I th ink we're gonna get, we're gonna get started here. Thanks everybody for joining for the opening session. My name is Tien-Tsin Huang. I follow the payments processing and the IT services sector at J.P. Morgan. I was really excited to have ADP kick off the tech conference for us. It's been a name that I follow. I was just telling Maria in the back, I've been following your name for a couple of decades. I've learned a ton following it. I was getting ready for the session. I was looking back. I think there have been seven CEOs at ADP. Is that right?
seven CEOs, that's right.
I've met four, including Maria, and super excited to have Maria, the CEO at ADP, who's been here for a few months now, but has been at ADP since 1996.
1996, that's right.
Starting off.
26 years.
There's a lot of tenure, which I always appreciated at ADP. I thought it was really fitting since it's been 51 years of this conference to have ADP kick it off. Thank you for being here, Maria.
Thank you. It's my pleasure to be here. Good morning.
Yeah. I thought maybe just, you know, you've been what CEO for? I wrote down 115 days. I don't know if it's exactly-
115? Oh, I have to say, I think it's more like 141.
Okay, 141. I'm off by-
Not that I'm counting, but something like that.
Love to hear a little bit more about your priorities and what you're working on. There have been any surprises? Again, company's been around for quite a bit, but there's a lot of change going on. I'd love to hear your priorities, Maria.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you again for having me. I've been pretty busy the last 141 days, and as I've traveled around and been in and out of a lot of ADP offices certainly over the years, but specifically the last couple months, I have to say, I don't know that there are any surprises necessarily as much as just reminders. I think for me, you know, you always learn a lot when you step into a role. One of the things that I've been reminded yet again, and I continue to learn, is about the excitement, the excitement our associates have for the future of this company. It's really truly palpable when you engage with them.
I think one of the the parts about our future that's so exciting is how we have the ability to serve and engage and connect with our, at this point, over 1 million clients. We serve those 1 million clients, serve 40 million wage earners, and it really puts us in a position to be incredibly dedicated to ensuring our clients' employees are paid on time accurately, that they have what they need as it relates to the world of HCM. I think I was more reminded, and you know, it's with a lot of pride I can say that it's amazing the dedication and excitement the associates have for the future.
Sure. No, you have a very important role in the world of enterprise being ADP, empowering HCM. You have a great view of the economy, right?
Yeah.
Maria, you touch, like you said, a lot of employees, a lot of employers. How healthy is the enterprise? How healthy is the, you know, the employment situation here as you see it?
Yeah. It's a unique backdrop. It's interesting when I think about I spent the last year before becoming CEO in the president role, being in and out of a lot of sessions such as this one, it is definitely the question du jour, right? What's happening, and the backdrop continues to be unique. I think for ADP, our unique lens based on, again, the 40 million wage earners that we pay is really into the employment side to the economic backdrop. A few things we talked about at the last earnings call, we are still seeing growth in pays per control at 4%. Unemployment continues to be at a record low. I think the last number was at 3.4%, 3.6%, really that hasn't been that way since the late 1960s.
So it's still at a record low. Um, you know, while, uh, the BLS jobs, our own, uh, labor report actually shows there's still a tremendous amount of jobs available for talent. And while we hear about, uh, tech layoffs and, and things in, in terms of the movement in the labor market, it appears that individuals are getting reemployed. Uh, that said, though, what I would say is, uh, the converse is there are signs of deceleration. So while PPC is still stronger, uh, than it typically is for us, it is decelerating. Uh, unemployment is certainly being called, uh, to, to continue to creep. I think that is, you know, actively what's happening in DC today is trying to get unemployment to, uh, start moving the, uh, other direction.
While there's still close to 10 million jobs available, the number of jobs did actually slip under 10 million for the first time in the last couple of months. I think it's a little bit of, you know, things are incredibly strong still. There's still a tremendous amount of strength in the employment environment, but there are signs and data points to deceleration. I think for us at ADP, the most important part in terms of the health of our business and our industry is about the HCM demand and what we're seeing in the marketplace as it relates to the secular tailwinds, if you will, of our industry, of HR management, HCM, of HR technology as an example. That demand is strong and, you know, what I would say is stronger than ever.
I think that's really the big focal point for us in this strange, unique time that we're all facing.
Yeah. Looking back at last quarter, I recall record bookings.
