Guest address
Helen Livesey MBA MREC CertRP Business director, Hays Payroll Management
Firstly, please allow me to pass on my warm congratulations to all of you here today to celebrate your achievements – well done on all your hard work. Secondly, there are continued career opportunities for payroll and pensions professionals throughout the UK and I see no sign of that changing in 2018 and I will now tell you a little more about why that is. For the last seven years, it has been the busiest period in the history of the payroll and pension profession. Here in the UK we have all been dealing with real time information, automatic enrolment, shared parental leave, gender pay reporting, IR35 to name a few, and these continued regulatory and legislative changes have kept the payroll and pension profession extremely busy and therefore in demand. The heavy workload of pension and payroll professionals is set to increase further as the economy continues to grow and employers hire more or even just different staff. We have not seen a downturn in recruitment despite all the political upheaval of the last 12-18 months. Indeed, in our new Hays Salary Guide Report for 2018, which we are just in the middle of launching, 95% of organisations tell us they expect their business activities to increase or remain the same – and nearly 60% of accountancy and finance employers said they plan to recruit over the next 12 months. Therefore, holding onto good professionals will be critical during this time, and supporting professional studies is a great way to show staff you value them and are looking to invest in them particularly as employers now hold the CIPP qualification in higher regard than ever before. Here at Hays we are seeing a real demand in candidates looking for new employers to sponsor them during their CIPP studies and this is certainly one of the ways both to attract and retain the best candidates. Everyone in this room celebrating today has worked hard to gain their CIPP qualification and to add another dimension to their career choice as a payroll or pensions professional. At Hays, we believe that employers and the payroll and pension profession need to work together to find ways to open-up this function as a career choice to a broader range of people, including school leavers into apprenticeships, and graduates, as this will help the profession have more choice of candidates in the future, plus growing the CIPP and payroll community. To summarise, you will find that your payroll and pension skills will stay in massive demand throughout 2017 and into 2018, putting pressure on employers to address the shortage of suitable candidates. Employers are keen to keep their payroll and pension professionals, so are increasingly making counter-offers to individuals who have secured another job offer. In order to retain good people, it is also important for payroll professionals to feel confident that their current employer is committed to investing in their future over the medium-to long-term – offering training and degrees through the CIPP is an absolute must for any organisation wanting to stand out as an employer of choice.
Employers now hold the CIPP qualification in higher regard than ever before.
Congratulations again and enjoy your celebration.
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