TECHNOLOGY
technology change or upgrade projects are few and far between. As a result, the opportunity of being involved in a project can provide you with invaluable new skills and experience, which can be equally beneficial when looking to move into a more senior payroll role. The insights into how projects are run and the subject matter, business and information technology inputs required, plus being actively involved in testing and training, can provide an outstanding foundation for undertaking a project in the future. It also helps you to think about what could be done differently or better on future projects. Being part of a project team can be quite different from everyday working – your interpersonal skills such as collaboration, communication, problem solving, negotiating and influencing may be called upon in different ways. And potentially with project team members you aren’t used to working with. You can gain many new experiences and understandings from working within a project team, and most skills will be reusable in other environments.
understanding workforce costs, as well as providing valuable insights for strategic decision-making. And with artificial intelligence (AI) already embedded into many technologies, improving accuracy further and reducing timescales is easier to achieve. You may wish to gain a wider understanding of how to prepare and structure master data, how it will be mapped within a system (or systems) or how the standard of data will be maintained in the long-term. In addition, if you have a particular interest in analytics and reporting, the system integrations to and from payroll can significantly reduce manual tasks, enabling you to focus on more value-add activities and greater in-depth analysis of your organisation. This enables you to bring insights and suggestions regarding potential further areas of gain for teams, departments and the wider organisation. The pairing of modern integrated technology and well-informed pay professionals will bring significant value to any organisation, and a very happy workforce who are paid accurately and on time. Changing your perspective of the organisation Many new payroll technologies are highly integrated with other functional areas in the business. This means that
rather than the traditional ‘payroll island’, there’s even more reliance on other departments maintaining data upstream to ensure payroll runs successfully. Getting involved early on in a payroll technology implementation allows you to understand these dependencies and build the inter- department relationships needed to make these processes work seamlessly, to deliver an excellent payroll service. Where can payroll technology change take you? Ultimately, the world’s your oyster. You can use any learning and technology advancements to provide the best payroll service an organisation could want or need. Your steadfast nature and consistent delivery of on time, accurate payroll will be highly regarded by any manager or organisation. But perhaps your payroll career is taking a slightly different path, and you have a new or greater interest in the data, technology and AI that’s driving payroll. Perhaps your knowledge and experience could be beneficial to others who are about to embark on a payroll technology change. As the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said, “The only constant in life is change.’” And so, we should look at how we can best respond to any situation, and assess the optimal value we can deliver at any given time. n
Gaining new data and AI capabilities
As with all technologies, data structure and accuracy are critical to running an efficient and compliant payroll. But also, to helping with budgeting, forecasting and
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 116 | December 2025 - January 2026
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