Payroll Congress Debrief 2024

[00:00:07] Welcome everyone to another episode of HR and Payroll 2.0. I'm Pete Tiliakis

[00:00:11] and as always I'm joined by the legendary Julie Fernandez. Welcome Julie.

[00:00:15] Thanks Pete. Yeah good to be here. We are fresh off of the conference trail.

[00:00:21] That's right. What used to be the American Payroll Association, right?

[00:00:27] The APA annual Congress event. Payroll or Congress that's exactly right.

[00:00:32] The 42nd annual Congress was held in Nashville. And what do you call it Pete?

[00:00:36] You're giving it a pet name everybody uses now. The Super Bowl of Payroll. There you go. Yes, yes, yes.

[00:00:43] I did make a stop before coming home. I went to uh I did go out to Nashville. The other um so

[00:00:48] excuse me Las Vegas. The other the other I guess I would call that the uh well Nashville

[00:00:53] is the Vegas of the south right? So I went to the Vegas of the west. The Vegas Vegas.

[00:00:57] The real Vegas. The real Vegas. The Nashville of the west. I don't know. But yeah spent a

[00:01:01] couple of days with UKG. Got a nice update. Man do they have everything right? Lots of updates

[00:01:10] on HCM. WFM is doing its thing as it always has. Great places to work for. Data is getting

[00:01:17] just infused everywhere and productized. Some new stuff in payroll for UKG coming up.

[00:01:22] Global payroll that is. Certainly lots of AI talk. Yeah just a really exciting day where

[00:01:29] we were really diving into you know getting a peek into um all the things that you and I love

[00:01:35] right? HCM, WFM, payroll and all the stuff that goes in between. So yeah really a good update.

[00:01:42] Yeah UKG is humming along. 80,000 clients now in 150 countries. That's all products and all

[00:01:48] solutions globally. Yeah and really doing well when it comes to their global growth if you

[00:01:55] will. Right? Each of their solutions UKG Ready and UKG Dimensions are doing quite well in each of

[00:01:59] their respective markets. I thought it was really interesting Julie. I didn't know this. UKG Ready

[00:02:06] right? Being the down market solution that they have. UKG Dimensions being the excuse me excuse

[00:02:11] me back up and say that differently. UKG Pro would be their HCM. Upmarket UKG Ready is

[00:02:18] down market. Dimensions obviously is their WFM product. I think I said that backwards earlier.

[00:02:22] I did not know this but UKG Ready has about 50,000 users, company users. I think it's in the

[00:02:29] millions trying to see what million number they have for employees they're serving. But

[00:02:32] I did not know they weren't marketing that formally. They were sort of passively letting

[00:02:36] that become adopted by you know by way of you know the Kronos original design right?

[00:02:42] Kronos built that. It came over. They merged with UltiPro or Ultimate and they you know

[00:02:46] they brought those two forward. But I was surprised to hear that they had that growth

[00:02:50] and not really marketed that solution. So they're really leaning into that now and targeting

[00:02:54] globally. I don't know if everyone knows that it's not just a US solution. It certainly is

[00:02:58] globally capable and it's underpinned by all of their Dimensions WFM solutions and certainly

[00:03:04] their one view global payroll capability acquired through Amidas. So really strong

[00:03:09] down market play in addition to Pro. I think sometimes just gets a little bit forgotten maybe.

[00:03:14] Yeah that's right and I think it's great that you have some of the client counts to be able

[00:03:19] to back that up with right? Some of the proofs. Bring us some of the proofs.

[00:03:22] Yeah. I also think you slipped it in there really quick but just the whole global payroll

[00:03:27] with Amidas and the rebranding. I believe Payroll Congress is the first that I had seen

[00:03:34] you know kind of the branding under OneView right? Isn't that it?

[00:03:38] That's a great point yeah. UKG OneView is essentially right the Amidas merger,

[00:03:42] the acquisition if you will. And yeah some exciting stuff there and I'll tell you I was

[00:03:47] actually talking to their product leadership Hugo Serres and he was telling me about just how

[00:03:54] excited they were for what they have found that Amidas has. It's actually exceeded their

[00:03:58] expectations in terms of some of the things they were already building and I think it's really

[00:04:02] cool. They're going to be doing some you know look everything in the market now has become

[00:04:07] super flexible right? You can get SaaS, you can get point solutions, you could get

[00:04:12] partial outsourcing, you can get full outsourcing right? You can really kind of digest

[00:04:16] these solutions in whatever you know manner you need to at the point that you need it.

