Alison Stevens of Paychex On How To Identify and Engage The Best Talent For Your Organization

An Interview With Finn Bartram, Editor Of People Managing People

Prioritize leadership qualities. Hiring isn’t just about filling specific roles, it’s about evaluating the applicant’s qualities holistically and envisioning the ways the totality of their skills might come together to benefit the company down the line. At the top of my list in these when engaging with candidates is their leadership potential.

Companies are always on the lookout for exceptional talent in today’s work environment. In addition, the perks needed to keep talent have changed as people are not simply running after a paycheck. They want something more. What does a company need to do to identify and engage the best talent for their organization? In this interview series, we are talking to HR experts who can share ideas and insights from their experience. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alison Stevens of Paychex.

In her 25-year career in the professional services and HCM outsourcing industries, Alison has led teams of hundreds of HR professionals and served clients across the globe to help meet their HR needs. As the Director of HR Services at Paychex, she is focused on providing outstanding HR outsourcing services.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before diving in, our readers would love to get to know you. Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this specific career path?

I’ve been in the industry for two decades — and I’ve spent 16 of those years at Paychex. Before joining Paychex, I worked developing HR infrastructure for a few different companies in the D.C. area, but the opportunity that really stands out as pivotal to my career trajectory was with the Advisory Board Company. During my time there, I worked in both client services and HR, which really helped me discover my passion for both types of work. At that same time, I was working toward my MBA with a concentration in HR management — and I was lucky to have it all come together perfectly in my work with Paychex.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you first started? Then, can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I made many mistakes early in my career journey, some of which I attribute to my propensity to move too fast. One situation that sticks out in my mind happened when I was new to HR leadership. I was very excited to be upgrading our company benefits program, but I made a tactical error that resulted in employees seeing not one but two deductions for two separate 401(k) plans. I took full accountability and led the correction process carefully while also assuring each employee that the error would be corrected. Despite the mistake, it ended up being a big lesson about the benefits of slowing down to speed up, planning ahead, and asking for help from experts — even when you don’t think you need it.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” and how that was relevant to you in your life?

“It could have been a lot worse.”

My inclination during times of stress is to lean into the kind of optimistic sarcasm that I think this phrase encapsulates. I find myself using it when coaching others, reflecting on my own learning, or debriefing with my team if something doesn’t go as planned. As a leader for a large organization, I am intentional about ensuring that my professional journey includes reflection, perspective, and self-awareness. It’s important to take time to reflect on our experiences, what we do with the information we’ve learned or the results we’ve driven, and what we will do differently next time.

Are you working on any exciting new projects at your company? How is this helping people?

Our number one priority at Paychex is reducing the stress associated with running a business by streamlining processes. Paychex Flex®, our flagship platform, is a flexible, all-in-one HR solution that can be tailored to the needs of any business — large or small. And we are always introducing new features to reduce administrative workloads, so our customers have more time to focus on the core functions of their businesses without compromising on the quality of their HR program.

I’m particularly proud of the ways our consulting services have helped businesses keep up with the increasingly complex regulatory landscape over the past few years. Our Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) service has helped more than 49,000 businesses claim over $9 billion in ERTC reimbursements since the program was introduced in 2020.

We’re also putting a significant amount of time and effort toward educational services related to the recent passing of SECURE 2.0, which builds on the already substantial impact of 2019’s SECURE Act. SECURE 2.0 expands access to retirement accounts and makes it easier for Americans to save for their futures, but it comes with new regulatory considerations for business owners. We’re making a point to develop services and tools that will ensure business owners comply with these new regulations as they take effect and employees are aware of all the new benefits available under its provisions.

Wonderful. Now let’s jump into the main focus of our series. Hiring can be very time-consuming and challenging. Can you share with our readers a bit about your experience with identifying and hiring talent? What’s been your most successful recruitment-related initiative so far?

Last summer, my team launched our first internship cohort, which included nine college students from both the Rochester, NY, area and HBCUs. The program was designed to provide students with an opportunity to engage directly with our team and with clients and learn about the skills and processes required for HR services positions. It also provides an opportunity for participants to build job-readiness skills like time management, communication, and effective partnership. The program was a success, and we recently hired our first employee from that cohort to be a part of our team. We’re preparing now for our 2nd year of the program, and I can’t wait to see it grow.

Once talent is engaged, what’s your advice for creating a great candidate experience and ensuring the right people go through the process?

