Unlocking Payroll’s Potential

Working smarter has become vital for all professions steering through complex legislative changes. 

Kate Winson, Head of Payroll at Boots UK, talks through the evolving world of payroll management as she shares her 20-year journey navigating legislative amendments, compliance requirements, and technological advancements. 

From her roots as an entry-level administrator to her current leadership role, Winson’s story highlights the importance of adaptability and continuous learning as she champions the use of technology to empower employees, streamline workflows, and revolutionise the payroll landscape. 

As the payroll profession undergoes transformative changes, Winson’s insights serve as a rallying call to work smarter, not harder, by leveraging technology, fostering collaboration, and actively shaping the future of the industry through continuous learning and policy engagement.

Could you describe your route into payroll? 

I first started working in payroll 20 years ago. At the time, I was working at East Midlands Electricity (EMEB), which is owned by E.ON. I had done my university degree in a completely different field, but realised I didn’t want to pursue that career.

I always had a bit of a flair for numbers and analytics, so I was trying to figure out an alternative path, possibly accountancy. Then a 6-month contract came open in the payroll team at EMEB to cover a maternity leave.

Payroll seemed interesting, plus I recognised a lot of the terminology because both of my parents had worked on the tax and revenue side of things. It was just an entry level administrative, but I quickly realised that I really enjoyed the work - there was an interesting complexity in payroll with the mix of employee types at the company, from call centre staff to engineers out in the field.

We also had a very collaborative team environment where more experienced team members were always encouraging people to cross-train and learn different parts of the payroll process from each other.

By the end of those first 6 months, the company decided to make my role permanent due to expansion through some acquisitions. And I already knew I wanted to develop a career in payroll, so I started pestering my manager about when I could begin formal CIP study towards qualifications!

In 2007, they implemented an SAP HR/payroll system, during which they had a system change project. So I moved sort of sideways into the payroll system support. Which actually I really liked, getting under the skin of not only what is it doing, but how is the system making that happen? I like to like to understand how things work

A major change was the 2012-2013 implementation of Real Time Information reporting to revenue authorities monthly instead of annually. I moved into a role working between the actual payroll team and the IT developers and just got more experienced and enjoyed it - I also had really good mentor.

In 2018, I was approached Boots, which was really exciting.

From a chance sideways move, I ended up really committed to payroll and have stayed in the profession since then.

Payroll teams have to keep on top of an often-complex web of legislative and compliance changes happening frequently. What are some of the key changes coming up that are most top of mind or concerning for you now?

Staying abreast and then interpreting the rules and guidance that comes out with legislative changes is always challenging. There can be a lot of ambiguity in how some of those rules are meant to be applied. And of course, we’re now part of HR - payroll is always that intermediary between finance and HR, because when it comes down to it, it’s people data.

I think it’s really important for payroll professionals to provide input and feedback during government consultations on proposed policy changes and new laws being debated. That way we can help make sure the implications for practical implementation are actually understood by policymakers before they finalise anything. I personally try to participate in consultations on issues that are particularly relevant for payroll wherever I can.

In terms of specific upcoming changes, the new statutory leave entitlements like Neonatal Care Leave are hopefully finally going to come into force in 2025. Those are more straightforward from a system perspective - it is more about making sure our policies, manager guidelines, approval workflows in HR systems, and things like that are updated to align with the legislation.

What can get more complex is situations where there is more ambiguity in the rules or data required, especially when you need to account for lots of different employee types or payroll models.

For example, with something like the forthcoming right to request flexible working from day one of employment, the legislation aims to provide consistency. But what does that mean when you already have workforces with high flexibility and variability?

So again, it is about having smart system functionality, but also clear guidance for managers to contextualise how that actually applies within your organisation. And finally, we’re increasingly seeing divergence between UK nations too in payroll-related laws, on top of dealing with completely different country legislation as employers expand internationally.

Even just within Britain now, we have to monitor if rules start differing between England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales rather than just looking at the UK as a single entity. That fragmentation adds yet another layer of complexity.

How do you effectively communicate these types of policy changes and processes to teams across different sites?

