National Payroll Week
Scottish National Conference
O n Thursday 5 September, the fourth annual Scottish National Conference took place at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. Joined by payroll, pension and reward professionals from across the country it was an incredible event. Delegates were welcomed by Jason Davenport, chair of the CIPP. Jason highlighted the events that had taken place throughout National Payroll Week, and the CIPP’s achievements over the last twelve months – including the #BePayroll campaign – and congratulated all our newest Chartered members. Jason thanked our event sponsors, especially headline sponsor Frontier Software. Delegates then proceeded to the first plenary session ran by keynote speaker Andrew Black, a motivational speaker from the Art of Brilliance. Andrew started the mood high with his incredible and lively session helping delegates gain a new perspective on their work-life and how they communicate with individuals as a whole. The second plenary of the day was presented by Richard Garth and Scott Milne from HM Revenue & Customs providing an update on HMRC’s activities and new developments. After a short refreshment break, delegates split into two workshop sessions. One led by Stuart Hall, director at PayRun.io and the other by Diana Bruce, technical material officer and Jill Smith, policy manager from the CIPP. Stuart’s session asked the question “Can Alexa run your payroll?” looking at the advancements in technology and whether a virtual assistant could run a company’s payroll in the future. Over in workshop two, Diana and Jill sat on the advisory service panel taking live questions from the audience and partaking in a topical debate on the current hot topics in the payroll world. Delegates broke for a buffet lunch allowing them to network with each other as well as the event sponsors on the services
they can offer, while having the time to admire the stunning Salisbury Crags beside the venue. After lunch, the delegates regrouped for stream two with Shaun Tetley, payroll and pensions manager at Portsmouth City Council. Shaun provided a wide range of topical pension top tips covering both defined contribution or benefit schemes as well as the state pension scheme. Meanwhile in workshop four, Elaine Gibson, the director of people and quality at Dataplan Payroll Limited, asked delegates “what does thought leadership mean to you?” – and set out how the concept of thought leadership can be used to advantage. In stream three, delegates joined Lynne Robertson-Rose from the University of Edinburgh, diving deep into helping employees engage with their pension by looking at the latest research into retirement savings as well as predicting individuals’ behaviour in the future. Lynne talked about what employers can do to urge their employees into the benefits of a workplace pension. Meanwhile next door, Justine Riccomini, head of tax at ICAS, discussed how Scottish and Welsh income tax relates to the rest of the UK while answering many topical questions. After a break, the conference ended with two insightful plenary sessions. First up was Diana Bruce, technical material officer at the CIPP, who covered topical issues and changes affecting payroll, pensions and reward; especially the employment allowance, student loans, holiday pay, and much more. For further information related to the subjects covered at the event, you may wish to explore the CIPP payroll and HR legislation update course, the CIPP e-newsletter News Online and Payroll: need to know (formerly Policy News Journal) which is regularly updated by the CIPP policy team.
To draw the conference to a close, the mic was passed to Karen Thomson, director of group payroll services at Armstrong Watson, for a plenary session on off-payroll working in the private sector. Karen’s presentation looked closely at the implementation scheduled for 2020, explaining the issues from both an employer’s and a payroll service provider’s perspective. As the conference ended, delegates, sponsors, speakers and special guests retreated to the Dynamic Earth galleries for the National Payroll Week networking drinks, held in the breath-taking rainforest room. During the networking, CIPP chair Jason Davenport delivered a speech, saying: “Being here in the home of evolution, made me think as I was walking through the other areas of the gallery leading to the rainforest. It all reminds me of Charles Darwin’s theory; the evolution of the species, and he wrote that it’s the one that’s most able to adapt that survives and grows. And all payroll, pension and reward professionals know adapting is the way we survive with the amount of legislation, and the things we have to deal with. The profession really is one that shows it is able to evolve.” n It was also announced that the conference will re-brand as the National Payroll Week Conference 2020. Further details to be confirmed.
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 54 | October 2019
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