Payroll practitioner's diary — a look at four payroll practitioners
Payroll is a bizarre realm to be in. It’s one of those careers few people seem to choose and even fewer outside of the payroll department’s doors know much about. But the payroll practitioner’s role is ultimately critical to the success of any organization. Canadian HR Reporter talked to payroll practitioners across the country to find out what’s happening in the world of payroll, how people got started in the job and the difficulties faced in day-to-day operations. A few common themes emerged: technology is altering the landscape at a boggling pace, and keeping up with the vast array of legislative and regulatory changes poses a big headache. Here’s a look at four payroll practitioners and their takes on the profession.
Patricia Kelly
Manager, pay and benefits
P&O Ports Canada
Vancouver
15 years’ experience in payroll
Patricia Kelly first set foot into payroll while working as an office manager in Toronto when she covered for a worker on vacation. In 1990 the payroll role became hers full time and she quickly realized if this was going to be her career path she’d need some training.
She started taking courses in Toronto and headed west to Vancouver where she took a full-time position dealing strictly with payroll and benefits. Now she’s at the top of her game — in addition to holding a full-time payroll position she is the chair of the Canadian Payroll Association and teaches payroll courses at Vancouver’s Douglas College.
But she still faces the same challenges as most payroll staff in her day-to-day activities at P&O Ports Canada where she handles the pay for 80 office staff, 80 foremen and several hundred longshoremen. One of those challenges is dispelling the myth that payroll is simply a push-button operation that requires no thought or prescience.
“Fortunately it doesn’t happen too often anymore but I get frustrated when people assume that all there is to payroll is ‘pushing a button,’” she said. “There used to be a common misperception that computers did everything and that anyone can do payroll.”
But since, for most organizations, labour costs are the single largest expense it’s critical to have someone at the helm of the payroll department who understands the complexities of pay and how to contribute to keeping the employer’s costs down while keeping employees’ morale up, she said.
P&O Ports Canada uses Ceridian Insync, a fully integrated payroll and HR system, to handle pay for its salaried staff. Pay for foremen and longshoremen is processed on an in-house system that was designed to work with their complex pay requirements. For the most part, Kelly said technology has been a saviour to payroll professionals.
“It gives us tools to quickly calculate not only actual payroll costs, but you can also look at the ‘what if’ scenarios,” she said. “The ability to splice and dice raw data and create reports not only provides the opportunity to determine various financial impacts of different projects but it also allows for mining information on your employees to identify such things as succession planning and training needs.”
And while technology is great at dealing with those types of information, staying on top of changing legislation is a challenge for any payroll practitioner.
“Over time, you become more familiar with the legislation and rules with agencies such as Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Human Resources Development Canada, labour standards and workers’ compensation boards,” said Kelly. “Having said that, you must stay on top of constant changes.”
That means training is critical for payroll staff, and Kelly said the amount of help out there for payroll practitioners has grown exponentially in the last decade.
“Regardless how sophisticated the software you use for processing, computers don’t think so it is really important that someone has the necessary knowledge to set up and maintain this function,” she said.
While getting some organizations to get over the misconception that payroll is strictly a clerical function hasn’t been easy, she said many employers are realizing the strategic role payroll can play.
“It is so much more,” she said. “One of the many roles of a payroll practitioner is ensuring calculations and remittances are done on time to all government bodies. Failure to do so can result in some really hefty fines and penalties.”
She said she views her employees as customers and provides them with the best possible service, from paying them accurately and on time to providing the best solution for their benefit needs.
“(Employees need) an environment that will encourage their continued growth both personally and professionally,” said Kelly. “A happy employee has a higher level of production and is less likely to leave.”
Grace Alessi
Director, payroll and benefits
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Toronto
21 years’ experience in payroll
When Grace Alessi started in payroll there was nary a computer in sight — in fact, the payroll department didn’t even have access to one. Everything was processed entirely on paper and was mailed to a payroll provider for input. Two days later, the payroll would be returned.
