The DNA of a payroll professional: The people who pay you

Who works in payroll? What characteristics define a global payroll professional? Three payroll leaders within Safeguard Global share their thoughts. 

“Passion and loyalty are the prerequisites for a successful career within payroll: passion for the work and for the company, and loyalty to the cause,” says Tania Osadciuc, Swiss payroll Operations Manager for Safeguard Global. “You really have to love this area to be able to succeed in it.” 

Emilie Nappa, the company’s French payroll Operations Manager, looks for similar traits in her team members, as she is aware of how critical it is for personal growth and service excellence. “Beyond having the technical requirement for the role, I am looking for passion within potential team members. When someone speaks about something they love, you can see it in their eyes – that is what I am looking for.” This need – to find people with a similar passion – likely stems from her early career experience: “I was very lucky in that, when I started in payroll, I was supported by brilliant colleagues who were all so passionate. As a result, I was motivated to learn, to move on to manage others, and facilitate their growth.” 

Tania believes that one of the key attractions of working within payroll is the autonomy that you are given. “You are free to navigate your own area, within the governance framework that provides us structure as a company.” She also points out, however, that “as payroll is all about milestones and deadlines that must be met, you need to be results-orientated, have the capacity to deliver with continuity on immovable expectations, and be accountable.”  

Similarly, Min Park, the company’s Payroll Manager in South Korea, highlights the independent and accountable nature of the work. “A career as a payroll professional is characterized by ownership and independence, in that you are wholly responsible for the payrolls you manage - you own them, rather than being a contributor to a wider team effort when payroll sits within either finance or HR. That also makes you 100% accountable, however – as you need to have all the answers to client queries around status, activities, outcomes, etc. You need to thrive on this level of responsibility.” 

Far from just gaining proficiency in the technical aspects of processing in-country payroll, payroll professionals add most value when they can offer additional and vital cultural context. “You need to truly understand how local people work, the end-to-end process of employment, how the local administrations operate, and how to engage with them,” Emilie notes. “With this additional knowledge, you are able to provide clients with a holistic view and advice on the world of employment in addition to payroll.”  

Moreover, with constant legislative change, shifting cultural norms, and the burgeoning potential of developing technologies, the knowledge requirement continues to evolve and learning never stops for those who work in payroll.  

Min believes that “developing deep expertise and being on a continual learning curve is a really rewarding career journey — at whatever stage of life you are”. Min chose to move after 20 years as a finance generalist to become a payroll specialist, but she also has team members who sought out this opportunity at an early stage in their career, “as they knew it would set them up for life, enabling them to progress swiftly through gaining deeper and deeper knowledge of this payroll profession.” 

Emilie actively seeks out people who want to learn. “The more people ask questions, the more satisfying that is for me, as I know that they are interested and want to grow.” And for Tania, self-development acts as a retention tool which, in turn, serves to drive client satisfaction.  

“To allow for career development,” Tania notes, “you need to enable payroll professionals to diversify their client portfolio, work on challenging new requirements, and engage in more complex projects. This rotational approach enables learners who are agile and adaptive to develop their career within the company. The benefit to the clients is that the knowledge and experience of the team continues to be enriched.” That said, Tania also has team members who just want to stay and develop their expertise with the same client portfolio, and that it is equally as important to accommodate their preferences. “In short, with so much space for learning and creativity, the potential for growth is only limited by personal desire and ambitions.” 

And then we come to the impact of technology on the evolution of payroll as a profession. “Even in my relatively short career,” Emilie reflects, “payroll has changed so much. In addition to becoming experts in payroll, cultural nuance and communications, we have become experts in the use of tools and their applications – including those deployed by our clients, our internal systems, and those that enable the seamless interaction between both. And as the application of our internal and our clients’ tools evolve, so must our working technical knowledge.”  

Emilie is also embracing the opportunities that AI and automation present for her team. “Automation frees up time to think about the future – to consider how to make real improvements and changes, and drive satisfaction for clients and employees.” She is also aware that the best people to make these suggestions on improvements are those at the sharp end of the process – the people who work in payroll. “These are the people whose role is to overcome complexities to ensure that people are paid accurately and on time – as has always been and will always be the case with this role. What is changing, however, is that automation and AI are removing time-consuming and repetitive tasks, enabling the team to spend more time on analytics, drive service improvements and strengthen relationships.” 

“There is no greater feeling of satisfaction,” Min believes, “than when we successfully complete a transition or payroll transformation and evolve to become a true partner to our client.”  

Emilie agrees: “I discovered early on in my career that I had a love for establishing strong relationships with clients – notably those where we have the opportunity to become one team addressing one challenge with the same goal, such as an implementation or global payroll transformation. Once we have stabilization and have good communication channels open with the client, you can feel the tangible client satisfaction. This is when we know that we have evolved from being a service provider into a true partner – which instills the whole team with confidence. This, for me, is a personal win.” 

And for Tania, “the joy that is derived from making things happen – and the praise that you receive for doing so – is addictive. I continue to be amazed at how valued and appreciated I am made to feel just by diligently doing my work.”