Paychex Reviews

Pros

Paychex is family oriented and has a very flexible work schedule. They also have a very good benefits package, but they revoked the 401k match in 2010.

Cons

The client support at Paychex leaves a lot to be desired. As a sales rep I got to the point where I couldn't in good conscience sell certain systems or services because I knew they wouldn't work and the client would call me to complain. I was tired of fielding customer complaints. I felt bad for them and it was really hard to get back end support to resolve issues. The other major problem I has was the paperwork. It was not only hours of work for the rep once a deal was signed, but they make it very hard for the customer to get through the set-up process and go live. I had a number of new clients sign the contract but never go live on the service because the process was too laborious.

Advice to Senior Management

Automate or simplify the set up process with more direct operational support. Pay the operations staff better and you may get more qualified and motivated employees to support the client base.

Pros

There was a great work/home balance

Cons

Development leads were at best junior developers themselves. A quick peek at LinkedIn will prove that most decision makers at Paychex, lack the necessary experience to be in leadership positions. Poor consultants who were supposed to help kick start or move projects along become more of a hindrance as they too were allowed to learn on the job as opposed to being experienced professionals and when really experienced consultants were brought in, they were tasked with work that was not associated with what they were supposed to be consulting us on. We were forced to use a couple development frameworks that was like having two angry kittens eating your hands while writing the most basic code. Since Tom Golisano referred to the internet as a fad, Paychex development has had to play catch up for a decade, and they chose the wrong people to lead that charge, in ten years when the people who want to do it themselves take over the customer market share, Paychex will not be capable of supporting them, and the client base will dwindle.

Advice to Senior Management

It is time to clean house, look for consultants with experience, overhaul development with some fresh talent, and actually hold people accountable for missing deadlines and overstaffing. Pin your current consultants against some new ones and see who is more productive, then drop the losing consultant, this is a business not a school for working on your personal theories, if you cannot do the job you are supposed to be doing, in a timely manner, it is time to leave. Too many people are "comfortable" at Paychex, bleeding the company’s payroll and not creating tangible deliverables.

Pros

Benefits are good and job stability

Cons

Pay is low and not a lot of room for advancement

Pros

There is a great balance between family and work life. Also your growth depends on how hungry you are.

Cons

Very large company with slow procedural improvements.

Advice to Senior Management

Become more involved with improving the product operations aggressively.

Pros

I love the people I work with, benefits are pretty good, management is pretty flexible if you need to take care of personal things as long as you get the work done.

Cons

Lack of opportunity for advancement. When opportunities open up, there seems to be a desire to look outside the company instead of developing internal employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Please take the time to develop your teams. Encourage stretch assignments. This will help to reduce turnover ($). Hoping for stability in the senior management ranks.

Pros

Industry leader-will get some business based on name recognition alone
Good comp plan
Good training program
Good benefit plan
Great incentive trips

Cons

Outdated technology
Not much consistency in terms of support and mgt approach from region to region.
Major issues with operations implementing and supporting business that sales brings in.

Pros

Good employee benefits that exceed what their competitors offer
Never take home work
Great environment to learn payroll accounting
Tuition reimbursement program

Cons

extremely regimented work environment and strict path that one must follow
little tolerance for one's unique skills and abilities
doesn't prepare you for a regular accounting job -- just makes you good at payroll

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on eliminating the bureaucracy that exists within the organization. Streamline processes and make it easy to get things done.

Pros

Good training in Rochester
Good benefits- 401k, medical, dental, stock options, vision
Friendly managers/supervisors
Raises for passing "level" tests
Time off isn't too difficult to schedule

Cons

Poor communication between departments

Lack of technical support for online clients- new client specialists/payroll specialists have a ton to do, and now we're technical support on top of it. I don't mind showing clients the basics, but I'm not trained to do tech support. If I was trained for tech support, I'd be somewhere else, probably earning more money.

Corporate support doesn't really know how our payroll system works/isn't familiar with the interface, so it's difficult to communicate problems to them and for them to correct system issues.

The pay is not so great- Annual raises only, based on whatever category you fit into, and the employees who screw up don't get much less of a raise than those who don't.

They hold on to employees who aren't living up to the standards set by other employees/Paychex.

Keep better control of the sales department- bad initial information leads to bad first payroll experiences and that leads to unhappy clients.

Advice to Senior Management

Drop the dead weight- some employees are causing more issues than they are solving.

Pay better and people might stay.

Require the sales team follow procedure as much as everyone else and don't play favorites.

Pros

Learn a lot about the practical side of small businesses. Learn a lot about payroll and payroll taxes. This has helped in other employment ventures. Training and business education is very good.

Cons

Sales people are treated like dogs at the local offices. Operations runs the show and treat the sales people poorly. Lot of jealousy of the sales people.

Advice to Senior Management

Go Away....

Pros

Great Benefits, decent 401k.

Good recognition program. Decent work enviroment

Cons

Small sall territories, "what have you dont for me this month?" attitude with no respect to past accomplishments. Senior Management is absent. Corporate rolls out new pricing, plans, direction too often :throw it against the wall and see what sticks"

Advice to Senior Management

Get Walter Turek back.