Thursday the 13th of June saw SSF UK members gather at Sodexo’s premises in Salford for the most recent Payroll network meeting. Host and newly appointed network chair, Michelle Goodwin, Payroll Control Manager at Sodexo, had put together an interesting, varied agenda and attracted a broad audience of SSF UK members to the event as a result.
Michelle began the day by giving members a brief introduction both to her own background in payroll and also to Sodexo. Member sharing continued with Eleanor Shires from SPX FLOW, who took attendees through their recent payroll journey, explaining how they moved from a situation where multiple payrolls were being processed in different countries using different payroll systems to a single overarching system. Eleanor discussed the decision making behind their system choice and shared some of their implementation and transition experience - something which resonated strongly with other members of the group. Further discussions on this carried on throughout the day.
Layla Prutton joined us from the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) to discuss their recent association with the Shared Services Forum. Layla provided an update on CIPP’s recent activity, the benefits of being a member of CIPP and how to get the most out of membership and the website. Layla also touched upon the Payroll Assurance accreditation – a measurement of compliance and best practice.
We then had an open discussion on recent National Minimum Wage investigations and legislation changes regarding payslips and what, if any, changes have been made or are planned as a result.
IR35 was a hot topic for discussion. Members in the Healthcare sector who, as part of the public sector, had early experience of the change in legislation, very kindly talked through their experience and approach. The main challenges for the private sector were how to identify who needed to be assessed – mainly looking to the finance department and a review of invoices produced for work completed. Also, where should the ongoing assessments sit? Once identified, how will the data be entered onto the payroll? We also discussed the pros and cons of different approaches, e.g. a straight deduction of tax and NI from contractors’ pay versus topping up earnings to keep the contractors’ payment whole.
We touched upon Robotics and there was a mix of positive experiences and negative experiences when trying out solutions. We felt this would be a good subject for SSF UK’s annual conference in November and/or as a topic to explore in conjunction the with Digital/Operational excellence networks.
We would be delighted if you would join us for the next Payroll event, which is confirmed for the 12th September 2019. We do need a volunteer to host and provide a member contribution – please get in touch if that could be you!
