Give hardworking payroll staff credit they deserve

Payroll at the heart of the HR function? I could not agree more (Letters, Personnel Today, 11 April).

In my former role as HR director at a national retail chain, I had overall responsibility for the payroll function. The payroll team were often seen as mere administrative staff, when in effect they managed some 20m a year of salaries and wages.

In the five years that I had the pleasure of working with this team, they showed the commitment not often recognised by the business, and never missed a payday despite several changes to hardware and software.

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Good payroll staff are hard to come by. Not only do they pay wages and salaries; on top of that they collect and manage on behalf of the public sector statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, PAYE, National Insurance contributions, tax credits, student loan repayments, county court judgments, Child Support Agency payments and pension contributions – to name but a few – without any additional pay. How’s that for multiskilling?

Bob McKay
Operations director, Dove Nest Group