[00:04:21] And so one of the things I think is really cool is in addition to Amidas obviously offering

[00:04:26] their fully managed capability, they're going to offer more of a kind of bring your own

[00:04:31] partner capability. I believe they're calling it OneView Direct in addition to the OneView

[00:04:35] Connect they already had which was somewhat of a SaaS model. So now really kind of creating

[00:04:40] another flexible way for folks to come and transform their payrolls you know in line with

[00:04:47] HCM and certainly WFM which is incredibly compelling when you think about what they

[00:04:51] can do in one shop. So that's really interesting. I think they're doing some cool stuff there

[00:04:56] making it more accessible and then of course just bringing in more AI

[00:05:00] yeah and lots of right even at Paycon. I think they were one of the only if we were

[00:05:04] just talking about this earlier, one of the only product announcements that we saw at Paycon

[00:05:09] and that was the UKG sorry no the conversational analytic capability. So yeah really cool stuff.

[00:05:17] So UKG really leaning hard into payroll and especially global payroll and I think they're

[00:05:21] doing some cool stuff here. Yeah and you know what you just said about Amidas and offering

[00:05:26] the OneView Direct right? Like that's not a small deal in the market historically. I think

[00:05:32] NGHR was really the only one before it was bought by Alight that would allow you to connect

[00:05:38] to other third parties that were in your that were already in your inventory right?

[00:05:43] And so it's really the only way to get you know to get that extensibility and now that we have

[00:05:49] some of the pay slips and papaya globals and some of you know that genre of global payroll

[00:05:55] solution offering to do that having OneView offer to do some things direct is something

[00:06:02] that people are looking for and I don't think it's been readily available. Yeah well you're

[00:06:06] right and I think we've seen a lot more of the SaaS stuff coming around right? Payslip is doing

[00:06:10] well that you know we've got Paysar, Paybix some of these other guys have popped up that have

[00:06:15] have really brought in a more agile approach to this to say look there doesn't have to be any

[00:06:22] one single vendor that you're using. You can certainly use the vendors of choice but we can

[00:06:25] lay over that one single experience one single capability to control and and orchestrate your

[00:06:33] payroll. So yeah I love it I think goes right along with that flexibility piece of this and

[00:06:38] don't forget don't forget the thing that is really differentiated I think about UKG's OneView

[00:06:43] is its ability to help with scheduling all the way through to payment right? So now they can

[00:06:48] also I mean don't forget they've got a deep WFM heritage that is globally capable used by

[00:06:53] the biggest companies you know they can bring that that time and attendance and payroll one two

[00:06:59] punch of source to gross and and gross to net right through to payment right? So yeah very cool

[00:07:05] stuff and I think super differentiated for them. Hey I know it might it may or may not have been

[00:07:10] a part of your UKG analyst bit but I think you were going to call into play here our good friend

[00:07:14] Jason Lee. Yeah another announcement that's exactly right one of the things we did get an update

[00:07:18] on was UKG Labs. That is uh think of it as a I thought it was more of an investment

[00:07:23] portfolio it's uh I don't think they actually make an investment I think it was an option

[00:07:27] for UKG to invest or acquire some pieces of the of the organization over time but really it's

[00:07:33] an incubator cohort kind of concept that says hey let's bring in you know innovative solutions

[00:07:39] that align to our mantra of building you know helping companies build great places to work

[00:07:45] and yeah our good friends over at Salt Labs. Jason Lee the founder former founder of Daily

[00:07:49] Pay and now the founder of Salt Labs is bringing his equity solution for frontline workers

[00:07:54] over to the UKG Labs so they're going to be working together and I think it's just a beautiful

[00:07:58] fit between the cultures and the you know the goals of those organizations so really cool. We

[00:08:03] actually got to meet a few yeah go ahead sorry. I was just gonna say congratulations all around

[00:08:08] because yeah it's always great to see really intelligent people working with each other and

[00:08:12] bringing better solutions together. Yeah I was able to have dinner with the team at Salt

