Job Description Payroll Team Leader
Position Purpose: Lead a Payroll Team in providing a professional, responsive, and legislatively compliant Payroll service to customers both internally and externally by adhering to defined service level agreements and statutory requirements, ensuring accurate payment every fortnight.
This will be accomplished through leading and managing the day-to-day performance of the payroll team to ensure the team have a comprehensive understanding of all relevant aspects and functions of payroll and are fully trained, motivated, and performing to the highest level of effectiveness.
Department: People and Culture
Location: Manawatū
Reports to: Remuneration and Reporting Manager
Responsible for: Payroll Team
Delegations: Delegation Band D
Job Title: Team Leader - Payroll
Key relationships: Internal External Senior Leadership Team Government agencies People and Culture Relevant external organisations Managers and Staff of University Payroll system vendor and other Heads of Schools/Institutes in external service providers Colleges and Departments Superannuation and insurance Finance providers. ITS Inland Revenue
Audit NZ
Massey University: We are a world-leading university in many academic disciplines and fields of research. Our point of difference is research that is connected to community and industry. Our researchers are developing expertise and skills to advance human knowledge and understanding. Working together across disciplines and locations, we solve national and global problems through fundamental, applied and interdisciplinary research, while culturally and artistically enriching our world.
We are deeply committed to being a Te Tiriti-led university, demonstrating authentic leadership in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand as we uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the founding document of our
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nation, and its principles through our practice. We embrace this not just as an obligation but as a real opportunity for the nation and its people.
Our educators are preparing a new generation of global leaders. Our students are diverse and are attracted to Massey because they want to achieve their personal goals or make their mark in the world. They experience world-class learning that recognises their intellectual and cultural strengths, expands their horizons and prepares them to contribute to a rapidly transforming world with skills, critical and creative thinking and leadership.
We will be renowned for our passion and caring attitude. All Massey campuses will be innovation ecosystems, acting as magnets for smart enterprises. Wherever we are, we will operate in partnerships founded on respect, trust and mutual benefit. Massey is not only defined by what we do, but by how we do it.
About this area The People and Culture team provides the highest quality of service and professional advice. We support the University's strategic aims, ensuring employment practice compliance. The team has operational and strategic responsibilities covering the development and maintenance of policies, procedures, and systems with the provision to support a range of services to managers and staff members.
Being part of the wider People and Culture Team, the Payroll Team provides a comprehensive payroll function, and advice to staff across the three Massey University campuses.
Massey core capabilities
At Massey we are Tiriti-led, upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles through our practice, we:

Demonstrate awareness of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its contribution to Aotearoa New Zealand
society.

Understand the relevance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in relation to the work of the University and
the people we serve.

Embracing Te Reo in relevant and practical ways in our workplace interactions and engagement
with external stakeholders, giving expression to Tikanga Māori and protocols that
demonstrates that we respect and value Māori conventions in appropriate settings.
At Massey we work together with mutual respect and caring. we:

Act with integrity and trustworthiness and give credit to others for the work they do.
Work cooperatively and inter-dependently to foster and promote the One University approach.
Share knowledge and communicate professionally with courtesy and mutual respect.
Are ethical in all transactions, working within the parameters of our policies and procedures.
Are direct, truthful and maintain confidentiality.
Seek to understand and appreciate our differences.
Keep ourselves and others safe; work together to embrace with the University's health, safety

and wellbeing policies, procedures and programmes; display commitment by actively supporting all safety and wellbeing initiatives: and by actively engaging in health and safety improvement opportunities.
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At Massey we are future-focused, results- oriented and strive for excellence. we:

Take ownership and responsibility for delivering results to support achievement of University
objectives.

Provide the best quality services to our customers (internal and external) ensuring our
students/ stakeholders are at the heart of everything we do.

Deliver or support world-class research, teaching and learning and citizenship.
Take personal responsibility for our performance, take pride in doing our job well, and commit

to ongoing personal and professional development.

Are motivated and create a positive working environment where our values are reinforced.
Anticipate and respond with agility and resilience to the changing needs of the University and

the communities we serve.

Seek ways to improve our services to deliver in an efficient and effective way.
Embrace technology and apply this innovatively to better meet the needs of those we serve.
Challenge ourselves to reach our potential and help bring out the best in others.
Understand how what we do contributes to the objectives of the University.

Accountabilities
Ensures the day to day • Ensures the accurate and timely processing of employee pays. running of an effective • Lead the day-to-day operation of the payroll systems and processes, Payroll Service providing accurate and timely payroll services for all employees and

meeting business and legislative requirements.

Maintains current knowledge of applicable legislation and contractual

requirements. Conducts analysis and interpretation of changes to employment agreements to determine impact on payments, deductions, holidays and leave calculations and other HR data and implement any required system or manual amendments.

Ensures payroll activities are standardised and instructions on following
the processes are clearly documented and available for both the payroll
team and employees throughout the organisation.

