Payroll Conversations with Tiffani Gray

[00:00:00] How do I invest in you? How do I build you with the understanding that they're not going to stay forever and it's not personal? Welcome to our podcast, It's About Payroll, where your host Brian Eskobar and Walter William Duncan III,

[00:00:17] whether you're new to the payroll game or season veteran we have something for you. Welcome back folks, It's another episode, It's About Payroll, Episode 1, 1919, We have a wonderful guest for you today, The amazing Tiffani Gray, But before we get into that, How are you doing?

[00:00:40] I'm good man, Very good, no complaints. How about you? Is heck, but it's all about getting in your mind, right? Everything is how you react to things, right? It's 90% action, 90% reaction.

[00:00:58] Yes, I know how we deal with what is in front of us and just remind myself of that all the time It's easy to be like, oh, I'm stressed out, what was me? But it's made a minute, get it together, you know what I mean?

[00:01:13] Look, life is going to life but it's to Brian's point look. Things are going to happen but it's your attitude is going to determine your altitude, right? I always forget that phrase. Always be messing that up, thank you for saying that. That's right, that's right.

[00:01:36] Yeah, so let's get into what we got to pay news update and then we'll get into our guests, we'll be joining us and we'll get into what we're going to talk about a little bit about AI,

[00:01:45] with Tiffany. And if we have time, we'll talk about it on another subject but the first one is a big one especially was going on in today's climate and recent events of global Microsoft outage. Yes. Are you so wrong?

[00:02:01] Were you never impacted by that? Are you still really in from that? Like, what do you do as a payroll pro? What did y'all do? Did you have any that people not get paid? What was the work around with so interested on all these things?

[00:02:15] And maybe Tiffany has no stuff and you know, we're going to talk a little bit about it. Yeah, traveling, traveling, traveling, and all my guys. Airports got shut down, like, like, light's, oh my goodness, so many impact and so many different things in industries

[00:02:31] but it's definitely on top of everybody's mind. And as we talk about AI, I'm sure it's what's going to overlap a bit. But before that, we do have a pay news update. Or if you don't mind, kick us off.

[00:02:44] Go, but I'm going to just refill my coffee while you start talking. I'll be right back. Right. So basically this article is by tillhq.com and it was talking about work life down as of the payroll professional or payroll specialist, right? And things that can cause

[00:02:59] some stress and everything, right? And tell me if you identify with some of these things and some of these things that occurred in the payroll professional's lives, some of you might that are listening may identify with some of these. So number one is end of month,

[00:03:15] workload searches. So payroll pros or payroll specialists experience those spikes in workload at month in or doing pay period closings that can often lead to those extended hours that heightened stress, make sure that everything is done timely and accurately. To make

[00:03:31] sure that we're paying our customers are employees, right? So that can add to stress. There might be some regulatory changes in laws and compliance, right? There are constant updates. As we know, the payroll is always changing laws are always changing and we have to stay aware

[00:03:48] or abreast of those things. Right. And so that is there's a demand of ongoing attention from payroll and HR pros that can require some extra time and potentially some outside effort and additional hours to make sure that you're staying compliant. There might be some system upgrades or integration

[00:04:07] issues. You're in the middle of the implementation and stuff is just going hey, why you thought everything was working fine and stuff is just hitting the fan right now. You know what I'm saying? So implementing that new software, those new systems with other HR technologies can become

[00:04:21] flex time consuming and require different stuff that feels over until your personal time. You know what I'm saying? Hey, you want to go to your kids, recycle and you might not be able to go because something happened, right? And you have to stay at work late.

[00:04:37] You're in reporting and tax prep. We all know how you're in goals for in the payroll world. We're getting those W2s ready. We're taking in time and making sure that everybody's things are

[00:04:46] good to go and that can be stressful especially if you have a small payroll shop in a bigger organization. Yeah, I'm going to expect it. Paral discrepancies handling those side in payroll areas or discrepancies require media attention. What do you do if you get that call from

[00:05:05] that employee over the weekend? They didn't check their account until Saturday morning even though if Prade it was on Friday. Friday and then they check it and then they're blowing everybody's phone

[00:05:15] up trying to get a pat. That feels over until your personal time. Usually when that personal time comes, you want to be able to detach and deescalate from the weekend, get your mind right for the upcoming

[00:05:28] week. So that can impact your work life balance. And then there's remote work challenges. So working remotely can potentially blur the lines between working personal lives for payroll specialists because you might be working longer hours and my fine more difficulty in disconnected from work

[00:05:47] responsibilities because you're like, okay, hey, I'll go ahead and get this done now. Especially if you're a diligent person or you're you're just going to say your good work ethic. Yeah, you

[00:05:56] understand you have to understand that look. You have to really bounce it out. So there's a lot of different great different topics in this article. It'll be in the show notes. Go check it out.