[00:08:17] Salt Labs in Nashville and got to know some of the some of the newer folks there and

[00:08:23] what they're doing so I'm a big fan of that solution and love love the landing spot. I think

[00:08:26] it's just a perfect fit together so yeah great great. I know I've been doing some work

[00:08:32] work with them on the side around benchmarks and different ways to benchmark some of the

[00:08:36] reward programs and so we'll see what comes out of that. That might come up in one of our

[00:08:41] little micro surveys here one of these days but getting a chance to work a little bit

[00:08:45] closer with some of Jason's folks there. Yeah yeah no absolutely I think it's um yeah

[00:08:50] they're a good group and I think they're on a mission to solve a really tough problem so

[00:08:53] you know it's a start right. We got it we got to start somewhere we got to get it get it going

[00:08:57] and I think it's uh it's good stuff what they're building over there so yeah. Hey so let's jump

[00:09:02] into to payroll congress huh? Yeah yeah absolutely let's uh let's talk payroll congress. Uh yeah I

[00:09:08] thought it was a great week I mean it's always exhausting it's always such a um such a reunion

[00:09:13] there's a lot of excitement there's a lot of great uh great education. I you know I sat in

[00:09:18] on a few of the classes where I could um yeah just a great week all around. I mean no complaints

[00:09:22] right it's it's the super bowl of payroll so exciting time for the for the industry.

[00:09:26] So I have to add a little bit of um of color to what was that week so I don't know folks

[00:09:32] know but we were in Nashville for payroll congress a whole thousands of of folks there

[00:09:36] I think more than 2200 right? There were an awful lot of folks there yeah uh and we were

[00:09:41] at the Gaylord you know the big Opryland uh which is somewhat insulated if anybody's not

[00:09:46] been there it's you know under under an atrium and you know kind of all encapsulated and there

[00:09:53] were having some kind of weather. I have never been in a place where literally for two days

[00:09:59] straight my phone was you know going off every three minutes with lightning flash flood

[00:10:04] tornado lightning I mean like for 48 hours straight and um there was some kind of tumult

[00:10:11] going on outside those doors but it was all you wouldn't know it from the excitement we had going

[00:10:18] on indoors right? No yes the uh the the Gaylord's uh resorts are always very inclusive as you point

[00:10:24] out like you can literally just stay there uh the entire time they have everything so yeah it

[00:10:28] was as if um we were in our own little bubble but there was some pretty gnarly weather happening

[00:10:34] while we were there some flooding I heard the tornado warnings. It startled a few of our uh

[00:10:38] foreign uh attendees they're not used to that sort of broadcasted you know alarm going off on

[00:10:44] everyone's cell phone at once so I think that was a little bit startling but um yeah but hey

[00:10:49] Nashville is a good time uh it's one of those cities where you can you can blow your liver out

[00:10:52] uh pretty quickly pretty quickly if you don't if you don't uh pace yourself um but yeah good

[00:10:58] time I mean you know and again I've met so many folks that I just finally put a face to a name

[00:11:04] Laura Smart for example the brilliant Brazilian consultant. Yeah it was my first time meeting

[00:11:08] that person as well Bart was there with this new book. Yeah the book we had yeah so many great

[00:11:12] Jerome Gouvernau from HR data scale was there or data scale HR I believe I said that wrong um and

[00:11:18] we had some great conversations I was able to invite a bunch of folks over to the Daily Pay

[00:11:21] booth and we did some micro podcasts uh little quick short episodes there so look for those to

[00:11:26] come out soon I'll probably swap cast them here um but what do you think yeah go ahead go

[00:11:31] I was going to say I don't know how early you arrived but I arrived on Monday early and the

[00:11:36] main reason that I did because I don't really think the event was in full swing until Tuesday

[00:11:41] sometime is because there's an editorial board that meets usually um coinciding here with

[00:11:48] payroll congress because you get some of the international folks and just you know your best

[00:11:52] attendance there and for folks who read some of the um payroll org magazines like the global

[00:11:58] payroll the old gpmi magazine it's been rebranded and there are other bits I don't know if you know

[00:12:04] but there's a there's a panel and a group that focuses on the content in those magazines and

[00:12:10] what sort of content they'll be pushing out over the course of the next 12 months and uh

