Confessions of a payroll manager – A new formation
Another episode in a series of occasional yet insightful/inciteful, anonymous and whimsical reports revealing the arcane, weird and sometimes torturous world of payroll frequented by payroll professionals. R ecently, I learned a valuable lesson: always listen to the whole sentence before jumping to conclusions and storming off like a seven-year old who’s been denied a Beano , which I was guilty of a few weeks ago at a meeting called by Mr Crumbitt. I heard him say “We need to recruit additional staff in the payroll team” and suddenly I was scurrying out of the door with my inner critic shouting at me that obviously I wasn’t capable anymore. Once I’d taken a breath, had two and half Crumbitt’s Crinkles (the optimum amount for full temper control) and returned to the meeting to face up to my failings, I found out the rest of the sentence – and felt rather ridiculous. Turned out that sales, and therefore numbers of staff, had been increasing steadily over the past year so Mr Crumbitt felt we deserved an extra pair of hands in payroll. Rather red-faced I agreed and began thinking about what kind of role would be most helpful to us now and in the future. Having learned that, left to my own devices, I can be rather impetuous, I called a huddle with the rest of the team and we mind-mapped our main requirements in a new member of staff. With Jace now working part-time and only able to focus on a couple of major projects a year, we came to the conclusion that many of the other projects we’d had ideas about over the years had taken a back seat to basic payroll functions. The team needed to be more visible in the business now raising awareness – especially
with so many new staff members. So, we decided to look for a payroll projects officer with the remit to focus on the jobs that never get done. In anticipation of this new role (and to help in writing a job description) I found my somewhat ancient to-do list to see what things we’d been putting off and for how long. Shockingly, there were five things that had been on it for four years, including producing an employee new tax year newsletter and procuring more coffee supplies for late-night working (how had that been left so long?!). List in hand, and a pot of tea keeping warm under a Crumbitt’s Cosy, I drafted the job description keeping in mind all the required skills the team had brainstormed earlier: being able to influence (essential for dissuading Mr Crumbitt from one of his many loopy schemes); being a good communicator (again, useful when dealing with Mr Crumbitt); and design work (for the aforementioned ‘newsletter’) etc. Reflecting on these skills it became obvious why the rest of the team (bar Jace) struggle with project work as payroll recruitment is normally about attention to detail and accuracy. Job description completed (and three pots of tea down) I contacted the Payroll Agency and was rewarded with a huge swathe of CVs from prospective employees. Despite my caffeine high (which had left me far more excitable about CVs than usual) I was able to spot a couple of potentials with great experience of getting the most out of the payroll systems as well as running communication campaigns for financial education. As we’d been focused on trying something different with this new role, I changed the way we interview. I asked
both candidates to design a campaign to communicate the importance of understanding your tax code and then to present this to the interview panel – who were blown away by their presentations. The candidates used some clever new technologies that made PowerPoint slides look like something painted on the inside of a cave. Despite both candidates being impressive, I was finally swayed by one who discussed setting up a Twitter feed for payroll to put out important messages to followers of Crumbitt’s payroll department, especially when Jace piped up with ideas about tweeting ‘What payroll are watching – film of the week’ and ‘What’s your biscuit twin quizzes’. As Jace and the candidate got steadily more excited about payroll’s social media presence I looked over at the other two panel members and nodded with a smile. candidate, started with us on Monday and is already a hit with the team – which is what happens when you bring a bumper box of tea-bags and a new teapot on your first day. Welcome to the team, Stacey! With our new addition, the payroll department can truly be the idea hub that I’ve been dreaming of for the past four years. Turns out that sometimes the real skill is designing the team formation to deliver the plan rather than just expecting the team to do more. n We had our new projects officer. Stacey Clements, the successful The Editor: Any resemblance to any payroll manager or professional alive or dead, or any payroll department or organisation whether apparently or actually portrayed in this article is simply fortuitous.
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | May 2019 | Issue 50 54
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