Yes.
like you said, from a demand standpoint, double-digit growth
Yes.
right in your Employer Services business. I know the PEO business has slowed a little bit. I'm curious, as you've come on as CEO and you've, you know, inherited the midterm outlook that we've known ADP to work against, including margin expansion. How are you tracking against that midterm outlook, given that set up a very strong demand?
Absolutely. We were very pleased with what we reported last quarter as it related to the overall revenue growth. Very excited to see specifically, and I'm sure we'll get to the PEO...
Mm-hmm.
Uh, to see PEO, uh, bookings re-accelerate last quarter. So let's talk about the medium-term guidance. We, uh, we gave that in November of 2021 . Just kinda to frame it up real quick, the, uh, the medium-term guidance is what we would see in a typical year. Uh, and as we just, uh, referred to, or as I just mentioned, we're far from a typical year. Uh, there are a lot of things that have changed since November of 2021. Couple call-outs I would give, uh, as an example, the, the Fed funds, uh, have increased by about 500 basis points. That's good news for us, as you know, uh, in that it affects our clients' funds interest program.
On the converse, we also just talked about the labor environment that's also a byproduct of the inflationary environment, and that's proved itself to be less than transitory. When you think about when we guided to the medium term to where we are today, there's a lot that's changed. That said, we are tracking for this year very well in my mind, against our medium-term targets. When you think about revenue as an example, we're tracking well against the revenue outlook. I think the medium term outlook was 6%. We're tracking at 9%. If you look at new business bookings, we're currently guiding at 6%-9%.
I think we talked about kind of being in the middle of that range versus the seven to eight, which was in our medium-term outlook. In terms of retention, our goal in the medium term was to keep retention stable at 91%-92%, and we're tracking at 92%. You know, feel good about the major metrics. You did mention the PEO. The PEO has decelerated faster than we expected, certainly faster than we expected back in the medium-term guidance. We are seeing a little bit of softening there. We talked about high single digits, average worksite employee growth, and we're tracking at roughly 6% for this year.
I would say all things being equal, given the unique backdrop of what's happening, feel confident in our ability to deliver medium term.
When I think about ADP, the formula for revenue growth is a waterfall, right? New bookings is so important.
That's right.
Right, Maria? Can you unpack for us what's driving the strength in new sales? I always think of, again, your own sales efforts, which I know you're putting a lot of muscle into, but also the pendulum maybe shifting a little bit towards outsourcing.
That's right.
do-it-yourself software. Where are we in that between sales execution as well as secular?
Sure. I think I'll start with the secular because I think we just spent some time on it-
Yeah.
In terms of the demand environment. It's certainly not getting any easier for companies these days to navigate being in business, whether you're a large organization in the enterprise space or global space for that matter, or you are a small business trying to figure out all the ins and outs of being in business. We're in that sweet spot. I think there are, there's secular tailwinds that certainly help us and the overall industry, which is again, back to the excitement that we all have. One of the reasons I remain as optimistic as I do, we have made a lot of investments into our go-to-market, into growth. The two call-outs I would really make, one you touched on, which is the sales distribution.
We've been known, and continue to be known as having one of the best distribution models.
Mm-hmm.
I would say bar none in the world in terms of how we go to market. I think you know I spent. It's actually how I started. We talked about 26 years ago, I started selling payroll door to door. I know this space well, and I would say, you know, I'm continue to be incredibly proud of our distribution efforts. Today, there's so much more than just, you know, people on the street that are knocking doors, selling payroll. It's about the entire ecosystem of how we go to market. We've made tremendous investments into that ecosystem. That's inclusive of our seller headcount. It's inclusive of how we go to market. I think channels, we make a lot of investments into the CPA channel, the bank channel, the system integrators channel, up-market.
We make investments to ensure that our distribution model is current. That's also inclusive of kinda how you think about seller tools, right? You think about the modern seller today and how they go to market, whether that's through the likes of ads on LinkedIn and SEM and SEO, or it's actually the infrastructure tools that they need to be able to prospect using video and demos and all of those things. I would say, you know, we're leading the charge as it relates to sales and go-to-market investments and modernization.
I think the other one, which is an important one to talk about, which is product, because product impacts not just our go-to-market distribution, but it also impacts the very other important element of how we grow in the, in the waterfall that you mentioned, which is new business bookings married with retention is really about net new business. We've made a tremendous amount of investments into our product journey over the last, well, I would argue 74 years, but specifically the last decade, to continue to modernize our products. We've made investments into our current generation products. I talk a lot on the earnings calls about user experience, but we have one UX now that goes across the entire company of ADP that's modern. How do I know that it's working? Going back to our distribution, because our sellers love it.
