welcome
Editor’s comment
– protested against newly developed labour-economising technologies. (Incidentally, income tax was created in this period.) Now, ‘Luddite’ describes a person “opposed to industrialisation, automation, computerisation or new technologies in general” (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite). While it’s understandable to fear new technologies and ways of working, I firmly believe that going forward payroll professionals will continue to embrace ‘robots’ in order to get the job done efficiently and effectively and that payroll will increasingly demand high levels of skill and knowledge.
Occasionally I have cause to recall potent imagery from the 1927 film Metropolis : low-skilled workers operating machines in mechanistic, almost robotic, movements pressing buttons and levers; and the creation, at the direction of the city’s master, of a female android (a robot in human form) which proceeds to cause chaos. Unsurprisingly my attention was caught by Henry Tapper’s article ‘Is a robot after your job?’ (page 46). Henry opines that “Working with robots may be the only way that payroll will be able to meet the increasing demands being put upon it.” Although I don’t believe a real android will be created any time soon, I agree with Henry’s opinion simply because computerisation has been and will continue to be transformational in payroll. Workers inevitably react to threats to their livelihood. In the early 19th century, the Luddite movement – which emerged during the harsh economic climate of the Napoleonic Wars
Mike Nicholas MCIPP AMBCS Editor
This month’s contributors
Ilya Bonic uk.mercer.com
Sarah Bradford BA (Hons), ACA, CTA (Fellow) sarah.bradford@writetax.co.uk
Diana Bruce MCIPPdip policy@cipp.org.uk
Danny Done portfoliopayroll.com
Stuart Earle eversheds.com
Stephen Frost frostincluded.com
Helen Hargreaves MSc FCIPPdip policy@cipp.org.uk
John Harling pstax.co.uk
Nicola Mullineux peninsula-uk.com
Samantha Mann MCIPPdip policy@cipp.org.uk
Lisa Gillespie moorepay.co.uk
Jeanette Hibbert jeanettehibbert@googlemail.com
Henry Tapper MSFA MA Cantab firstactuarial.co.uk
Neil Tonks MCIPPdip midlandhr.com
Adam Reynolds webexpenses.com
David Woodward sdworx.com
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Issue 25 | November 2016
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
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