Partnering to find efficiencies for portfolio companies

Recommending ADP to portfolio companies:

We very much have the attitude that we want our companies to maintain their autonomy. My role is not to tell them, “You need a new broker, you need a new HRIS system, you need a new comp system.”

It’s really my job to go in and evaluate the practices, procedures and tools the companies have and if they are happy with their practices and they seem to be efficient, my role is to support that.

I have been very open with our portfolio companies that we are a member of the ADP Partner Advantage Program and that I will always make a connection if and when they are interested. My rule is I’ll do the introduction and then I let the process speak for itself. They’re aware that the partnership has been a very good thing for us at Heartwood Partners and for those companies that have ADP.

Portfolio company optimization:

If a portfolio company does choose to go with ADP, ADP will go in and troubleshoot ways to run payroll more efficiently and make it more cost effective. They’ve also been able to digitize a number of experiences like benefits enrollment.

One of our companies went out and bought the performance management module and they love having that automated. That was an add-on module, following the optimization process. A number of our companies have also been able to better utilize the recruiting tools which, let’s face it, everyone needs help with recruiting these days.

A well-rounded strategic partner:

I think ADP has modules that pretty much cover everything:

When it comes to talent acquisition, ADP handles everything from the application to the applicant tracking, to processing and the communication between the company and the candidate.  They also can complete onboarding. Those are all functions that the companies are spending a lot of time doing, that can easily be automated through ADP.

The performance management module is automated, and I know it’s user friendly in a way that the employee can write their self-evaluation and managers can then write their evaluation. You can then set an approval chain of command for approvals.

Obviously, you want the fundamentals of payroll to be efficient, effective and compliant and ADP does that very well. Our companies have been really happy with ADP and COVID management. Going back as far as  February/March of 2020, they were giving companies excellent updates on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) legislation that came in.

ADP has tracking tools for dealing with COVID, which is definitely thumbs up to ADP. They seem to be ahead of the curve in providing tools to manage the pandemic process.

ADP’s compliance expertise:

When it comes to compliance, the seminars and webinars that come out are always excellent. One advantage of being part of a network through a private equity company is that if not everyone could join a particular webinar, they would certainly divide and conquer and bring each other up to speed for those that couldn’t join it. There have been a number of great legal webinars and every slide was of value to me. I remember being glued to it.

Those are all significant benefits of being part of ADP and obviously, that’s something the portfolio companies that use ADP receive. It’s a benefit to me that Ryan, our account manager, does an excellent job of keeping me updated as issues arise.

ADP DataCloud and benchmarking:

I like using ADP DataCloud, there are many sources of market data out there. If I’m looking up a manager of HR position, I know that this isn’t information that was “submitted”. This is real data coming from the ADP database and it’s providing us with market information to share with leadership.

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