Data-driven Discoveries about the World of Work
ADP Research Institute is the global thought leader on labor market and employee performance research.
Our Mission
The mission of the ADP Research Institute is to generate data-driven discoveries about the world of work and derive reliable economic indicators from these insights. We offer these findings to the world as our unique contribution to making the world of work better and more productive, and to bring greater awareness to the economy at large.
Meet Our Team
Meet the ADP experts who are leading the way in cutting-edge thinking and analysis on the issues that matter most in the world of work.
Labor Market Research
People & Performance Research
Contact Us
Media Inquiries
Allyce Hackmann
(973) 974-3064
[email protected]
Research Inquiries
[email protected]

Nela Richardson, Ph.D.
Chief Economist
Nela Richardson joined ADP as Chief Economist in November of 2020. Nela is the co-head of the ADP Research Institute and leads economic research for ADP. Previously she was Principal and Investment Strategist at Edward Jones, a financial services firm. In that role, Nela analyzed and interpreted economic trends and financial market conditions and recommended investment strategies. Nela is also the former chief economist at Redfin Corp., a national real estate brokerage and technology company, where she led a team of data scientists, economists and writers to track trends in the housing market. Nela also served as a senior economist for Bloomberg, L.P., covering housing and financial markets, and has held research positions at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and Freddie Mac. She also worked as an adjunct finance professor at the Carey School of Business at John Hopkins University.
Nela earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Maryland-College Park with concentrations in financial economics, international finance and economic development. She obtained a master’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, where she was a triple major in mathematics, economics and philosophy.
Nela regularly provides insight on the economy, real estate trends and capital markets to policymakers, consumers and media. She is a regular contributor to Marketplace from American Public Media and has frequently appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business CNN, Yahoo Finance, the Wall Street Journal, FORTUNE magazine, The New York Times and other national and local media.
Nela serves on the foundation boards for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Business Economists. She also is a member of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Advisory Committee and the Conference of Business Economists.
Registered representative of ADP Broker Dealer, Inc. (ADP BD), Member FINRA, an affiliate of ADP, Inc., One ADP Blvd, Roseland, NJ 07068 and Principal Investment Strategist for ADP Strategic Plan Services, LLC (SPS) an SEC Registered Investment Adviser. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or services.
Meet the Labor Market Research team

Jeff Nezaj
Principal Data Scientist
Jeff Nezaj joined ADP® in April 2017 as Director of Data Analytics. As part of the ADP Research Institute’s research team, he provides valuable insights derived from the vast data assets of ADP’s business clients, which represent roughly 16 percent of the entire U.S. employment base. He is also responsible for providing support to ADP’s Workforce Vitality Report.
Jeff has a passion for data. With nearly 20 years of experience in data and business analytics, he not only has helped organizations improve their business processes, but also increase revenue and profitability. Prior to coming to ADP, he held leadership positions at direct-to-consumer marketing, as well as financial services companies.
In his most recent role at Univision Communications, Jeff led the analytics group at the Enterprise Business unit, where his valuable data insights helped to guide customer strategy. In a previous position at Guthy-Renker, Jeff played a key role within the Customer Analytics group, providing analytics and insights that resulted in a better understanding of customer behavior within their subscription brands. Earlier in his career, he held significant positions at Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, where he focused on Risk Management and Decision Sciences.
A native New Yorker, Jeff received his bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering and his master’s degree in Statistics from Columbia University.
Meet the Labor Market Research team

Liv Wang
Senior Data Scientist
Liv Ye Wang is a Senior Data Scientist at ADP Research Institute for 3.5 years. Her responsibilities include managing the company-wide data mining and analytics initiatives by identifying relevant data from our client’s systems and platforms. She assists to conduct data analysis for Remote Work Study and Gig Economy Paper. She is pursuing her doctoral degree in Economics at the City University of New York (CUNY’s Graduate Center). Before working with ADP, she worked as an economist intern of business forecasts at the Aviation department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. She taught several finance and macro economics classes at Hunter College, City College of New York, and Baruch College. She has master’s degrees in Economics from Fordham University and CUNY’s Graduate Center, and bachelor’s degree in Economics from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
Meet the Labor Market Research team