Then the first computer showed up, which was shared by two people. Payroll information was input into the computer and that information was transmitted using a modem with just a one-day turnaround. Now, as the business law firm of Blake, Cassels and Graydon undergoes an implementation of a new payroll system for its 1,400 employees, Alessi looks back in disbelief that they were ever able to get the job done before the latest technological evolutions hit the payroll world.
“Improved technology for payroll is a fairly new concept,” said Alessi. “But with the many changes in such a short period of time, it is hard to believe we managed without them.”
But that increased technology has meant increased expectations, and the demands on payroll practitioners are increasing, she said.
“With better access to information, it is not uncommon to have frequent requests for reports with little notice,” said Alessi. “Technology has now become an essential part of our payroll profession and it is important that an adequate system is in place so that we have the tools to deliver services to our employees and management.”
The firm is currently running two stand-alone systems, but is in the middle of changing its payroll provider and switching to the payroll services offered through its present HRIS provider, HR Technologies Inc. Alessi said the move will improve service levels, provide comprehensive reporting to management and eliminate the duplication of data entry. The firm is also implementing employee self service that will allow staff to view their personal, benefits, attendance and payroll information online.
But the best technology won’t eliminate the number one complaint she hears from staff — they want to know, “Why are taxes so high?”
“This is probably the most common question asked,” she said. “I recently attended an educational session with our secretarial assistants and addressed this question, providing the formula and tax rates used to calculate an individual’s net pay.”
Looking ahead, Alessi has a lot of items on her agenda that she wants to see implemented.
“My focus will be to review our payroll practices and establish a fully automated payroll system, upgrade HRIS and implement a time and attendance system,” she said. “As another step in the evolution of technology, I would like to see payroll interfaced with our accounting system.”
As a director, she has moved from being a hands-on practitioner to more of a managerial role.
“At such a level, I concentrate more on policy, procedure, implementation and guidance,” said Alessi. “The day-to-day tasks are replaced with more complex projects that require me to draw on my different skill sets as well as my knowledge and experience within a payroll environment.”
And while she loves the career path she has chosen, she said there is a bit of a downside to working in the payroll department. Missing deadlines is just not an option because if a deadline is missed, somebody doesn’t get paid correctly.
“The working hours can be long,” she said. “Most payroll functions have strict deadlines and, therefore, if an issue comes up it is not something that can wait until the next day. But I would recommend a career in payroll. It’s been very rewarding for me.”
Norman Donahue
Payroll process co-ordinator
Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.
Montreal
17 years’ experience in payroll
When Norman Donahue was studying at university he took a summer job as purchasing assistant. At the end of his tenure, he was offered a position with that company and given two options — he could either run around the office delivering mail or he could work in the payroll department. He jumped feet first into payroll and said he hasn’t looked back since. But the position has changed a lot in those years.
“When I first started there was a great deal of specialization,” said Donahue. “Certain people would only be doing a specific item such as keypunching, accounting, remittances or technical support. Throughout the years, with technology, the role of the practitioner has evolved since they now perform all or most of these roles.”
With a staff of 1,600 and 2,300 pensioners to pay, Donahue said keeping up with rapid changes — whether it’s technology or policies within the organization — keeps him hopping.
“These changes must be validated, supported, documented and communicated to the concerned parties,” he said.
But he finds the technology used in payroll to be fascinating because of the amount of time it now takes to do what used to be fairly complex tasks.
“The systems store so much information it now just takes seconds to look up an employee’s history,” said Donahue. “As we have more information at our disposal, there is a greater emphasis on producing reports. Things evolve at a more rapid pace than they did 10 years ago.”
But the systems have to be properly maintained and must be compatible in order to get the full benefits of the technology.
“The challenge lies in making the processes fit those of the system and to keep our processes as efficient as possible,” he said. “There is also the learning curve in the time it takes to become familiar with the technology that exists. Just when you’ve become familiar with something, there’s another way of doing it.”
On the software front, Imperial Tobacco Canada uses SAP across the entire organization. The payroll is processed from SAP’s HR module, which is basically used in its vanilla, or “out-of-the-box” state.
Because of that, Donahue said they are sometimes limited by constraints of it not being customized and have to find alternative solutions that require flexibility and quick turnaround. But not customizing a system has the advantage of being less expensive and far easier to update when new versions come out.