Respect, transparency, and communication are the keys to creating good experiences for candidates and current employees alike. Prospective employees take note of the way recruiters and hiring managers treat them throughout the recruitment process, as a reflection of the company culture. Today’s candidate experience must be curated to meet their personal and professional needs and provide a clear picture of the culture and company values.

With this in mind, recruiters should ensure they’re timely and honest in their communications with prospective employees. They should be transparent about the workload and responsibilities that come with the position, communicate any relevant company policies, answer questions openly, embrace the emergence of pay transparency standards, and clearly lay out the company’s expectations for the role. Doing so will ensure that everyone is on the same page before offers are made or accepted and help candidates and employers decide whether it’s the right fit for the long term.

Based on your experience, how can HR and culture professionals work with the broader organization to identify talent needs?

The work begins when HR professionals are connected to the business goals of the company, clearly understand the standards of performance, and have a comprehensive view of an organization’s capabilities and capacity to meet those standards. HR and managers within departments must be aligned and actively communicating in order to identify talent needs that will enable future success.

Is there anything you see that recruiters, internal or otherwise, do regularly that makes you think, “No, stop doing that!”?

The recent climate has been so focused on hiring. Everything has been centered on “winning the war for talent.” As a result, many recruiters and managers have spent the past few years neglecting their existing staff! Retention is just as important as — if not more important than — hiring new people, and that lack of attention only leads to more tenured employees seeking opportunities elsewhere. It’s a vicious cycle, and tons of companies have fallen into it in recent years.

Now, pay transparency is becoming the norm, and the hiring boom is slowing. These factors may actually exacerbate the issue for employers that allowed new-hire compensation growth to outpace that of their existing staff over the past few years. Now’s the time to rectify that imbalance and ensure staff that stuck around throughout the Great Resignation are being paid at their new market rate. Failing to do so may lead talented, experienced, and loyal workers to seek other options, as skilled workers will always be in demand even as a recession looms large in employers’ minds.

With so much noise and competition out there, what are your top 3 ways to attract and engage the best talent in an industry when they haven’t already reached out to you?

1. Pay attention to trends and feedback. It may sound like an obvious piece of advice, but the market has changed significantly and at a rapid clip. Hiring managers can no longer assume the perks they offered six months ago are competitive, let alone those they offered a year ago. Recruiters who aren’t getting the attention they want need to think deeply about how their offers and company policies align with current industry trends.
   If the roles available aren’t attracting quality applicants, it’s likely that something about the offer is falling flat compared to the other opportunities out there. It might be about the compensation or benefits offered, or it could be company policies related to at-home work or flexible scheduling — or something else altogether. The only way to know is to stay on top of the market, listen to any feedback you may get, and adjust your approach accordingly.
2. Open new recruitment channels. A lot of recruiters are failing to find the talent they need because they are sticking to the same old channels. Encouraging word-of-mouth referrals among employees and seeking out local job boards or community organizations can both be beneficial jumping-off points. These days, hiring managers are even putting out calls for applications on Twitter and other social media platforms in the hopes of tapping into a new talent pool. No matter what road you take, broadening the scope of your search by using alternative channels can prove useful in connecting with qualified applicants your other listings may be missing.
3. Keep an open mind. The labor market looks very different than it did 10 years ago — even than it did two years ago, when I first spoke to you on this topic. Recruiters who aren’t finding the applicants they need may need to consider different kinds of candidates altogether. The old rules of experience or education may no longer apply as gig work and other flexible employment arrangements gain popularity among Gen Zers and Millennials. Shedding strict adherence to titles or specific work histories in favor of an approach that looks at alternative experience and skills may help recruiters engage the candidates they’re looking for.

What are the three most effective strategies you use to retain employees?

