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ADP Drops Lawsuit Against Human Resources Startup Zenefits

111 points by tim_sw 11y ago

rayiner 11y ago
What is a "legacy payroll company?" As far as I can tell, ADP is online too.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - Blaaguuu 11y ago
    Huh? I've been using ADP's online 'portal' for over 2 years - no idea how long it existed before then. Is there a specific part of the service that they expanded to be online this year?
  - rayiner 11y ago
    Sorry I have limited knowledge of the industry. I remember getting online services (iPay) from ADP back in 2011. I assume you're talking about a different online component?
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    Umm, the place I've been working at uses them for 401k, payroll, etc with online portals since 2011 when we moved away from a different legacy payroll company that also had that sort of stuff since ~2000. I think you are just mistaken and/or a feature important to you was online added this year.
  - Spooky23 11y ago
    My payroll info was online with ADP in 2000.
  - infamouscow 11y ago
    That is complete bullshit. As others have stated, it has been around for a couple of years.
- myth_buster 11y ago
  I think the phrase is used in this context The dispute began in June when ADP, a 50-year-old payroll company,
maerF0x0 11y ago
What a waste of money. Such gnashing of teeth over nothing. Now Zenefits should drop ADP.
mikegirouard 11y ago
There was a comment in the post from Scott Yates I found to be insightful. Apparently he's a customer of both ADP and Zenefits and felt the effects first hand. https://www.blogmutt.com/blog/adp-and-zenefits-end-their-silly-lawsuits-is-peace-next https://www.blogmutt.com/blog/adp-and-zenefits-end-their-sil... I can't add more to the conversation, but I found it added another (more interesting) angle to the situation.
- scodtt 11y ago
  Thanks for the mention! I had a lot of fun writing that.
vonklaus 11y ago
the legal system is really complicated to an outsider[0]. lets look at these two qoutes: > The legacy payroll company ADP on Tuesday dropped its defamation lawsuit against ... competitor, Zenefits. and this > in a major victory for the startup, a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice While I understand how appeals work, this does seem contradictory. ADP decided to drop the lawsuit. ADP was told their case sucked and had it thrown out. I understand how this works, but reading the title it looked like a voluntary act, reading the article it looked like the only option. this was pretty much gradeschool bullying and name calling sorted out by a very stern principal and a few teachers who likely cost/charged millions in aggregate. [0] while this is true of all systems, it seems to be a greater extent with the law. which is fucked up, as everyone needs the law to be more clear.
- rayiner 11y ago
  As far as I can tell, the second quote from the article is incorrect. The lawsuit was not dismissed with prejudice (which is a legal term that means the judge issued a ruling dismissing the lawsuit without ability to re-file). Instead, there was a hearing on Zenefit's motion to dismiss, the judge indicated during the hearing that ADP's case wasn't going to fly, and ADP "voluntarily" withdrew before the judge issued an official ruling dismissing the case.
  - ascagnel_ 11y ago
    It's also possible, but rare, for a judge to refuse a voluntary request to withdraw a suit; typically, this is because the judge intends to rule to dismiss with prejudice (they can't re-file). It's only really seen in states with strong anti-SLAPP protections against lawsuits designed to bully rather than resolve a grievance (hence the acronym, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation).
eykanal 11y ago
The article didn't make it clear... has Zenefits regained access to ADP's systems?
javery 11y ago
When this happened we ditched ADP for ZenPayroll - wasn't that hard. Now ZenPayroll and Zenefits are fighting.
manigandham 11y ago
Serious question: Is Zenefits providing much value for anyone here that uses it?
- BinaryIdiot 11y ago
  The start-up I'm at uses it. While I can't speak for the administrative side of things as far as using it as an employee it's way easier than the typical HR paperwork bullshit you have to do. Everything is in one place, all my paperwork, insurance sign-up, direct deposit and employment agreement all through one website. I had to print and fill out zero papers which that by itself is such a relief at least for me.
  - jimmyjohns 11y ago
    Personally I value accuracy over speed when it comes to important legal docs. Read too many horror stories about bad data entry with Zenefits to trust things will get done right. Double the headache of a "legacy" provider if these things are done incorrectly.
    - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
      Fair enough; I've read some of those stories but we haven't had an issue like that as far as I know. Naturally you're going to hear the bad more frequently than the good so I'm not convinced it's a huge problem but it's obviously an issue.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- javery 11y ago
  Yes - it is way better than the previous broker we used. It has automated all of our offers, on-boarding, etc.
- ar7hur 11y ago
  Not to us. It's mostly a nice UI on top of the same old horrible healthcare system. When you submit the form, I guess it sends an email to somebody who does everything manually. When we signed up with Zenefits, they did a mistake for 4 employees out of 9 and it took 6 months to fix things. I missed an important treatment because I didn't have the right plan and it didn't cover what I needed. Zenefits told us it was Blueshield's fault, and... as you can guess, Blueshield said it was Zenefit's mistake.
jimmyjohns 11y ago
Zenefits feels like one of those Unicorns that will go poof. I find employee satisfaction and turnover in startups to be important signs of the health of a startup and Glassdoor reviews are terrible and turnover looks high via LinkedIn

