ADP already had a strong relationship with Amazon, having supported the business across a wide number of regions with at least eight different ADP solutions. With the advent of rapid business expansion into new regions and the pandemic, the relationship only strengthened.

Partnering with the market leader in payroll innovation has given us confidence. We’ve challenged ADP with some crazy, unprecedented things over the years, and ADP has delivered for us.

Greg Harmer, Global Head of Payroll
Amazon

Challenges

  • Actively acquiring like-minded businesses and needed a payroll system that could keep pace with its explosive growth
  • Managing global compliance regulations

How ADP helped

  • Extensive experience in handling multi-country payroll
  • Helped Amazon provide its employees with an intuitive user experience, greater pay flexibility, and — through Wisely — financial wellness tools.
  • Legislative expertise helped maintain compliance with global regulations

ADP Solutions

  • ADP Streamline, Wisely by ADP

The challenges

Amazon needed a payroll system that could keep pace with its explosive growth. In recent times, employee growth has hit between 20-40 percent per year and shows no sign of slowing up. The pandemic took that expansion to new heights and has now led to the company having 1.6 million employees worldwide who need to be paid in a variety of time intervals: monthly, biweekly, and weekly.

Amazon was looking for a long-term payroll partner who could provide not only industry-leading technology but a team of legislative experts to help the company comply with global compliance regulations and stringent security requirements on the ground.

The solution

“We use Wisely® by ADP as the engine to pay those employees who sign up for our bespoke free, on-demand Anytime Pay payment app,” said Harmer. “This ensures we can attract, engage and retain top talent through the convenience and flexibility of an employee-focused payment offering. Plus, it helps us reduce costs and ease administration.”

The company also relies upon ADP Streamline Payroll, the single-solution, multi-country payroll platform. As an international provider, ADP’s wealth of experience in multi-country payroll was invaluable in aiding Amazon to be a successful employer in the Middle East. Whether it’s taxation rules, labor reporting, or region-specific benefits, “Having an in-country partner who can give you expertise and guidance as well as good technology, you can’t put a price on that” notes Greg.

The results

“On short notice and with ADP’s help, we moved half a million employees to weekly pay, the largest pay cycle acceleration in history. There was no room for error and no time to waste. All of this was done on ADP technology. The team at ADP had our back — and they nailed it,” he added. “Despite the massive increase in scale, I was pleasantly surprised at how our payroll processing times have not changed at all, and if anything, have only gotten faster.”

In today’s fight for talent, payroll is a strategic business function for Amazon. Using ADP’s technology enabled Amazon to remain highly competitive in retaining talent, where the frequency and ease of payment is a critical selling point. In the US specifically, ADP’s Wisely solution holds real appeal for potential employees, where the ability to be paid instantly and in a convenient manner has transformed Amazon’s offering.

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