Frank Gallacher FCIPP, industry luminary (and regular letter writer to this magazine), reflects with fondness and pride on his career and the profession, and bids farewell as he enters retirement I did it my way
I left school in 1967 at the age of seventeen, clutching my A- and O-level certificates and applied for a post in the National Health Service (NHS) in Fife, Scotland. I spent a couple of years working in the admin office at West Fife Hospital in Dunfermline which has sadly been replaced by several blocks of flats. Part of my job was to collate the menus from the wards and summarise them for the kitchen staff, so they could prepare the meals for the next day. On one occasion, I ticked the wrong box and Sunday lunch for the entire hospital was steamed fish and fresh vegetables – not the roast beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and gravy that most had ordered. Nurse Thomson from the male orthopaedic ward was not at all pleased and came to my office to express her displeasure in no uncertain terms on the Monday morning. Shortly afterwards, however, romance blossomed and we married in 1970. I moved to East Berkshire Health Authority in Windsor as a finance trainee, hoping I would be better at numbers than menus. I was attached firstly to the payroll department as they were short-staffed – and never managed to escape! There followed a spell with Manchester Health Authority before moving to South Lincolnshire Health Authority initially as payroll manager, and subsequently as head of payroll services for the newly created Lincolnshire Shared Services Partnership, serving the whole of Lincolnshire’s NHS Trusts. In 2006, I joined the University of Warwick’s payroll team as project manager – initially on a twelve-month contract – a relationship that has lasted twelve years.
I am grateful to Tal Dhaliwal MCIPPdip, payroll manager at Warwick, for giving me the opportunity to work for one of the top universities in the country. It was an honour to be in the audience when Tal graduated in 2008. During my career, I have served on several national payroll bodies. These included the National SPS Payroll Consortium, the NHS Pensions Agency’s Employers Forum and a working group for the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accountants (CIPFA) which set the standards for national vocational qualifications in payroll and pensions. Apart from my time at Warwick University, some of my most memorable experiences in payroll include becoming the first NHS member to sit on the board of directors of the Association of Payroll and Superannuation Administrators (APSA), hosting APSA’s inaugural NHS conference in Birmingham which resulted in a flood of NHS members joining APSA, subsequently becoming APSA’s education director, and overseeing the partnership between APSA, UNISON and CIPFA in providing the first payroll and pensions qualification. It is extremely rewarding for those of us approaching the end of our careers to see young people coming through who have a passion for payroll and pensions and for providing a high level of customer service and professionalism. This is where the Institute plays its part by providing a professional home and a high profile for its members I have seen many changes over the years. When I joined the payroll team at Windsor in the 1970s we used a comptometer to provide our payroll totals
and reconciliations. We had no desktop or laptop computers then, so all payroll staff had to know how to manually calculate gross to net payslips including shift and overtime payments. In terms of where I see payroll and pensions going, I think continued technological advances will see an increase in self-service/self-certification options for employees and a significant decrease in paper. Payroll has historically been hung up on having everything confirmed in writing. As technology has a great impact on how we work those pieces of paper that go from A to B to C finally arriving in the payroll department too late to be actioned that month because it has taken a week for the relevant people to sign it, will no longer exist. I urge the Institute and its members to take up the challenge and drive these issues forward so that payroll and pensions is, and remains, at the leading edge of technology. Regrets? I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention. Payroll has been good to me: providing me with a career, the ability to become involved on the national scene, and to make some good friends along the way. There is a saying that ‘behind every successful man there is a good woman’. I wish to pay tribute to my dear wife, Mhoraig, who has supported me all the way throughout my career both in practical terms (always a hot meal on the table and a clean shirt for each new day) but also listening, supporting, and inspiring in equal measure. I wish the Institute and its students, members and fellows every success and happiness in the future. I am confident I’m leaving the profession in safe hands. o
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | April 2018 | Issue 39 14
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