Ben Hanowell
Director, Economist
Ben Hanowell joined the ADP Research Institute in July 2021. He's an anthropologist and people analyst. That means he studies the decisions people make about where, when, and how they work. He also studies the decisions companies make about workforce management. To do this, Ben analyzes data from human capital management systems, surveys, public datasets, and in-depth interviews. Ben feels just as much at home writing computer code for complex statistical models as he does designing a survey, speaking one-on-one with workforce management executives, or talking to people hard at work on the frontline.
Before joining ADP, Ben was a senior data scientist at Amazon studying one of the world's largest private workforces. Ben also developed algorithms to measure and predict willingness to work among individual contractors who deliver Amazon packages. Before joining Amazon, Ben worked at A Place for Mom analyzing pricing, demand, consumer preferences, and demographic trends in the senior housing and care market. Ben's first private sector job was to study the predictors of productivity, retention, and customer satisfaction among real estate agents at Redfin.
Ben’s inter-disciplinary graduate research at the University of Washington was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Child Health and Development, and a Fulbright Scholarship. He lives in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Meet the Labor Market Research team

Deepak Sathyanarayanan
Data Scientist
Deepak is a Data Scientist with ADPRI. Having joined the research institute in July 2021, he has brought the team rich experience in the Analytical domain with good work experience on AI/ Machine Learning, Statistical Algorithms, Natural Language Processing, Visualization and Big Data. In the past he has worked on multiple Data Engineering projects.
With a financial background, Deepak has worked with top banking & financial institutions. During his tenure at PNC Bank, he was as a Senior Associate within the Datawarehouse team, contributing to building data pipelines and performing Analytical tasks. Some of his past roles include Data Visualization Analyst at Bank of America - Merrill Lynch and Junior Data Scientist at S&P Global Ratings.
Deepak’s academics include a strong Computer Science and Math background. He has done several certifications in Data Science and strives to keep up to date on the latest developments in data science. In his spare time, he likes to play tennis, go on hikes and swim.
Meet the Labor Market Research team

Tim Decker
Principal Data Scientist
Tim Decker joined ADP in May of 2021 as a Principal Data Scientist to help lead and develop data science within the research institute. He is fascinated with quantifying the world and has a knack for seeing problems through a unique lens. Tim excels in communicating nuanced concepts with simple analogies and reducing complex systems into bite-sized pieces. He has a track record of leveraging a broad set of skills on various difficult problems across a career spanning more than 15 years.
His career started at a scientific think tank dealing with deterministic chaotic dynamics of extreme weather events including hurricanes, tsunamis, and droughts. He researched and supported catastrophic risk analytics, forecasting, and building out algorithms to better understand natural hazards. Tim subsequently worked at several large companies including Starbucks and Facebook, where he collaborated with business partners and deployed data science solutions at scale. He gained experience working on problems in operations research, information retrieval, time series analysis, and natural language processing (NLP), and has developed and deployed models utilizing numerical simulations, nonlinear optimization, neural networks, and many other techniques. Most recently before joining ADP, Tim lead the data science team at Zulily which was tasked with improving search algorithms and data, and he re-architected the company’s A/B experimentation platform.
Tim enjoys mentoring junior data scientists and establishing data science best practices on his teams. He received his bachelors in Applied Computational and Mathematical Sciences (ACMS) with a focus in economics from the University of Washington.
Meet the Labor Market Research team

Sam Adieze
Research Assistant
Sam Adieze joined the ADP Research Institute as a Research Assistant in July 2021. He brings to the team a rich background in machine learning, visualizations, and large-scale data processing. Before joining ADP, Sam worked extensively in the financial industry as a Banking Specialist and then an IT Analyst. As an IT Analyst, he specialized in identifying potential fraudulent activities within the internal money transfer services. Sam graduated from Rowan University in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Physics and a master’s degree in Data Science.
Meet the Labor Market Research team

