What ADP recruiting does, and who answers for its ranking

ADP sells two recruiting products that connect to different ADP systems, so find out which one you are being offered. Both score applicants with AI, and the outside audit of both scores dates from April 2024. ADP’s Recruiting Management terms make the client responsible for monitoring any adverse impact that may result from its ranking criteria. ADP marks recruitment Included in the Workforce Now packages, so ask whether it costs extra.

By Ashish Manchanda Published 4 Nov 2026 Last updated 4 Nov 2026

ADP recruiting is two products, and its Recruiting Management terms leave the bias checks with you

In one line

ADP sells two recruiting products that connect to its HR and payroll systems. Both score applicants with AI, and the terms for Recruiting Management leave the bias checks with you.

Buy it if

You run ADP Workforce Now or another ADP system and want new hires to move there. If you buy Recruiting Management, you are ready to monitor the AI ranking for bias yourself.

Do not buy it if

You want ADP to carry the bias checks on the Recruiting Management ranking. You do not have a written price for your headcount yet.

Price

ADP puts Talent Acquisition / Recruitment under add-ons. It marks the line Included in all three Workforce Now packages, so ask whether it costs extra on your plan. Recruiting Management counts the people paid through Workforce Now in the previous calendar month. Extras such as ADP’s WOTC offering cost more.

Two ADP products do the recruiting job and connect to different ADP systems

ADP sells two recruiting products, so find out which one a salesperson is quoting. Recruiting Management belongs to the ADP Talent Acquisition suite. It sends new hires to ADP Lyric, ADP Vantage HCM, ADP Enterprise HR and ADP Workforce Now. Workforce Now Recruitment belongs to the Workforce Now suite. It connects to the onboarding, HR and payroll data in that suite.

Recruiting Management gives recruiters one place called the Recruiting Control Center. They follow recruiting activity there, talk to candidates, create requisitions and schedule events. It reads resumes and applications. An algorithm then compares each candidate’s relevancy for the position side by side. Workforce Now Recruitment manages job postings as an applicant tracking system. It also recommends candidates, with a summary of their qualifications, each time someone creates a job requisition.

The hand-over to ADP carries sensitive personal data. Recruiting Management sends new hires to the ADP system of record. The data includes name, address, contact details, Social Security number, date of birth and pay-related information. The exchange runs in both directions on a schedule that repeats daily. Share this with whoever signs off on data protection before you connect it.

Other companies offer tools that extend Recruiting Management through the ADP Marketplace. So if you need a job that ADP’s own product does not do, ask which connector does it. Docufree moves new hire documents to other HR systems. VidCruiter links its interview and reference system. Flexspring syncs job requisitions, applications and candidate status in both directions with Oracle Recruiting. Aquera updates connected identity systems when something changes. The pandoIQ connector works only for businesses that are Recruiting Management clients.

Some connectors touch candidate data, so the maker matters. PandoLogic, the maker of pandoIQ, has agreed to ADP Marketplace AI principles. They cover human oversight, monitoring, privacy, explainability, transparency and mitigating bias. Ask which other partners that touch candidate data have agreed to the same.

Our guide to applicant tracking systems covers how the rest of this market works.

What the AI score reads and how ADP has tested it

Both products rank applicants with an AI score. Before you rely on it, you need to know what it reads and how ADP tested it. ADP calls the score Candidate Relevancy in Recruiting Management. It calls the score Profile Relevance in Workforce Now Recruitment. Both use artificial intelligence and machine learning to compare an applicant’s education, experience and skills with the job description.

Recruiters in Recruiting Management see a number from 1 to 100. Workforce Now Recruitment turns the score into a category. ADP’s two FAQs give that category different labels. The Candidate Relevancy FAQ gives High, Medium or Low. The July 2026 Profile Relevance FAQ gives excellent, good, fair or low match, built from three sub-scores. Ask which labels your account uses. The Profile Relevance model uses several machine-learning models, including one from OpenAI. So ask ADP whether any of your candidate data reaches that outside model.

ADP limits how the score is used. It is one of many factors an employer reviews when choosing who to interview. There are no cut-off scores, and every application stays visible to the employer. ADP trains Candidate Relevancy on data about skills, education and experience. It does not train the score on protected demographic information.

ADP obtained an independent bias audit of both scores from BLDS, LLC in April 2024. The auditors concluded that no valid statistical evidence of bias is present in the scoring. For Profile Relevance, ADP also ran internal tests on more than 48,000 resumes before a pilot. The tests covered scoring rates and impact ratios by sex and race or ethnicity. An impact ratio compares one group’s rate with the rate of the most selected group.