[00:12:15] yeah and I've sat on that board for quite some time I admit I don't write um specifically

[00:12:20] for it as often as I probably should I think I half write a dozen things or more a year

[00:12:25] that never quite make it to the finish tub but we do have a number of folks there that you would

[00:12:30] recognize if you watch and follow along with the magazines who are really speaking about what

[00:12:35] do people want to hear you know what topics should we be putting on the list for the year

[00:12:39] to come and kind of plan out and figure out where is all this content going to come from

[00:12:44] that we're pushing out through the uh through the magazines that you get that go out to

[00:12:48] quite a number of folks right thousands of payroll practitioners yeah I think it's a really

[00:12:54] I mean I think it's a really nice um a nice app a nice channel for practitioner leaders to be able

[00:12:59] to sort of show their thought leadership voice and so yeah I would even encourage you if you're not

[00:13:03] participating in that and you'd like to um I'd go as far as say to reach out to one of us and

[00:13:07] we'd be happy to put you in touch but yeah it's a great it's a great group and I know I've

[00:13:11] been in there a few times and helped with some articles as well so uh yeah exactly good

[00:13:15] stuff yeah so that was early I think that was a pre-conference event right I know we're

[00:13:20] into the congress itself but yeah that happened early yeah it did I was there all week myself

[00:13:25] uh got there monday because sort of day zero if you will um it's a long week I will admit it's

[00:13:31] a it's a it's an immersive it's a good immersive four days three and a half days

[00:13:36] of education and networking and certainly some partying and um I don't know Julie did you get

[00:13:40] to take in the uh the costume contest this year that was fun I did not I wish I did but

[00:13:45] I had work to do in the hotel day and night and so I just ran out of steam before that

[00:13:51] the costume party so I hope they post pictures they almost always do well I did I posted a

[00:13:55] few I was so proud they had a golden age section so people were dressed in gold uh lots

[00:14:00] of evening gowns and wigs and just all kinds of craziness uh some really good costume themes

[00:14:06] and some different um uh just some characters right I mean that's what payroll work I think

[00:14:11] is about is letting people be their true selves and and uh and have a little camaraderie and a

[00:14:15] little fun and that that contest is really it's really good man people really did you dress up

[00:14:20] people want to know no people keep asking me that I'm gonna next year I'm going to next year

[00:14:24] I have to it's or at least some point right I mean I should have done the golden age thing

[00:14:28] um I feel like I'm the uh I coined that phrase as well so I'm proud of that but I wish

[00:14:32] I was a judge um but it's okay I got to take a picture with all the contestants so

[00:14:37] was fun excellent fun time um and the party of course always um a very much uh

[00:14:45] an event if you will it's very much an event very much an event it almost feels like a it

[00:14:49] almost feels like an indoor tailgate or something right just a just a nice hang

[00:14:53] of music and food and just people playing cornhole and other games and just dancing and

[00:14:58] you know all kinds of stuff going on so if you can't find fun at payroll or payroll

[00:15:02] congressman you can't uh you can't find it you know there's this and then some of the

[00:15:06] bigger adp meeting of the minds right type yeah they're the two places where payroll practitioners

[00:15:11] can be celebrated wholly and fully and you know really have an event that's made for them

[00:15:18] yeah so you know it's great to see I'll tell you Julie it's one one interesting thing I will

[00:15:22] tell you I took a photo of it and I didn't really I didn't post it but I was going to

[00:15:26] say it's one of the few events where you can between classes so to speak go down the halls

[00:15:31] and you can see people uh diligently processing payroll and working um payroll never sleeps and

[00:15:37] you know it's uh it's it's it's kudos to those that can pull themselves away and juggle that

[00:15:42] and their education and camaraderie and all of that at the same time because it's you know

[00:15:46] not everybody can do that so good thing we have also those local chapters that are super

[00:15:50] super important events um for those that can't make it out so yeah I admire them I admire

[00:15:55] them but um so look we uh we hosted a very very special event that I heard got great great

[00:16:01] feedback I was proud of how it went um I thought we could have had a longer day maybe even another

[00:16:06] day but what did you think of the executive summit and the executive sessions that we ran

[00:16:10] well I really enjoyed it I think I was a little bit surprised to um to learn that

