Pros
At ADP, the only thing even more guaranteed than job security, is a pizza party.
Cons
I would like to preface by saying this review is not coming from a mistreated, un-liked, underperforming, disgruntled employee. I was a tenured, respected, top performer that consistently received awards, recognition and praise. Yet my experience with this company and role touched me in such a negative and profound way that I cannot part ways without at least trying to save others from throwing away precious years of their lives and careers. I will first make a statement about the company and then the role itself. ADP’s line of work primarily centers around helping businesses with a tax code that was originally published in 1926. By virtue, the company has little to no need for modern technology, innovative ideas, streamlined workflows, a sense of urgency, or really any form of forward thinking vision. The IRS is still decades in the past, so ADP’s vision, technological sophistication and understanding of a modern day workforce is equally dated. Consider what attracts you to a company in 2020. Is it working with new and exciting software? Lax work environment where there is no dress code? Maybe dogs are allowed? Quick career mobility? Is the company constantly in the news for being on the verge of breakthrough ideas? Is there generous PTO compared to similar companies? Do you frequently get to engage or collaborate with senior leadership? ADP lacks in all of the aforementioned, commonly desired attirbutes. The company’s culture and vision is archaic, growth inhibiting, and simply stale. Even if your first role will be tolerable, you will not find happiness here long term. Now in regards tot he role of Client Service Consultant, aka, glorified customer service rep: I’d like to start by saying that almost all roles in this 60,000 person company are customer service. If you are not talking on the phone with an actual client, your client is now another ADP rep looking for answers. Unless you’re in management, sales, or software development, you are a customer service rep in some form or another. Client Service Consultant however, is the front lines of the company. You will be expected to take 30+ calls a day from mostly irritated and often times abusive clients. While this may strike some as a typical customer service role, this comes with an added bonus of having to also fulfill a requirement of squeezing in sales leads. Furthermore, the cards are stacked against you because you have the misfortune of working for a company where the software you need to provide good service is lacking. You will not be using a high end, robust and reliable software like Salesforce. You will use ADP’s own proprietary software that has proven to be reliable in the sense that you can rely on it to be down at least once a week and for hours at a time. And if the software is working, the user interface is so poorly designed that you will spend long periods of time just trying to understand the client’s current state of affairs. Other departments you’ll need to contact for answers are often unhelpful and staffed by disgruntled, over worked, and poorly communicative employees. Now it is common to start off in a role like this and then to just move out once you have your bearings. Not here. It takes months to become proficient in all aspects of this role. A company of this size ideally wants to preserve its workforce so that it can spend less on hiring and maintain the same level of proficiency. For this reason, promotions are almost nonexistent, take 18months to even be eligible, and offer few vertical movements, as again, almost all roles consist of customer service in some form. If you do want to move elsewhere, the move will be horizontal, meaning to another entry role in a different department. Being a customer service role, you will need to put your PTO in months (yes months) in advance. Bids go out once every 6 months and are based on tenure. If you don’t have your life planned half a year in advance, your PTO basically doesn’t exist. There is no happiness or career progression in this role or at this company. The only employees that have lasted many years are either in management, or those who are not seeking career development or those who need a stable hourly position to support a family.