[00:06:06] And then there's two lines here, the last one I wrote and then the first one is from the article. So recognizing and managing these factors is crucial for payroll pros to maintain and balance lifestyle and perform effectively in those roles. Now here's what I wrote. We have to

[00:06:24] understand that even though we may not be saving lives we're not like doctors we do impact lives. Absolutely. But life. Yeah, so if we are off our games as payroll pros it can and will have

[00:06:38] downstring impact on everyone from the employee to the employer potentially our teams ourselves. So it's good for us to take time off a time away disconnect when we need to take that PTO

[00:06:53] because we do work in a high stress industry sometimes and we're stop is going to hit the fan sometimes. Stop is going to hit the fan when we implement AI. You know those things stop is

[00:07:06] going to happen that's going to require all hands on deck. So just understand your importance and understand the importance of you having that work like balance as a payroll pro. So what that being said

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[00:08:16] that's W. T I M E T R A K Go dot com or you can call 888 321 992 2 happy vacationing folks and let's go you switched to I was trying my head and rhythm when I was a little bit alright

[00:08:35] oh yeah let's try catch your old go. Oh man all right tell me yeah man we have a really special guest our guest today is Tiffany Gray she's the payroll manager for Riverside Health System with over 20

[00:08:49] years in the payroll industry Tiffany's journey began as a staff account in 2001 including 11 years in the state service in Virginia and various roles in the private sector she holds a degree in accounting from Hampton University awesome and earned her CPP in 2017. Known for her energetic

[00:09:11] and innovative personality Tiffany is passionate about payroll education and mentorship which we can attest to because we took her class at PayCon she was one of our classes rather she resides in Newport News Virginia with her husband Chad and their three children and a puppy named hero

[00:09:31] join us as we explore Tiffany's inspiring career and insights on leadership and today will be talking mostly about AI and how it's impacting payroll means what we've talked about it a lot and

[00:09:45] like how how payroll folks are getting worried. And we did too like we're the advent of AI we were like oh my gosh what's gonna happen things like that Tiffany's also an active member of

[00:09:56] Pay O serving as a director of membership for the Hampton Rhodes chapter and sitting on the Virginia statewide payroll conference board she was honored as a payroll professional this year or payroll professional of the year in VA statewide conference in 2022 and contributes to the pay

[00:10:15] tech magazine. Nice that's dope. Okay Tiffany's super star. All right. Yep she's doing it. That's what so. All right, let's welcome her to the show. Welcome Tiffany Gray to the show. Thank you so much for

[00:10:33] joining us today. How are you? We're really great. We're happy to have you on. We were excited for this one for sure just really excited to have you on and talk to you come highly recommended from

[00:10:44] Gerard we've had Gerard on the show a bunch of times when we went to PayCon he was hey you got to talk to this person that's what's that person and I've been following you for a while so I already

[00:10:54] knew how to do it. Yeah, yeah. By the way you did your courses great at PayCon. I was amazing to be in to see you just in that flow. Thank you guys. Yeah Gerard Hall that payroll guy is very good friend of mine

[00:11:08] amazing colleagues we sit on a few boards together and let's just always exciting to encourage someone in the space which is what I love so it's good to meet you all and see your faces

[00:11:22] today on the Sunday morning I don't know if it's hot where you are but it's definitely hot where I am yeah I'm gonna show you the first off like we ask everyone so we've tweaked this right

[00:11:41] we've always asked oh how did you get into Payroll because that's like the common question but because of Jody we added on to that and tell us not only how you got into Payroll but why you

[00:11:52] stood. Yeah that's a nice question. I started out in Payroll because I was doing my green work at Happy University on my home by the sea and I was in a counting and I needed a job like an

[00:12:09] entry-level job and I don't know if you know anything about HBCUs specifically when I want to school a decades and decades ago the women in the business office they were very

[00:12:20] hands-on especially people away from home so they were just taking under their wing and so one of my counting mentors said you know what we got a little staff account in position for you

[00:12:31] in the business office I laugh because oh my goodness if had I known what that sentence was going to do for me and it was in the Payroll office and so that up college working from my

[00:12:44] home I worked in Payroll as a staff account in the Payroll staff account and back then we were pulling time cards and telling them and entering them into lotus and because we didn't have

[00:13:00] Excel right I'm dating myself and I love that about but what made me stay in Payroll was because when I started in college I was very different I did not look people in the eye I did not if he

[00:13:13] asked me my name will be asking to speak about something I would probably be on the brink of tears and so numbers have always been a place to comfort for me right and I knew that if he were at

[00:13:24] a county you didn't have to talk to people you didn't have to interact with people but that wasn't necessarily the way I wanted to stay so when I started in Payroll I realized I can have that

