ADP Workforce Review
ADP Workforce Review Summary
Score 9.6 out of 10
Currency
USD only
Monthly fees
Not publicly disclosed
Payment options
Direct debit and credit card
ADP Workforce Now checks many of the payroll and HR compliance boxes, and they have some helpful solutions for onsite, hourly workers. The drawbacks; however, are many, and they range from confusing billing to a poor user experience for system administrators. Employee engagement with the tool and use of its self-service functionality also appears to be very low in many cases. This leaves the system administrators to handle the lion’s share of the information changes. Workforce Now may be best suited for companies with 50 or more employees, but fewer than 1,000 employees because the time-consuming processes reportedly do not scale well.
As a certified and experienced HR professional, here is my honest review of ADP Workforce Now in 2024.
ADP Workforce Now Company Overview
Founded in 1949, the company now known as ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.) is arguably one of the most established HR and payroll brands. This software giant offers a few different products that range in price and functionality. Workforce Now is a cloud-based payroll and HR system with employee self-service and options to purchase additional functionality. For example, various modules like time and attendance, talent acquisition, and benefits administration are available, depending on the product tier you purchase.
ADP positions Workforce Now as their midmarket solution for employers with 50 to 1,000 employees. They also assert that it’s a good solution for more than 1,000 employees, but many end users of the system might disagree.
Interestingly, ADP appears to have removed the product names from its main website and now navigates prospective customers to the most appropriate ADP solution, based on factors such as company size and desired functionality. On the existing customer side of things, you still log in at https://workforcenow.adp.com/theme/admin.html.
And, while this particular product has undergone some modifications to its look and feel since its inception in 2009, the overall experience hasn’t changed much. I have used Workforce Now with a few different companies over the years, and I currently use it daily. Here is my take on ADP’s Workforce Now product and service:
ADP Workforce Pros and Cons
While none of these pros are unique to ADP, it wouldn’t be a balanced review if I didn’t mention them.
- Pros
Accurate payroll calculations
ADP prides itself on its software’s accuracy, and there are a few reports and product features that aid in the payroll validation process.
US federal state and local tax management
Based on each US employee’s worked-in and lived-in location, ADP requires employers to set up the correct state and local tax accounts. They then file and pay the state and local taxes on the employer’s behalf. They also alert you to any issues with tax setup and remind you to review employees’ W2s for accuracy before they mail them out.
Single system of record for employee and payroll data
It’s helpful to not have to rely on integrations and double entry when dealing with employee data. I also like that I can log in to one place for everything from recruiting to performance management to payroll. And, since other systems need to receive employee data like names, managers, work locations, etc., it helps that ADP Workforce Now accommodates integrations with third-party systems like your company’s cloud-based accounting software, CRM or ERP.
ACA compliance tracking and reporting
Workforce Now includes the needed fields for HR professionals to track and report on benefits eligibility for the US Affordable Care Act compliance purposes. This is very important for US companies with 50+ full-time equivalent employees.
Solutions geared towards onsite hourly workers
Companies with large hourly workforces may appreciate the onsite timeclock hardware that can include biometric readers. ADP Workforce Now also offers paycards for unbanked employees. These cards work like debit cards and loaded with the employee’s pay and issued every payday.
- Cons
Delayed customer support
In my experience, neither the Account Manager nor the Backup Account Manager (listed under Support→ My Service Team) answer the phone when you call. You have the option to leave a message, and they usually call you back within 24 hours; however, there’s no guarantee that they’ll call at a time that actually works for you. If you’d like to schedule an appointment with a representative, you might be looking at a meeting day and time two or three weeks out.
Unintuitive product design
In a perfect world, system admins would be able to locate and edit all information related to an employee in the employee’s profile. Instead, admins find and edit employee information by searching for the employee by name and then searching for the specific type of information needed. For example, if I want to see Joan Doe’s timesheet, I need to search “Joan”, select “Joan Doe” from the listed options, and then search “timesheet” and select “Individual Timesheet” from the options. Alternatively, I can use the menu options at the top to navigate from Joan’s profile to People→ Time & Attendance → Individual Timecard. This is not a big deal once you’re familiar with where everything is, but with multiple features also having locations or paths that aren’t immediately obvious, it’s initially very annoying. By “initially” I mean for the first year you use it.
Labor-intensive report generation
After running multiple out-of-the-box reports that sound promising, followed by repeated trial and error in building custom reports, I’ll eventually find what might be the right information in the needed format. Customer support can confirm, once I’m transferred to the right report expert to review it with me. Sound frustrating? Don’t worry, with a few hours of your valuable time to spare, you too can run meaningful reports in Workforce Now.
Labor-intensive report generation
After running multiple out-of-the-box reports that sound promising, followed by repeated trial and error in building custom reports, I’ll eventually find what might be the right information in the needed format. Customer support can confirm, once I’m transferred to the right report expert to review it with me. Sound frustrating? Don’t worry, with a few hours of your valuable time to spare, you too can run meaningful reports in Workforce Now.
Complicated billing
ADP invoices for different modules and services separately. There are some charges like those for software modules and integrations that are per-employee/per-user, others that are per “jurisdiction” and others that are for specific services like check voids/stop payments or tax form courier fees. There are even charges for each electronic pay statement (iPay Statement) and each corresponding electronic report (iReport). In addition to per-payroll charges like “Benefit Accrual” fees, I can see separate monthly charges for Workforce Now and “ADP DataCloud” (whatever that is). All of the moving parts and nebulous descriptions can make it difficult for customers to catch when they are being overbilled.
Not great for global teams
This one is a little harder to pin down outside of my personal opinion and the lack of engagement I’ve seen from employees with the tool in general. From what I’ve observed, it’s just not as easy to use for managing employees in other countries as the other HR systems I use. While I’m sure the ADP implementation team can come up with some creative solutions, the way the system inherently functions really feels geared towards US employees. You can house records of employees who are based in other countries for reporting purposes, which is helpful. But the tax ID has to be a social security number vs a social insurance number or other country’s type of individual tax ID. There may be an option to add it as a custom field, but it’s not clear without asking customer support.
RemotePeople Score for ADP Workforce Now
9.6/10
Our expert score for ADP Workforce Now
Our team came to this score by considering the following components in the following weightings:
Onboarding features
25%
Payroll features
10%
HR features
10%
Compliance features
10%
Platform features
10%
Pricing
20%
User reviews
15%
For each component, ADP Workforce Now received the following score:
Onboarding features
23/25
Payroll features
9/10
HR features
10/10
Compliance features
10%
Platform features
10/10
Pricing
20/20
User reviews
14/15
Conclusion
I have worked with dozens of PEO and HR platforms over the years. While ADP Workforce Now has a range of benefits, it also creates some frustrations. I would recommend this solution for smaller companies managing staff in the US only, and not for companies with global teams.
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