The most common complaint he hears from staff is that, come tax time, the T4s aren’t sent out early enough. But the company always meets the deadlines, he said.
And while he loves the variety and challenges in his position, he said dealing with government compliance is his least favourite part of the job.
“Keeping up with changes to government legislation and ensuring they’re being interpreted and applied correctly can be frustrating at times,” said Donahue. “But there are always new challenges and situations that arise that make things interesting.”
His advice to other payroll practitioners is to get out and network as much as possible.
“Speaking from experience, anytime payroll practitioners get together, there’s always something beneficial that is learned from others,” he said. “It’s important for payroll practitioners to band together and be heard as a group because as a voice our concerns will continue to be heard and it will go a long way towards elevating our position.”
Gail Purdy
Human resources manager
National Oilwell Canada Ltd.
Calgary
13 years’ experience in payroll
Gail Purdy didn’t spend her childhood afternoons dreaming of being a payroll practitioner. She dreamt of becoming a registered nurse, of being able to care for people. After recently completing an emergency medical responder certificate, she compared her current job as an HR manager with that of a registered nurse and came to an interesting conclusion: they’re really not all that different. That’s because both human resource professionals and nurses spend a lot of time looking after people.
Purdy, whose group handles payroll for 320 employees at National Oilwell Canada Ltd., ended up in the field after moving to Calgary in the early ‘90s. She was hired as relief for a person on leave, a temporary position that led her into the payroll department and fuelled her interest in human resources.
Keeping current with rules and regulations is one of the biggest challenges she faces, but it’s a task that has become far easier as technology has evolved.
“Easy access to up-to-date information has definitely contributed to making a payroll practitioner’s job easier,” she said. “It is imperative that all attempts are made to ensure that employees’ and employers’ rights are protected to the best of our knowledge.”
National Oilwell Canada is using ADP’s PaySpecialist and is planning on adding the HRIS module later this year.
“That will give us a database that will allow numerous personnel, with predefined levels of authority, access to pertinent and real-time information regardless of their physical location,” said Purdy. “Technology has been a definite enhancement for payroll, being able to refer employees to a Web site where the information you provided can be verified if necessary.”
She said payroll is more than just a job — it’s a “passion” that is driven by satisfying every employee.
“I believe the sky is the limit with regards to opportunity to obtain adequate training and professional development,” said Purdy. “You get back what you put into your job.”
Patricia Kelly
Manager, pay and benefits
P&O Ports Canada
Vancouver
15 years’ experience in payroll
Patricia Kelly first set foot into payroll while working as an office manager in Toronto when she covered for a worker on vacation. In 1990 the payroll role became hers full time and she quickly realized if this was going to be her career path she’d need some training.
She started taking courses in Toronto and headed west to Vancouver where she took a full-time position dealing strictly with payroll and benefits. Now she’s at the top of her game — in addition to holding a full-time payroll position she is the chair of the Canadian Payroll Association and teaches payroll courses at Vancouver’s Douglas College.
But she still faces the same challenges as most payroll staff in her day-to-day activities at P&O Ports Canada where she handles the pay for 80 office staff, 80 foremen and several hundred longshoremen. One of those challenges is dispelling the myth that payroll is simply a push-button operation that requires no thought or prescience.
“Fortunately it doesn’t happen too often anymore but I get frustrated when people assume that all there is to payroll is ‘pushing a button,’” she said. “There used to be a common misperception that computers did everything and that anyone can do payroll.”
But since, for most organizations, labour costs are the single largest expense it’s critical to have someone at the helm of the payroll department who understands the complexities of pay and how to contribute to keeping the employer’s costs down while keeping employees’ morale up, she said.
P&O Ports Canada uses Ceridian Insync, a fully integrated payroll and HR system, to handle pay for its salaried staff. Pay for foremen and longshoremen is processed on an in-house system that was designed to work with their complex pay requirements. For the most part, Kelly said technology has been a saviour to payroll professionals.
“It gives us tools to quickly calculate not only actual payroll costs, but you can also look at the ‘what if’ scenarios,” she said. “The ability to splice and dice raw data and create reports not only provides the opportunity to determine various financial impacts of different projects but it also allows for mining information on your employees to identify such things as succession planning and training needs.”
