Following a turbulent eighteen months, National Payroll Week (NPW) was a welcome return to ‘in person’ events. The week ran from 6-10 September 2021 and recognised the role of payroll professionals in ‘keeping the UK paid’ – not just in the last twelve months but also in ‘normal’ times. Now in its 23rd year, NPW was introduced in the UK in 1998 by the CIPP (IBPM as was) and aims to raise the profile of the role that payroll plays in individuals’ lives, in business and in the wider UK economy. Take a look at how the payroll community celebrated below.
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals Following the success of NPW in 2020, we adopted a hybrid approach to our events, combining a mix of in-person and online sessions.
Monday 6 September We kicked off our online events with a welcome video from CIPP Chair, Liz Lay, who announced the event programme and some fantastic new member benefits, including access to the Bloomsbury Payroll Management Handbook and Croner-I HR Lite . This was accompanied by an online policy update with Samantha Johnson and Gemma Mullis, and a bitesize session on manual tax calculations with Fiona Smith. We also hosted two events at the Sheraton Park Lane in London, the Future of Payroll roundtable and NPW drinks reception. The roundtable provided insight into how the payroll profession is changing and the potential role of payroll professionals in the future. The discussion considered how artificial intelligence and automation can be used within payroll and attendees reflected on how the role of payroll officer is more complex now than it was fifteen years ago. It will feature in full in the November edition of Professional magazine. The drinks reception that followed was attended by full, fellow and Chartered members and was a great opportunity for networking and celebrating the profession following a turbulent eighteen months. Tuesday 7 September Our online events programme continued with a discussion of holiday pay featuring Thursfields Solicitors. Lisa Kemp, associate director at Thursfields shared her experience regarding recent challenges with holiday pay calculations and breakout groups enabled those attending to engage with others. Fiona Smith hosted a second bitesize training session – this time covering payrolling benefits for those interested in transitioning to payrolling, as well as those already payrolling, but seeking assurance.
management and professional apprenticeships at West Suffolk College gave a fantastic session about creating a culture of learning and development within a payroll team. We were all left with two mottos – ‘practice makes progress’ and ‘be more Jack Russell’. This was followed by a discussion group on financial wellbeing hosted by Ian Hodson, head of reward and deputy director of human resources at the University of Lincoln. Those attending shared their views on the role that payroll plays in financial awareness and wellbeing. Finally, Gemma Mullis, policy and research officer, CIPP and Sebastian Bachelier, programme manager, Living Wage Foundation discussed the benefits of employers paying the real living wage. Thursday 9 September Event sponsors, Sage, delivered a panel sharing their knowledge on payroll in a changing world. They also provided advice on getting things right first time, highlighting some common mistakes and offering tips on how to plan for payroll year end. Samantha Johnson then headed up a discussion group named, ‘Beyond the pandemic’, focussing on what has changed and what we have learned over the last eighteen months. The engaging session allowed the opportunity for sharing views and ideas on this topical issue.
Finally, Vickie Graham caught up with panellists Julie Lock, commercial director at Mitrefinch, Simona Bocca, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) from PayCaptain and Daniel Cookson, marketing director at Moorepay to discuss why innovation is important within payroll. Friday 10 September We ended NPW with four sessions on Friday; the first talking about disrupting payroll through pay on demand and financial strategies. This was delivered by our event sponsors, Hi-55 – a new start-up company, payroll funding platform and social enterprise. This was followed by a further bite- sized session delivered by the CIPP’s Fiona Smith, this time on statutory payments, with particular emphasis on maternity pay. Our Advisory Service delivered a panel, providing an opportunity for payroll professionals to have their technical questions answered. We finished the week looking at best practice standards in payroll delivery and training. Vickie Graham hosted this session with our NPW sponsors and supporting partner, The Payroll Centre and talked to Sophie Burchall from BDO and Richard Rowell at Dataplan about why standards are so important in delivering payroll services. They also discussed how the Payroll Assurance Scheme (PAS), ACT tool and training have benefited their organisations.
Wednesday 8 September Polly Sinclair, programme tutor –
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 74 | October 2021
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