As noted above, many businesses have been laser-focused on hiring and have let retention efforts fall by the wayside. It’s an unsustainable strategy. Getting people in the door is good, but long-term success comes from keeping them. To bolster retention, employers should:

1. Prioritize tenured employees. Step one is making sure employees that choose to stick around aren’t losing money because of it. Over the past few years, employees that stayed with their companies saw their wages decrease (relative to the cost of living), while those that pursued new opportunities saw wages increase significantly. Loving a job or coworkers only goes so far when inflation is rising and wages are not. Enterprises that prioritize compensation for employees that stick around will be better positioned for long-term success.
   Of course, this prioritization extends beyond compensation. It also means promoting from within and offering opportunities for growth. In short, it’s about showing employees they’re just as valued once they’re in the door as they were during the recruitment process. Throughout my career, and especially over the past few years, I’ve made showing my current employees their value a top priority, and it’s led to more stability and longevity among my staff.
2. Connect with staff. The idea of a “work family” can sound trite, but fostering connections among coworkers and between employees and management can help aid in retention. I make it a point to get to know each employee’s strengths, work habits, and goals so I have a sense of the policies, programs, and training opportunities from which they will benefit. I’ve found that this approach helps employees grow, encourages creative thinking, and cultivates camaraderie among workers.
3. Maintain an open-door policy. The best way to find out what will make employees stick around is to ask for and encourage honest feedback. I do everything I can to make it clear to employees that my door is always open and that my interest in their opinions is genuine. I encourage managers across Paychex to not just ask what their employees have to say but to listen to and hear their point of view, then take steps to honor that input. Honoring feedback and making changes to better the lives of employees speaks volumes about a company’s values and commitment to developing a workplace at which employees want to stay.

Here is the main question of our interview. Can you share five techniques that you use to identify the talent that would be best suited for the job you want to fill? Please share an example for each idea.

1. Prioritize leadership qualities. Hiring isn’t just about filling specific roles, it’s about evaluating the applicant’s qualities holistically and envisioning the ways the totality of their skills might come together to benefit the company down the line. At the top of my list in these when engaging with candidates is their leadership potential. At Paychex, every new hire — no matter their current experience level, the role they’re interviewing for, or the department they’ll work in — represents the future of the business.

2. Make growth integral to the business. Many employers offer opportunities for growth and skills development to employees that ask for it. However, we make it a key feature of our organization. Our emphasis on continued learning is front and center in our recruitment and onboarding materials, and it’s central to the ongoing employee experience. We do this because we’re interested in candidates that value professional development and are excited to seize opportunities for growth. I believe the practice has contributed greatly to our long-term success as a company.

3. Check in with staff. At Paychex, we make it a point to check in with our employees to confirm their engagement levels. We conduct company- and department-wide surveys at regular intervals to get a general sense of employee sentiments, and we also conduct “stay interviews” with individuals to get more anecdotal and in-depth feedback from employees. Doing both ensures that we’re always offering what our employees need, aware of the factors affecting their work, and in touch with the issues on their minds. It’s these check-ins that help us enact informed policies that improve their experiences.

4. Focus on culture. We work hard to make sure that our offices are supportive environments in which employees can be their best selves and do their best work. We’ve received significant recognition within the industry for these efforts, and that recognition is a point of pride for executives and employees alike. We’ve found that this pride in the company’s culture translates into a workforce that acts as ambassadors not just for our products and services but for the company itself, and that’s invaluable to the recruitment process.

5. Let values lead. Paychex has always been a mission-driven company with a strong set of values guiding our way. They’re part of the fabric of the Paychex experience, and they touch everything we do — from the interview process and performance reviews to the benefits we offer and beyond. We make special efforts to emphasize these values in day-to-day work and recognize the team members who demonstrate them in their lives. Our annual “Living the Mission” event is emblematic of this pursuit, as it brings together the employees who show their dedication to values-based work and service for a week of development, leadership, and learning opportunities.

We are very blessed to have some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have a private lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this.

I’d love to meet Dr. Leana Wen, who you may know from her many appearances on national news outlets during the Covid-19 pandemic. I’d be interested to learn about her work with individuals affected by opioid abuse as the City of Baltimore’s health commissioner. She implemented an impressive opioid overdose prevention and response plan in the city over the past few years, and I’d be intrigued to learn about the opioid epidemic and her progress. I have mentioned before that I’ve been personally impacted by this epidemic and believe we need to be doing more to raise awareness about the issues and provide training on the use of naloxone to help those experiencing an overdose.

How can our readers continue to follow your work online?

You can find me on LinkedIn and read more of my thoughts on HR and administration on Entrepreneur’s website.

Thank you so much for these fantastic insights!

About The Interviewer: Finn is the editor of People Managing People, an indie media publication on a mission to help build a better world of work. He’s passionate about growing organizations where people are empowered to continuously improve and feel fulfilled in their role. If not at his desk, you can find him playing sports or enjoying the great outdoors. To learn more about Finn’s work please go to https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/