And while technology is great at dealing with those types of information, staying on top of changing legislation is a challenge for any payroll practitioner.
“Over time, you become more familiar with the legislation and rules with agencies such as Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Human Resources Development Canada, labour standards and workers’ compensation boards,” said Kelly. “Having said that, you must stay on top of constant changes.”
That means training is critical for payroll staff, and Kelly said the amount of help out there for payroll practitioners has grown exponentially in the last decade.
“Regardless how sophisticated the software you use for processing, computers don’t think so it is really important that someone has the necessary knowledge to set up and maintain this function,” she said.
While getting some organizations to get over the misconception that payroll is strictly a clerical function hasn’t been easy, she said many employers are realizing the strategic role payroll can play.
“It is so much more,” she said. “One of the many roles of a payroll practitioner is ensuring calculations and remittances are done on time to all government bodies. Failure to do so can result in some really hefty fines and penalties.”
She said she views her employees as customers and provides them with the best possible service, from paying them accurately and on time to providing the best solution for their benefit needs.
“(Employees need) an environment that will encourage their continued growth both personally and professionally,” said Kelly. “A happy employee has a higher level of production and is less likely to leave.”
Grace Alessi
Director, payroll and benefits
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Toronto
21 years’ experience in payroll
When Grace Alessi started in payroll there was nary a computer in sight — in fact, the payroll department didn’t even have access to one. Everything was processed entirely on paper and was mailed to a payroll provider for input. Two days later, the payroll would be returned.
Then the first computer showed up, which was shared by two people. Payroll information was input into the computer and that information was transmitted using a modem with just a one-day turnaround. Now, as the business law firm of Blake, Cassels and Graydon undergoes an implementation of a new payroll system for its 1,400 employees, Alessi looks back in disbelief that they were ever able to get the job done before the latest technological evolutions hit the payroll world.
“Improved technology for payroll is a fairly new concept,” said Alessi. “But with the many changes in such a short period of time, it is hard to believe we managed without them.”
But that increased technology has meant increased expectations, and the demands on payroll practitioners are increasing, she said.
“With better access to information, it is not uncommon to have frequent requests for reports with little notice,” said Alessi. “Technology has now become an essential part of our payroll profession and it is important that an adequate system is in place so that we have the tools to deliver services to our employees and management.”
The firm is currently running two stand-alone systems, but is in the middle of changing its payroll provider and switching to the payroll services offered through its present HRIS provider, HR Technologies Inc. Alessi said the move will improve service levels, provide comprehensive reporting to management and eliminate the duplication of data entry. The firm is also implementing employee self service that will allow staff to view their personal, benefits, attendance and payroll information online.
But the best technology won’t eliminate the number one complaint she hears from staff — they want to know, “Why are taxes so high?”
“This is probably the most common question asked,” she said. “I recently attended an educational session with our secretarial assistants and addressed this question, providing the formula and tax rates used to calculate an individual’s net pay.”
Looking ahead, Alessi has a lot of items on her agenda that she wants to see implemented.
“My focus will be to review our payroll practices and establish a fully automated payroll system, upgrade HRIS and implement a time and attendance system,” she said. “As another step in the evolution of technology, I would like to see payroll interfaced with our accounting system.”
As a director, she has moved from being a hands-on practitioner to more of a managerial role.
“At such a level, I concentrate more on policy, procedure, implementation and guidance,” said Alessi. “The day-to-day tasks are replaced with more complex projects that require me to draw on my different skill sets as well as my knowledge and experience within a payroll environment.”
And while she loves the career path she has chosen, she said there is a bit of a downside to working in the payroll department. Missing deadlines is just not an option because if a deadline is missed, somebody doesn’t get paid correctly.
“The working hours can be long,” she said. “Most payroll functions have strict deadlines and, therefore, if an issue comes up it is not something that can wait until the next day. But I would recommend a career in payroll. It’s been very rewarding for me.”
Norman Donahue
Payroll process co-ordinator
Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.
