PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
# Be Payroll
Christie Murphy MCIPPdip, Head of Payroll, Harris Federation, shares her payroll career story and discusses how CIPP membership and IPPE qualifications have helped
How did you begin your career in payroll?
considering taking a CIPP- approved qualification?
academies serve areas of significant socioeconomic disadvantage, and our pupils and 5,000 staff achieve consistently brilliant outcomes, outperforming national averages on every measure of attainment. I grew up in Croydon and the education prospects back then weren’t great. I went to a fantastic primary school, but my secondary options were mostly schools with low GCSE ratings. Seeing the opportunities the Harris Federation provides to children in the same areas I grew up in (and knowing those opportunities weren’t available when I was a child) is heartwarming and it’s lovely to be attached to. I’m proud of where I work and I wouldn’t be where I am now without my qualification.
When I was 24, I took a six-month sabbatical from secretarial work to
The biggest tip would be to just go for it. It opens so many doors and fast tracks your career in payroll. It will show you’re serious in your field and will increase your chances of being selected for opportunities, like being part of interesting projects, or even travelling abroad for work. These are opportunities I’ve had since becoming qualified. My journey in payroll is a testament to the transformative power of embracing professional development. From a hesitant beginning to a career filled with growth and purpose, the CIPP-approved qualification has been central to my success. For those eager to excel in payroll, I encourage you to invest in your future by pursuing a CIPP-approved qualification. It won’t just advance your career, it will also enrich your professional journey in ways you may never have anticipated. Which qualification did you take? I took the Foundation Degree in Payroll Management. As I had two years of payroll experience, I was able to skip the first year of the degree and only did the second and third years. I graduated in November 2016. How has your qualification helped you in your career? It’s allowed me to get involved in system implementation projects, knowledge transfers, operational excellence and a lot of transformation work. However, I’m most proud of the latest door my qualification opened for me, which was getting my current role working for Harris Federation. We’re a charity educating 44,000 pupils in 54 primary and secondary academies in and around London. Many of our
travel Southeast Asia. When I returned, I struggled to secure another secretarial or administrator role (which was the only experience I had at the time). A friend of mine then put me forward for a payroll administrator role in his team at an NHS trust, and they were willing to train me up from scratch. I’d always seen payroll as a rather scary job – overseeing people’s pay sounded like a stressful job with lots of responsibility that I wasn’t sure I wanted. However, as soon as I was trained up, I very quickly came to love it. What prompted you to study with IPPE? I left school at 16 with GCSEs but didn’t go onto further education as I had no real idea of what I wanted to do. Once I discovered how much I enjoyed payroll, I knew that was what I wanted to do with my career. I looked into what qualification I would need to solidify my career in payroll and I found the CIPP / IPPE. I wanted to start my qualification during my first year of working in payroll, but it wasn’t something being offered by my employer and I couldn’t yet afford to pay for it myself. I eventually moved to a role at Capita, and they paid for me and a colleague to do our studies together. How long have you been a member of the CIPP? I’ve been a member since starting my studies back in 2014.
Why did CIPP membership appeal to you?
I wanted to be a member as, in my opinion, it’s one of the best ways to keep up with changes in the industry. The CIPP provides so many updates, puts on so many events and provides so many different training courses, it would have been detrimental to me not to be a member. Which CIPP member benefits would you encourage other payrollers to use and why? The Advisory Service is great. In payroll, things are always changing and just when you think you’ve seen everything, you can be presented with a situation you’ve never experienced before. The advice available from the Advisory Service is great. That membership benefit alone gave me the confidence to move into payroll management as I knew the Advisory Service was always there to help me with any scenario which presented itself. n
What tips do you have for people
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 113 | September 2025
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