PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
# Be Payroll Laura Wood BA(Hons) FCIPPdip MIAB, payroll director at LaSu Payroll Consultancy and Services explains the benefits of membership with the CIPP
Why did you become a member of the CIPP? I became a member of the CIPP because I wanted to take qualifications to help me progress in my payroll career. The CIPP seemed the obvious place to go for training and qualifications as it’s the only Chartered Institute for payroll and pension professionals in the UK. How has membership helped you in your career? My membership has helped me in different ways, depending on where I’ve been in my career. The initial three years of my membership were spent studying, so I used the email updates and magazines for reliable referencing. More recently, I’ve used the Advisory Service, BeKnowledgeable webinars and National Forums. I still use the emails and magazine articles, but nowadays I use these to apply changes to my own organisation. What membership benefits have you used or enjoyed the most and can you provide some examples? I’ve taken advantage of many membership benefits. Most recently, I used a member rate for the Payroll Update training. The most enjoyable benefit has got to be the National Payroll Week events, as it’s great to take some downtime and meet up with like-minded payroll professionals and share experiences with each other. All these benefits help build confidence that I’m doing the right things in my everyday payroll tasks. Can you describe your payroll journey to us so far? My payroll career started accidentally, when I was referred to a job to fit in around my childcare needs. That was just over 19 years ago, and I’m still in payroll today. I’ve gone from payroll administrator to company director. I was a payroll administrator for 12 years and, during that time, completed the CIPP Foundation Degree in Payroll Management. After completing the degree, I moved to another company as payroll manager and stayed with them for just over three years, while also completing the BA Hons Degree in Business Management. The Business Degree gave me the confidence to finally take the plunge and set up my own payroll business. The business has been running for almost four years, and although challenging, I wouldn’t change it for anything! Alongside the business, I’m also a Payroll Assurance Scheme (PAS) assessor for the CIPP. I love the assessments as it’s great to see the enthusiasm, dedication and commitment that other payroll departments need to have to gain the accreditation. It’s nice to see those companies listed in the magazine and to feel part of their journey.
What are your hopes for your future career? My hopes for the future are to build on my existing payroll and business knowledge, and further my business plans. My hopes for the payroll industry are to see recognition of the challenging work that goes into processing accurate payments every payday, and for the profession to be recognised as a career of choice.
Do you have any plans to study any CIPP qualifications or training course?
In payroll, you can never stop learning as there are constant changes to legislation and advances in systems. When the BeKnowledgeable webinars are held, I ensure I attend and make the most of them. What advice would you give to those new to the payroll profession, just starting out in their careers? I would say to explore what payroll has to offer. Payroll can lead you in many different directions, from general input and processing payrolls, to developing payroll systems, auditing, consulting, teaching, and even having your own business. How would you describe your experience of studying with the CIPP? I’ve had nothing but positive experiences while studying with the CIPP. I had some challenging personal experiences while studying the Foundation Degree. My tutor supported me tremendously after I lost the use of my hand for six months following an accident. I was determined not to miss any exams, and she supported me to stay on track and achieve my goals. I desperately wanted to stay in the year group with my fellow students and not to defer, and the CIPP supported me. I’ll always appreciate the confidence they had in me to succeed and finish the qualification. Why was gaining this qualification important to you? It was important to me to gain my first qualification to give me confidence in my abilities, to progress onto further things and not to stay stagnant in one job role. I then went on to study further, as my first experience was so positive. Both degrees have given me loads of confidence, not just with payroll, but with skills needed in other areas of a business and with management. n If you are interested in taking part, contact us at Marketing@ cipp.org.uk , and share your story with the payroll world. Together we can bring the payroll profession to the forefront of the business world.
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | June 2022 | Issue 81 10
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