Marie Antonello
Senior Director, Program Management
Marie Antonello is the Senior Director, Program Manager for ADP Research Institute. She is responsible for the production of their labor market research from start to finish by orchestrating work between stakeholders through project management and promotion. While collaborating with ADP’s content, public relations, digital marketing and sales operations teams, Marie helps develop, define and communicate key project plans, content and strategic events for labor market and people + performance.
Prior to joining ADP Research Institute, Marie worked at American International Group (AIG) for over 16 years where she was most recently the AVP of Strategic Marketing & Business Development at Private Client Group. During her tenure at Private Client Group, Marie led the producer management department that supported their U.S and Canada marketing teams. As a strategist, her operational skills contributed with the successful launch of several new distribution markets for business growth that resulted in optimal client service. Marie provided continuous property and casualty insurance expertise to execute a new quoting system ensuring functionality supported their clients and brokers. She also helped develop and grow their PCG-U® continuing educational program expanding courses all over the US for a variety of designations. In 2019, Marie was elected by AIG Woman & Allies Employee Resource Group as a leader who inspires others. Prior to her career at AIG, Marie held a variety of Paralegal positions in New York City at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, and Mendes & Mount LLP. Marie is a graduate of St. John’s University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Legal Studies. She has most recently earned a Project Management certificate.
Meet the Labor Market Research team

Issi Romem
Research Fellow
Issi Romem is a fellow at the ADP Research Institute. He is also the founder of MetroSight and an affiliate of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at U.C. Berkeley. Before establishing MetroSight he served as Chief Economist of Trulia and Senior Director of Housing & Urban Economics at Zillow. His research and writing on metropolitan growth patterns, construction trends and housing have been featured in major publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and more. He regularly speaks at industry and research forums.
Prior to that, Issi served as Chief Economist of BuildZoom, advised the Rentonomics team at Apartment List, and worked as an economist at OnPoint Analytics and the Bay Area Council. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University, and a Ph.D. in economics from U.C. Berkeley, where he was advised by professors David Card (Nobel prize winner, 2021), Bob Helsley, and Enrico Moretti. He has taught econometrics as an adjunct professor in Berkeley’s economics department.
Meet the Labor Market Research team

Marcus Buckingham
Head of People + Performance Research
Marcus Buckingham is a global researcher and thought leader focused on unlocking strengths, increasing performance and pioneering the future of how people work.
Building on nearly two decades of experience as a Senior Researcher at Gallup Organization, he has challenged entrenched preconceptions about achievement to get to the core of what drives success for individuals, teams, and organizations. He has focused on finding the most reliable ways to measure employee talents, employee engagement, team effectiveness, leader effectiveness, and performance, and continued this mission when he founded The Marcus Buckingham Company in 2006. His research has reinforced a simple but often overlooked approach to performance: that when people spend the majority of each day on the job using their greatest talents and engaged in their favorite tasks, both they and their organizations will win. His assessments, StrengthsFinder and StandOut, have been taken over 10 million times around the world and used to help individual contributors, leaders, and teams better understand and utilize their strengths to perform at their best. His measurement tool, the Engagement Pulse, is used by companies around the world to predict employee performance and engagement with reliability and validity.
The definitive treatment of strengths in the workplace can be found in his best-selling books: First, Break All the Rules (coauthored with Curt Coffman; Simon & Schuster, 1999); Now, Discover Your Strengths (coauthored with Donald O. Clifton; The Free Press, 2001); The One Thing You Need to Know (The Free Press, 2005); Go Put Your Strengths To Work (The Free Press, 2007); The Truth About You (Thomas Nelson, 2008) Find Your Strongest Life (Thomas Nelson, 2009), StandOut (Thomas Nelson, 2011), and StandOut 2.0 (Harvard Business Review Press, 2015). His book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World (Harvard Business Publishing, 2019) takes an in-depth look at the lies that pervade our workplaces and the core truths that will help us change it for the better. And, his latest book, Love + Work, helps us to discover where we are at our best in work and in life.
Marcus joined ADP Research Institute in 2017 as Head of People + Performance Research, where he has spearheaded the 2018 Global Study of Engagement, the 2020 Global Workplace Study, and the HR XPerience Score (HRXPS) study from 2021 which measures HR effectiveness to pinpoint what strategic and tactical actions the HR function can take to increase service quality in this 25-country study of over 32,000 respondents.
Meet the People & Performance Research team