If you think about the literally tens of thousands of demos that we do in a given quarter to lead with technology, and distribute that way, product has a huge impact on our ability to win, and win, more against the competition. Those are the signs that we're seeing. We're also seeing that on the retention front, it's making an impact, product investments into our ability to keep our clients, at a faster clip than, or a greater clip than we have in the past. Very excited about the go-to-market, the growth, side to the story. Very excited about the investments into the ecosystem of sales, and very proud of the work that we've done on our products.
Good. You mentioned competition.
Yeah.
You mentioned retention. I wanna hit on both of those. From a competition standpoint, with all the modernization and your distribution advantages, I get the question a lot: Who does ADP compete against? Why do they win? Versus direct peers as well as, let's say, SaaS players or software-first companies, how do you win? When do you bump into them, and why do you lose?
Yeah. It's a great question, and I have to say, to answer the first part, which is who do we compete with, if I was able to use this entire screen behind me, we compete with a lot of places. I think nobody matches ADP's breadth and depth. If you think about who we are across the globe, who we are across, whether it's countries or segments or product lines, there are many, many, many, many competitors to ADP. But in terms of who we're competing with, call it day-to-day in the market, you know, the standouts, and I know you cover many of them, but, you know, certainly down-market we have the likes of the new entrants. We also have some stable existing competitors down-market.
The mid-market's always a big competition, what's happening there, and then certainly there are the enterprise players that also play in the ERP space. What I would say is we're solving for each one of those, right? When I think about retention and how we're doing as it relates to continuing to win clients to stay and retain them, to me, it does go back to product. It does go back to making continued investments into their experience with us, products is a big piece of that.
In today's, you know, consumerization of the enterprise, having products that are frictionless, where it's easy for our clients, whether you're in the down market or all the way in a global space, to engage with us, and where we're able to actually leverage, technology for scale, if you will, and this amazing service wrapper that we have around to bring value. I think that's a big piece of that. We monitor this, very closely, and so we use a Net Promoter Score. What I would tell you is the places that we have very, you know, almost record retention or near record retention, some places we do have record retention, are the places that we have the highest level of experience, right?
There's a direct correlation between our NPS results, as an example in the down market and the near record retention, we have across our 800,000+ clients in the mid-market. It's an area that we have record NPS, and we see that in the retention results. In our international business, again, we made a lot of efforts to improve the service levels and continue to modernize, and again, we have strengthened the retention in that business. We make all these improvements into the products, into how clients engage with us, and it's certainly yielding the results, and we can see it in our, in our win rates, and we can see it in our NPS. It's interesting, we actually just started looking at...
We do blind studies, if you will, for a Net Promoter Score. We do our own, which is against ourselves, we actually look at us versus the competitive landscape. It's pretty incredible what we've done over the past few years, specifically if you look pre-COVID to post-COVID in terms of our Net Promoter Score improvements in the context of the competition.
I know a lot of heavy lifting was done to upgrade a lot of the-
That's right.
... platforms, right? To get there, and you're seeing the fruits of that. Tell us what else is left to do in terms of modernizing some of these platforms. I know you've done a lot down-market and et cetera, catch us up on the whole modernization journey.
Absolutely. We have been modernizing for 74 years.
Yeah
... is the way I think about it. If you ask me where we are, we're still in the early innings of modernization. I talk a lot about modernization. To me, it's about growth. It's about margin. It's about the things that everybody knows ADP is here to deliver. We spent a lot of the last decade or so speaking to transformation. To me transformation was really about getting ourselves ready. All the things I just mentioned in terms of modernizing our products, our current generation, down-market, our mid-market offering, all of those have been anchored in transformation. The experience that I just spoke to in terms of our clients' ability to engage with us in a frictionless way, again, that's all been part of our transformation.
I think of it as transformation's kind of what we've been doing internally to get ready. I speak a lot more to modernization, and for me, that's really about the client lens. It's really about, again, having best-in-class products, best-in-class tools, to ensure that our products are as modern as our clients would expect. You know, at some level, it's interesting. I say we're in early innings. We are. We still have so much opportunity, even new, and I'm sure we'll get to it, but new technology that's coming that will yield, you know, the next level of modernization. While we've been modernizing all along and we've been transforming for a decade, our work has just begun, and I think it will be continuous.