[00:16:17] that's the first ever event of its type by uh yeah payroll org right uh because it just

[00:16:23] seems like a natural something that would have been there all along but it was the first and I

[00:16:27] think the first annual and probably not the last right event of bringing forward uh senior

[00:16:32] executive leaders uh to talk about payroll and the future uh future needs future abilities

[00:16:39] capabilities ways to really reach your successful business outcomes um as leaders by

[00:16:46] leaning in to payroll and so that was exciting enough and even more exciting is that uh you

[00:16:52] and I had a great opportunity to kick that off yeah yeah that was a privilege I mean the I thought

[00:16:58] it's a yeah surprising it was the first one but you know better late than never we're on our way

[00:17:02] and I think um it's it started a great dialogue and and for future events I think we'll you know

[00:17:06] this will certainly continue um but yeah what a privilege to kick that off and and share our

[00:17:12] I felt like we did a little episode I wish we would have we would have recorded it now um it

[00:17:16] felt like a little uh everything we do feels like a podcast episode honestly Julie to be

[00:17:21] honest but uh I thought it was good we had great feedback great engagement right we had some

[00:17:25] executive level leadership in the room um I think the goal was c-suite we got some of that but I

[00:17:30] but I think it was mostly executive level sort of payroll folks very senior senior level folks

[00:17:35] uh maybe even some hr folks in there and thank you to alight for sponsoring that I think that

[00:17:39] was great um that they stepped in and did that um and yeah just some great dialogue some

[00:17:43] great conversations about what payroll should be um what it can be and what it can produce and

[00:17:49] yeah I really enjoyed it I thought there was a lot of really good dialogue even outside of that I

[00:17:53] thought the conversation at least for me continued um in different places with folks

[00:17:57] that were in that room um that wanted to continue talking about it so that's that's

[00:18:01] exciting that's right and in fact for folks who are just you know kind of dying to know

[00:18:05] what we talked about or how we got folks talking here at the beginning of the day

[00:18:09] we really did um focus on some excerpts from your survey that was launched later that week

[00:18:16] and uh and generated some conversation around what the trends are with technology and process

[00:18:23] and people and uh change right change was a huge topic in fact it was our last section and I

[00:18:29] think right in the early kickoff we had maybe the most excitement and conversation from leaders

[00:18:35] that really wanted to talk about different components and elements of change and the

[00:18:39] challenge and the upside and the and the you know the real possibilities that they saw

[00:18:44] in bringing change in culture change and people change in you know um the relationships

[00:18:51] and payroll and and uh just making it something really very robust as we go forward in the

[00:18:56] future yeah yeah I mean look I think it's important that we start to have a different

[00:19:02] conversation about payroll right in the past it's been so oriented around cost savings cost

[00:19:07] takeout um you know process improvement um you know and all those traditional things

[00:19:13] that you would orient around a cost center right and I understand I totally understand

[00:19:18] I've been on the other end of managing some of those uh you know some of the biggest deals

[00:19:23] that you know that there are and helping companies achieve that but I think we have

[00:19:26] to and that's what I'm hoping my research is going to do and I hope and I and I think that

[00:19:29] this this session was a great step in that direction is that we're going to have a

[00:19:33] different conversation that says yes payroll has to be has to focus on those things right

[00:19:38] but at the same time there is a value to be extracted from payroll that is just could be

[00:19:43] being completely overlooked and it starts with an engagement of executives understanding what

[00:19:48] payroll actually does and and what it materially produces and prevents um and then how it can be

[00:19:54] an asset and and a conduit maybe or a facilitator of change or a facilitator of

[00:20:00] outcomes uh and that's where we've got to start a dialogue and we've got to get payroll

[00:20:03] talking to executive leaders um and I know there's a number of ways we would recommend you go about

[00:20:09] that but but I think that's what this is about and I'm hoping that's what my research has done

[00:20:12] is just just change the conversation let's just have a different conversation about payroll

[00:20:17] and let's let's help you understand what payroll could be for your organization and

[00:20:21] what it what it's going to prevent for you if you don't modernize and you don't invest in

[00:20:24] it um you know and I've got got concerns too just for the profession like we've got

[00:20:29] a lot of people that are going to be leaving this profession in the next few years right