[00:13:35] very sick of goal repetitive tasks that helped me as a type of individual but then also gave me an opportunity to build my interpersonal skills because these are known people's money it pay is

[00:13:48] very personal to individuals right and I got thrown into the people in that particular distance and then I just found that this was an environment that I could make a difference and it just

[00:14:00] helped me throughout my career so that's why I stayed yeah I love it we could definitely see your passion even as you taught the course we see that you're passionate about it like you're just

[00:14:16] you were so invigorating and you're like almost uplifting in the sense right and it's just we could take it to like exudes from you so I'd see that so go ahead no it's an amazing transition because

[00:14:28] I would have never have thought that you would you call it we would call like a social anxiety right that I would never have thought that of you had like you would just had a command of the room

[00:14:42] graceful like you would never have said oh this person had this you know so what a what an amazing I don't know how do you say an example to folks that you could see that look I went from I don't

[00:14:56] want to talk to anybody to I'm teaching classrooms of hundreds of people so if you can do it right hopefully I'm I'm getting trans்com to say if I'm doing this you guys you can do this and you know

[00:15:09] and I think I feel that my goal at the end of any session that I'm whether I'm teaching or I'm just participating is to encourage whoever is in the crowd you know what I mean you know how

[00:15:21] they talk about how rodeo clouds you do it so well it looks easy you don't want to me if you feel like I was just I was in a comedy club a few weeks ago listening to one of my favorite

[00:15:33] comedians and he asked the audience a question anybody could ask me anything and I was actually a little bit afraid because people can get up to say things and they asked him how do you

[00:15:44] really what would you would be your advice to my young comedian and he said do you want to be a comedian and the guy was like he make it look so easy and I just started laughing because when you do

[00:15:55] things so well people do want to do what you do and I feel like we're in the position to just encourage people if I can do it you can get definitely but yeah I could look in the eye I

[00:16:09] would definitely afraid of getting up in front of folks wow let me actually listen this is off script here but you got me thinking because I can talk to folks no problem I think my current

[00:16:22] challenge is having those tough crucial conversations do you have any advice for that have you had to have these tough conversations and it's maybe it's with your colleague or leaders right

[00:16:38] and something there when you have to manage up as they say that's tough have you had to do that have you have any you have any advice for because like I'm sure I don't have hard conversations

[00:16:51] with my direct reports as well as with my management but I find that my team I lead my team with the three sees right so consistency communication and collaboration and when I'm talking to someone even

[00:17:06] if I'm trying to say something that's that I know could potentially be taken the wrong way or if I because they're people we're often having to say things that people don't want to hear

[00:17:18] but how do we say it in a way that's palatable right and specifically I'll give you an example I had an individual work for me that was having some hygiene issues and how do you how okay

[00:17:32] how do I say as an adult woman to an adult male that this is who's all my team and who I value very much that your hygiene is becoming an issue right and then keep him on my team and not

[00:17:50] making feel any kind of way and that was a very difficult conversation so what I did was I had I just came from a very personal just hey how you doing I just wanted to have anyone scheduled

[00:18:04] meeting he came to my office and I had to just we don't want to come in and sit down on what is wanted to make sure that you were okay these are some things that I'm noticing I want to know

[00:18:16] is there any way that I can support you but do it at a very genuine okay very genuine way not in a condescending not in a this is your manager so this is something that I have to address

[00:18:29] I find that if you can find one thing to connect in that difficult conversation that will allow you to keep that positive tone you can talk to anybody about anything with my boss our we don't

[00:18:44] often we're not always on the same page I have a vision for my team I have a vision for my area I have a vision for where I want to be where I want my staff to be and she doesn't necessarily

[00:18:57] have the same vision right and so sometimes I'm having to articulate to her how I really need her support when she already feels like she's given me everything that she possibly can right and

[00:19:15] so having to explain to her even when I'm very frustrated and just to say I'm and some days I just have to tell you some days I don't have words some days all I can do is just smile and say we'll

[00:19:28] talk about it another day right but those difficult conversations I'm looking for a commonality I'm looking for a place to connect I'm looking for a place where both of us are comfortable

[00:19:39] when and start there and then we can start to move into the uncomfortable place and then at the same time I always use myself one of the things about me is I don't even though having challenges

[00:19:52] does appreciate me I just try not to take myself too seriously I'm always laughing at myself and my limitations and so I use that I use my limitations often when I'm having to have a difficult

[00:20:07] conversation so I feel that means it is so like that there are lots of difficult conversations to be had and pay well right we've got high and learning that may have got things like that

[00:20:26] and there or they may have a huge bonus and no one has ever explained to them that if we're using the optional supplemental rate that's what I said 22 that's a flat 22 percent okay adding

[00:20:38] in your fight us at the point six five percent now we're moving into a world most at 30 percent just off the top and then if you're a vote your tax has a flat rate for supplemental

[00:20:48] didn't we like but for Virginia 5.75 percent so we're willing to 30.33 percent of your bonus is already allocated towards taxation and so I've had their ACE statement you are criminal like how could you do this?

