Human Resources (HR) is an essential business component that only grows with time. Streamlining this scaling department is important for managing your most valuable resource — your workforce.

HR software can help you manage your processes as your business expands. However, choosing the right software that aligns with your plans is crucial.

In this article, we’ll compare two reliable HR software, Zenefits and ADP. Read on to learn about their features and how they can facilitate your HR operations.

Zenefits Vs ADP: At A Glance

Features

Zenefits 

ADP

Talent Management 

Dedicated support for talent management 

Comprehensive solutions for enhancing employee experience and retention 

Compliance Management 

Payroll Tax Compliance Manager services to ensure compliance adherence 

24/7 support for compliance adherence 

Benefits Administration 

Quality benefits plan to hire and retain talent 

Analytics tools to identify employees' benefits preferences 

Payroll 

TriNet Contractor Payments to pay independent contractors 

Global payroll capabilities 

Time Tracking 

Alert mechanisms and warnings for enhanced employee accountability 

ADP Kiosk and mobile app for convenient check-ins 

What Is Zenefits?

TriNet Zenefits, previously known as Zenefits, is an online HR solutions provider. It offers both software and services to help businesses manage and streamline their operations. Zenefits HR offers products and offerings that include onboarding, employee training, time tracking, and payroll. Main industries and sectors that employ TriNet Zenefits include manufacturing, e-commerce, finance, and media.

Unique Features Of Zenefits 

  • The Wing: A dedicated community for HR experts and TriNet HR Platform users to collaborate, share ideas, and discuss common challenges 
  • Business Cases: Access to real business case studies where businesses get insights on how to manage and resolve HR-related issues 
  • Management Tool: An all-encompassing management tool that empowers employers to take control of the employee journey at every step 
  • Risk Minimization: Reliable guidance from compliance experts to minimize risk and avoid legal penalties 

Pros And Cons Of Zenefits 

Pros 

  • Offers a variety of integrations to assist in onboarding and offboarding 
  • The HRIS feature has an intuitive user interface despite offering a lot of functions 
  • It’s easy to store all employee information, documents, and other relevant data in one place 

Cons: 

  • Doesn’t cover all aspects of W2 functionalities 
  • Steps for completing a payroll could be reduced as they are a bit lengthy 

What Is ADP?

RUN Powered By ADP is a cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) provider that aims to bring clarity to processes by uniting multiple business functionalities. The offered solutions integrate HR, talent, benefits administration, and payroll. These intertwined functionalities complement each other, significantly boosting productivity that’s not possible otherwise. ADP is typically utilized by businesses operating in the healthcare, retail, manufacturing, hospitality, and non-profit industries and sectors.

Unique Features Of ADP 

  • Wisely: Wisely is a digital solution that comes with a Paycard and enables compliance in all 50 states. It also supports multi-factor authentication and geo-fencing technology 
  • Online Marketplace: The platform offers an online marketplace where buyers, developers, and partners can find relevant HR products 
  • ADP Assist: ADP Assist is ADP’s own artificial intelligence tool that surfaces the right information for HR professionals and saves them time, as they don’t have to search for the answers themselves 
  • Candidate Data Pool: The software allows users to leverage a huge database of candidates and choose ones that are the best fit for the job 

Pros And Cons Of ADP 

Pros:

  • Switching to ADP or setting it up from scratch is easy 
  • It has an easy-to-use interface, which is extremely helpful for new users 
  • The ‘How To’ resources guide employees a lot, eliminating the need for them to contact HR 

Cons:

  • Customer service is slow in resolving issues 
  • There are no alerts for I-9s. Additionally, there’s no reporting for I-9s for creating paper copies, which could be a requirement in some states

Zenefits Vs ADP – Key Feature Comparison 

Talent Management

Zenefits offers dedicated consultancy that guides businesses in talent management. Users fill out an assessment form, which is then reviewed by consultants to deliver practical and tailored advice.

Consultants can also collaborate with company stakeholders to devise an action plan that breaks down large initiatives into smaller actionable steps. Additionally, users can get help with workforce planning, compensation philosophy and planning, employer branding, employee retention, and employee engagement.

