ADP ReThink Zurich Event Recap: A bridesmaid no longer, Payroll is finally the bride.

ADP held its annual ADP ReThink event, this time in Zurich, Switzerland. A fitting city known for business, finance, and innovation! If you haven’t attended an ADP ReThink event, I encourage you to read my blog from last year’s ADP ReThink event in London on why I think the marquee global event is uniquely differentiated.  

ADP ReThink brought together executives and leaders from some of the world's largest and most notable employers and brands, many of which are long-term enterprise customers of ADP. I liken ADP ReThink to the ‘Davos of global HR and payroll.’

As in past years, ADP ReThink Zurich included an impressive cohort of attendees representing over 200 organizations from over 30 countries, employing 18 million workers and producing $6.4 trillion in revenues!

ADP product update.

First, let’s discuss what’s new on the product front.

The new ADP Global Payroll dashboard, which consolidates payroll globally to a single view, is in pilot with select customers (GA by June 2025) and now includes enhanced reporting for variances with drill-down capability, expanded thresholds, and auto-correct features. 

The dashboard also supports role-specific metrics and KPIs and includes integration with ADP Assist to augment leaders, practitioners, and employees.  It’s important to note that ADP Assist is fully included (not an additional SKU).

On the global HCM front, ADP Lyric (aka/formerly ADP Next Gen HCM) is localized and piloting the ADP next-gen payroll engine in select countries. Celergo v2.0 is increasing in adoption, and more customers are gradually shifting from ADP’s legacy Streamline offering toward the Celergo (for firms <1k employees) and GlobalView (for firms >1k employees) solutions.

In past years, we have seen ADP introduce new solutions and, in some cases, make a timely acquisition.  This year, the fall 2024 acquisition of WorkForce Software by ADP (my take on the acquisition here) made its presence and buzz known at ADP Rethink.  With ‘source to gross’ often the heavy lift for many payroll operations, the ability for ADP to now provide a next-generation global WFM solution, paired with its comprehensive ‘gross to net’ capabilities, all the pieces are in place to enable global payroll transformation for its customers from scheduling through to cross border payment.  

This has positioned ADP to advance and grow its historically market-leading position and global payroll dominance.  I would like to see ADP leverage its technology and innovation to reduce the timeline for global payroll transformation to offer a ‘weeks, not months’ value proposition, something it is working on to improve ROI realization by shrinking the deployment timelines for its customers.

What you probably didn’t know (but should) about ADP.  

In the AI and augmentation age, it’s easy to focus purely on the rapid pace and power of innovation.  It’s also easy to forget the incredible pace of change and the impacts we are experiencing as humans. Organizations of every size are keenly aware of the potential for AI to transform their operations and businesses.

Transformation is so much more than technology alone.  Transformation is only possible with human emotional intelligence leading the way – the key acumen to winning in the augmentation age. With 75 years in this game, ADP understands HR and payroll transformation as much as any organization, continuously adapting and innovating alongside and for its customers.   

Transformation is complex, confusing, and uncomfortable. To be successful, transformation must be more ‘lifestyle’ than ‘destination,’ and it’s not always entirely linear, as every organization brings unique challenges and variables that complicate things further.

For nearly a decade, I have studied HR and payroll transformation and for 20+ years prior I lived and led it for some of the largest enterprise organizations on the planet.  Everything from HCM tech adoption to cloud HR services to HR and payroll operations.  A clear and common denominator amongst buyers has always been the challenge of navigating transformation.  Almost every organization seeking to transform HR and payroll indicates a need for help in navigating it, generally requiring end-to-end support. 

To match that trend, ADP has quietly and carefully curated a business transformation consulting offering, enabling a ‘consult to operate’ solution. Activating its deep expertise to meet customers at any stage of transformation progress and help guide them to success.  Most companies are not HR and payroll transformation experts. They are also generally not good at managing the change that transformation brings. Put those two together, and you have a recipe for disaster. Understandable, as it simply is not core to their businesses. 

However, it is very much ADP’s core business. With decades of experience, they have a POV and proven expertise, data and learnings, methodologies, and a solution portfolio that has assisted organizations of every size in achieving their HR and payroll goals.

