#5 Paychex, Inc.: Virtual Vanguard

Like many companies in the last year-plus, Paychex, Inc., faced two significant training challenges posed by the pandemic—one related to numbers (selling virtually) and the other related to people (onboarding employees remotely and reducing front-line turnover).

But unlike many companies, Paychex had an edge. Two edges, in fact:

1. The organization had already been fairly far along the virtual training track before COVID-19 struck.
2. Continuous learning and development is deeply embedded in its culture.

“We encourage and drive learning and development in our culture by demonstrating that learning is a priority,” says Jody Stolt, director of the Learning and Development Center at the provider of integrated human capital management solutions for Human Resources, payroll, benefits, and insurance services. “Our values-integrity, partnership, accountability, respect, innovation, and service—are key to our success as a company. Continuous learning and development is embedded into our innovation value, and we prove it in our numbers: More than 14,400 Paychex employees completed an average of 88 hours of training in fiscal year 2021. And our HR professionals average eight years of training and expertise.”

That dedication to continuous learning continues to pay off as Paychex hit its target revenue of $4 billion in 2021.

RAISING THE BAR

With virtual training part of the company’s structure before the pandemic, Paychex had a head start when challenged to provide engaging training to remote employees. That said, “the COVID-19 pandemic opened our eyes and minds to fresh ideas and gaps we didn’t know we had,” Stolt says. “To support virtual training, we invested in new and improved audio and video equipment to ensure the virtual experience was engaging and impactful. We invested in skill development for our Learning and Development (L&D) staff by approving virtual courses and conferences that targeted skill gaps such as virtual delivery, adaptive learning, and engaging design.”

In 2021, Paychex raised the bar, knowing many employees would remain working remotely for a while. “We turned to tools such as Webex message spaces and video coaching for collaborative learning,” Stolt says. “It was also important to build and level-set the expectation around cohort support that includes the instructor team, mentors, and direct managers.”

A few virtual training best practices Stolt and her team have found to be effective include:

• Create a Webex Space for every new hire training cohort. This allows flexible and timely communication between the learning instructor and the participants, and encourages peer-to-peer learning.
• Use Webex tools such as polls, annotation, and passing “the ball” to participants to demonstrate their understanding via teach-back exercises and to keep learners alert.
• Teach learning instructors to pay attention to cameras, including lighting and audio to ensure smooth virtual interactions.
• Utilize authoring tools that allow for interactivity such as Articulate Storyline and Rise.
• Leverage interactive tools such as Quizalize, Microsoft Forms, and a video coaching tool to help reinforce learning.

Paychex employees began returning to the office in October 2021 with a range of flexible work options that is continually evolving. “We provided COVID-19 safety and prevention training, and a training for leaders and employees called Reopening of Paychex Offices,” Stolt says. “Both trainings provided information on safety protocols, including social distancing and masking requirements, along with meeting and meal-time policies. In addition, personal and professional training topics such as ‘How to Build Resiliency’ and ‘Leading Remote Teams’ were created and promoted using the featured options in our learning management system (LMS).”

Even with employees’ return to the office, Paychex continues to deliver most training virtually and anticipates continuing training in this format in the near future. “We continue to look for features in our existing systems and delivery tools to optimize our investment and will be open to the method that provides the best learning experience and results,” Stolt says.

FEET ON THE VIRTUAL STREET

That mindset was key when it came to teaching sales reps to sell virtually. “Our salesforce has prided itself on ‘feet on the street,’ going to the employer’s place of business and truly understanding their workforce and their pain points. The onset of the pandemic meant we needed to shift quickly to selling in a virtual and digital world,” Stolt says. “As the Sales organization quickly reorganized to ensure sales quotas were going to be met, Training was in lockstep preparing content and developing skills to train new sales reps to sell virtually.”

Role-play activity and a video coaching tool are instrumental in the success of a new sales rep’s performance, Stolt notes.

