MEMBERSHIP INSIGHT
Suzanne Gallagher MCIPP, Head of operations at Armstrong Watson LLP 5 minutes with…
nothing is impossible. The 2018 elections are coming up so be brave and go for it. What do you think you can bring to the future strategy of the CIPP? At Armstrong Watson not only am I involved in blue-sky thinking and strategic areas of the business, I am also very much aware of what needs to be done operationally. I know the pressures the staff are under on a daily basis and the work that needs to get done, but also their ambitions and how they want to grow. I want to support the CIPP as it looks at how we can better serve those members where perhaps the Master of Science or Foundation Degree isn’t accessible for them for whatever reason. We need to be a smart and a more encompassing institute and we absolutely must embrace the new age of artificial intelligence (AI) which is coming whether we like it or not. What does the future hold for the future of payroll, pensions and reward? In one word, change. This isn’t something new to payroll, as we have dealt with it our whole careers. We won’t be processing payrolls as such in the future, more having conversations with the payroll AI bot that is doing it for us. So, in the spirit of embracing the future, can anyone come up with the new name of the CIPP Siri app equivalent? n
Tell us about your career and background in payroll You know that cliché of falling into payroll by accident? Well, it applies to me, too. I was studying a management course at a local college, and as part of my studies was placed at Granada services for work- placement in the human resources (HR) and wages office. They were going through the seasonal recruiting process and I offered to stay late over the period to help them out. By the end of the week they had offered me the position of HR/wages clerk and the payroll bug took hold. I have been with my current employer Armstrong Watson for more years than I care to remember; and have worked my way up from payroll admin to head of operations. Back then we had three employees and less than fifty small payrolls to run; now we are well over 1,000 payrolls and more than twenty staff. When did you first become involved with the CIPP? I remember becoming vaguely aware of the CIPP back in the early 2000s, and was so excited to find there was an organisation
dedicated to payroll. Generally, us payroll people back then were a solitary quiet bunch that just got on with the job in hand. So, finding this payroll organisation that gave us a unified voice was quite a revelation for me. Since then I have been an avid supporter and through CIPP created our Payroll Quality Partnership programme which we were accredited in 2009. This helped with our recruitment process as I could then offer as part of our remuneration package the foundation degree to help attract candidates, which it certainly did. What does being appointed to the board mean to you? Seriously, it still hasn’t really sunk in. I was still shaking two weeks after I had been told. From my perspective I am just a ‘normal’ payroll person. I have no fancy letters after my name – a bit jealous – as I can’t yet apply for Chartered membership. I decided it was all about pushing myself out of my comfort zone and hoping that the members may see some similarities with themselves. Now I have been voted onto the board I would like members to be able to see that
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | April 2018 | Issue 39 4
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