[00:20:33] next 10 5 to 10 and that that's concerning that's concerning yeah that's right it's heavy on

[00:20:38] it's heavy on everyone's minds including payroll practitioners and leaders who are wondering where

[00:20:43] the next generation of talent is going to come from and how you backfill that oh yeah yeah there's

[00:20:47] a lot of professions and sectors I'm sure that are I was talking to someone just recently

[00:20:50] about uh certified mechanics right like it's it's waning there's not a lot of people

[00:20:55] doing that like like maybe in past generations so maybe our cars aren't going to get fixed

[00:20:59] quite like like they should but you know we've got to think about the next generation of

[00:21:04] practitioners and that's another thing I think we've got to do for this profession is we've

[00:21:08] got to start figuring out how we encourage um I hate to use the word younger because

[00:21:13] that's not really the right thing I want to say I want to say people earlier in their

[00:21:16] stages of their career or folks that are looking for that career advancement and transition

[00:21:22] um bring them to payroll right I mean there's some great I've seen some great leaders come

[00:21:26] from outside of payroll and do amazing things at some really big companies so you don't have to be

[00:21:32] the world's greatest payroll expert right you just have to have a desire to learn

[00:21:36] and I think payroll is one of those areas that is going to be very technology led in the future

[00:21:40] and it's going to it's going to lend itself to folks that are interested in um you know

[00:21:44] in leaving their stamp right putting their mark on something and so here's here's the

[00:21:47] opportunity that's right yeah so and listen beyond our our opportunity to start and kick

[00:21:53] off kind of the executive summit day we did join you know some of the um main mainstream

[00:22:00] attraction right and the broader congress early on in the event and then we came back with

[00:22:04] the leaders of the organizations as part of the executive summit and had kind of an all-star lineup

[00:22:10] on um ai and payroll right yeah the likes of I think we had uh sherry sullivan from

[00:22:17] eny was there we had um we had uh joe oh man i forgot david mallin was there from deloria

[00:22:24] yep so we had we had uh we had deloitte and we had kpmg and we had ernst young and where's joe

[00:22:31] coming again i know i'm forgetting we're forgetting somebody sorry joe yeah i know right

[00:22:36] anyways they're like the the brightest the brightest and the best oh yeah the the leading

[00:22:42] advisors that are um that have the most volume of client activity right in the market were

[00:22:48] asked a number of questions by nick day right yeah that was moderating that that's right yeah

[00:22:54] oh my god now i'm gonna have to look up joe's payroll podcast yep um and uh and and so got a

[00:23:00] chance to really interact and also take some questions from leaders and and share a little

[00:23:05] bit about what they're seeing or what they're doing in this space yeah and no i thought it

[00:23:10] was great it was very much a um um it was very much a a from the front lines view right a lens

[00:23:18] from the front lines and just just to uh just to double check here i looked it up joe joe ran

[00:23:23] zow yeah ranza was from granthornton and demetrius papa georgio was from kpmg yeah

[00:23:29] i forgot demetrius he was up there as well so we had representation from basically the big four

[00:23:33] uh plus granthornton and of course led by you know the uh the wonderful nick day of the

[00:23:38] payroll podcast um but yeah no it was great i thought that i thought it was a very uh it

[00:23:43] was just a different lens right it was like leaders that are out there helping companies

[00:23:46] solve this and figure this out and and telling stories about how to do that and what works and

[00:23:50] what doesn't and i thought it was very well received like i said i thought we could have

[00:23:54] gone i thought we could have gone another afternoon right i mean we could have easily had

[00:23:58] maybe some more subjects and i know they'll build on this and so i'm excited to see this

[00:24:02] become i'd love to see this become almost like the way adp operates their meeting of the

[00:24:06] mines executive track within their um uh you know bigger bigger event with their larger

[00:24:13] north american base where they do a an executive track that runs parallel to the event i think this

[00:24:19] could turn into that um and i think there could even be some education on the back end of it

[00:24:23] as well that you could you could pair so i know we're going to work closely with payroll

[00:24:26] we're going to help shape this and i'm excited for us to hopefully be a part of the next one

[00:24:30] and the next one and the next one so yeah it's important stuff i feel like this is

[00:24:34] really really important stuff so hey so i had a session and you had a session why don't we spend