[00:21:06] Yeah it's true yes yeah that's so great point because it's tough and especially that we talk about on the show all the time 80 percent of the paycheck to paycheck yeah so when you

[00:21:20] and me and Walt had a manager that taught me something that stood with me anyway I'm sure as to what I say it enough so I'm sure Walt thinks about a time oh no they like eight hours or

[00:21:29] a hundred dollars could really impact someone's paycheck right that hundred dollars could be there grocery allotment for the week or the two weeks or whatnot we really and we had another

[00:21:40] guest that that really he'd led with the he coined the phrase payroll his life and I challenged that and I was like alright think you're getting a little crazy but he explained it he's like fine what do you

[00:21:50] mean when I we pay people you pay your mortgage you do your groceries and pay your kids stuff and it really was like oh man you're right you're right this I didn't even think about it that way

[00:22:01] because I try not to sit like you said don't trick me take myself too seriously but that part of it is super serious so when you have these folks I've worked out a staffing agency one time

[00:22:11] and there was somebody downstairs and this isn't when I was in New York they would downstairs with a bat I need my check I want my check today blah blah and you and people get skin oh my gosh

[00:22:22] in the middle we're gonna help don't we're gonna get a hair or a hair or a hair or a hair or a hair it's so easy and you know my it doesn't matter how passionate you are about your entrepreneurial

[00:22:33] ex-vulites right it doesn't matter how passionate you are about the product that you're bringing your invention at the end of the day if that endeavor does not yield some kind of financial stability

[00:22:47] financial security right people are not going to stick with it he could love what you do I work for a healthcare system and we are dealing with patients and we're dealing with mental health

[00:23:00] and we're dealing with recovery I'm called there's so many things in the health sphere that don't that are so discouraging but at the same time we're coming across research in life saving tools

[00:23:14] and they're leveraging AI to see how they can better anticipate the preventive care that you may need there's so many great things but at the end of the day those nurses those providers

[00:23:27] those nutrition assistance they want to be paid and they want their pay to be accurate right and if it's not then they don't find focus to give you the best care you as a patient and so

[00:23:40] that's my commitment to them that as they're in as they're in triage as they're in the x-ray room they don't have to worry about is my pay going to be right does anybody care that my pay

[00:23:54] is right I hear my fingers because pay is personal yeah it's very personal yes it's nice no it's true and that's you you give a really good perspective and we came across a stat on the show that

[00:24:06] if you're one wall shares with us all the time right if you you get go two pay checks where you already thinking about leaving the job that's true and then how it impacts your focus just like

[00:24:18] you said it impacts your focus because if you're worried about money if you don't know if your check is going to be right the next time you get it and you're going to be able to pay the things that

[00:24:26] your work product is off it's going to be off you're not going to be motivated and I'm going to be engaged you're going to be thrown off because hey people aren't paying me on time my pay is never right

[00:24:38] man I'm tired of this play hi I'm out of here yeah yeah wow and now so there's a perfect segue into a topic that we want to talk about with the AI right and it's basically AI and the

[00:24:53] angst around AI artificial intelligence in payroll so can you start a sort of Tiffany what have because you got a staff you got one are you guys using AI yet or and then two did because

[00:25:08] much like me a wall when AI became we were going to have a job and that's the exact table and you guys let me know if you agree but payroll is a highly transactional environment okay there's so many

[00:25:23] external data streams attached to the pay result that really puts the payroll processor or how is we know the payroll processor in a different position than it did 20 years ago okay so especially it doesn't matter whether you're a payroll office that is outsourcing the payroll

[00:25:43] to a third party vendor or if you are a payroll department that is actually processing the payroll from start to finish internally which is what my team does but regardless of how you are

[00:25:53] producing the payroll there are so many data points that me review and there are so many in turn if you're a strong payroll department the cares about text about is right you there are so many places

[00:26:08] that internal audience to audit for the state for about 12 years that we're looking for either your staff or the system to create some type of system editor some type of system check to ensure

[00:26:21] this internal data stream matches whatever the intent is correct and this is where I start to see a little bit a couple things one as a hiring manager I'm looking for someone who has the flexibility

[00:26:36] in the adaptability to be able to understand not just the small picture of their task but the big picture as far as how their task affects other things and that's not something as we're

[00:26:49] moving as I moved along in my career that's something that is not often understood people know what to do but they don't often know why they're doing it or how this particular task is important

[00:27:02] to the overall compliance expectation for the organization so what we're seeing what I am currently using AI in my HCM system in a couple ways one to better understand one way let me give you an