111 points by tim_sw 11y ago

rayiner 11y ago

What is a "legacy payroll company?" As far as I can tell, ADP is online too.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
- Blaaguuu 11y ago
  Huh? I've been using ADP's online 'portal' for over 2 years - no idea how long it existed before then. Is there a specific part of the service that they expanded to be online this year?
- rayiner 11y ago
  Sorry I have limited knowledge of the industry. I remember getting online services (iPay) from ADP back in 2011. I assume you're talking about a different online component?
- fweespeech 11y ago
  Umm, the place I've been working at uses them for 401k, payroll, etc with online portals since 2011 when we moved away from a different legacy payroll company that also had that sort of stuff since ~2000. I think you are just mistaken and/or a feature important to you was online added this year.
- Spooky23 11y ago
  My payroll info was online with ADP in 2000.
- infamouscow 11y ago
  That is complete bullshit. As others have stated, it has been around for a couple of years.
myth_buster 11y ago
I think the phrase is used in this context The dispute began in June when ADP, a 50-year-old payroll company,

maerF0x0 11y ago

What a waste of money. Such gnashing of teeth over nothing. Now Zenefits should drop ADP.

mikegirouard 11y ago

There was a comment in the post from Scott Yates I found to be insightful. Apparently he's a customer of both ADP and Zenefits and felt the effects first hand. https://www.blogmutt.com/blog/adp-and-zenefits-end-their-silly-lawsuits-is-peace-next https://www.blogmutt.com/blog/adp-and-zenefits-end-their-sil... I can't add more to the conversation, but I found it added another (more interesting) angle to the situation.

scodtt 11y ago
Thanks for the mention! I had a lot of fun writing that.

vonklaus 11y ago

the legal system is really complicated to an outsider[0]. lets look at these two qoutes: > The legacy payroll company ADP on Tuesday dropped its defamation lawsuit against ... competitor, Zenefits. and this > in a major victory for the startup, a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice While I understand how appeals work, this does seem contradictory. ADP decided to drop the lawsuit. ADP was told their case sucked and had it thrown out. I understand how this works, but reading the title it looked like a voluntary act, reading the article it looked like the only option. this was pretty much gradeschool bullying and name calling sorted out by a very stern principal and a few teachers who likely cost/charged millions in aggregate. [0] while this is true of all systems, it seems to be a greater extent with the law. which is fucked up, as everyone needs the law to be more clear.

rayiner 11y ago
As far as I can tell, the second quote from the article is incorrect. The lawsuit was not dismissed with prejudice (which is a legal term that means the judge issued a ruling dismissing the lawsuit without ability to re-file). Instead, there was a hearing on Zenefit's motion to dismiss, the judge indicated during the hearing that ADP's case wasn't going to fly, and ADP "voluntarily" withdrew before the judge issued an official ruling dismissing the case.
- ascagnel_ 11y ago
  It's also possible, but rare, for a judge to refuse a voluntary request to withdraw a suit; typically, this is because the judge intends to rule to dismiss with prejudice (they can't re-file). It's only really seen in states with strong anti-SLAPP protections against lawsuits designed to bully rather than resolve a grievance (hence the acronym, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation).

eykanal 11y ago

The article didn't make it clear... has Zenefits regained access to ADP's systems?

javery 11y ago

When this happened we ditched ADP for ZenPayroll - wasn't that hard. Now ZenPayroll and Zenefits are fighting.

manigandham 11y ago

Serious question: Is Zenefits providing much value for anyone here that uses it?

BinaryIdiot 11y ago
The start-up I'm at uses it. While I can't speak for the administrative side of things as far as using it as an employee it's way easier than the typical HR paperwork bullshit you have to do. Everything is in one place, all my paperwork, insurance sign-up, direct deposit and employment agreement all through one website. I had to print and fill out zero papers which that by itself is such a relief at least for me.
- jimmyjohns 11y ago
  Personally I value accuracy over speed when it comes to important legal docs. Read too many horror stories about bad data entry with Zenefits to trust things will get done right. Double the headache of a "legacy" provider if these things are done incorrectly.
  - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
    Fair enough; I've read some of those stories but we haven't had an issue like that as far as I know. Naturally you're going to hear the bad more frequently than the good so I'm not convinced it's a huge problem but it's obviously an issue.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
javery 11y ago
Yes - it is way better than the previous broker we used. It has automated all of our offers, on-boarding, etc.
ar7hur 11y ago
Not to us. It's mostly a nice UI on top of the same old horrible healthcare system. When you submit the form, I guess it sends an email to somebody who does everything manually. When we signed up with Zenefits, they did a mistake for 4 employees out of 9 and it took 6 months to fix things. I missed an important treatment because I didn't have the right plan and it didn't cover what I needed. Zenefits told us it was Blueshield's fault, and... as you can guess, Blueshield said it was Zenefit's mistake.

jimmyjohns 11y ago

Zenefits feels like one of those Unicorns that will go poof. I find employee satisfaction and turnover in startups to be important signs of the health of a startup and Glassdoor reviews are terrible and turnover looks high via LinkedIn