COMPLIANCE
The times they are
a-changin’… Fiona Smith MCIPPdip, CIPP’s training manager, examines the level of change payroll professionals have dealt with over recent years, using the CIPP’s popular Payroll Update training course as a guide
W hen I thought of what being a payroll hero means to me, my mind immediately jumped to how the industry has continuously handled massive amounts of change, while also keeping the UK paid. Anyone working in payroll over the last few years has had to cope with: ● workplace upheaval with the order to work from home, testing emergency plans, the furlough scheme and dealing with hybrid working ● maintaining service levels to clients, employees and internal stakeholders, while sometimes dealing with high levels of team absence ● providing strategic information to help companies plan for the future ● ensuring team members handling payroll data are aware of all legislation, process changes, case law and new information to ensure the payroll is fully compliant ● trying to predict next steps. So, I suppose not that much then really! Add into this that many of us will also have been dealing with additional projects, home pressures and a plethora of other factors on top of this.
With a working landscape like this, it’s a wonder any of us manage to keep up to date with changes that affect our working practices. There are few things worse than being so close to the frontline that you get blindsided by a change that requires a lot of work to implement. Keeping it current As both a trainer and the training manager at the CIPP I’ve been witness to just how fast paced the last few years have been, and this is certainly demonstrated by how much work has gone into keeping our Payroll Update course current. We design the course to incorporate recent changes which will affect payroll and payroll- adjacent processes. Our inhouse materials team works with the CIPP’s policy team and other industry groups to ensure they have the frontline information they need. The course is updated every two weeks, so in seven hours’ worth of training, delegates know they’re going to be fully abreast of even the most cutting- edge pieces of information. This is, of course, dependent on there not being a last-minute announcement from the government. (And I have been there
myself, the night before delivering one of these courses, refreshing guidance pages and news outlets so I can keep delegates up to date.) The Payroll Update is my personal go-to source when I need to confirm what the hot topics in payroll are. To put into context how much payroll professionals have had to absorb over the last few years, I thought it’d be interesting to analyse our update information to see, in numbers, what’s changed. (I guess you can take the girl out of payroll data analysis…) I’ve been witness to just how fast paced the last few years have been, and this is certainly demonstrated by how much work has gone into keeping our Payroll Update course current
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | September 2022 | Issue 83 20
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