[00:27:19] example so one way that we're using it is building our building on our chat box here okay so my team has a ticketing system that we use within our HCM system right so if employees have a question

[00:27:31] they can reach out but after and I was saying this in a reading earlier this week the after I was at Congress, Sean, Kenoda, Sean Kay he really inspired me about being bold and embracing AI and I

[00:27:46] have to go back there is a lot of anxiety about it because come on we also I robot right we all saw these movies and we saw a lot of date myself here there's so many science fiction action movies that

[00:27:59] we watched over the last few decades and now we are literally looking at the movie of our life and we're wondering oh snap I'm not gonna be doing it I'm not gonna be going to be

[00:28:08] going to have to say so this ultra plan for what I mean so our imagination is a very active and but what I believe he was trying to say was that we're not we haven't even scratched the

[00:28:22] surface like we're nowhere near the place where anxiety and worry because right now we are currently at the place where I need humans to generate so that's the first thing you say like you said

[00:28:36] the anxiety and I think it comes like I said a lot for what we see in our imagination we got it right we've got a movie in our mind we can see it happening you know quite know well you fit in this movie

[00:28:48] you fit in this movie you see the other thing you see so that I think a lot of I think a lot of age is driven up but I also believe that this that yeah it does give us an opportunity to

[00:29:03] do some of that manual checking that that we don't we may not have the manpower to do and also the way that our employees understand their pay forgive you an example my ACM system does

[00:29:17] not call direct deposit it calls it your payment election okay so automatically in our efforts to deliver a product that I guess sees a little bit different so automatically I've been working 20 something years and I'm looking for something that says direct deposit and you can't run it okay

[00:29:40] exactly as in the sophistication of some of these systems and what seems better to you are letting your payment so this is your payment election so what I was doing when I came back from Congress

[00:29:51] I felt very inspired and so I reached out to the VP of our HCM team he's also a process improvement engineer and I don't know if you know what it's like to talk to a process improvement engineer

[00:30:04] but they get very granular very fast okay and so I have to like okay to be just brave here okay we're going to make it through but I was working with him and his HR supporting because I want

[00:30:17] when an employee types in how do I get to my direct deposit I don't want the system to not know what it means we need something we need so we were looking at the bot to not just generatively create an

[00:30:33] article say here he needs to read this you know we wanted to interact you're looking for your direct deposit means of payment election just something really simple how do I and that's

[00:30:43] something that we're working on how do we work with this but to create a reservoir of phrases that we anticipate from our employees or our clients but they're going to look for direct deposit

[00:30:54] especially in the nursing field the way that we talk and some of the things and what we're finding specifically in the health industry is because folks are on TikTok and they're thinking about this and they're hearing something like that and then they're coming into the ACM system

[00:31:10] and they're asking that very question and so how do we anticipate our answer for that we start to build a reservoir right so that when they say certain things that bot can say I can

[00:31:21] assist you with this have you looked at this have it without even and my team's tasks have not been interrupted just all of that is happening prior to it that's taking it getting to them and then

[00:31:34] when it finally does get to them they have the background of how the conversation is okay I know exactly how to help that person so that's just the way how do we leverage this technology

[00:31:46] to help our teams and to help on employees not to replace our teams and I think that's where the anxiety is coming but how do we do it and there's so many tasks in the way that I've looked at

[00:31:59] that is there's so many tasks that might stay up and to do those are the very those are the best places to start to see AI can help with that right yep yes have you had team members start to get

[00:32:14] word oh my gosh Tiffany am doing I'm gonna have a job I don't know what he's doing I've had two really I have two I don't want to that will be considered baby boomers leave just in us talking about it

[00:32:27] they where they had no interest one of them actually are set to me this is something that I've always feared because she was always afraid of technology just as far as just like integrations and

[00:32:40] she would consider complex spreadsheets technology okay so when we started talking about certain things she was just like you're taking this is a direction I never want to go in so yes I've had

[00:32:54] turnover on my team just by trying to just be open now listen I build a collaborative team so I want your input how do you feel about this and you're not ready for it and we can definitely

[00:33:06] take a slower approach to it this will not be some there lots of ways to navigate that so that you don't feel like you're being pushed out that technology but she didn't want any place you want

[00:33:18] in part of it wow that's crazy wow and it makes me think about my mom when she retired oh gosh I think it's over 10 years now that she's been retired for her they introduced the laptop to the

[00:33:34] nursing station she was a nurse for 47 years and it was all paper right the moment they introduced the laptop to her station her rolling when she do round and they meet she's I'm done I'm good

[00:33:50] when she retired yeah for real that was the break in point so I get I totally get that's some as a whole wow so what do you think that is because they don't want to learn the new

