Dive Brief:

• ADP is partnering with Slack to offer their joint customers access to payroll and HR information, the company announced. The partnership combines payroll expertise with the safety, privacy and efficiency Slack has been providing its customers​ and others' through similar collaborations, ADP said in a statement.  
• With the integration of the ADP Marketplace's Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), ADP said its client companies can provide employees with such information as pay notifications, time off balances and requests directly through Slack. Through the partnership, organizations can increase productivity and meet their objectives more quickly, leaving HR professionals freed up to focus on priority work, ADP added.
• The company plans to add other features to the integrated platform, including employee searches, talent tools and team collaboration.

Dive Insight:

Partnerships are allowing companies to combine the best of what both can offer, rather than try to duplicate each others' specialties as competitors. ADP in particular has been keen to ally quickly with popular or growing tech in the space, as seen by their recent partnership with Workplace by Facebook.

But ADP is not alone in seeking such partnerships. Workday, a human capital management (HCM) platform, announced a similar partnership with Slack in March that will allow employees easy access to coworker information, time off requests and real-time peer feedback, according to Slack. Slack, HipChat and other work chat platforms have seen major growth in a comparatively short period of time, as well.

"I think the applications are really broad and we are just in the beginning," Brad Armstrong, VP of business and corporate development at Slack, told HR Dive in an interview. For Slack and for ADP, it's about going where their employees are, he noted, and mobile is a strong example of where employees want to find their HR information. 

But these partnerships aren't just aimed at facilitating workflow and maintaining high productivity; they're also allowing companies to be agile and therefore able to adjust or add features based on their changing needs. Such partnerships, aided and defined by technology, are another means of streamlining HR functions and removing the more burdensome, time-consuming tasks that often keep HR mired in administrative work. Instead, HR can focus attention on leading strategy in its organizations, which include such priorities as designing hiring strategies to stay competitive and preparing employees for the future of work.