Montreal
17 years’ experience in payroll
When Norman Donahue was studying at university he took a summer job as purchasing assistant. At the end of his tenure, he was offered a position with that company and given two options — he could either run around the office delivering mail or he could work in the payroll department. He jumped feet first into payroll and said he hasn’t looked back since. But the position has changed a lot in those years.
“When I first started there was a great deal of specialization,” said Donahue. “Certain people would only be doing a specific item such as keypunching, accounting, remittances or technical support. Throughout the years, with technology, the role of the practitioner has evolved since they now perform all or most of these roles.”
With a staff of 1,600 and 2,300 pensioners to pay, Donahue said keeping up with rapid changes — whether it’s technology or policies within the organization — keeps him hopping.
“These changes must be validated, supported, documented and communicated to the concerned parties,” he said.
But he finds the technology used in payroll to be fascinating because of the amount of time it now takes to do what used to be fairly complex tasks.
“The systems store so much information it now just takes seconds to look up an employee’s history,” said Donahue. “As we have more information at our disposal, there is a greater emphasis on producing reports. Things evolve at a more rapid pace than they did 10 years ago.”
But the systems have to be properly maintained and must be compatible in order to get the full benefits of the technology.
“The challenge lies in making the processes fit those of the system and to keep our processes as efficient as possible,” he said. “There is also the learning curve in the time it takes to become familiar with the technology that exists. Just when you’ve become familiar with something, there’s another way of doing it.”
On the software front, Imperial Tobacco Canada uses SAP across the entire organization. The payroll is processed from SAP’s HR module, which is basically used in its vanilla, or “out-of-the-box” state.
Because of that, Donahue said they are sometimes limited by constraints of it not being customized and have to find alternative solutions that require flexibility and quick turnaround. But not customizing a system has the advantage of being less expensive and far easier to update when new versions come out.
The most common complaint he hears from staff is that, come tax time, the T4s aren’t sent out early enough. But the company always meets the deadlines, he said.
And while he loves the variety and challenges in his position, he said dealing with government compliance is his least favourite part of the job.
“Keeping up with changes to government legislation and ensuring they’re being interpreted and applied correctly can be frustrating at times,” said Donahue. “But there are always new challenges and situations that arise that make things interesting.”
His advice to other payroll practitioners is to get out and network as much as possible.
“Speaking from experience, anytime payroll practitioners get together, there’s always something beneficial that is learned from others,” he said. “It’s important for payroll practitioners to band together and be heard as a group because as a voice our concerns will continue to be heard and it will go a long way towards elevating our position.”
Gail Purdy
Human resources manager
National Oilwell Canada Ltd.
Calgary
13 years’ experience in payroll
Gail Purdy didn’t spend her childhood afternoons dreaming of being a payroll practitioner. She dreamt of becoming a registered nurse, of being able to care for people. After recently completing an emergency medical responder certificate, she compared her current job as an HR manager with that of a registered nurse and came to an interesting conclusion: they’re really not all that different. That’s because both human resource professionals and nurses spend a lot of time looking after people.
Purdy, whose group handles payroll for 320 employees at National Oilwell Canada Ltd., ended up in the field after moving to Calgary in the early ‘90s. She was hired as relief for a person on leave, a temporary position that led her into the payroll department and fuelled her interest in human resources.
Keeping current with rules and regulations is one of the biggest challenges she faces, but it’s a task that has become far easier as technology has evolved.
“Easy access to up-to-date information has definitely contributed to making a payroll practitioner’s job easier,” she said. “It is imperative that all attempts are made to ensure that employees’ and employers’ rights are protected to the best of our knowledge.”
National Oilwell Canada is using ADP’s PaySpecialist and is planning on adding the HRIS module later this year.
“That will give us a database that will allow numerous personnel, with predefined levels of authority, access to pertinent and real-time information regardless of their physical location,” said Purdy. “Technology has been a definite enhancement for payroll, being able to refer employees to a Web site where the information you provided can be verified if necessary.”
She said payroll is more than just a job — it’s a “passion” that is driven by satisfying every employee.
“I believe the sky is the limit with regards to opportunity to obtain adequate training and professional development,” said Purdy. “You get back what you put into your job.”
