Celebrating Payroll’s Unsung Heroes

Happy National Payroll Week, 4th – 8th September 2023!

Albert Einstein reportedly said, “The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax,” but how often do we think about the dedicated people behind the scenes managing those complex compliance processes every time we are paid? In many businesses, payroll is still seen as an administrative function, but its worth to the business and society as a whole is so much more than that.

The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) introduced the National Payroll Week in 1998 to shine a spotlight on the work payroll professionals do, and to celebrate the partnership between these professionals and the vital government services funded by our UK payroll systems. (The launch in the UK followed a similar initiative in the US that runs at the same time through PayrollOrg and was launched in 1996)

This year, the CIPP has created a range of materials that companies can use to promote National Payroll Week. During the week itself, the CIPP and its partners are running various free workshops, webinars, and events to promote a better understanding of payroll practices and financial management, and to help payroll professionals highlight their real value to the business.

Here are some suggestions on how to celebrate and build on the foundations provided by the CIPP to recognize and reward your own payroll heroes.

  • Spread the word!

    This week is a chance to show your payroll team how much you appreciate them. The first thing to do is to let your employees know what National Payroll Week is all about and raise their awareness of the importance and complexity of payroll. Did you know that in the UK alone there are more than 170 pieces of payroll legislation to manage in order to pay staff accurately and on time? And multiply that a significant times for payroll teams managing global operations. You can spread the word in a number of ways, for example emails, social posts, newsletters, and updates on your intranet – the important thing is to share the message, get the whole company involved and make National Payroll Week a success.

  • Recognize your payroll team!

    Spreading the word is one way of recognizing your payroll team, but you could take it further by focusing on the individuals who pay us, and publicly thanking them for their efforts. You could do this by sending a personalized message from the CEO, organizing a virtual breakfast or lunch. Whichever way you choose to recognize your team, thanks and encouragement go a long way towards making your payroll team feel appreciated.

  • Create opportunities to interact!

    One way of building awareness of the payroll team is to create opportunities for employees to speak to payroll experts. These could be specific to the individual employee or more general topics, such as the tax implications of salary sacrifice. Facilitating a way to connect gives the payroll team an opportunity to share their knowledge and show their value to the wider business.

  • Invest in your payroll team!

    Take the opportunity to listen to your payroll team’s pains and concerns. It may be that they need additional training, or they may need better technology to boost efficiency and productivity. If your team does not have the tools it needs to do its job effectively, they will spend time resolving manual data-entry errors, reconciling cumbersome reports, and dreading the last-minute panic at the end of the pay cycle.

    Good payroll solutions will help you reduce errors, meet stringent compliance requirements, and adopt a consistent, standardized approach across all operating countries. Integrating Payroll and HCM allows the team to reap the benefits that come from having a single source of information and automated, consistent processes.

Payroll teams have to be able to cope with the continual disruption of legislative changes; expansion into new markets; acquisitions; mergers and the list goes on… The one consistent is that they must ensure all employees are paid accurately and on-time, every time. All employees should understand the work payroll professionals do and appreciate the effort involved.

Now is the time to take advantage of National Payroll Week and give a huge vote of thanks to all those unsung heroes.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our CloudPay payroll professionals around the world. Thank you for everything you do!

 

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