Hiring an epic Payroll person

Our Payroll Game Changer Conference kicked off with Angela Cameron and Renée Russell, from Consult Recruitment on what’s happening in the job market and how to hire an epic payroll person!

Renée talked about the fact that applicants applying through job board advertising has dropped 20% in the last year. And the team at Consult have seen that 80% of the roles they have filled in the last year are from referrals, not advertising. So job boards are becoming irrelevant.

So how do you find good people? Consult have found that hiring graduates and then training them into payroll roles actually works very well. Young people are not told about payroll when they’re in high school or university, so it’s about looking for someone that is interested in finance and people and then showing them what payroll is about.

There are also not many permanent payroll manager roles out there. What Consult have seen is that more senior people are moving into consulting roles. MYOB purchased Pay Global last year and lots of consultants were needed – so the hourly rate has increased by $10 per hour over 18 months. For those in permanent roles – salaries haven’t really increased.

So if you’re employer use your money to partner with an agency rather than placing a job advert. Or spend an hour searching on LinkedIn rather than spending that time writing an advert. Also invest in developing your internal talent, have referral schemes and succession planning. Keep up-to-date with which contract is are becoming available.

At Consult they hire for values and teach ability. Payroll technology is changing massively so you need to people who are comfortable with change rather than extensive payroll experience.

Angela Cameron then talked about how to hire an epic person. She said you must be prepared to put time into it. Recruiting a great person takes time and Consult often come in when the company hasn’t been able to find somebody. They talk to candidates and the candidate will say I will not work for that company because I applied for that role and didn’t hear anything back. So you need to be prepared to put time and money into the process. You have to prioritise it and speed of response is essential. The best people will have other offers quickly.

You also need to think about are you interviewing well. Do you sell your company well? Do people leave the interview going “I would love to work there”? You also need to talk about the negatives so that people know what the challenges are and don’t have unrealistic expectations.

So if you had trouble finding good Payroll people – what ideas are you going to take from this? How might you change the speed in which you find people? Will you change the time that you put aside bringing people and having better succession and career path’s?

If you try something and succeed please do let us know as we would love to hear your success stories! Perhaps we can share those at the next Payroll Game Changer Conference.