but really, it’s because there is a lot of turn over. That should be the first red flag. During my time at ADP, most people left the company in less than a year looking for better opportunities.

The job was perm. It was supposed to be stable. Was supposed to have an amazing work culture, what a fail. I left a higher paying position for what should have been a stable position. Not only did they discriminate my gender they used the trainer as a sounding board to report my personal life to managers and justify firing me after 3 weeks of completing training. 

I have had some progressional regrets in my life, but this by far tops it. I no longer trust the big corporate companies that sell their super working conditions who promise employees come first and have left the field altogether.

I had to make a complaint to labour board just to get paid as they “forgot my day of work”, made an error on my record of employment and refuse to send me my papers. And this is a payroll service company. Took 5 weeks to get final pay.

This job was not worth the hassle, they lied about working conditions in the interview, they lied about work schedule during the offer and they have 3 managers who are completely incompetent and who will forever mark my time there as negative.

You are pushed to compete with your coworkers in an unhealthy way. Feels like they are trying to make the company culture like that of a Wolf of Wall Street type place. Morning meetings in front of the whole company praise high performers (not a bad thing) while also highlighting those who aren’t doing as well (not great). They also claim to promote work life balance and say they don’t ask for any overtime, but they strongly encourage it and you are praised for working far beyond your hours. You’re constantly told you should be grateful to only work in office 3 days a week, although you do all your work virtually anyway. They say they care about their employees, but in my experience, personal issues like chronic illness and mental health aren’t  taken seriously.

If you thrive in an environment like that, you will probably do well and enjoy the company. If you don’t want work to consume your life, don’t work here. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
District manager 16 salaries reported	$69,178 per year
Implementation specialist 8 salaries reported	$69,575 per year
Payroll specialist 6 salaries reported	$70,141 per year
Software engineer 5 salaries reported	$102,200 per year
Project manager 4 salaries reported	$102,125 per year

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