ADP prioritizes employee development and experience to ensure businesses get an ever-improving workforce. It does so by offering a range of solutions, such as performance management, leadership development, compensation management module, succession planning, and Scaling Coaching Intelligence. It fosters a continuous learning environment by identifying knowledge gaps, delivering customized learnings, and keeping track of employee performance.

Winner: Zenefits is the winner, as it offers a comprehensive range of solutions and consultancy services based on detailed assessments.

Compliance Management

TriNet Zenefits offers ‘Payroll Tax Compliance Manager’ services that complement a company’s daily compliance tasks. Experts can help businesses register federal and local payroll tax accounts, keep an eye on regulatory changes, verify third-party administrator access, fill corrections, and monitor active payroll tax jurisdiction accounts.

Organizations can rely on this wide range of services to make sure they don’t run into any unexpected compliance issues.

ADP has a proactive approach when it comes to compliance adherence and avoiding legal penalties. The platform offers assistance in ACA compliance, wage garnishments, employment tax, wage payments, 1099 management, business tax credits, and form I-9 management. ADP also provides 24/7 compliance support, ensuring that companies are never left in a lurch when they encounter time-sensitive issues

This comprehensive suite of compliance solutions gives organizations the time and freedom to focus on other business aspects.

Winner: It’s a tie as both software offers compliance support and lots of other features that work together and mitigate compliance risks.

Benefits Administration

Zenefits makes it possible for small and medium-sized companies to compete with large corporations by providing top Benefits options, such as pet insurance, dental plans, and other options for spouses.

Additional offerings include 401K with employer matching and profit share, dependent day care reimbursement accounts, life insurance plans, short- and long-term disability options, telemedicine, health saving accounts, and commuter benefits.

ADP offers detailed insights into employee benefits preferences and engagement. Employers can identify benefits trends, analyze employer costs, compare benefits plans with competitors, and assess popular benefits among various employee segments.

The system automatically integrates internal data with payroll, HR, and finance, minimizing the need to do manual tasks and helping managers make better decisions.

Winner: ADP wins as it empowers businesses to make better decisions by providing detailed insights.

Payroll

With its Payroll Tax Compliance Manager services, Zenefits enables businesses to pay their independent contractors while staying compliant. It eliminates the complexities of project-based hiring, allowing companies to be cost-effective and wrap up projects with ease.

The platform also offers e-pay stubs, pay cards, electronic W-2 preparations, overtime accruals, and direct deposits. These solutions help businesses effortlessly run payrolls and avoid mistakes.

ADP offers global and local payroll capabilities, enabling organizations to hire good resources from all over the world. It has a dedicated support team that helps organizations navigate complex payroll compliance regulations. The platform’s cloud-based model ensures there’s a complete record of everything, and payroll data is easily accessible during internal and external audits.

Winner: ADP is the winner because of its global payroll capabilities, which help hire the best resources while staying within the budget.

Time Management

Zenefits’ time and attendance features are designed to increase employee productivity and accountability. It offers location-based restrictions for mobile users, rest and break time automation, schedule generators, timecards, system monitoring with IP addresses, and alerts for off-site punch-ins.

These tools provide managers with the data needed to track employee productivity and evaluate employee performance. Furthermore, it determines overtime eligibility by reviewing employees' total work hours.

ADP can prove to be a very helpful platform for simplifying productivity-enhancing efforts. It offers employees the chance to check in using the ADP Kiosk or mobile app. There are several security features in place to secure employee’s time data, such as facial recognition and finger scanning, making employees comfortably utilize the features. It also prompts employees with predictive buttons, allowing them to perform tasks like punch-ins and punch-outs at a much faster pace.

Winner: Zenefits comes out as a winner as its time-tracking features help enhance workforce productivity.

Conclusion — Which One’s Better?

Zenefits and ADP are both excellent software that offer reliable HR solutions. These solutions are geared toward different organizations to solve different problems with the help of unique tools and products.

TriNet Zenefits is a good choice for mid to large-sized organizations as it offers extensive tools to complement HR processes and handle complex compliance tasks.

ADP is suited to large companies that operate overseas as it offers global payroll features and the ability to implement solutions on a large scale.