Pros
Specific to the ELA Program: Access to leadership, this is a high touch role so you will interact with senior leaders of the business on an almost daily basis (Directors, VPs). Your mentor and hiring manager is a director. You will also interact with SVPs and the C-Suite on occasion but they are very aware of your presence at the company. Opportunities for development: Early in your career it is great to experience so many roles and work on several projects. If you plan it right, you will be well set up for post-program experiences both inside and outside of Paylocity. You get skills in project management, people leadership, data analysis, strategic planning, and much more depending on your rotation/project. You only get so much say in where you’re placed and this does often depend on what mentor you have. Company-Wide: Classic benefits: ESPP, 401k match, RSUs (performance dependent), considerable vacation days. 30% Growth YoY. Start-up culture (you can pretty much do whatever you want when it comes to process improvements), both a pro and a con. Remote options, casual culture and dress. The new manager of DEIA was promoted within and is truly trying to improve those initiatives. There is still a long way to go but this is a promising start.
Cons
The payroll business is very cyclical and you often cannot take time off during year end (October-late January). As an early college graduate, this certainly would have been factored into my decision in accepting a role and I wish they had been transparent about that. Work-Life balance. There are several roles in PCTY that require significant overtime and the ELP is definitely one of them. The difference is that you are salaried so you don’t get compensated for overtime. For my first rotation, I was working 80 hour weeks easily (this is often a norm for any client facing role since clients depend on your work being done and there is less flexibility). Many of my peers worked 12-15 hour days for the entirety of their 2 years. It is really hard to take significant time off and have that time off be respected in the program- you will be expected to log in on your PTO days to attend a call, respond to emails or messages. Organizational turnover - if you read other glassdoor reviews of the company you will see that they are losing people very quickly. Unfortunately as the company is young and growing quickly, this manifests in poor process documentation and tribal knowledge. As tenured employees leave, this information leaves with them. Training - there is a large internal L&D department but they are so far removed from the processes they are supposed to be SMEs in. Training is typically out of date and does not prepare you for your role. Career Planning - due to the leadership access you gain through the ELP you quickly are exposed to a large number of struggles the company faces for hiring within. They appear incapable to recognize talent, develop individuals for vertical moves, and maintain a pipeline leading to a scramble any time a leader leaves. It is rare to see any role manager and above filled internally which ELP was meant to serve as a stop gap for. Unfortunately as the turnover for the program is ~80%, this likely will not be successful. Performance Management - All of the feedback you receive both informally and in your formal PRs is basically based on your personality. Women were told that they need to “smile more” during presentations. PoC were told that they were aggressive. During a peer’s mid-rotation review their only “opportunities for development” was getting reprimanded for not eating lunch with another team that happened to be in the office that day. The leaders in Ops are extremely cliquey. They give off “you can’t sit with us” mean girls energy that does not showcase behavior future leaders should emulate. Compensation for the Emerging Leaders role does not align with the expectations of experience you are bringing to the role. The post-program role compensation packages were also laughable. Most people that left the program were able to increase their salaries by 20-40%.