ADP’s retention policy for resume data and job descriptions collected from either product is three years. That is how long ADP keeps that data, so check it against your own rules for candidate records.

What works in your favour, product by product

ADP’s strengths sit in how candidates reach you and what you can see once they do. Some belong to Recruiting Management and some to Workforce Now Recruitment, so each card is labelled with its product. Check which one you are being offered before you count a strength as yours.

Recruiting Management lets candidates apply from a phone by text

If your candidates apply from a phone, this is the feature to look at first. Text to Apply in Recruiting Management uses a chatbot on SMS to help candidates find jobs and apply. They then join the applicant pool for recruiter review. Each step a candidate skips on a phone is one less reason to give up. Candidates can also apply through LinkedIn or Indeed, use forms that fill themselves in, and log in without a password. Once they have applied, you stay in touch with them. Recruiters and candidates can text each other in both directions. Candidates book their own interviews, and the web and mobile screens come in several languages. Workforce Now Recruitment also lets candidates book interviews from slots that recruiters share.

One job post can reach more than 1,000 job boards

A vacancy only helps if candidates see it, so reach matters. Recruiting Management distributes jobs to internal and external career sites, social networks, third-party agencies and more than 1,000 job boards. It also gives you career sites built for your organisation that work in a browser and on a phone. Workforce Now Recruitment posts requisitions to more than 25,000 job sites through JobTarget.

Workforce Now Recruitment keeps every message to a candidate

A hiring dispute can turn on what was said to a candidate, so a record of messages matters. Workforce Now Recruitment captures and stores all messages in the system. That gives you a record of each conversation with a candidate. Recruiters can send two-way texts or branded emails. Reports then show you what hiring costs and how long it takes. Workforce Now Recruitment reports cover cost-to-hire and time-to-hire. Recruiting Management reports can track the candidate pipeline, applicant flow and quality-of-hire. Applicant flow is the record of each candidate’s steps. Recruiters build these reports by drag and drop, or take field suggestions from AI.

ADP helps you write the job and judge the pay

Before a job goes live, someone has to write it up and judge the pay. In Workforce Now Recruitment, a Job Description Generator enhanced by ADP Assist writes job descriptions. ADP Assist is ADP’s generative AI tool. ADP relies on AI for initial drafts of documents such as job descriptions, for a practitioner to review. Recruiting Management gives on-demand pay insight by place and industry, drawn from more than 100,000 data points and 9,000 jobs. It also uses AI built on skills to help guide job searches, candidate reviews and job descriptions.

Background checks and work-eligibility checks come from ADP too

Hiring ends with checks, and ADP offers them. Recruiting Management candidates can be verified with ADP’s background screening services. ADP also offers eI-9 and E-Verify services. They cover the electronic signature and storage of Form I-9. That is the US form that confirms a new hire may legally work.

It suits companies that already run ADP, or want hiring run for them

You run ADP Workforce Now

If you already run Workforce Now, start with Workforce Now Recruitment. It is part of that suite and connects to its onboarding, HR and payroll data. National Bankruptcy Services, a financial services firm in Dallas with 250 employees, uses Workforce Now with ADP Recruitment. ADP markets the product to midsize businesses.

You run ADP Lyric, Vantage HCM or Enterprise HR

Recruiting Management sends new hires to ADP Lyric, ADP Vantage HCM and ADP Enterprise HR. If you run one of those, ask for Recruiting Management by name. Workforce Now Recruitment is part of the Workforce Now suite.

You want someone else to run hiring

If you would rather not run hiring yourself, look at ADP’s outsourced recruiting service, known as RPO. It can manage a full hiring process from start to finish. That includes high-volume and seasonal hiring. ADP presents Recruiting Management as the technology for companies that need an applicant tracking system.

ADP’s terms and New York City law leave checking the ranking with you

ADP had its score audited, but its terms still leave the checking with you. ADP’s Marketplace terms for Recruiting Management Services make the client exclusively responsible for its hiring practices. That includes monitoring, analysing and reporting any adverse impact that may result from criteria the client uses to rank candidates. Adverse impact means one group of candidates being selected at a lower rate than another.

New York City adds a legal duty for jobs based in a New York City office at least part time. Local Law 144 covers a tool whose score substantially assists or replaces discretionary decision making. Using it to screen candidates needs a bias audit within one year before use. The employer must also publish a summary of the latest audit on its website. Under the city’s guidance, the vendor that created the tool is not responsible for that audit. Our guide to applicant tracking systems explains the law in full.

