Pia Dempsey
Senior Payroll Manger
Ceridian

Once a payroll Person Always a Payroll Person! Pia Dempsey is a Senior Payroll Manager with Ceridian, Ireland's leading provider of Managed payroll and HR systems, where she manages payroll for companies of varying sizes throughout Ireland. Having worked in both Financial and HR departments for more than 20 years, Pia recalls how she came about having a long and established career in Payroll.

Payroll was a word in my vocabulary from as far back as I can remember as my parents managed a post office and owned shops.

As a child I knew this was an important task that had to be carried out on a weekly basis. As I got older I was allowed help my mother count out the staff wages so I guess that's where I got a taste for it and little did I know at the age of 8 or 9 I was destined for a life in Payroll!

After leaving school I worked for an Irish engineering company in Dublin. This was my first formal payroll position. Back then it was all done manually, we would first have to go to bank and get exact amount for wages then we would count out each individuals pay each week and put it into an envelope for employees to collect. When I look back I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the amount of time and effort that went into doing tasks that we now take for granted. It took 3 or 4 times as long to process but the training I got from it stuck with me throughout my life.

Following that I moved to Cork where I took a position as a receptionist in the Silver Springs Hotel. I wanted a change from finance role however this was short lived when somehow I ended back in the accounts department and ended up processing payroll again using a system called 'Kalamazoo'; this was still manual but used carbonised paper for record keeping.

Since then I have worked in Finance roles of large Multi-national companies in Clare and Limerick where the processing of payroll has always been part of my role. Over the past 20 years I have seen payroll systems develop from manual right up to the sophisticated ones that we now have in companies. The training I got in my earlier days has always stood to me, back then it was all manual calculations so you had to have knowledge of how payroll was calculated. Some say that a system does it for you now; however I would always argue that the test of a good payroll person is that they can carry out the calculation manually!

In 2002 after many years of working in payroll I decided to sit my IPASS exam which in some sense was daunting to have to sit an exam in something you have worked in all your life! I really believe that IPASS have helped raise the profile of the importance of the payroll function within companies. For too many years the payroll professional has gone unnoticed and some would say unrewarded as a backroom operation. However, since I joined the industry some 20 years ago, (other than when things go wrong which sometimes happens), I've noticed that more and more attention is being paid to the importance of payroll as a function; and with this comes the recognition of the importance of having properly trained and qualified professionals servicing this function.

For anyone interested in starting a career in payroll, it is a profession I believe it's a great career and suited to a particular type of person. You are required to have immense discipline and up to date knowledge as well as enhanced communications skills; HR knowledge; a customer service ethos; computer applications skills and not to mention working to the occasional tight (or impossible) deadline!. However after 20 years of working in it I do believe it is a rewarding career and would encourage anyone to do it!