04:05 INTERVIEW
It was near the millennium change, and it was kind of tricky. I was assigned to help transform an older, DOS-based program to be Windows-based, and that was a huge thing to do. I realized that I hadn’t done much payroll; I hadn’t been issuing any pay slips when I started out, being product owner of that software. A colleague started training me more about payroll, but she left to work for a competitor, so that only got me to a certain level. So, at a rather young age, I was the product owner of an old payroll system, migrating to a new system that was going to be launched, and I knew I needed to learn more about payroll; I wanted to know the details. One thing I saw, sitting beside the programmer and developer, was payroll become payroll out of zeros and ones. As I learned the coding, I realized that when it comes to payroll you really don’t have a gray zone. It’s very much black and white because payroll software is about calculating. It’s not like in HR where you can always interpret and say, “Well, this could be, should be, may be.” Then, I had to train people on the software who knew very
This interview has been edited for clarity. GPA: How did your payroll career start and progress? Zennie Sjölund: I was at an IT company, a very large one, while I was finishing up my university schooling, doing essays and all. I had done some HR work, and my boss pulled me aside one day and said, “You have two options: Either you can work with HR, or you can come into software development in payroll.” I chose the payroll- related role.
I realized that when it comes to payroll you really don’t have a gray zone. It’s very much black and white because payroll software is about calculating. It’s not like in HR where you can always interpret and say, “Well, this could be, should be, may be.”
42 I 04:05
GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 22
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