Sr Manager of Payroll Operations
Hybrid (2-3 days onsite)
- Workday and Kronos preferred
- Various payroll cycles and multi-site experience is a must as the team is responsible for payroll for 10,000 employees at 136 locations across 30 states.
- Previous experience with Federal and state compliance, payroll laws and regulations.
- Managing a team of 6
Summary:
Senior Manager, Payroll, you will play a critical role in overseeing all aspects of payroll operations across multiple states and locations with various payroll cycles. You will lead a team of payroll professionals, ensuring compliance with regulations, optimizing processes, and collaborating with internal stakeholders to support the ongoing improvement and transformation of the payroll function. As part of the corporate support center, this role comes with a high expectation of service excellence and support to our communities. The person in this role will also be asked to bring a focus on process excellence and improvement as we continue to evolve our service and solutions.
Responsibilities:
- Lead and manage the payroll department, including hiring, training, and performance management of payroll staff.
- Establish and maintain best in class processes that will ensure accurate, compliant and timely delivery of payroll for over 10,000 team members organization wide
- Oversee the accurate and timely processing of multi-state (30+) payroll for employees across multiple locations and various payroll cycles using Workday software.
- Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulations governing payroll practices, including tax withholding, wage and hour laws, and reporting requirements.
- Collaborate with HR, Finance, IT and Legal, and other departments to ensure accurate and timely processing of payroll-related transactions and benefits compliance.
- Oversee relationship with unemployment consultant, support effective transition of data (in partnership with IT), research issues, liase with communities, act as escalation point for questions. Work with IT to ensure proper maintenance and functionality of time clocks in community.
- Work with IT to monitor data transmissions for various vendors.
- Lead process optimization initiatives to streamline payroll processes, enhance accuracy, and improve efficiency, including training for field leaders and team members.
- Liaise with the legal department on compliance matters, providing guidance on payroll-related legal requirements and ensuring adherence to internal controls.
- Provide customer oriented support to our field communities and team members, answering questions about the payroll process, transactions and paycheck information; research escalated issues and troubleshoot as needed. Monitor ticket requests in Star Support to ensure team provides a high level of response and customer service.
- Provide training and onboarding support to community based leaders and team members on payroll processes.
- Partner with the benefits team to ensure understanding and execute of shared processes that require compliance such as 401k, benefit vendor integrations, etc.
- Provide proactive data audits and identify issues or discrepancies as needed.
- Ensure proper set up of new accounts with federal and state agencies as needed.
- Maintain compliance with internal controls and provide audit documentation as needed.
- Oversee timekeeping systems, including Kronos, and collaborate with IT on systems requirements, upgrades, and implementations.
- Facilitate annual W2 process
- Work with compliance and legal teams to monitor and understand and implement federal and state compliance requirements and work with the technology team to provide requirements and testing to implement in our technical applications.
- Serve as a subject matter expert on payroll-related matters, providing leadership and guidance to internal stakeholders.
- Proactively identifies system enhancements and solutions and collaborates with IT to ensure implementation.
- Stay informed about changes in payroll laws, regulations, and best practices, and communicate updates to relevant stakeholders.
Skills & Experience:
- 7+ years of experience in payroll, including leading a payroll function and a team of employees
- Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) designation a plus.
- Knowledge federal and state compliance requirements.
- Experience with Kronos or similar timekeeping systems preferred.
- Extensive experience with Workday payroll software and proficiency in Microsoft Excel is highly preferred.
- Thorough understanding of multi-state payroll laws, regulations, and compliance requirements.
- Strong leadership and people management skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate staff to achieve departmental goals.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to interact effectively with employees at all levels of the organization.
- Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment and meet tight deadlines.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate with IT on systems requirements, upgrades, and implementations.