Payroll Perspectives - Tania Fenech

Host: Foreign. Thank you so much for joining me for an episode of the Parole Perspective podcast.

Tania Fenech: No problem. Thanks for having me.

Host: No problem. And look, we usually just start off with a brief introduction of yourself, your career, and how you got into payroll, if you want to start there.

Tania Fenech: Yep. So I guess I'll be saying what most people say who work in payroll. I didn't choose payroll. Payroll chose me. Um, um, so I was actually working part time while I was at uni for Coles, and an opportunity came up to learn payroll there in the office. So I thought, okay, I'll, you know, see how it goes. You know, do that while I was studying. And, yeah, just from there on, like, you know, over 25 years later, have, you know, stayed in the payroll space. I stayed in that retail space, you know, for quite a long time. Then I've moved on to food manufacturing, hospitality, aged care, and now, uh, payroll manager in the professional services area for a law firm called hall and Wilcox. So, yeah, have worked in payroll for a very long time, but have also been fortunate enough to have experience in lots of different industries. So, yeah, that's, you know, lots of learning along the way.

Host: You know, that was one of my questions as well. I wanted to sort of follow up with you and ask around the different industries you've worked in and if you found any of them sort of more complex from a payroll perspective than the others.

Tania Fenech: I think, you know, payroll in general, like a lot of people seem to think, you know, payroll's quite simple. You know, we just push a button and everything sort of happens automatically. But as we all know, payroll is very complex. But I think, yeah, definitely, depending on the industry you're working in, there's that added layer of complexity. So I would probably say aged care was probably the most complex. And that's because of all the, you know, they're not just a Monday to Friday operation. You know, the caring shifts involve, like, weekends, overnight work, you know, 24, seven shifts, really active overnight shifts, inactive overnight shifts. So very, very, you know, complicated. And I guess, you know, an added layer to complexity is that there is such a shortage of staff in the aged care industry. And especially, you know, I was. I was working in aged care during the pandemic. And, yeah, because of that shortage of staff, just, you know, seeing that burnout firsthand that the carers were going through. And so, you know, they'd often get frustrated if there were errors with their pay. So you really, you know, it was really hard to sort of manage that. But, yeah, definitely, I think your aged care is the most complex and you throw in a pandemic on top of that. It's yeah, very, very hard for everyone in that industry.

Host: Definitely. And I a hundred percent agree with you there. And it's something that I've heard in the market as well. I've worked with a few different sort of aged care and health businesses and that's the number one word that I hear is the complex. The complexities but also the fact that there is a little bit of in and out when it comes to, you know, the turnover side of things.

Tania Fenech: Ah, that was, that was, yeah, that was yeah, really, really challenging that. Yes, such a high turnover because the burnout and the existing employees that were working. Yeah, they were just. Yeah, there were too, too many shifts that needed, you know, coverage and yeah, very, very difficult for everyone.

Host: No, I could 100% imagine, especially during COVID times and uh, look, I've heard similar things of the retail industry where it's um, quite fast pace and a lot of turnover there and it has its own kind of challenges but not as complex when it comes to those kind of allowances.

Tania Fenech: That's right.

Host: So I would love to understand a little bit around the sort of different technology and systems that you've worked with as well and if there's one that stand out to you as has been a really good system.

Tania Fenech: Yeah, well, definitely technology's come a long way. Um, you know, in the over 20 years that I've worked in payroll at my previous place of employment I was involved in the system implementation of Employment Hero and I found that that was a really good system. Everything was very manual where I was before, um, you know, lots of manual spreadsheets, et cetera. So having Employment Hero we implemented the HR module as well as the payroll module. So we had that full integration and that was just a game changer for us. Reduced a lot of those manual touc touch points, reduce, you know, a lot of the potential for human error and just that employee experience was you know, so much easier, especially you know with we had a self serve portal so employees could go in and rather than using manual leave forms, they could go in, you know, onto the app and just, you know, submit their leave, you know, submit timesheets via the app. It was just really seamless. But what I also liked about Employment Hero was the uh, the support that they offered, you know, all the support, all the workers, you know, the support network was based in Australia so you weren't talking to someone in another country with a time delay. You know, they were very responsive if you needed assistance and able to resolve queries, you know, asap. So yeah, I found them to be, you know, really, really good. But I mean I know there's a lot of good products out there, but my experience with employment hero was really uh, really positive especially compared to what you know, I'd used in the past. And you know, any sort of manual process that you can, you know, abolish or reduce just makes, you know, reduces that risk of making payroll errors. And at the end of the day you just want to make sure that we're paying people, you know, correctly and that we're compliant with all the relevant legislation. So yeah, definitely.

