How to recruit and hire qualified payroll professionals

Successful businesses have one thing in common. They manage to find and recruit top talent to fill their open positions. Even more importantly, they manage to retain this talent and support them in developing their skills.

No matter which department they work in, employees can make or break business success. But there is one business function where finding qualified employees is of particular importance, and that is the payroll function.

Recruiting top payroll staff can be hard—even for the most seasoned hiring managers and recruitment specialists. What strategies can businesses use for sourcing payroll talent? What skills and attributes to look for when hiring for open positions in payroll? What questions are most effective for identifying the right candidate?

Here is how to find and hire qualified payroll professionals.

Regardless of whether you are hiring for open positions in your payroll department or for another business function, finding qualified candidates can be challenging. That’s why businesses need to diversify their hiring channels. Here are different sourcing strategies for recruiting payroll talent.

• Use your employees’ network: One of the best ways to get started with sourcing payroll talent is to ask other people who work in payroll. Their professional networks are a great place to start your search. Plus, hiring through connections allows you to benefit from recommendations, which can be a decisive factor when it comes to sealing the deal with the new hire.

• Advertise on social media: Social media is becoming increasingly popular with recruiters. Surveys show that around 40 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn when searching for qualified candidates.

• Re-engage candidates from your ATS: Applicant tracking software (ATS) is not only useful during the hiring and recruiting process for a specific role. It can also be leveraged to re-engage candidates who have previously applied for a position with the company.

• Online job boards: There are many different online platforms for finding talent. Posting your job ad on several online job boards should be sufficient for getting a decent number of candidates.

• Build a strong employer brand: Building a strong employer brand is a powerful way of attracting talented employees. Your employer brand is how you present your business as a potential employer. The more attractive your company is to candidates, the more likely it is that applicants will make speculative applications. The contacts you gain through this can be very helpful at a later point.

• Hire from within: Internal mobility is one of the major hiring and recruiting trends for this year. Surveys have shown that companies could fill a significant share of their open positions by hiring internally. So before venturing out to find someone external, focus on upskilling existing payroll staff and move them up the career ladder.

• Get help from a specialist recruiter: Recruiting for payroll can be tough. If all else fails, don’t hesitate to get help from experts. There are recruiting specialists and agencies that specialize in sourcing payroll talent.

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Successful candidates for open positions in payroll should have the following skills, experience, and attributes:

• In-depth payroll, tax, and compliance knowledge,

• Professionalism,

• Payroll certifications,

• Critical thinking,

• Discretion,

• Attention to detail,

• Strong problem solving skills,

• Basic knowledge in accounting (or advanced, depending on the position),

• Good understanding of payroll data and its importance,

• Experience using payroll software and other related tools,

• Technical know-how,

• Proactivity,

• Responsibility,

• Strong numeracy skills,

• Time management skills,

• Tenacity,

• Planning skills, 

• Dependability, and

• Leadership skills (depending on the position).

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What questions to ask when interviewing potential candidates for an open spot in your payroll department largely depends on the position you’re looking to fill. But here are a few example questions you can use to get some inspiration:

• What is your experience with payroll processing and managing payroll systems?

• What is your approach to reducing payroll errors and increasing payroll accuracy?

• How do you keep up to date with legal changes affecting payroll?

• In your opinion, what are the main challenges of running a global payroll and how would you overcome them?

• How do you prioritize tasks when an urgent payroll issue arises? Can you describe a time when you were faced with such a situation?

• How do you manage communication with other departments and stakeholders?

• Can you describe a time when you had to solve an important compliance issue in payroll?

• How do you handle payroll discrepancies that are discovered during an in-depth payroll audit?

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The hiring process for payroll staff is the same as for employees in other departments. Here is an overview of the different process steps.

• Decide which payroll position needs to be filled.

• Determine which skills and experience a successful candidate will need to possess.

• Create a job description that contains all the necessary details.

• Define a budget for hiring a qualified candidate (including what salary and employee benefits you want to offer).

• Choose which channels you want to use for advertising your open position.

• Start advertising the position.

• Screen candidate applications.

• Conduct interviews with the most promising candidates.

• Check candidate references and conduct background checks.

• Narrow down the selection to the top candidates.

• Make an offer and sign the contract with your new payroll employee.

• Start the employee onboarding process.

The hiring process may be the same as for other roles, but there are some additional aspects to consider when assessing a candidate for a payroll position. The following tips can help you identify the best candidate and ensure your staffing needs in payroll are met in the long run.

• Pay close attention to roles and responsibilities: What a payroll position specifically entails differs from one company to the next. So, two candidates with the same (or at least similar) previous role might still have a different level of experience and skills. Make sure to enquire about the level of responsibility they held in their previous job.

• Don’t confuse tenure with experience: In payroll, having hold a certain position for a long time does not automatically equal experience. A candidate with ten years of experience in payroll might be more skilled and experienced after having worked in three different payroll positions in a high-pressure environment than another candidate with a 15-year track record of working at one and the same organization.

• Build a proper talent pipeline: Employee turnover affects all business functions, including HR and payroll. When key members of the payroll team decide to leave, it’s important to find a suitable replacement fast. This is why businesses should start building a proper talent pipeline. A payroll talent pipeline not only helps reduce hiring costs, but also speeds up the hiring and recruiting process.

Finding and hiring payroll staff takes a lot of time and effort. Since time and effort are rare goods in many organizations, outsourcing payroll to an external service provider might be a better, more time-efficient option.

Payroll outsourcingbrings businesses several advantages. For instance, it allows businesses to save time and money, frees up internal resources, enhances payroll compliance, and increases payroll accuracy.

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The value of payroll outsourcing is even bigger for businesses with a multi-country payroll. Finding qualified payroll professionals who are familiar with the payroll rules and regulations that apply in different countries is even harder than hiring someone for managing a single-country payroll.

With Lano’s global payroll services, you can easily find a suitable payroll provider for all your geographies. Our global network of in-country partners covers more than 170 countries. Thanks to our global payroll consolidation platform, managing payroll data and processes for all your providers, entities, and locations is easier than ever before. Book a demo with one of our experts to learn more.