04:05 INTERVIEW
L isa brings valuable hands- on payroll experience to her work as she and her team focus on supporting clients with practical payroll processing, particularly resolving the challenges they face with paying international and expatriate employees. With more than 35 years of experience in payroll, Lisa has witnessed significant transformation across the profession and continues to embrace the pace of change shaping its future. This interview has been edited for clarity.
GPA: What got you into payroll? Lisa Orton: Like most people, I just kind of fell into the field. Before I had my children, I was in finance and accounting, and I used to do a bit of the payroll, helping out the payroll manager. Back then, much of the work was not automated as we have it today. We even typed in the bank account numbers every month to make the payments to people. It was a big job. Fast forward about four years, after taking time out to have my children, I thought I needed to get back into work (my youngest was four), and there was a temporary payroll job that came about, and I just thought, I’ve done payroll, I’ll go, and I’ll go for that. I took the position, and within about two weeks, the payroll manager went off sick, and she never came back. So, very quickly, I ended up in the deep end after two weeks, running payroll for 600 people. It was a weekly manufacturing payroll, very manual, and everything was on my plate. And, you know what? I just loved it. I loved the pace. I loved everything about it. Times for payroll were a lot different back then. I was the sole payroll
I took the position, and within about two weeks, the payroll manager went off sick, and she never came back. So, very quickly, I ended up in the deep end after two weeks, running payroll for 600 people.
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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 21
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