REWARD
Stephen Abbotts, director of payroll services at Azets UK, shares his professional journey in a career that has spanned more than half a century A ugust 2024 marked a significant milestone in my working life as I celebrated 50 years of working in most staff were paid via bank transfer with a few still being paid cash. Salaries and wages were calculated using an automated time and attendance system that calculated pay and printed payslips. An unexpected opportunity
In July 2020, I was approached by my current employer, Azets. This was completely unexpected and was the result of a recommendation from a former colleague. Once I found out more about the business I was sold on the scale of the firm’s ambition and its trust in me, so accepted the role of director of payroll services. A huge selling point was being offered a role that I could make my own and Azets has been true to its word, supporting me and giving me the freedom needed to transform the payroll service. Changing jobs at the age of 62 was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. Azets offered me a roadmap that reflected my vision and gave me opportunities to develop, which re-energised me. Almost four years on, the payroll service has been restructured and operates in a uniquely different way to any other bureau service delivered by an accountancy business. We have grown and transformed the payroll service into a single service line offering career progression and specialised roles that support payroll service delivery to our clients. Overall, I have really enjoyed my career in payroll and have seen many changes in the industry over the past 50 years. Payroll is one of the few roles in any sector that touches every single working person. For me, there’s a sense of self satisfaction in my work. I still love my job. If I didn’t enjoy it, I couldn’t talk about it the way I do. I have worked hard, but I believe I have been incredibly lucky because I have worked with some exceptional people and have had the freedom to spread my wings – even more so at Azets. Throughout my 50-year career I have worked with great leaders and managers who have supported me and the payroll team, and I would like to thank them for helping me get to where I am now. Back in 1974 when I left school, work opportunities were plentiful and most boys of the same age living in my area chose what was thought to be a job for life in the pits. I took a different direction choosing to work in an office and here I am today, still working in payroll and still living in Stoke on Trent! n
the payroll profession. As a school leaver living in Stoke on Trent in the 1970s, I never imagined at the tender age of 16 I would still be in the same industry when I reached 66! Back in August 1974, I left school on a Friday with three Certificates of Secondary Education and started work the following Monday in payroll with the National Coal Board, which later became British Coal. At a time when decimalisation was in its early days, it was still frequent practice for people to talk in pounds, shillings and pence rather than the new currency of pounds and pence. Even though decimalisation was in 1971, when I joined the Coal Board in 1974, it wasn’t unusual to convert pounds and pence pay packets to the old pounds, shillings and pence for the benefit of some employees. A time of change I stayed with British Coal until 1993, working my way up through the payroll department from payroll clerk to manager. I saw many changes during my time with the organisation, including the 1980s strikes and pit closures when there was much local and national unrest. Professionally, along with many others, this impacted my job security and changed the community where I lived. I took voluntary redundancy in 1993, as clearly there was a diminishing need for payroll staff to pay coal miners as pits were closing. At the time of joining the Coal Board in 1974 I worked 40 hours a week from Monday to Friday, as well as compulsory overtime from 7am until 1pm on a Saturday. By 1993, my working hours were Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. My starting salary was around £1,500 gross per year – £28 per week – in cash, which equates to around £293 in today’s rates, before deductions. Few staff were paid by bank transfer at that time, with most being paid by cash, meaning that I and 20-30 colleagues spent one day every week in a secure vault at a local bank where we counted cash to make up the 20,000 pay packets and added the individuals’ payslips. Back in 1974, pay was calculated manually using employees’ clock cards and printed payslips issued in the pay packet. By 1993,
In 1993, I joined the NHS and worked at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust as payroll manager, which had a payroll of 5,500 and a team of around 12. Initially, through taking on the outsourcing of payroll from a hospital in Sandwell, West Midlands and then NHS contracts in Oxford, Birmingham, East Anglia and London, mainly through word of mouth and reputation, we managed to grow the business from 5,500 people when I joined to 120,000 when I left in 2007. During the 14 years I was with the NHS I saw significant changes, including the introduction of the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and the Agenda for Change, which totally transformed pay grades and payroll processing throughout the NHS. It was during this period that I was a member of the panel for selecting the new NHS payroll software system, which was ultimately ESR. The panel was invited to the Oracle Headquarters in San Francisco to meet with Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle, who was on the shortlist along with SAP. Moving on In 2007, I moved from the public sector to a private sector firm. The change in employment sectors highlighted to me the difference in pay and rewards, as well as the terms and conditions of employment. I didn’t feel it was a particularly good culture fit or that I shared the company’s vision, so I resigned two years later with no job to go to. It was risky decision, but I very quickly got a role at Capita as head of payroll for Northern Ireland Civil Service. When I joined Capita in 2010 business was booming, with significant growth in the outsourcing market. I was with the business for ten years until 2020, during which time I had a couple of role changes moving on from Northern Ireland Civil Service to director of payroll, managing public and private sector payrolls, by the time I left. It was during my time with Capita that real time information (RTI) was introduced and one of our payroll clients was part of the RTI pilot in 2012 prior to the full implementation in 2013.
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 104 | October 2024
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