Mary Hayes, Ph.D.
Research Director
Mary Hayes earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her Master's degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was focused on Qualitative, Quantitative and Psychometrics Methodology with additional work in Survey Research Methodology. Both of Dr. Hayes' degrees focus on the psychology of people and how these people flourish through positive psychology. Since 2005, Dr. Hayes has worked closely with Marcus Buckingham in the development of the StandOut Assessment and other StandOut tools and resources, assuming the role of TMBC Senior Researcher in 2015 and Research Director, People and Performance in 2018. Prior to her time with TMBC, Dr. Hayes served as the Innovation and Impact Director for HUMANeX Ventures, Data Management Director at Creighton University School of Pharmacy and has also provided consultation services in the fields of human resource management and human performance since 2003.
Dr. Hayes' research focus has been on engagement, turnover, knowledge worker performance and teams in the work place. Dr. Hayes has partnered with Marcus Buckingham for over a decade to design and implement valid and reliable tools to help workers get more out of their work experiences. The partnership can be described as the practitioner/ scientist model where we bring the best of both worlds to make a difference for the knowledge worker – together focusing on sound research with clients to help them understand the relationships between engagement and performance, engagement and turnover, as well as other relevant issues in the world of work.
Meet the People & Performance Research team

Frances Chumney, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher for Psychometric Methods
Dr. Frances Chumney is a research psychometrician and methodologist who specializes in latent variable measurement, instrument development and validation, statistical simulations, and survey research. Dr. Chumney’s expertise of psychometric and quantitative methods is extensive and includes research design, structural equation modeling, multivariate statistics, longitudinal modeling, Bayesian techniques, classical test theory, item response theory, sampling, and program evaluation. Dr. Chumney has submitted her work for peer review and presented to academic and professional audiences in more than a dozen countries across 6 continents.
Since 2003, Dr. Chumney has been active in research on latent variable measurement, instrument development, analytic techniques, and psychometric methods. As a methodologist, Dr. Chumney has provided research design, instrument development, data collection, analytics, and reporting support to researchers in myriad fields, including nursing, statistics, education, cognitive and developmental psychology, and business. She has served as Project Manager, Research Coordinator, and Methodologist on large federally-funded research projects in the field of education. Dr. Chumney served as research professor and dissertation advisor within the College of Education and the School of Nursing at the University of West Georgia.
Dr. Chumney earned a doctorate degree in Quantitative, Qualitative, and Psychometric Methods with a doctoral minor in Survey Research Methods from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She earned a master’s degree in quantitative and psychometric methods from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a concentration in behavioral and social sciences from East Tennessee State University.
Meet the People & Performance Research team

Kristi Pavel
Senior Director, Program Management
Kristi joined the ADP Research Institute in April 2020 to drive the production of groundbreaking People + Performance research. She is responsible for leading various programs and initiatives and collaborates closely with cross-functional teams in doing so.
Prior to joining the Research Institute, Kristi spent 10 years as the Director of Client Success for The Marcus Buckingham Company (TMBC), an ADP Company. At TMBC, Kristi led cross-functional teams of geographically dispersed resources to deliver technology, training and coaching solutions on time, to specification and within budget. She strategically managed the relationships of large, complex corporate clients.
Prior to joining TMBC, Kristi spent 18 years with the Hewlett-Packard Company, providing global project management for multi-million dollar client projects. During her time at Hewlett-Packard, Kristi implemented numerous improvements to the organization’s planning and processes. Responsible for the global plan of record management and customer issue management, she aligned sales and operations teams across regions to a prioritized list of initiatives and resolved complex global customer issues involving product delivery in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Her client accounts included McKinsey & Company, Chevron, Morrison & Foerster, Starbucks, and Franklin Templeton.
Kristi graduated with distinction from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln with a degree in Business Administration. She received an emphasis in International Business from studying abroad at Oxford University in Oxford, England and Senshu University in Tokyo, Japan. Kristi was a member of the Project Management Institute and certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) from 2004–2010.