Valero is an international manufacturer and marketer of transportation fuels and petrochemical products. As a Fortune 500 company, Valero is fueled by nearly 10,000 employees, 15 refineries and 12 ethanol plants scattered across the U.S. and abroad.
Leading the charge for Valero’s Canadian payroll operations is Paymaster Jocelyn Langlois, based out of Montreal, Quebec. Jocelyn’s mandate has always been to spearhead the optimization of payroll and benefits, ensuring that Valero’s workforce is paid accurately and on time. This commitment is one of the reasons why Valero has maintained a strong relationship with ADP. When given the opportunity to upgrade their ADP platform, Jocelyn carefully considered all options and ultimately decided that continuing with ADP was the best choice.
Being able to communicate in either of Canada’s official languages makes it easier to explain the problem, especially when payroll-specific terminology is required. We are always impressed with how our ADP support team understands and quickly addresses our needs.
Jocelyn Langlois,
Valero Energy
Challenges
- Lack of integration caused delays in pulling data through multiple systems
How ADP helped
- By upgrading to the newest version of ADP Workforce Now, Valero overhauled its payroll process with new automation and integration capabilities. This allowed payroll staff to focus on more value-adding tasks like supporting the HR side of operations.
ADP Solutions
- ADP Workforce Now
Local support for a global enterprise
While Valero has refineries and facilities across several international markets, it’s the presence of ADP’s support team in Montreal, Quebec that acts as their strongest Canadian payroll and HR partner. Rather than contacting a remote support team that doesn’t understand Valero’s unique nuances and policies, Jocelyn and the team benefit from ADP’s physical presence in Quebec, where there’s a level of understanding that comes from knowing the local area, market, laws, language and more. It’s this personalized, bilingual and easily accessible team that delivers an unmatched connection and solution.
“The front-line support is excellent,” says Jocelyn. “Being able to communicate in either of Canada’s official languages makes it easier to explain the problem, especially when payroll-specific terminology is required. We are always impressed with how our ADP support team understands and quickly addresses our needs.”
Upgrading with ADP
While ADP has been a trusted partner of Valero for over 15 years, upgrading to the newest version of ADP Workforce Now, has been a game changer for the team. When the possibility of upgrading arose, Jocelyn and the team took the time to evaluate other vendor options. However, they ultimately decided to stay with ADP, as the features offered by other vendors simply did not match the breadth of solutions ADP provides./p>
While some of the other vendors they considered had similarities to ADP, none have the combination of integration capabilities and local Quebec marketplace experience that ADP has. “We did our homework on other vendors when the possibility of upgrading came about,” says Jocelyn. “Luckily, because we were already an ADP client, we understood what ADP was capable of. Our research didn’t take long, and we’re glad we ended up staying for the upgrade.”
A smooth upgrade implementation process
Because Jocelyn and the team were familiar with the old system, it was important that the setup for the upgrade be done in a way that imported and mirrored their prior setup. Ensuring they didn’t lose any functionality was also a top priority. Not only was the implementation team able to mirror the setup of all their prior custom reports, they were also able to set up all the integrations necessary to pull data in and out of the ADP platform – these being their retirement savings plan contributions, Sunlife benefits administration and their general ledger set up.
“The implementation team did an incredible job of understanding our needs and getting the project off the ground,” says Jocelyn. “They were able to complete everything within a two-month timeframe.”
Enhancing user experience for employees and practitioners
Now that Velero has completed the upgrade, they have access to the ADP Workforce Now platform as well as the ADP mobile solutions app. This has not only impacted the payroll team, but also enhanced the employee experience. “This gives us an even better reputation with our employees,” says Jocelyn. “Everyone has access to their pay and personal information on their phones with the app now, which they’re extremely satisfied with.”
The new, user-friendly platform has also completely transformed the payroll team’s job, increasing their efficiency and effectiveness. “Our payroll team has saved 30% of their time using this new platform. They’re able to devote themselves to other projects now,” says Jocelyn. “They’ve been able to shift duties from payroll and support our HR team instead of spending so much time on manual payroll work.”
Integrations and automation
One of their big concerns when considering the upgrade process was whether their other services would be able to integrate with the new ADP platform. Not only did they need their unique retirement savings plan integrated into the payroll, they also needed the GL set up quickly and their ADP data able to travel between their business management software. With the help of ADP’s implementation team, all the integrations were successfully set up.
“I would give ADP a mark of 100% when it comes to integration. Our deadline for pulling data through to our other systems is a really small window, and ADP is always able to deliver. It’s greatly simplified our processes and improved our functionality with zero margin of error.”
Looking to the future with confidence
As Valero looks to the future, they feel confident in their decision to continue partnering with ADP to support their growth. With more integrations on the horizon, Jocelyn is excited for new projects to come. “We know there will be financial gains for us through the integrations and efficiencies ADP has enabled, and we trust the ADP team to continue helping us optimize, integrate and improve our processes.”