ADP’s view depends on how you use its score. ADP does not believe Candidate Relevancy is an automated employment decision tool if used as ADP intends. It judges that by the definition in the city’s ordinance and final rules. The city’s rule reads “substantially assist or replace” as three things. They are relying only on the score, weighting it more than any other criterion, or overruling other factors. Compare those three tests with how your recruiters use ADP’s score. Then ask ADP in writing what “as ADP intends” covers. Get legal advice on whether your use fits it.

The outside audit of the score is from April 2024

The outside audit of both scores took place in April 2024. For New York City jobs, a covered screening tool needs a bias audit within one year before use. Ask ADP for the date of its latest audit and for the full report.

An applicant opts out of the score one job at a time

Applicants can choose not to have Candidate Relevancy or Profile Relevance review their application. Each opt-out applies to one job posting only. An applicant who applies to three jobs must opt out of each posting separately. Decide who reviews an opted-out application, and how you tell applicants.

The score also learns from past hiring decisions

The Candidate Relevancy model uses past decisions drawn from millions of resumes and job descriptions. The selection decision in each one was already known. Ask whose decisions they were, and how the bias audit tested that data.

What it costs depends on which of the two ADP products you buy

Workforce Now Recruitment looks like the simpler case, but check it. ADP marks Talent Acquisition / Recruitment Included in all three Workforce Now packages. It files that line under add-ons, so ask whether it costs extra on your plan. The line covers a requisition process and reporting, interview scheduling and offer letter management.

Recruiting Management is billed on headcount. Under ADP’s Marketplace terms for the service, billing begins when the service is available in a production environment. The count comes from the ADP Workforce Now database. It covers all unique people paid in the previous calendar month. Ask ADP for the price per person.

Some extras cost more. ADP’s WOTC offering carries additional charges. WOTC is a US tax break for some hires. ZipRecruiter Job Slots is available only to Workforce Now clients with 50 to 999 employees.

You could also run hiring steps with agents built on your own systems. We have mapped what that looks like. The HR Agent Map

Nine questions for the ADP demo

What is the date of your latest bias audit, and can we have the full report? Good answer: A date within the last twelve months and the whole report, not a summary.
Which ranking criteria do our recruiters control, and which report tracks adverse impact from them? Good answer: A named report with selection rates by group, and a person at ADP who can explain it.
Which result labels will our recruiters see for Profile Relevance? Good answer: One set of labels, confirmed in writing.
Whose past decisions does the score learn from, and how did the audit test that data? Good answer: The source of the decisions and the audit’s tests, in writing.
Which outside AI models does Profile Relevance use, and do any of them receive our candidate data? Good answer: A named list of models and a named place where candidate data goes.
What happens to an applicant who opts out, and must they opt out of every job? Good answer: A review by a named person, and a written answer on repeat opt-outs.
What is the price per person for Recruiting Management, and who counts as a paid person? Good answer: A price in writing and a clear definition of the monthly count.
Which extras cost more, and what will the WOTC offering cost us? Good answer: A full list of extras with prices.
Does the three-year retention period apply to our account, and how do we get our records out if we leave? Good answer: A written retention period for our account and a stated export format.

Alternatives to ADP

The alternatives to ADP are Greenhouse, Workable, Pinpoint, ClearCo, Hireology, Recruitee, Dayforce, Paycor, Paycom and isolved.

You have three choices. Keep ADP’s recruiting, add a hiring tool that sends hires to ADP, or move to another payroll suite’s recruiting. The first six are separate hiring tools. Five connect to ADP Workforce Now today, and Recruitee’s connector is unavailable for new installations. Each link works differently, so ask what moves across. Greenhouse’s link is a partial integration that imports users and exports new hires. Workable sends candidate data to Workforce Now on any plan with its Recruiting package. You buy the Workable connector through the ADP Marketplace. Pinpoint sends new hire details to Workforce Now and pulls job titles, company details and compliance data back.

ClearCo has two-way links with Workforce Now, TotalSource, Vantage HCM and Lyric. On the ADP Marketplace, ClearCo asks you to log in to see its price. Hireology connects through ADP’s Data Connector, and ADP charges $10 a month per account to use it.

Dayforce, Paycor, Paycom and isolved sell recruiting as part of an HR and payroll platform, as ADP does. Dayforce’s published price book includes a Talent Acquisition package of Recruiting and Onboarding. Paycor combines recruiting with onboarding in one HCM platform. Paycom and isolved each sell an applicant tracking system.

Buying nothing means keeping the process you use now. If you run Workforce Now, ask whether its recruitment costs extra on your plan before you buy another tool. Our comparison of the researched products sets them side by side.