That, for me, is really what it is, because the more we modernize, the more we have the ability to invest. We invest in distribution and growth, and we invest in margin and return shareholder value. To me, kind of this virtuous cycle that ADP's had for decades to modernize so that we can grow and return margin and do it all over again is, it's pretty winning formula.
Yeah. No, it's shown. You know, whether it was running to the cloud, embracing data-
That's right.
ADP wasn't afraid of it and still delivered on the margin expansion. You know, despite even with all the pressure to invest, it still came through. Of course, at a tech conference here, I know generative AI is gonna get a lot of attention as a big tech wave.
Yeah
big part of the hype cycle, whatever you wanna call it. I think I asked you on the earnings call, Maria.
You did.
... around generative AI, maybe 'cause I ran out of questions. No, it is something I care about, I think a lot of investors here care about. Tell us, sitting in your seat as CEO-
Sure
... how are you embracing generative AI? How disruptive could it be? You know, as a services company, I would think there is a lot of opportunity.
There's a tremendous opportunity. By the way, I was very grateful for that question that came at the tail end of the earnings call, and I'm grateful for it today because it's very exciting for us. It's very exciting for our industry. Maybe I'll start there.
Yeah
as somebody, and you have as well, who's been in this industry for 26 years and kinda watched it firsthand. What I would say is generative AI is really the next natural evolution of HCM. If you think about HCM over time, you dial all the way back to how did HR start, it really started as an administrative function. It started as a function to keep track of people. That's actually kinda how payroll was initially.
Mm-hmm.
You know, pay was a where you tallied everybody on a roster, if you will. That's really what HR was in the beginning. You know, quickly moved into kind of behavioral HCM. Behavioral HCM was when HR realized that it more than just keeping track of employees, you need to ensure that you're developing them and keeping them happy and all of these things. That also happened kind of in the middle of the last century with kind of what happened with the unions and things of that nature. That's kinda where HR was spent. Came, really in the early 1980s and 1990s, came strategic HR, and that's when companies started thinking differently about their global footprint and access to talent and how they wanted to run their companies.
For me, what was so exciting about this time, 'cause that's when I stepped into this company, was it was the time where HR got the seat at the table, at the C-suite.
Mm-hmm.
At some level, at, you know, side by side with the CEO to ensure that whatever the company was thinking about from a strategic perspective, HR was able to map to that, and HR was able to contribute to that. Strategic and global HR is where we were until about the last decade, and then came HR technology and we're the technology function. That's the history lesson of HCM technology for a minute. That's, to me, where we've spent the time really trying to sort through HR technology. While so much HR technology and HCM tech exists, the candid answer is, it's not always easy to use. It's not always easy to get that strategic report that shows you where your labor workforce is across the globe.
To me, what's so exciting about generative AI is that it's a monumental moment in that for the first time, all of this HR technology and all of this data will become usable in a more meaningful way. That's a really big deal for the industry, but it's a really big deal for ADP because we have unique data and we have more data than anyone else. I'm excited to step into that. I'm excited to watch that evolution in the industry. How are we thinking about it for us? I think the first is for our clients, right? I mentioned earlier the commitment we have to being client-centric in how we think about our products and really putting AI inside. We have that already.
we have artificial intelligence inside our products that serve up, whether it's payroll specialists who ensure that payrolls, again, get out on time and accurate, or it's other ways. If you think about HR, the function of HR, so much of it is administrative.
Mm-hmm.
You said services company. You know, we all have been speaking to things like job descriptions, handbooks, you know, writing reports. I actually saw a use case over the weekend, real-time, where generative AI was consuming a qualified benefit plan, and a natural language was able to just return, you know, give me the output of anyone over, you know, this group that needs a distribution, and that's incredible. I mean, that is So being able to feed a policy in and natural language return that level of reporting. Not to get all geeky about reporting-
Mm
These are meaningful experiences for our clients. Kinda switching gears and talking about us for a minute, generative AI, we were talking a little bit about this backstage. For us internally, as we think about it for ADP, it's really, it's both, right? It's both the commitment that I have to this company, which is driving growth as well as returning margin. On the growth side, today, as you know, we get about 50% of our business from our existing client base. This ability, and we have AI tools today, but generative AI is gonna change this game for us, which is being able to serve up the right lead to the right seller at the right time based on attributes and buying signals and times. That's a game changer for us.
Mm.
