Comp plan. For fiscal year 2021, till about mid year, this was the worst plan I’ve ever experienced in my 20+ years of selling. For example, I had SCs make $410.57 USD off of a decent sized SaaS deal. The team didn’t even get thanked when they had to drop everything to support closing this deal early. Leader (newly hired from Oracle) just moved onto the next deal without one iota of their acknowledgment or gratitude to these very important positions. For a leader not to say thank you is disgusting and arrogant but this is the culture that is being hired. Additionally, when my sales team put together a list of questions regarding the comp plan, the majority were condescendingly answered with: “This is our GTM strategy for 2021”. This is one example of transparency that is only spoken about and not exhibited at Ceridian. While I understand Ceridian is not a democracy, the basic concepts of explaining “The Why” would have led to much better change management. Basic communication and respect for each other as colleagues is what it boiled down to, or the clear lack thereof. The plan has since been updated to be more competitive for 2021, this is after David Ossip (CEO & Chairman) personally came on our call and apologized for “this big mistake”...yet incompetence remains.
Erosion of culture. Team SAP Canada and the respective culture took over with their unconscious ignorance. Rigor, constant process change, inefficient selling mixed with useless middle management quickly followed. There is a culture of arrogance & bias from Team SAP Canada, insinuating if you don’t have SAP specific software experience (or a company which they believe is at the same caliber), you’re less of an employee and therefore they won’t promote from within because existing employees are inferior. How many existing Ceridian employees have been promoted in leadership since they took over? I believe it may only be one in the Sales organization. The constant hiring externally is just proof of this despite the lip service Leadership states otherwise. While this is harsh, perception is reality and the unconscious ignorance really shines through. One particular group in mind is the Sales Strategy Group, which parallels the parable of The Emperor’s Clothing. They can’t execute or retain employees and everyone sees his nakedness while he (and she) thinks they’re doing a great job. The Emperor is losing so many employees, I wonder if there will be anyone left to laugh behind his back or create “demand” statistics from Salesforce.
Lack of brand awareness & effective marketing. I had prospects still ask me if Ceridian was owned by ADP. When this was brought up internally, I was told: “That’s an uneducated buyer.” True, these were uneducated prospects but the retort from Marketing Leadership is purely an excuse for not taking accountability. Is the onus on Ceridian or the uneducated buyer to know our market position, product offering and brand? Would Ceridian not allow the prospect to do business with Ceridian because they were uneducated? Outside of my BDE and I doing outreach, I only had one conversation with a prospect that I could actually tie to a bonafide marketing campaign. I’m not suggesting to sponsor Serena Williams or, perhaps rename Boston’s TD Center, but could you do something that actually makes an impact on my business? Perhaps a digital investment into better SEO, where Ceridian doesn’t organically show up on page 2-27 of a google search for: “Payroll software” or “Workforce Management Software” (and many more!).
Truly global understanding. Majority of existing leadership all came from SAP Canada and believe it or not, there are larger businesses greater than 10,000 employees. I always had to laugh when Team SAP Canada would say, “...it's a big company with 8,000 employees....” I questioned if Leadership truly understood how companies operate in a Shared Services Model (globally or not). All Hands Calls for Sales just constantly highlighted the “great work and excellence” Ceridian is doing to win deals of 1,400 - 3,800 employees. It was hard to determine if I was watching a comedy special or business presentation.