Stolt points to one particular strategic sales success in 2021, which involved Paychex’s Small Market Business (SMB) Retirement Services division. “This past year brought many challenges for employers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as many businesses had to reduce their workforce or even shut down,” Stolt explains. “As the economy began to recover, employers became more open to offering retirement plans to recruit employees, and employees began to seriously look at workforce options that offered retirement plans as a key benefit for signing on. Paychex’s Retirement Services Training team made extraordinary changes to the training program to ensure new sales representatives were ready to face this new environment.”

Stolt says the instructor team focused on building up sales representatives’ skills on the sales process, the steps necessary to onboard a new client, and the legislative knowledge of Paychex’s key retirement offering: a 401(k) plan. “After just two weeks of training, the sales rep is ready to start prospecting and building their pipeline,” Stolt notes. “After eight weeks of onboarding training, the Small Business Retirement sales representative is armed with the knowledge, skills, and tools to close sales, obtain referrals, and generate end-user presentations (EUPs).”

Learning instructors train sales reps to record four leading indicators in the Salesforce application and then observe and certify. The metrics are tracked in Salesforce and reported through a Metrics that Matter application to sales managers and above.

Results achieved against goals for the fiscal year 2021 cohort included:

• Some 74 percent of the reps surpassed the goal of 16 self-generated EUPs per month; the average number of self-generated EUPs per month was 25.
• Some 78 percent of the reps surpassed the goal of obtaining eight referrals a month; the average was 11.
• Revenue per learner surpassed the $3,000 goal at $3,470.
• Paychex maintained 89 percent retention of new sales reps in their first year—above the target of 85 percent.

AN AGILE APPROACH

For years, the release and training of new products, system enhancements, and bug fixes was cumbersome and incofesive, Stolt notes. “There was no coordinated strategy for connecting the impact of these changes for employees, especially for sales and front-line service employees. In addition, new and updated legislation and HR requirements challenge our product teams to enhance tools or create new products for our clients.”

Senior leadership challenged the Product Development team to increase utilization of Paychex Flex—the company’s online HR and payroll software. The resulting Seasonal Product Launch program was adopted based on industry release standards and uses the Agile development methodology, which has L&D at the table right up front, Stolt says. Each product launch is carefully planned by the Launch team, a cross-functional group of leaders from Product, Marketing, Sales, Service, Employee Communications, and Training. They review the release plan and select enhancements and solutions that are most important for employees to know and understand.

After HR professionals were trained on the requirement of completing a dedicated held for Paychex Flex Interactions in Salesforce, the company saw a 32 percent jump in interactions—above the targeted goal of 20 percent.

Stolt says the Seasonal Product Launch training program helped contribute to achieving several Kirkpatrick Level 4 (business outcome) results:

• Paychex’s revenues topped $4 billion in FY’21.
• Employee engagement feedback demonstrated that product knowledge helps Paychex do better and accomplish more, hitting 88 percent in the Strive category.
• Between April 2020 and March 2021, utilization of the Document Management product increased by 44.2 percent, beating the goal.

EYE ON THE FUTURE

Looking ahead, Paychex has a comprehensive “Future of Learning” strategy with two- and five-year milestones. The areas it plans to initiate or improve include:

• Technology
• Learner experience
• Internal development
• Data-driven learning

“We will consider new out-of-the box technology to improve our eLearning content and provide realistic simulations and coaching scenarios,” Stolt says. “We will continue to look for opportunities to make learning engaging by using social media and creative messaging, and relevant simulations that mimic adaptive learning.”

The speed of change and technology advancement is so fast, it’s hard to imagine what the Paychex workforce will look like in 10 years, Stolt says. “History tells us that pace and flexibility will be a driving force,” she says. “The multigenerational span will be different, and the expectation of those employees will drive the hiring of our talent, employee engagement, and their career choices. That means training will need to be collaborative, part of the workflow, and adaptive.”