Very excited about what it can do for us on the booking side, and we've been in that space already. I think the other is operational efficiency. Back to transformation, modernization, we've been doing business process improvement for many, many decades, and this will be the next level of that. When I think about anything that has to do with a service agent and a service assist, whether it's keying case notes, and we're already playing with these things, and it's incredible the efficiency that it will yield for us in-internally. All the way around, I'm excited for the industry. I'm excited for ADP and the data that we have and making it more meaningful for our clients.
I'm excited to continue to put technology and innovation right at the forefront of our client's experience, and then I'm really excited internally both for growth as well as efficiency.
No, it'll be fun to track.
Yeah.
Maybe, 'cause I get this question a lot, Maria, just All the data you have across all these employers and employees, I know a lot of other companies are trying to tap into the same data that you have and do things like income verification.
Yeah.
What are you doing now where you're actually monetizing the data? What are the limits on what you can and cannot do?
It's a great question. I think a lot about this, as you can imagine. We're also highly governed, both internally, we have the likes of our board and others making sure that we're doing the right things as it relates to data. As a company who's had a lot of data over a lot of years, the good news is we're well-positioned. Back to the conversation, we just have to step into it in terms of the governance and really all the brand values that ADP stands for as it relates to making sure we're doing it the right way.
For us, being able to monetize data, the only way to do that is to do it the right way with the right level of trust from our clients, with the right level of consent from our clients' employees. I mentioned the 40 million wage earners. If we are ever to use any of their data, they're doing a consent on that. If we're using it in the aggregate, that's a client consent type of situation. You know, all of those things are things we've hashed out over the last few years. We are, as you mentioned, working with several credit bureaus on the data monetization, specifically for employment verification. That's been a big contributor to ADP over the last couple of years as mortgage rates were actually at one point at all-time lows.
Now even today, there are all sorts of new use cases, even for employment verification, even in the absence of the mortgage kind of height, if you will. We also are looking at all sorts of other use cases where we can monetize data. The way that I think about it, and we as a company think about it, is anywhere we can take a normal process and remove friction. In the case of employment verification, that's a process that forever was littered with complexity and friction for that, in this example, individual that was applying for a mortgage. What we were able to do through technology and this partnership and our data married with somebody else's data, was take a process that's littered in friction and make it literally seamless.
It's good for, it's good for the client's employees, it's good for the world or the applicant in this case.
Mm-hmm.
It's good for our clients, and it's certainly good for us and our bottom line.
Yeah. Well, now from a position of trust, obviously ADP is at the top of the list in terms of being the gold standard. The governance piece is gonna be important here.
Yes
... I think as we track it. It'll be fun to go. We've got a little, a little less than eight minutes left. I wanna hit a few more topics, if you don't mind.
Okay.
Wisely.
Wisely.
Yeah. I've you know, I think you've heard me say this before. I've always thought of ADP as the sleeping giant in fintech 'cause you touch so many employees, you know, push funds into their accounts. the opportunity to bank the underbanked-
That's right.
... and provide them this Wisely app and give them the tools to be banked and have a debit card, et cetera, seems quite large. Where does Wisely rank for you in terms of the opportunity to be closer to the employee?
It ranks high on the list.
Okay.
We continue to be, like you are, very excited about our Wisely offering. It is an ability for us to connect and bring value directly to our clients' employees. This sleeping giant, to use your terms, or this consumerization, if you will, of these 40 million wage earners, to me, it's all about meeting them where they are and where they're engaging. In the case of Wisely, they need access to their wages in a different way. They need access to pay cards in lieu of checks for various reasons. I'm very excited about this in that it will create this ability for us to bring value. As we grow that value, I have no doubt that the offering will continue to grow.
Some of the things that we're doing is bringing financial wellness into that app. We're actually helping... You mentioned the unbanked. That is a part of the target market. There are also many others. This concept of financial wellness kind of as an ability for us to help our clients. I talked about it on the last earnings call. We have over $1 billion has been saved automatically.
Mm-hmm
... through this wellness app. Again, our commitment to the world is to make the world a better place. Certainly, that's one way to do it. I think all of these ways, whether it's through Wisely or even our ADP Mobile Solutions, where we have 10 billion users that engage to either clock in or check their pay statements or look at their retirement, that's another key place that if we can continue to drive value, we will tap into this sleeping giant, if you will, of the connectivity that we naturally have today with our clients' employees.
