What are the most significant challenges facing payroll/reward professionals today? 

I will not pretend to understand the nuanced challenges facing payroll/reward professionals as an industry. However, for any leader at the moment, the challenge is understanding what the future of work will be, and how it will impact your industry and your people. We all need to be increasingly curious and open minded, and payroll/reward professionals have the added opportunity of being able to drive culture and behaviour change through their work, putting them at the forefront of these discussions.

What excites you most about participating in Reward & Payroll Summit this year? 

We are living in a world that is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. At the core of that are leaders, who are just people, trying to make good decisions. As leaders in reward and payroll, you have a disproportionate opportunity to use your leavers for change to drive new behaviours. Incentives and reward are powerful things, and there is huge scope for organisations to become known for doing things differently, but it will take bravery from people in this room.

What advice would you give to companies looking to innovate while ensuring compliance in today’s regulatory environment? 

You first need to understand the risk appetite of your leadership team, and ideally your board. There is a new wave of opportunity coming for those willing to fundamentally shift their thinking, especially in spaces in the business that are less the focus of regulators, but you have a responsibility to outline where ideas are pushing at those boundaries, and why.

What role does technology and/or AI play in transforming payroll/reward, and how can businesses leverage it effectively? 

It changes everything. The growth of AI means we need to see a workforce not just as a set of defined jobs, but as a rich ecosystem of potential, meaning that when AI automates routine, the human potential to adapt, imagine, connect, learn, lead becomes the strategic differentiator. This will require organisations and payroll/reward leaders to think fundamentally differently about incentives and job structures in order to stay relevant in a changing job market.

What do you hope attendees will take away from your session at Reward & Payroll Summit? 

That this audience is a community of leaders with real opportunity to drive change both for their organisation and for their colleagues – they just need to think creatively!