Host: And that self service portal can be. Have a huge impact on m pretty much everyone in the business, but especially that, that payroll side of things because people can find the information themselves, do a lot of things themselves.

Tania Fenech: Exactly.

Host: And, and then it just reduces the, the errors or the, the paper trail I suppose as well sort of the manual effort it takes and the administration from the HR and payroll team.

Tania Fenech: Uh, and I guess it's that burden as well on payroll. Like there's always, you know, it's a common theme when you speak to, you know, payroll professionals. There's never enough time to get, you know, all your uh, um. So if, you know, if you can save a bit of time here or there, wherever you can save that time, you just need to grab it with two hands because you know, there's always something else that you can be working on or you know, running audits or compliance checks. Yeah, so yeah, definitely. Yeah. Having that self serve portal is. Yeah, I think you just can't. It's not negotiable these days.

Host: And I think too when it comes to systems where you can have both sides. Hi. And payroll sort of working together more seamlessly, it definitely is a huge plus. The next question that I had was around the different challenges and I suppose change that we've had over the last two years. What would you say has been the biggest challenge for you?

Tania Fenech: Well, I think definitely Covid was a huge challenge. You know, where I was working at the time, we didn't really have working from home arrangements. So you know, we had to quickly pivot to organize that for the team, you know, and sort of just not, not being able to work together every day. Uh, we had to work out, you know, a different way of working essentially. So that was, that was a big challenge. But I guess it's also just all the changes that are continuously, you know, happening, whether it's, you know, changes to stp you know, wage theft laws that have been introduced. You just really, it seems like more than ever, like you've always had to stay on top of, you know, changes to legislation, et cetera. But it seems like, you know, almost every week it's coming out and if you don't stay on top of those changes, you're going to be left behind and open yourself up to risk. We're all busy in our everyday jobs, you know, managing teams, et cetera. But you know, if you don't make that time to keep up with changes and you know, self development, then you're just going to open yourself up to risk and possible compliance issues down the track. So I guess it's just, yeah, making that time. Yeah, um, to keep abreast. Otherwise. Yeah, you'll pay the consequences down the track.

Host: I agree with you there. Honestly, the, probably the biggest challenge that I've seen in the market overall is be the fact that things have just been changing at an um, unprecedented rate and the amount that you have to sort of invest in your professional development, uh, compliance, keeping on top of the changes, but also things to come. Like, I know a lot of people are thinking about payday super and things like that. So it's a lot to think about, it's a lot to prepare for and I think it just pushes people to have more resilience. Even though this job already takes a lot.

Tania Fenech: That's right.

Host: Right. I suppose if we want to talk a little bit more about what makes a great job, Payroll officer, obviously, you know, you were there, you moved into senior position, now into management, for, for quite a long time. What would you say are the top three skills that make a great payroll officer?

Tania Fenech: Yeah, well, first of all, I just want to, you know, preface by saying it's really hard to find good payroll people. It always has been hard to find good payroll people. But I just find more and more now whenever I need to recruit for a new role, it's always really difficult. We get quite a few people applying but they, they just don't have that right skill set. And I guess to work in payroll, it is a very particular skill set. Um, um, I don't think, I'm not always looking to see, oh, uh, has someone completed a payroll course or you know, do they have 10 years payroll experience? Cause you, you know, you're not always going to get that. But I think if we're looking at the top three sort of skills, um, you know, having the right attitude to start off with is a huge, you know, even if they don't have that experience. If they're willing to learn, if they have that thirst for knowledge, they're already setting themselves up for success. Um, attention to detail is, is just so critical. Working in payroll, you know, one little thing that goes wrong and you might think it's something simple, but that can just have such a huge flow on effect, um, if it's not done correctly. So that attention to detail just is mandatory. And then I also think being organized, often with payroll, you're jumping from one task to another. You might think, oh yeah, I need to update that rate, I need to update that STP code that you've got phone calls coming in, you've got teams calls, your manager's calling you for something, your team needs you to help them. You need to drop everything and do the most important tasks first. But it's easy then to forget the little things that need to get done. And then, yeah, if you don't, if you're not organized and know, for example, when payments are due, when super needs to be paid, if you leave things to the last minute, you're just going to set yourself up for a world of pain. So having really good organizational skills are really important as well in order to succeed.

