Confessions of a payroll manager – “If I could just make a suggestion?”
A few weeks ago, I found myself a plethora of sparkly score paddles out of donated cereal boxes, glue and glitter pens. How did I end up doing this? Well, it all started with an idle scroll through the online CWG2 further guide to pay as you earn… I confess, I wasn’t paying full attention doing something I thought I’d never do as a payroll manager – creating as various articles flashed past my eyes but then three words sprung out – ‘employee suggestion scheme’, followed closely by the enticing text – ‘encouragement award of £25 tax and National Insurance free’. It may have been halfway through the Christmas holidays, but the spark was lit and one of the agenda items for our first team meeting in January was decided. At the team meeting, we did as we always do, and spent rather too long thinking up an apt name for our newly created employee suggestion scheme. Tom came up with a logo and designed some promotional posters and a newsletter ready for circulation in mid-January. As we launched, there was a real buzz in the canteen as employees sat, drinking their Another anonymous episode revealing the world of payroll featuring payroll avatar, Penelope (‘Penny’) Fortham, who is payroll manager at the nation’s favourite biscuit makers Crumbitt’s Confections.
brews, mindlessly chewing on the ends of pencils and thinking up new ideas. Billie made a mini post-box so people could ‘post’ their submissions for the scheme. Although we offered an email option too, most employees preferred the more traditional version and seemed to quite enjoy the ritual of filling in a little form and posting it off for review. We allowed a month for employees to submit their suggestions, then we collated the forms and found there were enough (36 to be exact) to hold a panel to go through them all. Of course, Mr Crumbitt was to act as chair of the panel and promptly declared himself ‘head judge’. Well, at the mention of a head judge, Stevie came up with the idea of scoring the suggestions with voting paddles (with ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ on opposite sides). And that, my friends, is how I found myself still picking bits of glitter off my face six days later. I began the meeting by reading each idea out. Then, the panel had a quick discussion before deciding whether to award a £25 encouragement award. Mr Crumbitt, who hates rejecting anyone, said ‘yay’ to everything but, thankfully there were enough other judges to balance out his relentless positivity and make a realistic and informed choice. There were some genuinely interesting ideas including an apprenticeship
programme with the local school, a wildlife garden outside the canteen, a biscuit milkshake drink and running the factory on wind power. At the end of the rather lengthy but fun meeting, we’d chosen 20 employees to receive £25 in their pay and set up an appropriate pay element. Tom immediately set about designing and sending out a newsletter highlighting all the chosen ideas and how they would be taken forward. This would mean people would know what had happened to their ideas. Suggestions schemes are nothing new, I know. But, that doesn’t mean they’re not still a fantastic way to get colleagues to come up with new ideas to improve the workplace, support the environment and get involved. Of course, it was also a positive way for the payroll team to show how they can support the business, and to communicate with employees and the wider organisation. o
The CWG2 guide for 2022/23 can be accessed here: http://ow.ly/2eiH30s9Vnb.
The Editor: Any resemblance to any payroll manager or professional alive or dead, or any payroll department or organisation whether apparently or actually portrayed in this article is simply fortuitous.
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | March 2022 | Issue 78 48
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