ADAPT Community Network has been improving quality of life for people with disabilities for nearly 80 years. Operating throughout the five boroughs of New York, the nonprofit organization runs hundreds of programs and services that help to build a more inclusive world.

Patricia Chiu, VP of HR Analytics and Transformation, explains: “We function as a parent company, with four affiliates and around 3,300 employees in total. Our programs and services cover education, healthcare, employment, housing, and technology, and we currently help 20,000 children and adults with disabilities to live happier, healthier, and more fulfilled lives.”

Following more than a decade of working in city government, Patricia joined ADAPT three years ago to help modernize the HR function. One of the main items on the agenda at that time was to replace multiple legacy systems with a new HR and payroll platform.

“One of my first tasks at ADAPT was to join a meeting with our executives to view a demo of Paylocity,” Patricia adds. “Coming from a city agency, where the technology was relatively basic, I was blown away by the capabilities, especially the integrations with third parties.”

After overseeing the implementation of the platform, Patricia and her colleagues now use Paylocity for all day-to-day operational HR. “We harness everything from the Payroll and Data Insights modules to the Paylocity Mobile App and the AI capabilities. The switch to Paylocity has been a big success, and the ease of use and customer service have been standout features.”

 

The Challenge: Planning HR Transformation

To support its important social care work, ADAPT Community Network aimed to update its HR and payroll systems, phase out paper processes, and improve efficiency and transparency.

Building a Unified HR Environment

Over time, ADAPT deployed a patchwork of HR systems. “We used UKG for our main company, and ADP and Paychex for our affiliates,” explains Patricia. “That created complexity as we had to switch systems to perform tasks for different affiliates.” UKG also proved a costly option. “We were only using the time and labor tools but paying for a full suite of functionality,” adds Patricia. The organization also had a separate learning management system from Absorb. “The interface was very basic, and we still had to track who had completed trainings manually,” notes Patricia.

Replacing Inefficient Manual Working

Furthermore, ADAPT relied on time-consuming manual, paper-based workflows for other key HR processes. For example, during benefits enrollments the HR team would distribute and collect paper forms from employees with details of their selected healthcare plans. Similarly, changes to employee status or salaries were recorded on paper forms, then sent to relevant approvers across the organization, before finally reaching HR to implement during payroll. “Having so much paper floating around wasn’t an efficient or effective way of working,” says Patricia. “Sometimes, forms were misplaced or didn’t reach us for months, causing delays to status changes.”

Managing a Complex, Dynamic Workforce

Employee turnover is high in the care sector and ADAPT is constantly hiring talent. “We always need more direct support professionals,” adds Patricia. “We can hire 20 to 30 people in a couple weeks, but the same number often leaves in that period. One crucial thing is to ensure new hires have the right medical certifications.” It’s also essential that ADAPT regularly audits its employee records, as Patricia explains: “We must ensure people are categorized correctly, or we can face issues around funding. We can’t have unionized people working at non-unionized sites, for instance.”

 

The Solution: Making a Strategic Shift

Impressed by the demo session, ADAPT Community Network decided to roll out the Paylocity platform to transform benefits management, reporting and analytics, and internal communications.

Streamlining Benefits and HR Admin

Using Paylocity’s Benefits Administration module, ADAPT has streamlined workflows for open enrollments. “We now handle every step in Paylocity, not on paper,” explains Patricia. “Everything is automated, and the integrations and file feeds enable seamless data exchange with our benefits providers.” The organization also uses Paylocity’s AI Assistant to enhance the employee experience. “We recently uploaded our updated handbook into the system, and synced with the AI Assistant, so employees can run quick queries if they need to check our time-off policy, for instance,” notes Patricia. “In the past, that would have meant sending an email to HR. Paylocity keeps building on that as well by weaving new tools through the platform with Ignite AI. We’re looking forward to leveraging it across the platform.”

Analyzing and Auditing HR Records

ADAPT’s VP of Talent Acquisition harnesses the Recruiting and Onboarding modules to post open roles, manage incoming applications, and ensure candidates have the correct qualifications, such as Approved Medication Assistive Personnel (AMAP) certifications. Meanwhile, Patricia uses the main HR system and Payroll module to manage pay and employee services, and Data Insights to track and analyze workforce trends, including demographics, overtime, length of service, employee compensation, mobile app utilization, and more. “We create lots of ad hoc reports to cover everything that we need, as well as using the preloaded reports in Paylocity,” adds Patricia.

Connecting the Entire Organization

In addition, ADAPT uses the Paylocity Mobile App and Community social hub to connect with employees. “We have made downloading the app mandatory for new hires,” says Patricia. Via the app, users can access Community, where the Senior Communications Manager posts organization-wide announcements, including information on housing programs run by the city that are available to employees, and health advice such as how to act when air quality in New York drops. “People are also offering shoutouts to each other using the Recognition & Rewards module, which is great to see,” notes Patricia.

 

The Results: Driving Positive Change

With Paylocity, ADAPT Community Network has successfully modernized its systems architecture, accelerated key processes, saved time for the HR team, and reduced operational risk.

Consolidating Systems Simplifies HR

By switching to Paylocity, ADAPT has slimmed down its HR environment, making life much easier for Patricia and her team. “Paylocity gives us a one-stop-shop approach,” she explains. “We don’t have to open up ADP for one affiliate, then jump back to UKG for the main company. Everything flows much easier.” The latest step in the consolidation is replacing Absorb with Paylocity’s Learning module. “We’re moving our mandatory annual and bi-annual skills and certification trainings into Paylocity,” adds Patricia. “That will also help us to track and audit completions.”

Optimizing Processes Prevent Delays

By replacing paper and manual processes, ADAPT has achieved major efficiency gains. For example, the organization has saved around two weeks every open enrollment. “Everything is ready to go in Paylocity, so we don’t have to prep and send out forms,” says Patricia. “The simpler sign-up process and regular notifications to employees have contributed to an increase in overall enrollments.”

Similarly, digital Employee Action Forms in Paylocity have helped to prevent delays to status and salary changes. “You submit the request; it flows to the next approver, then HR takes action,” adds Patricia. “What used to take months to complete is now typically done inside a week.”

Increasing Transparency Helps Ensure Compliance

Finally, the reporting tools in Paylocity provide insight and transparency across the organization and help Patricia manage the workforce effectively and ensure compliance. “I am always running audits to check if people are listed in the right unions and programs,” she adds. “The overtime reports are so useful to ensure accurate payroll, while demographic data helps us hit our diversity goals.” Patricia prepares data to be presented to the executive board each quarter and has taught other VPs to use the reporting tools. “Whenever people have questions, they just head into Data Insights,” she concludes.