[00:24:38] a couple of minutes on each and make sure that nobody feels like they missed something and were

[00:24:42] yeah well my session i did a uh i did a great uh panel with daily pay um we had one of their

[00:24:48] executives and a couple of their clients um sarah chesney one of my good friend our good

[00:24:52] friends of the show uh she was on there telling their stories and it was really interesting

[00:24:56] because they daily pay was citing a good bit of their data from the back end so we were

[00:25:00] talking a bit about the context of what we really see with how people behave with earn wage access

[00:25:05] so it was really well received uh and then of course on on friday after everyone was exhausted

[00:25:10] i know i was we were all uh i presented the payroll profession confidence index results which

[00:25:16] we're going to do an episode on and that was incredibly well received um so thank you to

[00:25:20] everyone who was part of that and came to that but uh yeah those were mostly my sessions

[00:25:24] and then of course the exec summit and then podcasting here and there with uh daily pay and

[00:25:29] uk g and some others so it was a good time that's great and on tuesday afternoon i did a session

[00:25:34] on uh building relationships across hr payroll and it yes and uh looking at some of the profiles

[00:25:41] and the different lenses of stakeholders with payroll squarely in the middle of them no matter

[00:25:46] where it's owned in the organization whether it's hr owned and kind of what that lens looks

[00:25:51] like or finance owned and what that lens looks like and then all the different constructs

[00:25:56] that we find with it sitting in shared services or sitting in it or even business operations

[00:26:02] when things are really decentralized and use that to talk a little bit about kind of the

[00:26:08] wondrous unicorn that a payroll practitioner needs to be to be successful and to exceed you know

[00:26:14] excel in the organization they really need to understand and and have that emotional

[00:26:20] intelligence and cultural intelligence to navigate very different um stakeholder groups

[00:26:26] yeah uh and then the second sorry go ahead no i was gonna say i was in that session i thought

[00:26:30] it was great it was very interactive you had everybody everybody engaged for sure that's right

[00:26:34] and you know the second part was the funnest for me p because it really tied into a lot of

[00:26:38] what you your heart has been into here in your um in your survey and that is just

[00:26:42] the different skill sets and how those skill sets are evolving and how the nature of the

[00:26:47] payroll practitioner work has evolved over time into something that is you know much more than

[00:26:53] its early stage bookkeeper days where maybe you were running the calcs which is what the

[00:26:57] technologies do for us today right and applying some of the laws and so technology has stepped

[00:27:02] into that role and the payroll practitioner really is a a super skilled person um and

[00:27:08] you know we've talked about it in a number of our different episodes but uh trying to

[00:27:13] leave the group with the idea that it's such a great jumping ground you know for a person who

[00:27:19] likes to deal with a number of different things or maybe as a mover and shaker in the career

[00:27:25] world and and uh there's so many different places you can go when you start with payroll

[00:27:29] at the heart uh and such a learning opportunity so hopefully that's a little bit of what people

[00:27:34] took from the session yeah no i thought it was a great session and you had a lot of

[00:27:38] engagement even even some folks you know i think coming up to you after so that was a great uh

[00:27:42] great great session i wish i would have been able to sit in more to be honest but yeah i know

[00:27:46] it's so hard to be able to get in and see uh see all the things that you want to i don't

[00:27:50] i jumped into one about uh union payrolls for a while and i thought why did i do this to

[00:27:55] myself like i know it's hairy and ugly but i always feel like there's something more i need

[00:28:00] to know so just uh jumping in and being able to take advantage of um all of the knowledge

[00:28:04] that's together in one place is super exciting about the pay uh payroll org event and payroll

[00:28:09] congress yeah yeah absolutely what else did you get to uh just get the tool around the expo a

[00:28:14] little bit get some i did get some chachis get some swag for your kids whatever you know my

[00:28:18] kids are have outgrown chachis so i don't even bring them home i'm i'm happy to say

[00:28:24] but i'm always looking for great ideas right um yeah for you know any of our own uh any

[00:28:30] of our own clients and customer events and that sort of thing so um you know a lot a lot of folks

[00:28:35] a lot of turnout it was a great expo hall it was down in the downstairs so you know you had

[00:28:40] to make a point to go down there um it was on a different level than some of the other