[00:34:02] systems is too much I'm not right I'm honestly interested my mom was a Sue or could a hospital ironically like ironically I was well hospital too right well with her her hospital for 47 years she started out in laundry then she got her

[00:34:21] licensure for pharmacy and then she just went on an old but nice we don't see that in my generation I'm generation X or Eve I'm like the right it I'm an real cause I was born and these are both but we're not staying anywhere for 40 something

[00:34:41] that's how you are why you're having a problem come on think about it I'll be leaving me at the same company in 10 years I feel like that's an accomplishment in our generation right yes you're being at a company for 10 years but our parents they were 25 30 35

[00:35:04] or even if not at the same company we didn't know the same right within the space and I think that and they saw some things that I don't think that we would be inexperienced in things

[00:35:16] so I don't know that we would have the 42 to deal with in the same graceful definitely not composed manner I'm just telling you I'm just speaking for me some of the things that my mother has

[00:35:31] said has been said to her in the context of her job I couldn't have I couldn't have and my I said all that to say that I think that once they get to a certain point my mom's always saying you're

[00:35:45] paying your dues I paid my dues already and I'm like my winter sentence but I think there's it was just such a progression of challenges over coming down just such a cadence

[00:35:59] I'm getting up I'm gonna be this I'm doing it from my family I'm doing it for this I'll end in the job brings introduces a change right and it may not even be a change that makes sense

[00:36:10] right and I can your mom is how we think and how is this going to help patients you know how this is just going to get in the way this is just one more thing that I have to keep up with

[00:36:20] and at the end who has time we know we don't even have time for one more thing right you know we're trying to build something I'm in the middle of a career of climbing

[00:36:31] trying to do some things okay I will tolerate one one more thing but at the sunset like when I put my time in and I can taste retirement just like your mom's that what exactly and I think

[00:36:48] that and that's what we were talking about those difficult conversations right you could do nothing I could definitely when I saw her I saw my mom I saw my aunt I saw a someone who was at

[00:37:01] the place where you know what this is a bit more than I bargained for and that's another thing about payroll people think that because it is so typical and it is so transactional that there

[00:37:12] is no at a there's no change right this is a position where I can do the same thing every single day for years or years we don't need to change and that's that can be more far from the truth right

[00:37:28] exactly right yeah yeah it's like a story wise compliance wise there's so many things you have to keep up with and so I had to accept that's where she was I also had to accept this is not

[00:37:40] where our team is going because we're very small team and this is a very sizable organization so we need some help right exactly got a leverage yeah yeah you got a leverage it so then you

[00:37:54] ate the other folks on the team kind of you were able to they understood and they are comfortable with you yes so I had two boomers and then I had two millennial gen Z right now my whole team is

[00:38:08] under 27 so I have an all great game I've got an all green team which comes with this own amazing challenging and it also comes it there so what I do love about working with millennials and

[00:38:21] Gen Z is their adaptability is their ability to be flexible okay and because they don't have the the history of I've all the way this is the way we've always done it which can be such a it can be

[00:38:37] yes thank you child when you are coming up with this is the way we've always done and I know there's just such a level of comfort and security that stays with I know how to do it this way it always works

[00:38:54] when I do it this way but then the question that I have to ask as manager and director as the leader of this team is this a good use of your time is this a good use of your time in the big

[00:39:06] picture of our processing right in the end result of what we want to produce for our employees and usually if the answers know then we have to move towards something a better process yeah

[00:39:19] but the downside with the millennials and they're not gonna stay we just talked about how we would say they're not staying okay they will accept their job and they're still looking we're getting a rest

[00:39:32] hard yeah yes that's interesting that you say that and at this top it came up Brian because if we look at the notes under our safe talk section yes I know I'm not a term market and that there's a

[00:39:45] shortening tenure for payroll professionals right they say that most might may say at a job for one two yes yeah and I'm hiring manager that is challenging we want you can learn your job

[00:40:02] and a year oh my god exactly there's something you don't see but wants to you right exactly right yep I tell people you got away at least 18 months before you have experienced

[00:40:16] the full cycle of what you could do in the towners you didn't see everything so how do you and she that's just the old school in me because how did you tell your next employer that she's

[00:40:29] done a great job when you've only been there a year you know yeah yeah so look I'll get back you good and we could all learn from it my wife is a nurse manager and she has she's got like a

[00:40:42] hundred nurses under her and she's embraced the fact that this is happening so she all to her strategy and say you know what I'm gonna be the learning floor right my unit is going to

[00:40:54] be the unit you learn and I wholeheartedly expect you to move on I'm gonna teach you so that you can move on in a better way but I think it's just like something we just have to figure out how to

[00:41:07] embrace and and move with it and you'll see now you got a young staff now and if you are not a person and your wife has dissociates what feels very personal to what actually

