Paycom’s growth is a story that gets massively more interesting April 21, 2014, when Richison took the company public with a successful initial public offering of an aggregate of 7.6 million shares, which generated net proceeds of $64.3 million.
After that IPO, growth skyrocketed. (See infographic, pages 32-33 or click here). Since 2017, Paycom has seen double-digit revenue growth every year, with 30.29% revenue growth last year alone. This year, 25% revenue growth is forecasted.
“We are one of the largest and fastest growing providers of human capital management technology in the country, and I am proud of how far we’ve come,” Richison said. “But we still have a long runway for growth with only 5% of the U.S. market using us today.”
5%.
The potential for growth, even considering the current growth rate, is staggering. For Paycom, part of the reason for the growth is because the HR system disrupts the model that previously existed by placing the emphasis on the employee, not the employer.
“I noticed early on that people really didn’t have access to their HR information and believed that giving employees access to enter and update their own information was the future,” Richison said. “We believe employees should enter 100% of their information because it originates with them anyway. Employee usage continues to trend higher as more companies embrace our self-service solutions and push ownership of the data out to the employee.”
For Oklahomans, this growth equals jobs. In 2014, Paycom employed 1,021 people. Today, Paycom has multiplied the number of employees by 492.8%. The headquarters on the edge of Oklahoma City continues to outgrow itself. A little more than a decade ago, Paycom’s one building sat at capacity as the company started building out space. This year, it will finish its fifth building currently under construction that can house thousands more in its 330,000 square feet.
“I can say for my 11 years here, we have never had enough room,” said Jason Bodin, Paycom senior director of marketing and PR. “We are always busting at the seams because of our growth. One time early on in my time here, we actually offered our employees ride-sharing, so if you carpool to work with somebody, you actually got a bonus.”
Paycom hasn’t scrimped on the build-out either: A botanical-like courtyard sits in the middle of the main building that houses workers in cubicles. A gymnasium with workout classes, ping pong tables and basketball courts sits adjacent to the office buildings, and a multi-acre park with a walking trail, workout stations and picnic tables flows out behind the employee parking lots.
“Investing in talent is important to us,” Richison said. “Our talent drives our growth, and I am proud of all that we have created together. Investment comes before achievement, and that is certainly the case with our people. This company long ago surpassed anything I could do alone.”
And, Bodin said, employees receive health care at the cost of $1, among other benefits to help bring in and keep talent.
“We do all of that to retain and attract top talent not only from Oklahoma, but we’re bringing in talent from all across the U.S. and all across the world,” Bodin said.
This substantial growth has created its own economic ecosystem. For a state that has built itself on the back of commodity industries, Paycom, because of its industry focus, size and number of employees, has diversified Oklahoma’s economy as it continues to grow, said Cathy O’Connor, former president and CEO of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City.
“They’re a great example of somebody here locally starting a company and keeping it here and watching it grow,” she said. “Companies like Paycom help us diversify our local economy. It’s been a goal for a long time to try to become more diverse as far as industries go, as far as not being so reliant on the oil and gas industry, and we’ve done a really good job with that. Companies like Paycom really help with that.”
After the creation of The Alliance’s Strategic Investment Program from a general obligation bond passed in 2009, Paycom received funds from the program when the company was looking to initially expand its campus, an example of a public-private partnership that has paid obvious dividends for both parties, O’Connor said.
“We provided them with the money to extend infrastructure out to that campus, and that really has allowed for all of this additional expansion that’s happened since then,” she said.
O’Connor also believes Paycom has diversified the types of jobs available in Oklahoma.
“So many of their jobs are in the technology sectors, so they are in software and coding and all kinds of skills that we hadn’t had before,” she said. “We hadn’t had an employer of that size here in Oklahoma City that was in that high-tech arena. I think the diversification of our economy has been one of the biggest benefits. It’s kind of opened up a whole other sphere for us.”
Justin Goff, a Paycom employee who works with new clients, said the diversification of types of jobs drew him to the company. He has worked at Paycom for more than four years, joining as the company was starting to see significant growth.
“I first moved here when I was 12 or 13,” he said. “And there weren’t really a ton of companies like this then. You had the oil and gas companies like the Devons and the Continentals and the Chesapeakes. But I mean, unless you’re an engineer or an oil guy, you’re not really going to be doing that. So, it’s kind of cool to see a company like Paycom that provides so many different opportunities. I know so many people with varying experiences that can come and work for a large company in the middle of Oklahoma City.”
From the initial 400 clients Richison signed himself, Paycom’s client roster has now ballooned to approximately 36,600 clients, as of the close of 2022. That means the company stores data for more than 6.5 million people.
The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum came on as one of Paycom’s first 25 customers in the late ’90s. Kari Watkins, the museum’s executive director, said even then she could see the innovation Paycom would bring to the industry.
“I think it was cutting edge, and it was something that gave each employee a chance to be involved in their own payroll system, and it just seemed to work so much better for us,” she said. “Their growth has been incredible to watch for our city.”
The company joined the S&P 500 in 2019, the same year Fortune magazine listed it sixth on its 100 Fastest Growing companies. And the growth just went international. In April, Paycom launched a product, Global HCM, that will allow it to expand access to users in more than 180 countries in 15 languages and dialects.
That 5% looks like it will tick up.