[00:28:44] activities but i just saw people roaming um across the whole entire expo hall so i'm pretty

[00:28:50] sure that everybody got a chance to jump in and check things out yeah yeah it was nice i i mean

[00:28:55] for me it was like uh it was like i was really kind of like just popping booth to booth

[00:28:59] talking to clients um i mean selfishly it was uh it was nice everyone was there i got to see

[00:29:04] everyone um got to meet the new head of the new vp of product for payroll at workday jen cozier

[00:29:11] she happens to live here in atlanta so i'm hoping i'll get to uh spend a little bit

[00:29:14] more time with her um yeah she just joined so that's exciting for them um you know i

[00:29:19] noticed julie there's there is definitely a lot more global payroll than there were in the

[00:29:22] past there was in the past um that's very obvious uh deal was there right go out all the

[00:29:28] usual characters cloud pace uh you know a light um you know you name it so but definitely a lot

[00:29:33] more and global payroll seems to be a definitely a a topic that is coming up more often i'm

[00:29:39] finding more and more orgs are are really finding themselves with which we knew finding

[00:29:44] themselves with a global footprint and really trying to figure that out um you know or

[00:29:48] mergers and acquisitions have pulled them there something like that so was interesting

[00:29:51] just to see what was front of mind i think that was one of the things um and of course

[00:29:55] right i mean everybody's kind of buzzing about that in some way or the other either they are

[00:30:00] looking at figuring out how to incorporate in their world or maybe maybe having a little

[00:30:04] angst about what it might do to their roles as you might understand i'm sure we're all kind

[00:30:08] of kind of worried about that um but otherwise i thought it was a really good time i mean

[00:30:12] everybody everybody always brings their best uh everybody comes and and really leaves it all

[00:30:18] out there if you will so um we payrolled so hard i would say we paroled so hard oh my god

[00:30:24] you're so funny um yeah so listen like super congratulations to there are so many people that

[00:30:31] are involved in pulling together a really fantastic event yeah um at payroll org and

[00:30:36] they i know i'm not even going to try to call out who because i'll miss some important

[00:30:41] people and then i'll be in the dog house yeah yeah absolutely they do a great job over

[00:30:45] there so kudos to uh dan maddox the executive director and his team they they all just do a

[00:30:50] fantastic job and um yeah you can you can definitely tell they they know what they're

[00:30:54] doing right 40 42 iterations of this they've dialed it in and i think it's one of the

[00:30:58] most unique um and immersive and just high quality events in the marketplace and i i i

[00:31:04] probably attend them for a living in some ways so i've seen them all almost all right

[00:31:09] all right well hopefully now our listeners also feel like they didn't miss a they didn't miss

[00:31:13] a beat yeah no hopefully so i hope we will see you at the next one um uh jim cole i know you missed

[00:31:20] it to go on vacation but um next year we got to see you there that he was he was the payroll

[00:31:25] artist was not there he was in spirit we saw his art but um would love to see him there

[00:31:29] and others so if you haven't made it before get get to the uh payroll congress and if you

[00:31:34] can't make it to the big big show that's okay everybody you know not everybody can pull away

[00:31:38] for a week look for one of your local regional shows they're they're really very

[00:31:41] very high value um you know there's 20 or so of the of the of the chapters i don't know how many

[00:31:47] of them actually have events but uh i'll be out there speaking at least i think three or four

[00:31:52] uh atlanta california new england and possibly carolina's i'm trying to figure that out but

[00:31:57] get out there and check those out they're they're just as robust um in terms of education

[00:32:02] they're a bit smaller probably more affordable and and right in your backyard so take advantage

[00:32:06] of that that's right well thanks beat for pulling this together making sure that we got

[00:32:11] a chance to share what we saw and what we heard and what we know yeah absolutely we'll keep you

[00:32:15] posted and we're coming back with a uh episode on the ppci the payroll profession confidence

[00:32:20] index i'm excited to share the results if you don't have that yet get out there and download it

[00:32:24] uh i'll throw it in the comments and i know you've got some survey results coming up on

[00:32:28] your ai and automation uh research as well that we're going to share so excited to

[00:32:32] excited to reveal that we'll be recording again soon yes yes take care everyone we'll uh

[00:32:37] we'll see you soon