Paylocity Appoints Tauhidah Shakir as Chief Diversity Officer

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Sept. 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Paylocity (NASDAQ: PCTY), a leading provider of cloud-based HR and payroll software solutions, today announced the appointment of Tauhidah Shakir as Vice President of Human Resources, Chief Diversity Officer. The company also announced its renewed commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs that are focused on education & awareness, conscious products, company representation, advocacy & support, fairness & equity and community action.

Shakir brings more than 20 years of experience in providing strategic HR support, developing DEI programs and coaching leaders. Previous to Paylocity, Shakir was the CEO of The Conxsis Group and served in HR leadership roles at organizations like Echo Global Logistics, Ulta Beauty and Fossil Group. With an extensive background in helping organizations build more diverse and equitable workplaces, Shakir - who is the company's first Chief Diversity Officer - is responsible for leading Paylocity's HR function with an inclusive lens while developing strategies and programs that enhance DEI.

"I'm passionate about cultivating a workplace where employees can bring their whole selves to work and feel safe, valued, and respected. Paylocity's company values align with mine, and together we deeply believe differences of experience and perspective make us stronger," said Shakir. "I'm thrilled and honored for the opportunity to create positive employee experiences rooted in DEI at Paylocity."

With Shakir at the helm, Paylocity's DEI program has been enhanced to focus on:

    --  Education & awareness - Paylocity is invested in educating its employees
        and the community about what racism looks like, how biases come about
        and what it must do to directly affect positive change. The company
        continues to develop original learning content on these topics, which is
        available to employees and clients. Paylocity incorporated diversity and
        unconscious bias training into its internal continued learning program,
        and all employees will complete the training by the end of the year. To
        heighten awareness around human rights and social justice issues,
        Paylocity hosts forums and dedicates episodes of its PCTY Talks podcast
        to discussing important topics like the Black Lives Matter movement.
        Paylocity will continue these efforts through focus groups, leveraging
        its employee resource groups (ERGs) and enlisting the help of outside
        experts.


    --  Conscious products - Paylocity has updated its product roadmap to
        prioritize features that make it easier to track, measure, and improve
        diversity. Survey templates that help give all employees a voice and
        compensation tools that help drive pay equity are a few examples. To
        help clients improve their own DEI efforts, Paylocity created resources
        that showcase how the platform can be used to foster change.


    --  Company representation - Paylocity is committed to ensuring more Black,
        Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), and other underrepresented
        minority groups are part of its daily decision-making body, senior
        management and corporate board. In March, Paylocity added to the
        diversity on its Board of Directors, and the board is currently just
        under one-half underrepresented minorities or female. Paylocity also
        enhanced the transparency of its DEI efforts by publicly sharing annual
        data on its workforce makeup. Attracting, hiring, and retaining more
        diverse candidates will continue to be a primary focus for Paylocity.


    --  Advocacy & support - Paylocity understands that underrepresented
        minority groups face unique challenges and that it takes all of us
        working together to resolve them. Paylocity focused first on the
        individual by rolling out training and resources for mental well-being
        and resiliency for its employees. From there, Paylocity formed three new
        ERGs to ensure alignment between its business and diversity strategies
        and to raise awareness related to the issues facing our underrepresented
        minorities, women, and LGBTQ+ communities. In addition to hiring Shakir,
        Paylocity created a new Diversity Leadership Council to partner with ERG
        leaders and executive sponsors to influence change through education and
        advocacy.


    --  Fairness & equity - Paylocity conducted a pay equity study for 2017-2019
        with a multiple regression analysis. The results continue to show that
        Paylocity does not have any statistical difference in pay practices
        among employees based on race or gender. To ensure equity for
        performance expectations, opportunities for promotion and recognition,
        Paylocity rolled out a competency model to describe what's expected at
        each level of the organization. The company is also creating a supplier
        diversity program so its vendors and supplier companies better reflect
        the diversity of its customers and growing employee population.
    --  Community action - Paylocity is committed to making a positive community
        impact. Its employees have donated thousands of hours in support of more
        than 40 organizations, including $330,000 raised between July 1, 2019,
        and June 30, 2020. In effort to help community organizers address racial
        inequalities facing underrepresented minority groups, Paylocity plans to
        continue partnering with its local communities to support their
        programs, especially those that target underrepresented minorities.

For more information on Paylocity's DEI efforts, visit: https://www.paylocity.com/who-we-are/our-culture/diversity-equity-inclusion/. For insights on creating a data-driven DEI strategy, read Paylocity's recent blog post: https://www.paylocity.com/resources/resource-library/blog-diversity-inclusion-strategy-needs-data/.

About Paylocity
Paylocity (NASDAQ: PCTY) is a leading provider of cloud-based HR and payroll software solutions headquartered in Schaumburg, IL. Founded in 1997 and publicly traded since 2014, Paylocity offers an intuitive, easy-to-use product suite that helps businesses tackle today's challenges while moving them toward the promise of tomorrow. Known for its unique culture and consistently recognized as one of the best places to work, Paylocity accompanies its clients on the journey to create great workplaces and help people achieve their best through automation, data-driven insights, and engagement. For more information, visit www.paylocity.com.

CONTACT:
Kellie Flaherty
Walker Sands, for Paylocity
PaylocityPR@walkersands.com
773-459-6954

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SOURCE Paylocity