Kevin Dippenaar is an experienced Group Finance Director with broad experience gained in companies of various sizes and within numerous sectors. As part of National Payroll Week, Kevin shares his thoughts on the importance of Payroll, not only in the context of the wider business, but also from the perspective of a Finance Director being able to effectively manage the end-to-end financial reporting. 

From a Finance Directors’ perspective, how important is it that payroll is run as smoothly as possible?

Payroll is such an important element of any business and can be a very emotive issue especially if you get it wrong. I think more importantly staff will forgive you if you get it wrong once but if mistakes happen continuously then it leads to demoralised and frustrated staff. It also depends on the type of company and employees. Lower paid employees who rely on prompt accurate payment of wages and if your company is labour intensive then the payroll must run smoothly and accurately as it can lead to staff not wanting to carry out their duties. Complaints will occur and line management may spend more time sorting out pay issues to the detriment of clients and work.

How does the efficiency of Payroll impact the wider business?

In a heavy labour intensive business / contract business a smooth running payroll will mean management will be focused on providing a proper service to its clients rather than sorting out payroll issues. This will mean less stress on other areas of the business like Complaints, Sales, Operations and even finance. This should help drive new business and staff will be happy to go the extra mile when needed.

How much is the Finance Director's role impacted by not having the right people in place in the payroll team?

A brilliant Payroll Manager should be able to run a payroll, sort out queries, reconcile the reports and provide the Financial Reporting team with figures it needs at month end. As an FD, if the Payroll Manager and team are doing their roles properly, the review is easier and more accurate. You can rely on the numbers being correct and the data should be sufficient to create reports that can be used to give back to the wider business so they can address over and unders in payroll against budget / forecast.

If you want to have a conversation about how we can support you with recruitment or onboarding, what challenges there are in the market or have a confidential discussion about your own career, please do reach out to us on finance@savantrecruitment.com