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

The most significant has got to be delivering reward programmes that comply with local regulations (e.g. Pay Transparency) whilst continuing to deliver value for the business and its people. This is particularly complicated for international employers who need to balance a range of different local requirements and, usually, within a centralised policy framework intended to help to deliver a consistent employee brand as cost effectively as possibly. Related to this, is the challenge of employee communication and up-skilling managers to enable them to play their part in the communication process.

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

Firstly, it’s always great to join an in-person event! Following the ‘Covid years’, I have developed a new respect and love for in-person events and the chance to meet and to learn from other people face-to-face rather than through the PC! Before 2020, I was probably guilty of taking in-person sessions for granted but having experienced the alternative, I am much clearer on the benefits, and enjoyment, from physically attending them!

Secondly, I am looking forward to the chance to join the sessions, there are a couple that are particularly appealing to me considering the nature of my job, but there is a really good range to choose from and I’m looking forward to it! 

Which session or theme are you most looking forward to, and why?

I’m looking forward to hearing more about how employers are embracing technology in reward (design, management & delivery) and there are a number of sessions looking at this! I am keen to hear about some real-life examples of where technology is being used to enable more efficiency and to understand more about the other benefits that are being realised.

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

I would encourage them to not treat compliance as a one-off, tick-box exercise! Look for opportunities to embrace changes and integrate them into your culture and total employment proposition. Regulation might have forced the change but that does not have to be a bad thing, and it does not mean that it doesn’t present opportunities that are there to be exploited and built upon! If you are going to have to do something anyway then look for the opportunities and the benefits and look for ways to really embrace it, enhance it and make the most of it! Regulation might shape the direction of innovation and change and but it doesn’t have to restrict it, or limit its value.

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

At this stage, I don’t think there is clear answer to this, and I am sure that any answer I give this year, would be very out of date and needing to be updated next year! There are obviously some areas where human judgement cannot and should not be replaced by AI but there are still plenty of areas where it can add value, even today. From taking over some of the more basic functions e.g. developing draft job descriptions, modelling outcomes of potential pay decisions and evolutions to extrapolating market data and suggesting evolutions to practice based on sharing information on emerging/ popular practices elsewhere. All of these are traditional reward tasks that AI, and other technical solutions, can potentially enable and significantly accelerate, albeit with human guidance and review of the outcomes.

What inspired you to have a career in payroll/reward, and what keeps you passionate about it? 

When I first started work in HR consulting, it was generally understood that you started in reward and then moved into leadership development which, within that particular firm, had a higher prestige, attracted more investment and got people promoted more quickly. However, I found I really enjoyed the diversity and challenge of working in reward. I loved the chance to immerse myself in data and detail (but not all the time!), having to consider the psychology behind reward to help think through the behavioural impacts of any new approaches whilst also understanding some employment law and tax concepts. Alongside this, you also need to really understand a business, its value-chain, performance aspirations and desired culture and values alongside the needs of its particular employee population! The challenge is to take all this information, combine it with experience and expertise and develop practical ideas and recommendations that will deliver better outcomes for the business and its employees! With this kind of challenge and opportunity, it’s fair to say that my early career move to Leadership development was very brief and I came back to reward as soon as I could.

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

• The need to ensure that your business is preparing now for the new EU Pay Transparency regulations. If your business is planning on starting its preparations ‘tomorrow’, you need to be aware that we are running out of ‘tomorrows’ before the ‘go-live’ date!
• The fact that the type of changes required by the EU Pay Transparency regulations are not necessarily bad, and in many respects, simply represent good practice. Although many employers will need to do a significant amount of work to prepare, there are benefits there to be had.
• Changes in the EU are not isolated and the move to transparency is not a passing phase – we are at the start of a global movement that is only going to continue to build momentum and accelerate. Todays change with be tomorrows business as usual!

See Stuart speak at this year’s Reward & Payroll Summit.