With any large business, communication is always difficult. But we have dedicated communications teams for each area of the business to relay changes to various store managers across multiple sites. We also maintain intranet sites with compiled policies, especially around time-off processes like caregiver leave, where managers can self-serve by selecting the appropriate reason.

I’m pleased that we have people who are specialised in different areas. Writing isn’t necessarily one of my strengths but I’ve got people in my team who have those strengths, so I ask them to help if this or that reads properly. 

It’s important to to make communications as accessible as possible and use the people who’ve got the right skills to make sure that things are going out in the right way to as many people as possible. I suppose it’s one of the advantages being in a large organisation, that you do tend to have people who are more specialised in particular areas. 

As I mentioned earlier, the payroll function sits between HR and finance departments. I think what matters most is having leaders in that area who are genuinely interested in getting payroll right and are open to engaging with it. It’s not about which department formally oversees payroll, but rather having the right leader with the appropriate level of interest and knowledge to properly manage it.

The key to effective communication is ensuring payroll has a dedicated leadership voice, even if it can’t be a separate top-level function. While payroll is distinct, if it can’t stand alone, then it’s crucial to have the right point person leading it, regardless of which department they are in.

On the technology side, are there any tools or innovations you’re using today or especially looking forward to start leveraging within payroll? With all the hype around AI, are there ways you could see that benefiting the payroll function?

I’m a big advocate for continuing to find ways to enable employees and managers to self-serve information and changes wherever possible through our systems, rather than having to intervene or do those types of transactions on their behalf as administrators. Whether it is through AI chatbots, guided workflows, or cognitive applications that can flag potential errors, getting people accurate DIY capability makes for a smoother end-to-end process.

Trying to try getting people so that they can self-serve as much as possible is really important, and to enable them to do that.

And when you operate a payroll for up to 50,000+ people each month, streamlining and automating high volume routine tasks then also frees your team up to focus expertise on truly complex exception management. That is where humans still fully excel versus machines - handling intricacies and anomalies that require deeper evaluation.

In my 20 years working in payroll, we have seen enormous technology change already. When I first started, some systems were still DOS-based or even mainframe on green screens. We were using paper forms, spreadsheets, and manual uploads that are now long gone, replaced by automated integration. Real-time reporting has been transformational.

I definitely find it exciting to see where the next waves of innovation could take us with AI-enablement. However, large organisations don’t turn quickly with all the integrations and change management involved, so I stay balanced - understand the art of possible but focus energy on near term.

As we look forward over the next 5-10 years, what do you think will be the biggest drivers of change or evolution for the payroll profession?  

In many ways it feels like we are on the cusp of another major revolution in payroll technology and processes similar to the transformation that happened with the onset of real-time reporting. Especially with advancements in cloud engineering, systemic integration, automation capability and yes, the rise of artificial intelligence. Those collectively will completely reshape how payroll teams and providers architect their operations on the back end.

But in parallel, we really need public policy debate and reviews on wider employment legislation reform in areas like benefits structuring, taxation, flexible work provisions and so on. Policy shapes payroll requirements fundamentally. And right now many facets have become extremely cumbersome, uncertain for organisations to navigate let alone ensure ongoing compliance.

There are cliff edges all over the place in the UK tax system for example - losing personal allowance through the 60% trap, hitting child benefit loss thresholds, it goes on and on. Thresholds have stayed stagnant for ages, exacerbating marginal effects. Yes those are difficult political issues because they primarily hit higher earners to address. But we absolutely need more wholesale simplification and certainty embedded into the overarching rules that payroll has to then adhere to and translate operationally.

Hopefully the pending Review of the State Pension Age is the just first domino of meaningful reviews kicking off. Following years of seemingly constant pace layered change, I do predict we are going to have gradual slowdown and consolidation of requirements so organisations can catch up. And then alongside reassessing core policy foundations, we will likely see new government later this year given the election cycle. That may well herald faster movement to modernisation if different priorities come into leadership.

Functionally I believe payroll operations will transform extensively under the hood over the next decade as emerging innovations reach maturity. But we need public policy reform to also facilitate payroll teams being able to take full advantage by removing complexity and uncertainty they constantly have to navigate. Bringing those two sides closer into alignment will really accelerate positive outcomes for both professionals and the millions of employees relying on accurate payroll delivery.