Grocery Brand Brings Something Fresh to the Table with Paylocity

In 1918, the Adams family bought 50 acres of land in Poughkeepsie, New York, and started providing fresh produce to local stores. A few years later, they launched Adams Fairacre Farms to sell directly to consumers and now have five locations offering items sourced from across the Hudson Valley.

Sarah Mackay, HR Director, explains: “We’re still owned by the Adams family after more than a century. In that time, we’ve added new lines of business such as landscaping and backyard products, but the company still has that close-knit family feel, even though we employ 1,800 people. In fact, our owners probably know the names of 90 percent of our employees.”

That is just one of the many things that makes Adams Fairacre Farms unique. After all, there aren’t many companies that employ experts in international cheeses as well as garden fertilizers and pest control. And when people join the company, they stay for the long term.

“During my first week on the job, I hardly met a single person that hadn’t been here for at least ten years,” adds Sarah. “Compared to most retailers, our employee turnover is very low. I’m one of the few people here who didn’t start as a cashier or cart handler then work my way up.”

While Adams Fairacre Farms has deep roots in the past, the company is always looking to evolve. So, when its HCM platform was becoming increasingly expensive, the company decided to change providers and has enjoyed a bountiful harvest since moving to Paylocity.

 

The Challenge: Preparing the Ground

After 25 years using an ADP system alongside paper-based processes, Adams Fairacre Farms felt that it was time to take a bold step and implement an all-new HR and payroll platform.

Manual Scheduling Creates Complexity

With multiple locations, departments, and working patterns, managing shifts can be a complicated task for managers at Adams Fairacre Farms. Adding to the complexity, scheduling was previously handled manually. “We were using Excel spreadsheets or pen and paper,” explains Sarah. “We would post a plan on a bulletin board or text out a picture to the team.” Managers could spend hours each week planning schedules and keeping staffing costs aligned with budgets. “When you’re calculating everything manually, there is always room for error,” notes Sarah. “It was time to move onto a more modern scheduling system that would make everyone’s lives easier.”

Previous Platform Costs Keep Rising

For some time, the ownership at Adams Fairacre Farms had concerns over the expense of the ADP system. With cost savings a key goal for 2026, Sarah approached the vendor for a strategic review. “Rather than dropping modules, ADP suggested we optimize what we had,” says Sarah. “But when they sent a rep to rationalize the system, we found so many things that didn’t work well, and they could only provide a few workarounds rather than real enhancements.” When the vendor then offered a small price cut on one module, Adams Fairacre Farms started to look at alternatives.

Unreliable Tools Cause Onboarding Issues

There were operational issues with the old platform, too. For example, Adams Fairacre Farms hires around 600 people each year, but the onboarding tools were often unreliable. “Springtime is a busy time for hiring, and so is August and September as we scale operations in readiness for the holiday season,” explains Sarah. “In the past, something was always going wrong with the onboarding system. And when we spoke to ADP, no one wanted to take ownership and provide a fix.”

 

The Solution: Sowing the Seeds

After viewing demos from multiple vendors, Sarah and the Adams Fairacre Farms team chose Paylocity for the integrated capabilities, ease of use, and responsive support.

Achieving a Seamless Implementation

Adams Fairacre Farms worked with Paylocity over six months to roll out the new platform. “The Paylocity team bent over backwards to ensure we hit our go-live target,” says Sarah. “They took the time to understand the nuances of our business, and the onsite training was so useful for our users.”

Modernizing Shift Planning and Compliance

Using the Scheduling Plus module, Adams Fairacre Farms has replaced paper and spreadsheets with simpler, digital workflows. Managers can access easy-to-use templates to plan schedules and track budget, while employees enjoy the flexibility to swap shifts with colleagues. “There are so many great tools in Paylocity that we hadn’t even considered,” notes Sarah. “It’s easy to monitor the hours of high-school age employees to ensure we comply with state rules, and we can always see who’s on leave, so we don’t add them to a schedule and then find out we’re missing a key person for a shift.”

Simplifying Hiring and Onboarding

Furthermore, Adams Fairacre Farms has built a more robust, streamlined hiring process with the Recruiting and Onboarding modules. “Our Recruitment team is very happy with Paylocity,” adds Sarah. “They love the flexibility of the system, the option to send text messages to candidates to schedule interviews, and the seamless integrations with background check providers. And once we hire someone, we can move them straight into the onboarding workflow.”

Adding Intelligent AI Into the Mix

In addition, Paylocity’s AI Assistant has proven handy for navigating the platform. “We call the AI Assistant our ‘guiding star’,” says Sarah. “At least twice a day, we use the AI Assistant to find documents or search the PEAK Knowledge Base. It’s much smarter than the AI in the other platform we considered.” Adams Fairacre Farms has also uploaded its employee handbook and trained the AI Assistant to answer queries. “We’re looking forward to the new Ignite AI tools, too,” adds Sarah.

The Results: Gathering a Bumper Crop

With the successful switch to Paylocity, Adams Fairacre Farms has unlocked hundreds of hours of time savings, boosted manager productivity, cut operational risk, and reduced costs.

Eliminating the Paper and Spreadsheets

Using Paylocity, Adams Fairacre Farms has turned shift planning from a slow, arduous task to a simple action. “Creating a schedule has gone from taking four to six hours to 15 minutes,” explains Sarah. “With 100 managers, that means up to 600 hours saved per week.” Moreover, the structured digital process reduces the risk of budgeting and compliance errors. “Just highlighting minors on a schedule helps us ensure they don’t work too many hours, meaning I can sleep better at night,” notes Sarah. “We have brought scheduling into the 21st century with Paylocity.”

Creating a Frictionless Onboarding Experience

The new hiring and onboarding process has improved efficiency and made life much simpler for new hires. “We recently hired a new IT Director, who commented that the onboarding experience was awesome,” notes Sarah. “Around two out of five new hires would run into problems with offer letters or other things in the old system; with Paylocity, everything runs without a hitch. We’ve added more than 100 people in the three months since go-live—it’s going well.”

Offering Employees More Flexibility

The move to Paylocity has also enhanced the employee experience. For example, the Paylocity Mobile App enables employees to check work schedules, request time off, and much more. “The Paylocity Mobile App is a massive upgrade on the ADP version,” says Sarah. “All you could do on their app was look at pay stubs; in the Paylocity app you can do everything!”

Adams Fairacre Farms is also now rolling out the Recognition & Rewards module to celebrate employee achievements. “It was simple to set up the badges and awards,” concludes Sarah. “We’re moving into phase two of the Paylocity rollout. One of our key goals is making full use of Data Insights, which will help our management analyze trends and create customized reports.”