Diverse Markets: The Connective Tissue between Corporate Social Responsibility and the Bottom-line – Economic Empowerment of URG Owned Businesses

For a while now, ADP and its Executive Committee have been focusing on how the company could intensify its impact within small business segments – particularly those owned and operated by underrepresented communities, including Black, Latino, Asian, Women, LGBTQ+, Veterans, and the Disabled.

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ADP early on realized that to effectively reach those potential small business client groups required connecting that business growth potential to ADP’s internal Diversity Equity & Inclusion objectives and initiatives.

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The result? ADP created its Payroll and HR Diverse Market partner program, a sales channel informed in the business while seeking to reach those typically underserved, under-represented and under-estimated business owners. Diverse Markets can be seen as “connective tissue” between corporate social responsibility and the bottom line. It does that by boosting the number of clients within the diverse business community across dozens of sectors. In short, the Diverse Markets’ effort means we can do right by our business and right by these communities at the same time – they do not have to be mutually exclusive. I would offer that if we are earnest about supporting economic empowerment, then they cannot be separated – less the initiative is just rhetoric.

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Now, there may be natural tendencies for some to think that DE&I and Diverse Markets are interchangeable. That is not the case. DE&I is about focusing on ADP’s internal talent. It is also about holding up a mirror and constantly improving our culture. DE&I means being more aware while creating more opportunities and diversifying our talent pool in the process. It also entails, however, looking through an altruistic lens to determine how best we can serve underserved groups.

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Diverse Markets is focused on ADP’s business imperative and how we can best drive business sales and boost revenue dollars; but doing it by supporting the underrepresented communities and groups.

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By its nature, Diverse Markets spans a large group of different people and businesses, mostly but not always, in the small business space. It is no coincidence that founders in these communities are often marginalized in the business world from an operating capital perspective and, a result, from true opportunity to thrive.

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Diverse Markets, looking to change that outcome, has been an ADP business channel, in earnest, for a little over 18 months, though the real traction began about a year ago. Within Diverse Markets there are three core pillars:

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·??????For lack of a better word, there is incrementality, meaning how do we drive and impact the bottom line of our business while serving and positively impacting the bottoms lines of diverse communities and their businesses.

·??????Next is brand awareness, which is always critical in growing our business within any business segment.

·??????Finally, there is talent diversity, meaning internally ADP must be able to identify, relate to and/or mirror these communities; With that, our professional staff has to become more diverse, plus we must upskill those already have in the ADP workforce to be better at identifying with and relating to all parts of today’s changing business community.

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The first initiative launched under the Diverse Markets umbrella is aimed at Chambers and Affiliations. If the idea here is to make meaningful inroads into our target communities, operating on a one-by-one basis will not work. At the heart of it, because these businesses cut across a large swatch of business types and sectors, we will not succeed through a more common customer prospecting effort, if you will.

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To succeed, the Chambers and Affiliations initiative needed to aggressively seek trust within these varied communities and to engage wide swaths with speed and accurate messaging.

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How? The strategy is to connect with business-based organizations that work with one or more of the aforementioned URG communities and create a scenario that supports the mission of that organization via our resources, thought leadership, prods and services, and funding. Through this, the chamber, affiliation, or organization effectively holds our hand and introduces ADP to their community and, thereby, helps us establish awareness, proximity, and trust. The partnership from there is about supporting the membership and constituents in the network via all the above-mentioned items in the interest of supporting those founders get to the pathway of longevity and sustainable success; including, but not limited to, ADP prods and services.

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The Diverse Markets initiative represents a unique ADP sales channel because it is somewhat “business unit agnostic,” due to the wide spread of business types in a potential partners base. When collaborating with a community and mission driven business-based organization, it is never a one-size-fits-all scenario: Working with a Chamber of Commerce, for example, there may be a 1,000-employee entity and a two-person entity, all in the same organization.

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As mentioned earlier, as part of the C&A tactics, we deliver multiple resources in training and education with the intention of bridging knowledge gaps for founders and creating brand awareness. By engaging and educating folks on business best practices in general, based on our market scope and insights, and leveraging and engendering trust, we believe we will help individual founders succeed in reaching their objectives; and we will as well.

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The business imperative is clear: Of the existing 5.4 million small businesses across the country, more than 40% are owned by minority or underrepresented groups. Those businesses groups represent $4.3 trillion in receipts, $769 billion in payroll annually, and about nineteen million employees… and growing. Engaging and supporting URG owned businesses is a necessity for our own growth and future success.

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To date, we partner with over 350 different organizations nationwide, which has given us audience and/or access to three million diverse business owners and founders.

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We want those individual proprietors/businesses/entities to know that ADP has much to offer – no matter their size or maturity. We want them to know that ADP’s going to support their mission and deliver the resources to ensure they have access to things that can help ensure success. To not just survive but thrive.

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As I have said in previous blog posts, sometimes folks do not know what they do not know. They may know how to make great cupcakes or amazing handmade furniture, but through no fault of their own they are limited to focusing on sales as a lone success factor. Of course, sales are a key success metric, but as a business really begins to expand, much more than increased sales are required to successfully sustain growth.

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For example, they may need new employees. So, they look to hire but have no idea how much to pay them. That is where ADP’s world-renowned salary benchmarking data comes into play. These business owners also will need tax and compliance advice, things that have nothing to do with making cupcakes or hand-made furniture. And that is where we help by removing that stress/success barrier; they can focus entirely on what they do best.

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Within all of this is that they may also erroneously believe they cannot afford an asset like ADP. Or worse… that they do not need it. Yes, we have a customer base loaded with some of the world’s largest and best-known brands. But many of our clients are small businesses. In short, we have products and services that are affordable for businesses of all sizes and are tailored to meet your needs and budget. Moreover, if those big brands have it, the small business owner and, specifically, the diverse business owner, deserves to have the same.