[00:41:24] she's with her position is and that's the best approach to it because if you realize you know what while you're on your a while you're in the same approach that I have while you're on my team

[00:41:34] I'm gonna teach you I'm not gonna just teach you how to do payroll here I'm gonna teach you how to do payroll anywhere okay I'm gonna make your audit eye stronger I fully expect your

[00:41:44] payroll compliance muscles to be stronger I'm building you as a not only a payroll professional but as an accounting professional do you understand the impact the payroll has to your financial

[00:41:56] state was all of that I want you leaving my team stronger and you're so with having better skills better knowledge and better demonstrative ability to be able to do your job right that's my role

[00:42:09] as your leader not your manager but as your leader and so when you want to take that kind of approach to such a humongous scene and then and you add that compassion and and care that's needed for nursing

[00:42:23] she's gonna be amazing because and people are gonna stay with her more because you can't get that kind of investments everywhere right we've got folks manager we got managers all over the

[00:42:36] place supervised all over the place all over the place all over the place all over the place all is that investment that personal investment to your professional development because managers get

[00:42:49] it it feels personal you're working for me this year on my team how could you leave but if you understand as soon as day one I'm not gonna have this individual forever how can I invest in them

[00:43:03] two two individuals that are all my team came from a previous team and no I didn't post them I did not post them they saw they were like hey this is where my old boss is I saw there's an opening

[00:43:14] I got to go where she is and I appreciate that they were just saying I'm not perfect but I do try to beat them where they are and I they started to have some experiences and because sometimes people

[00:43:28] think it's like this everywhere. P O every manager that I have cares about me every manager no class every manager that I had they don't have a problem with me taking a long one so that I can take

[00:43:40] care of this or that and I see you all as crazy having worked for some folks you can actually be said about everyone had some experiences and I was glad to bring them back on to bring them

[00:43:51] once in my new team but that's the approach how do I invest in you how do I build you with the understanding that they're not gonna stay forever and it's not personal. It's okay

[00:44:06] it's a new landscape yep Tiffany with I drive all right yes yes I found my little nugget there with it's gonna start the show and thank you so much thank you very much that that keeps us going

[00:44:24] because as long as you do it for our peers that's what means everything to us it's clearly not about the money because we haven't changed our lives but it's about getting the support from our

[00:44:38] peers Gerard is one of the first ones that's why he's here to us because out the gate he's just like heard all your shows already keep going blah blah like gave us inspiration and we were like oh my gosh

[00:44:50] and I had already been following him for a while so it was impactful to and we get that more often than not and it's like when we went to pay con there there was a little bit about like oh my gosh

[00:45:01] is everybody gonna recognize us or it's no one gonna recognize us and the majority what we learned was no the 2000 folks that were there may not have recognized our faces the leaders that were there

[00:45:16] recognize us that was everything for us holy cow we've actually interviewed half of them and you guys have been a big opportunity to pay all that I don't know that we necessarily could have

[00:45:30] done for ourselves you know what I mean because everybody talks about why payroll doesn't have a seat at the table and one of the reasons why is because oftentimes since we doesn't see us as they see us

[00:45:43] as like a machine just keep doing and no one knows that anything is wrong in payroll until something happens a bonus is something and usually has a bad connotation but you all are bringing the

[00:45:54] visibility to positive things bringing a conversation you bring what someone who may be a little bit more timid or like you saying having a hard time articulating what they want to say they can go

[00:46:08] back to this podcast they can listen they can hear they can see and they can feel built up they could feel encouraged so I think you guys are doing it is incredibly important and I love it I love it

[00:46:23] I can who means a lot to us that means a lot to us before we let you go we always like to play a game with our own house and call this a mess just the way to get to know us beyond payroll right

[00:46:36] what you want to start us off we got six there right do the first three out of the last three yes so you can say one of the other you can say either or yeah all right so Neil's also our jazz music all right garnish minutes

[00:46:58] that's a question but I was saying that okay what you rather be on a private plane or a private yacht private plane okay all right Brian chess or checkers very interesting you're morning or night owl I can be a morning person my colleagues

[00:47:31] and so you have a night owl okay and last one see food and girl that's that's up one I was asking seven girl like me I was like that I'm a friend I was in the bathroom

[00:47:50] no okay so yeah that's a question I just know what you're about that no if you don't have to choose between seafood and barbecue I'm going to choose seafood okay and I'm going to tell you the truth my husband

[00:48:04] has a theme analogy so I don't get to eat seafood around him at the house prepared so when I'm traveling I have checked my mercenary levels because obviously you see food every meal I can't give

[00:48:19] you terrific good feeling I'm going in I I I I love seafood but at the same time within a seven girl barbecue what you can a lot of barbecue what we're talking about okay see if there's what

[00:48:32] that was a terrible question and what else you know both of you in person again we're going to talk about that last question ah yeah we're going around that I appreciate you guys

