Pressing into diversity, equity and inclusion through data

As the largest global sustainability consultancy, ERM partners with the world’s leading organizations to create innovative solutions to sustainability challenges. Their goal is to unlock commercial opportunities that meet the needs of today while preserving opportunities for future generations. Learn how ADP partners with ERM to help enable their comprehensive approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I).

ADP runs our payroll and benefits, and they provide guidance and expertise in determining best practices to ensure our employees get exactly what they need. This helps us because we are constantly making changes to our benefits. Plus, ADP’s comprehensive reporting allows us to make even-handed decisions across our workforce without discrimination or bias.

Valerie Rannestad, Regional Director, HR Operations – North America
Environmental Resources Management (ERM)

Interviewees:

Valerie Rannestad, Regional Director, HR Operations – North America
Katherine Costello, DE&I Manager – North America
Fred Woody, Area Manager and BIPOC ERG Partner Sponsor
Sharilyn Erickson, Payroll Manager

Cultivating a diverse workforce

Katherine: Diversity is an essential part of how we do business. I’m responsible for ensuring a diverse workforce representing the communities where we live and work. It’s also my responsibility to make sure our processes are free from bias and provide equal access to projects and career advancement.

ADP data helps ensure parity

Sharilyn: We use ADP Enterprise HR version six for payroll. When we acquire different companies, ADP makes it easy to pay our new hires quickly and correctly, and pull compensation data to ensure employees are being paid fairly.

Katherine: We often look at the makeup of our new hires, promotions and talent pipeline and perform a robust pay equity review to ensure no gaps. We also look at bonuses and performance reviews by gender, race and ethnicity to help ensure we’re succeeding or to identify issues we need to tackle.

Valerie: Thanks to our partnership with ADP, we help ensure our employees are paid correctly. It’s also great that ADP helps us help our employees accurately understand their take-home pay, which is essential to employee retention.

ADP helps us stay compliant

Valerie: We use ADP SmartCompliance, and it’s the ideal solution for us, given our complex network of companies and all the compliance requirements of the many states we’re in. During the pandemic, ADP helped us understand and manage the tax changes that came out. That was huge for us.

Sharilyn: The system also makes setting up pay groups with employees in multiple states easy, which has helped us immensely during acquisitions because of our nationwide reach. It makes it easy to respond to agency notices, especially if a tax is due or there is an overpayment. We can even compare taxes year over year.

Empowering employees with self-service

Valerie: From the start, we empower new hires with MyADP and the ADP Mobile app, allowing them to check pay information without contacting payroll or HR for any of their data.

Sharilyn: Our employees love being in control of their information. Logging into MyADP is simple and allows them direct access to their Forms W-2 and pay statements. They can easily print their documents if they need proof of income when applying for a car loan or renting an apartment. If they move, they can update their information in the app, which flows directly to the payroll system.

Advice to others looking to advance DE&I

Fred: My advice to other organizations looking to advance their DE&I objectives is to be authentic, bold and courageous. The first step is often the hardest, but if you take that first step, the next step is going to be a little bit easier.

Katherine: It takes time to develop a strong DE&I culture and to see the results come to life. Be patient, be persistent and be curious. If the results aren’t what you want them to be, delve into it, identify the barriers and create solutions with the key stakeholders in the business.

On winning the Humanity at Work award

Fred: We’ve had an all-in approach to DE&I and achieving our company goals. Winning the Humanity at Work award validates our efforts as a team and further solidifies the fact that we’re on the right path and doing the right things.

Sharilyn: ERM won the Humanity at Work award because our culture, values and mission speak to humanity in every sense.

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