Payroll Conversations w/ Jodi Parsons, CPP

[00:00:00] Once you tell somebody how you felt into it, make sure you tell them why you

[00:00:05] felt in love with it and continue to be a payroll professional.

[00:00:12] Welcome to our podcast.

[00:00:14] It's about payroll.

[00:00:16] We're your hosts, Brian Escobar and Walter William Duncan III.

[00:00:20] Whether you're new to the payroll game or seasoned veteran,

[00:00:24] we have something for you.

[00:01:27] the prior year of the prior year's average of 4.4% but higher than increases seen in previous years. Various consulting firms including WTW, Corn Ferry predict median salary hikes

[00:01:36] of around 4% for 2024 which is higher than increases over the past decade. So I think

[00:01:43] that's fascinating. I think that is good that, inflation. Although lower than the previous year, it is still pressuring rages with households needing thousands more annually to maintain their standard of living compared to three years ago.

[00:03:05] The tight labor market exacerbated by pandemic related in some industries or some companies, they say they had the return office, RTO, return to office move. But there's been a lot of turnover for some of those companies as well, because employees are like, hey, I've gotten used to this way of life with the remote and the hybrid. So that's what I want to maintain. And some of them are even willing to take less money

[00:04:20] in order to have their life set up the way

[00:04:23] that they want with their job.

[00:04:24] So that's something news update. That's good, man. Good stuff, bro. Good stuff. Tough conversations. This episode is presented by TimeTrack Go, the simply better employee time clock software that is going to make

[00:05:41] your life easier. In addition to the Yeah. Thank you for that. Mine is quick. Paycom has a product out there called Betty and they're popular in the US. They're still growing, of course, and Betty is awesome. And I've been intrigued from Betty from day one because it lets employees drive the process.

[00:07:04] It's a new level of employee that he expands into the UK. This expansion to the UK reflects their commitment to providing innovative technology that simplifies the lives of employees, enables

[00:08:22] their clients to better engage their employees and drives further

[00:08:26] ROI on a global scale.

[00:09:25] I've taken at least two of her courses over the years committed to increasing payroll's role in strategic business decisions.

[00:09:28] Man, welcome Jodi L.

[00:09:30] Parsons, CPP to the show.

[00:09:35] Jodi Parsons has spent the last nine years at almost 10 years now with

[00:09:40] the Kansas City Royals, she spent three home state of Iowa, was doing accounts payable and had gotten that process perfected so that I was in order to keep myself interested in chow, I have to have challenge. Yes. So once I determined that payroll was going to be my career, I started doing research, recognize that when I applied for, if they even looked at my resume, were they like, okay, which player is she stalking? Luckily in 2000, early 2014, a payroll position here opened up and was posted.

[00:13:41] I had calmed down to the Royals for that I did get in the door and once I got in the door,

[00:15:04] as they say, the rest is history. Wow, it's a very cyclical process because you have spring training, you have the season, you have the post-season, you have the off season.

[00:16:23] And within payroll, we already are dealing with cycles of our own, but there's that to heart and I do think that it helped me adjust to the organization and really take my time in learning about those different processes and those different cycles. Yes. So that was nice. I will tell you October of 2014 was a whirlwind.

[00:17:41] I don't remember any of it because we. So if you were to go to our AAA club in Omaha, Nebraska, the Omaha Stormchasers, to my first Congress in 2024, I believe it was at, in Nashville, which we're going back to Nashville this May.

[00:20:21] So make sure you head to Nashville.

[00:20:23] It's a fun time.

[00:20:25] Um, and most people don advocate for the payroll profession,

[00:21:42] it's what led me to be able to be president. beat happening to me. That's so awesome. And then finishing up that trip with spending three days teaching UK payroll professionals about American payroll. And it was just great to make those connections and even get a bill, learn a little bit about their payroll as well, and understand how there's

[00:23:03] things that are the same and there's definitely things that are different.

[00:23:06] Wildly different.

[00:23:07] Yes.

[00:23:08] Wildly different.

[00:24:04] someone that wanted to become president of payroll org. Is there like an established road to that?

[00:24:06] Or do you just got to go get Dan Maddox?

[00:24:09] It's never bad to make that connection with Dan,

[00:24:12] obviously.