[00:48:42] have a good year today I really do oh thank you so much we have one more segment that we end the show and it's called safe talk and it's just like that be as professional just comes and for this one

[00:48:58] so what pose the question today will AI make up for any payroll staffing issue hmm what do I make up for any payroll staffing decisions yeah I don't think so I don't think so I think that there are components

[00:49:21] to staffing issues that we have like I said the ability to review your work or especially when you have such a we're so data entry driven but so AI can definitely take that data scrub that data

[00:49:34] fine inconsistencies fine um variances it can look at totals if you give it enough they can do that but when we're talking staffing issues as far as turnover staffing issues as far as retention

[00:49:48] staffing issues as it pertains to the satisfaction of the job do I feel fulfilled do I feel meaningful do I feel appreciated I think only a human can bring that kind of confirmation and

[00:50:01] affirmation and I still think that no matter how eval they are against it will not be able to appreciate an employee it can make the job easier but it can't make it make that person feel more fulfilled

[00:50:15] it can make it more it can take it from manual to automate it it can innovate but it can't make the person feel appreciated yes I don't know if I answer that question but that's how you feel

[00:50:28] no I look and this is the thing right it's just there's no right answers it's a feeling is what is what is it evoked for me I think that I and that mean we'll talk about this a lot when AI

[00:50:38] started to really get into the workplace and things like that and I think that it is going to take some of the heavy jobs away in the future no time soon like you said the profession

[00:50:51] he talked about we're just scratching the surface we're so far away from it taking a payroll job I get that it's taking admin jobs and it's taking I don't understand how it works so oh because of the

[00:51:05] robots making burgers yeah but we did we covered our article about the spot in California that kind of replaced the flippers and the fries but they still had a human finishing off

[00:51:17] the food and delivering it I think it will be much of the same I think that's what it's going to evolve to that AI is going to take a transaction heavy stuff away but you're still going to need

[00:51:32] that high level human payroll person to deliver the product and to be a liaison for your employees so someone is going to be able to enter the regulation but let me just put it to you

[00:51:47] like this there was a time when the question to outsource payroll made payroll professionals feel like there wasn't enough space right because what teams were doing payroll on slow to spreadsheets teams were doing payroll in so many different ways and then a company says hey we're

[00:52:08] going to downsize payroll where we only need one person and we're going to outsource it to this third party company we've been here you guys we've been here and we're still sure you know what I mean

[00:52:21] because then we had to say okay you need the people in these third parties and they need to know truly what it takes to want a payroll so I just I want payroll professionals to feel comfortable

[00:52:35] okay because really when you think about payroll we are it is a very recession proof type department because no matter what and I remember I don't know if any of them I don't want to go into that but

[00:52:45] I just want to say that we've been here before okay when we when the decision was made to outsource or when a company decides to downsize their payroll department from 10 to 3 just so that they don't

[00:52:59] have to deal with all of that there was a lot of anxiety what does it mean for me and I've been in the shoe long enough to say what does it mean where am I going to go where can I apply these skills

[00:53:10] and then at the same time as a hiring manager I'm here to tell you that there is not a pallet for the kind of work that we're doing and so it's becoming even more difficult to manage

[00:53:22] just to get the kind of staff that they need to be successful so we've got such we need AI that's why I'm saying we might as well we have to get to a place where we can embrace it and embrace it in a

[00:53:34] way that we determine how we want to leverage it before we get to the place where we're being dictated to as far as this is the way that you are always controlled in reality always

[00:53:51] that strategy right but I just want to encourage pay off the professionals that's why I were trying to bring some of the stress we've been here before right we were there when they decided

[00:54:01] to outsource the payroll and it was a very hard transition and even it was hard to say okay we're going to send it to our service field we're going to and so what does that mean for the payroll

[00:54:10] professional that we don't need to be educated that we don't need to why did I get their certification he was so much anxiety but we're still here we're now collaborating with our third party vendors

[00:54:20] they need trust as much as we need them and so I'm hoping there's some type of central thing with AI in the same way that because again pay is very personal and no type of technology can

[00:54:33] duplicate that personal touch right and now understanding that was a great question I love it that thanks won't we'll cure these most of this most of those things so I can't buy the food for that boss he's so cool question

[00:54:51] he called opportunity beat down right thank you so much this was such an amazing show today that you gave us appreciate you guys are awesome thank you so much for the invite I love you guys I love listening

[00:55:10] that's the show for us today folks we love you see you next time before we sign off here are a couple quick things don't forget to follow it's about payroll on LinkedIn and it's about your

[00:55:34] paycheck on Facebook and TikTok thank you for being part of our payroll community and thank you for being a part of this journey with us until the next time keep learning keep growing and most importantly keep going