From Paycom to Philanthropy: Chad Richison’s Commitment to Innovation and Community
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Great leaders understand that success comes from leading with purpose. The most impactful executives drive innovation, support employees and create lasting change in their communities.
Chad Richison, founder and CEO of Paycom, a leading provider of comprehensive, cloud-based human capital management software, exemplifies this approach. From investing in philanthropy initiatives to creating technology that simplifies businesses, Richison has proven that business growth and positive societal change can go hand in hand.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at Richison’s leadership, exploring the significant impact of his foundations and the meaningful work he’s doing beyond Paycom.
Driving Efficiency with Automation Solutions
“Our software vision is that people shouldn’t do tasks that systems can safely automate,” Richison says. Already one of the most automated solutions in the industry, he believes Paycom is “rapidly moving toward full solution automation, driving even more ROI for our clients.”
Richison and his team are indeed delivering results for their clients. Paycom’s Time-Off Requests tool, featuring GONE®, makes it easy for businesses to
automate decisions with time-off requests, keeping things running smoothly. With GONE, businesses can simplify the process for everyone—employees, managers, HR and the company—by cutting out unnecessary steps and making time-off requests fully automated.
A Paycom-commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study from Forrester Consulting revealed that a composite organization representative of interviewed clients using GONE received a projected three-year ROI of up to 821% and annually saved:
- Each manager nearly 30 hours by eliminating manual time-off approvals, resulting in $75,000 in labor savings over three years.
- HR, finance and administrative staff up to 192 hours, leading to $20,000 in savings over three years.
- Up to 240 hours in avoidable overtime, saving $23,000 in overtime wages over three years.
Some unquantified benefits include:
- Improved employee experience: Paycom’s Time-Off Requests tool featuring GONE enhances transparency and consistency in time-off decisions, reducing delays and disputes.
- Flexible PTO decisioning: The organization can adjust and add decisioning rules to meet evolving staffing needs.
- Seamless integration: Paycom solutions work together as a unified platform, streamlining daily operations for staff.
This year, GONE was honored with a 2025 BIG Innovation Award from the Business Intelligence Group, a panel of business leaders and executives who evaluate creativity, measurable results and overall impact in their selections.
At the core of Paycom’s workplace automation is the award-winning Beti®, the automated payroll solution that allows employees to ensure their pay will be correct on payday. It self-starts each scheduled payroll, pulling live data on employees’ hours, expenses, benefits and anything else affecting their compensation.
Beti then automatically identifies errors and guides employees to fix them before payroll submission, so HR can avoid delays, direct-deposit reversals, payroll voids, manual checks and associated fees for corrections and adjustments. That allows HR to monitor the process instead of managing it, giving them more time to devote to retention, culture and other big-picture initiatives instead of administrative tasks. By taking care of the details, Beti lets both employees and HR stay focused while keeping trust and connection between employers and their teams.
Richison and Paycom are poised to build on the momentum in 2025, focusing on full-solution automation, optimizing client ROI and world-class service.
Chad Richison’s Community Impact
Richison’s dedication to helping the community extends past his work at Paycom, with generous support for many causes that have made a real difference for people and communities at a national level.
Green Shoe Foundation
The Green Shoe Foundation is an Oklahoma-based nonprofit founded by Richison. The nonprofit provides no-cost, five-day mental wellness retreats devoted to helping adults reconcile childhood trauma, all guided by licensed therapists for adults ages 21 and over. Participants come from all over the country and beyond, including the U.K. and Canada, to heal. The Green Shoe Foundation’s latest 10,000-square-foot facility is on 415 acres of land Richison opened in 2023.
Chad Richison Hope Lodge
Opened in 2023 and named in recognition of Richison’s $5 million gift, the American Cancer Society Chad Richison Hope Lodge is a free space for cancer patients and caregivers. The program serves as a supportive community where patients and their families can spend time together and with other families.
The Hope Lodge in Oklahoma City is by local treatment centers and offers thirty-four guest rooms. Since opening, it has provided over 20,000 nights of free lodging for over 1,600 people facing cancer and their caregivers. The free lodging at the Hope Lodge saved guests a total of $3 million in hotel costs.
Richison and Paycom also support the American Cancer Society Gene and Jerry Jones Family Hope Lodge in Dallas. This year, they donated $37,500 to these communities.
National Duals Invitational
Richison and Paycom have launched the National Duals Invitational, a college wrestling event with a prize of over $1 million.
This college wrestling tournament, sponsored by Paycom, will be at Tulsa’s BOK Center on November 15-16, 2025. 16 teams will compete for a first-place prize of $200,000, and every team will get $20,000 for participating. “Investing in student athletes and non-income-generating sports is important in today’s ever-evolving collegiate landscape,” said Richison.
Richison has long been a champion for wrestling, having been a member of the University of Central Oklahoma wrestling team in the early 1990s. Through the Richison Family Foundation and Paycom, Richison has funded facility upgrades and donated millions to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, as well as wrestling programs at Oklahoma State.
To learn more about Paycom, visit https://www.paycom.com/.