No, it's fun to watch. With, you know, valuations have come in quite a bit for some of the fintech names, this isn't a specific for Wisely question, but just the balance of doing inorganic investments now at this point in the cycle versus investing organically, where do you stand on that?
Fair. Our capital priorities, we are committed to organic growth. We are also committed to M&A. We're committed to to dividends. It wouldn't be an ADP stage presence without shouting about our dividend coming up on 50 years next year.
Mm-hmm.
Share repurchases. Double-clicking really quickly on the M&A side, we are very disciplined as it relates to how we think about M&A. Valuations were incredibly high. They have come down. We're going to continue to To use the discipline we've always used, which is making sure that it has to be incredibly strategic for us to do something that would be outside of the commitments we have, whether it's growth or on margin. It really has to fit well for us. We do a lot of tuck-ins, and I don't, you know, I don't know if we always get all the credit that in my opinion, we should, as it relates to the amount of tuck-ins we do in a given year.
Just to kinda give a couple of them, we recently acquired one of our Streamline or Solergo partners, our international partners in South Africa. We acquired a labor management tool in Italy, called Infocom. We acquired a business in Ireland to provide payroll there for our clients. Again, that was one of our partners. We recently acquired a company called Integrated Design, IDI, which is really a mid-market ability for us to integrate our offerings. We do a lot of these tuck-ins, and the goal would be, especially as you mentioned, valuations changing a bit, there might be an opportunity for us to accelerate some of those things. Anything bigger than that, again, we're going to be very disciplined as it relates to the value equation.
All right. Good. We got three minutes left.
All right.
Debating if I should ask you a PEO question or we should close it out. What do you think?
PEO question. I'll take anything.
Well, let's close it out thinking about valuation. I know I've been a little bit surprised to see ADP stock underperform.
Me too.
year to date. I'll ask you this. What do you think is underappreciated or maybe misunderstood from an ADP perspective? I know you get a lot of questions on unemployment and.
I do.
... and what's going on with the macro, but we've seen ADP be very defensive through up and down cycles. What do you think is misunderstood, Maria?
You say defensive, I say all weather.
Okay.
I think, by the way, my job is to ensure that we remain all weather. That doesn't mean, by the way, we're weatherproof, but we are an all-weather company. I think maybe I'll touch on two things, and we can end on the PEO. Maybe the two things in my mind that might be slightly underappreciated by the market at this time. The first is there are so many questions around where we started, which is the unique backdrop of the labor economy and what's happening with employment, and is it going this way or that way? We guide to these things. When I think about something such as pays per control over time, it has actually very minimal impact on ADP. You know this. You've studied us.
It all averages out over time. Really, to me, taking us back to kinda where I started, what really matters is the HCM demand. That demand, the secular demand and our ability to lean into it, right, through things like best-in-class product, through distribution, that to me is more important than what's happening with the employment. It's the correlation or the impact of, you know, pays per control to our actual results, both bookings and revenues, is very minimal in the context of the demand environment. Demand remains strong.
I think the other thing, getting to the PEO here at the end, I think the other thing that's underappreciated, if you will, by the market or I believe maybe even the market is a bit confused because all of the PEOs experienced, I think, a heightened impact as pays per control came back.
Yeah
... in terms of the post-pandemic year. We all are, you know, challenged by these grow over rates, right? I think we all had some element of deceleration and strangeness, if you will, in our results at the same time. I think the market is very keen to try to figure out what is that one thing that's happening in the PEO. The truth is, we're all very different. We serve different markets at some level, different geographies, different sizes. We have different offerings. Some of us have PEO and various components of administrative services offerings, Comprehensive Services offerings. We are also structurally very different.
You know, while we are fully insured, and that's what we believe is the right thing for the industry to really look at the disciplined and stable rates over time, many of our competitors are not. We all have had impact in the post-pandemic environment. I think the market is trying to make it one story.
Yeah.
The answer is... Again, I've spent... You know, I was in that business since 1999. I've watched these cycles over decades, and they repeat themselves, and that's all this is. Our cycle looks the way it does because of who we are, and everyone else's looks a little different. There isn't just one thing. Again, you know, back to the demand environment, which is what matters, the demand is strong in the PEO. It's not getting any easier to navigate being a client in that space, and we're right there to step into it. Demand on both ends remains strong.
Great. I think we can end it on that note.
Okay.
I'm really grateful to have you, Maria.
Thank you.
I'm really excited to be working with you, and hopefully we can do this again.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.