[00:24:13] But I think, more importantly, it's

[00:24:17] about becoming part of the payroll community

[00:24:21] and being visible in the payroll community,

[00:24:25] whether that be, think it's late summer timeframe usually, or even the fall. There's an email that goes out for a call for volunteers, making sure that you put, there's a form out on the payroll org website that lets you express your interest in what

[00:25:42] rules interest you. And I'm telling, don't be afraid to stretch. Don't be afraid to say, hey boss, I can help with that. I can do that. You see your boss struggling with pain, I can do that. And I encourage them. I wouldn't have been weaved, neither one of us, because what was another one that raises his hand. He never says no to new work, but that's gotten us to where we've been or where we are right now. And raise your hand, just put yourself out there,

[00:27:03] do stretch into other, how processes started, how they've evolved, and now understand

[00:28:21] how that knowledge of how the full process works, I feel how it's going to evolve over the next several years because of AI. Technology. Technology, automation. There's huge opportunities again for that younger generation that doesn't realize that

[00:29:41] we need project managers.

[00:29:43] We need data architects.

[00:29:46] We need programmers. it's going to work. Have that. And they usually, they may not say it, but when I say they go so that they get a paycheck so that they can put you, clothe you so you have a roof over your head so that you can participate in extracurricular activities and it starts

[00:31:02] to click with them and I'm like payroll's the reason people come to work.

[00:31:07] That's right.

[00:32:06] them at that age. So put it in their minds. I don't think there's enough emphasis from the education piece of how payrolls works and how deep it goes. So thank you for sharing

[00:32:13] that.

[00:32:14] Yeah. And it's really interesting some of the questions that they ask about the profession

[00:32:19] that some of us may not even think about initially. One of. The other question that I get from people, do I have to have a college education? And that's where I as a hiring manager have to be willing to say, I don't need someone with a college education to fill an entry level role. As did a show about whether to get the CPP or not the CPP, what that does for you. The degrees came up and also Google just hired their first developer with no college background. So the game is changing. The landscape is changing

[00:35:01] for it. And we talk about it, right? H in eighth grade. Look at me. I am in the professional sports room. I think the other thing that us as payroll professionals have to be

[00:36:20] cognizant of is that a lot of times it's a kind of inside joke within the

[00:37:26] that are advocates of the payroll profession, we're still here because we fell in love with it. Our reasons why we fell in love with it may be a little

[00:37:31] different. Maybe it's because I need challenge. Maybe it's because you find it

[00:37:37] important to help people and maybe someone else finds because it saved have to make sure that we're giving it the positive spin that it has. Because even I still remember my first interaction here when I went through my, was my very last, six, seven, eight. Hey, okay. So learning in a group or solo? Ooh. Can we go with both? Yeah, it was a night out because Caitlin Clark from my college all in the modern, I had to watch her break that scoring. Yeah. That's double a scoring record.

[00:41:40] I think it depends on the situation and it know who their head coach is, right? Now, AP? AP is a New York giant. AP, that's right. All right, my bad, go ahead, boy. Sweet or savory?

[00:43:04] I'm gonna go with sweet. I'll go with sweet.

[00:43:06] What's your favorite sweet? I'm good to go. Yeah. Okay. The last one. Finance or HR. So I am going to go with, I'm going to be a little controversial. I'm going to throw something in a little different. I think it should be payroll.

[00:44:20] That's right.

[00:44:21] Love that.

[00:44:22] I don't think I think that gray area because it becomes too much about interpretation.

[00:45:40] But at the end of the day, I am a huge advocate.

[00:45:45] We should be stand alone.

[00:45:47] I love it.

[00:45:48] I love it. Missing a $50, $100 reimbursement or something being included on their check may not have a huge impact to them. My minor league player that is just during the off season, they're getting $6.25 a week

[00:47:00] gross.

[00:47:01] Wow.

[00:47:02] $10 could make or break them.

[00:47:05] That's right.

[00:47:06] In a paycheck. And people are going to start understanding that we aren't heartless, that we don't intentionally mess up people's pay that we're wanting to work with you as, as a co-worker, as a teammate, to make sure that you can make right, that you can put food on your table, those types of things. So I understand where that history comes from, but for me

[00:48:24] to be the best payroll it so we can make

[00:49:40] a positive impact across the board with our customers, which are our employees.