Host: Agree with all those points. I think the right attitude and the right resilience and adaptability, even if they haven't been in payroll before, can be, you know, a huge help in, in developing them and actually having them stick it out in payroll.

Tania Fenech: That's right.

Host: Burnout has been a huge topic across the sort of industry, pretty much all industries. But you know, specifically in payroll is what I've been looking at. You know, people have just been struggling. There's been so much change and you know, I suppose the market, there's not a lot of good payroll people out there. So when it comes to hiring, it can also be really difficult. But I suppose that's what keeps me in a job as well.

Tania Fenech: But I think also people just don't have that appreciation. You know, people that work in the industry, you know, like yourself, do understand, you know, the burnout and the responsibility, you know, that comes with working in payroll. But you know, even to this day, still, you know, senior leaders of organizations, like, they still don't understand, you know, the import. I mean, I think, uh, they are getting better now, especially because compliance is such a hot topic and no one wants their, you know, their business on the front page of, you know, the Herald sun, you know, talking about wage theft issues. So, you know that there is a lot more visibility now. But I, I think people still seem to think that, you know, all we do is, you know, press that button and everything just does happen so seamlessly. But they don't realize how much work behind the scenes there is to get that all happening, you know, accurately and, you know, paying people on time. And quite often you'll hear straight away if someone's been paid incorrectly, but if everyone's been paid correctly, you'll never have someone saying, oh, you know, thank you, you know, for paying me, or anything like that. You only hear the bad news stories, so. And it's a thankless job, I guess, sometimes. But yeah, it's, we enjoy it, so that's why we say.

Host: Exactly. It's definitely what I tell people looking to step into this kind of career. And there's been a lot more who are, uh, purposeful choosing this and not just kind of falling into it like the, the age, the age old sort of adage. But it's great that people are choosing it, but it's just sort of telling them that, you know, if you're hoping for a, you know, good job, it's probably only going to come from your immediate team. Uh, you know, you're only really going to hear from people if things are going wrong in payroll. Um, yeah, I suppose we can wrap up with the last question. What's been the best advice you've been given throughout your career that you would pass on to someone else?

Tania Fenech: I think it's just sort of, you know, build up the resilience and sort of don't, don't give up if something is challenging. You know, I think in payroll, nothing's given to you on a silver platter. So if you really want to be successful in this industry, it's not the sort of job where you can sort of work 9 to 5 and know that every, every day. Yep. When it hits 5 o', clock, I can log off and, you know, go home. You do, because you are paying people. You know, there are times where there's system issues or something like that. You will have to work until an issue is resolved or there might be long hours involved. So, yeah, the best advice would be, yeah, not give up and just, yeah, persevere. And a lot of people do leave the industry because they do find that it's, it's stressful or take holidays, uh, hard to take holidays, et cetera. But I think if you, if you could sort of put that aside and just know, I guess sometimes it is a thankless job. But if you do persevere, um, you will Sort of see those rewards. You know, nothing comes easy in this industry. But if you do the right thing and have the right people around you, it's definitely a very enjoyable industry to work in.

Host: It's very rewarding, but, uh, it's definitely hard.

Tania Fenech: Well, I think, as well, in payroll, like you do. What I enjoy is that you do get to work with, you know, I know a lot of the time people think, uh, oh, you're just sitting there, you know, working behind your computer. But one of the things I love is that you get to, you know, work with so many different people. You know, if you're in a factory, you know, environment, you're not just working with, you know, you know, all the professionals at head office, you know, you're, you know, interacting with, you know, workers on the factory floor, you know, cleaners. You just meet all sorts of people from all different walks of life. And I think that's what keeps it interesting as well, and building relationships with all sorts of different people. Whether they, uh, are at the top of the tree, the CEO or. Yeah. Someone on the factory floor, it's. There's always someone different to talk to. So, yeah, that's what I. That's what I enjoy, I think, the most.

Host: That's a very good point. You get to speak to pretty much everyone in the business that gets paid, so that's pretty much.

Tania Fenech: That's right. Cause, yeah, we're the most important people to them. So.

Host: Yeah.

Tania Fenech: Yeah.

Host: Perfect. Awesome. Well, look, that was really amazing. I really appreciate your time to sit with me and go through those questions and get your. Your insights and your perspective on payroll. So, yeah, thank you so much for your time.

Tania Fenech: No problem. Good to talk to you, Shaunie.

Host: Perfect. Well, we'll wrap up there. And, um, that's, I think, the fourth or fifth episode of the payroll podcast now, so. Yeah, no, looking forward to, um, sharing it with everyone.