04:05 INTERVIEW
Many payroll teams aren’t enabled to do a better job. They’re still doing manual adjustments everywhere and trying to hodge-podge different sources of information together, chasing emails and things like that, in order to function. The environment is such that broken processes still exist, and there remains a lack of alignment between stakeholders, meaning payroll and HR still tend to go at each other’s throats. Then, with the hot topic of AI, a lot of organizations are now waking up, thinking: “Ooh, maybe we can leverage AI now to solve all our problems.” Organizations won’t be successful just by saying, “We’re just going to throw AI at it” without really knowing the why and how. They need to first understand the current state and what’s causing the most pain for their organization. Do you have clean data? Do you have stakeholder alignment? In what areas are you looking to implement AI that can drive measurable, positive change? What systems are you going to be leveraging and are they integrated?
After answering these questions, we explore AI solutions. So, our role is exciting in that those that know they need to do something differently reach out to us about how to help them do it. GPA: What is payroll’s role in an organization, and what should it be? Kira Rubiano: Payroll is the connective tissue for HR, risk and compliance, as well as for finance and accounting. Payroll generally is the end of the funnel. Because payroll receives everything, we’ve got to make sure that everything at the top of the funnel happens correctly so that what we receive is workable and leads to a compliant outcome. We need to make sure that by the time the issue gets to the bottom of the funnel, when we implement it, that it is right. Payroll professionals have to develop relationships cross- functionally. We need to get those in HR and finance who may catch wind of a big change to tell us about it early on. I realized the importance of investing into relationships very early on in my career. I started building those relationships
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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 16
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