What you might not know is that ADP has brought together its expertise, insights, and solutions to support customers with transformational guidance.  ADP has curated both a business transformation and global consulting services offering that can support customers from end to end throughout their transformation journeys.  An expertise and competency that is highly differentiated, proven, and thriving.  Customers have been taking advantage of ADP’s strategic consulting services offering since ~2019. However, while it remains one of ADP’s key differentiators, it’s also ADP’s best-kept secret, with more customers tapping into the expertise as the practice continues its rapid growth.

What I love is the agility and modularity here.  ADP makes these services available on demand and ‘in the flow of transformation’ and growth. This means the services are available at all stages of the client’s transformation lifecycle and available as and when customers require help.  A global MNC’s needs can change quickly through events like M&A or divestitures, and ADP is at the ready point to help meet and solve their global HR and payroll needs. From business case support to operating model design to governance and change management, much like its portfolio of tech and services solutions, ADP offers support for their needs.

This consult-to-operate model is, in my opinion, where ADP can and will make notable differentiation strides and impact for its customers.  Combined with its wide-ranging set of global HR solutions, I think it is indicative of why more enterprise organizations are going ‘all in on ADP’ – something I heard multiple times in enterprise customer conversations in Zurich.  The expertise, capability, and trust were always there, and now ADP has channeled its innovation and expertise to its customers’ benefit.

The most impactful takeaway from ADP ReThink.

You know that old saying about always being second and never the first pick for anything?  That’s payroll -  ’always the bridesmaid, never the bride.’ In fact, payroll is still largely misunderstood, under-represented, and last to know what the organization is planning.

The reality is that payroll influences everything, and it’s tied to and impacted by every business decision that involves people – which is pretty much every decision and move the organization makes.

What I loved most about ADP ReThink this year was the breadth of impactful customer stories and, more importantly, the number of ‘payroll executives’ on stage sharing the strategic impact and value they are delivering for their organizations with the help of ADP.  Payroll is being brought to the table proactively, engaged as trusted advisors thanks to compliance expertise and deep pools of rich data capable of pairing with broader insights to enable organizational agility and strategic outcomes.

One of the most impactful stories on stage was by a payroll executive who was reminded early in his career that a move to payroll meant ‘"..you will always be an expense." Something payroll leaders (me included) have faced our entire careers.  Last to be told of strategic plans, last to receive investment, last to be asked our opinions while keeping the company compliant, curating one of the most valuable datasets in the organization, and acutely familiar with every payroll impacting process in HR (it's all of them, by the way).

Payroll commonly knows more about HR and the business than HR or the business, yet it has historically been treated as less than. 

The reality is that payroll leaders are business leaders who just happen to work in payroll.  Organizations realizing this are finally tapping into a strategic advisor, empowered and augmented by technology, innovation, and executive support to help facilitate strategic plans. The modern payroll organization now has five key pillars it should be seeking to enable in support of delivering the ultimate ROI and strategic outcome: organizational agility.

Source: Payrollinfluences.com, 2024 Payroll Profession Confidence Index

With ADP’s innovation and guidance, more organizations are elevating payroll to new heights.  I met leaders at the highest levels of their organizations who fundamentally ‘get it’ and are lobbying to own and invest in payroll to create an operating model capable of powering their firms into the future.  

They are doing this by leveraging solutions like ADP DataCloud to activate their rich datasets in context with other organizational data to help their firms see around the next corner and remain agile, scalable, and resilient for the next challenge. They use technology to solve problems, predict and prevent failures and are being recognized as the trust advisors they always were. They are empowering employees with greater autonomy and transparency through AI and real-time insights that nudge them to make better pay decisions to enhance and personalize their employee experiences.

Payroll is no longer being led and fundamentally leading their organizations and driving impactful change and outcomes. A bridesmaid no longer, payroll is finally the bride, and ADP is taking point in helping facilitate the much-needed global awakening for what payroll can offer the organizations they serve when powered by the right mix of executive engagement, technology, expertise, and insight.