Conducts risk analysis and develops mitigation strategies relating to
fraud, misappropriation, or misuse of information, and ensures all
controls and compliance requirements are operating effectively and
data integrity is maintained. To provide guidance and advice for the
establishment and implementation of stakeholder relationships and
corporate partnerships.

Ensures that all payroll reconciliations are completed including IRD,
ACC, overpayments and all payroll disbursements are paid promptly to
the creditors.

Provides accurate and up-to-date information in a timely manner, both
internally and externally.

Is responsible for sign-off of all pay run activity.
Manages workload of payroll team to ensure deadlines and priorities

are met.
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Undertake any other duties as and when required to assist Payroll with
processing through busy periods.

Leadership • Provide team / technical leadership within area.

Ensures that staff development plans for direct reports are prepared

and that staff are recruited, managed, and developed through sound employment practices that are consistent with organisation policies and legal requirements.

Issues that detract from team performance or engagement are
proactively identified and effectively addressed in a timely.

Develop team member capability to enable high performance.
Develop team capability, aligning performance with culture and

engagement goals.

Model behaviours that support the University's Te Tiriti led strategy.
Model expected behaviours that enact what the University stands for.
Ensure the continuous improvement of processes within team,

including resources and their allocations.

Support and enact at team level, the strategies, plans and policies of

the University.
Management and • Maintain and monitor the effective operation of the team operations, Planning people, and processes.

Plan key business activities, people, and projects activities to meet
agreed deadlines and agreed budgets.

Leads and manages the team, setting learning and performance
development expectations.

Operate within the University's Risk Management, Health, Safety and
Wellbeing, Finance, and other compliance frameworks.

Reflects Te Tiriti led strategy into planning.
Identify risks and mitigating strategies.

Partnerships • Lead the proactive and ongoing development of the payroll function within the organisation, including business improvement and process change initiatives.

Initiates business process improvement and takes responsibility for
making and implementing efficiencies and enhancing
recommendations.

Leads development of team to produce and update organisation wide
processes, forms, systems etc., and sharing of collective knowledge.

Ensures all actions are fully documented, auditable, and audit logs are
monitored.

Engages the payroll function to understand change impacts and
business readiness to adopt planned changes and realise benefits.

Reviews the sources of payroll data outside of payroll and negotiates
implementation of changes to improve the accuracy and timeliness of
payroll data flow.
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Work with staff to identify where changes in working practice would be
beneficial.

Share intelligence through ‘gap analysis' between current service
offerings and future requirements.

Ensure that working practices change to meet the requirements of the
wider University and makes best use of the chosen system.

Motivational skills to encourage collaborative working to improve
performance through effective engagement.

A commitment to promoting/celebrating successes to maintain
transformation momentum.

Keep updated with current legislation and policy changes and advise
the team on the operational impact of changes on Payroll. In particular,
the:

Holidays Act
Wages Protection Act
Income Tax Act
ACC Act
Employment Relations Act

Information • Ensures all relevant documents are retained to meet information Management management requirements.

Proactively manage data integrity and legal risks.
Ensures all actions meet audit requirements.
Employees' documentation and records are maintained accurately and

current at all times.

Contributes towards maintaining manuals, templates, forms, and

guidelines to ensure documentation is accurate, clear, up to date and relevant
Health and Safety • Manages own personal health and safety, and takes appropriate action to deal with workplace hazards, accidents, and incidents.

Ensures own and others' safety at all times and observes health and
safety practices in all workplace activities.

Understands the responsibility individuals and their manager play in
health and safety; training is up-to-date and can demonstrate actions in
an emergency situation that are specific to the workplace and are
designed to keep individual safe.

Complies with relevant safety legislation, policies, procedures, safe
systems of work and event reporting.

Identifies and reports all incidents, accidents, and near misses in
accordance with policy
Qualifications and Experience
Qualifications: Relevant tertiary qualification desirable, and/or previous payroll management experience in a similar role.
NZPPA certification desirable.
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Experience: • Team management experience is essential. Must have at least 3 to 5 years' team management experience in a payroll team or equivalent.

Extensive knowledge and interpretation of Payroll legislation, with
experience in interpreting and implementing relevant legislation and
contractual terms.

Experience in a team environment that requires a high level of
discretion, sensitivity, and interpersonal interaction.

Experience with payroll system functionality/processes and a
comprehensive understanding of payroll data.

Experience developing, implementing, and applying quality assurance
methods to functional and technical specifications.

Experience in provision of customer service and advice including the
ability to effectively influence, clarify and answer enquiries from a
range of people, verbally and in writing.

Extensive experience using an electronic payroll system, including
providing payroll reports.

Sound experience with working accurately with figures and
knowledge of accounting procedures.

Experience at leading others in day-to-day activities, exercising sound
judgement.

Experience at identifying and implementing continuous improvement
opportunities
 Demonstrated ability to see the “big picture” from a payroll team perspective.
Capabilities - Behaviour
Working Together • Establishes and maintains productive working relationships with key Essential stakeholders internally and externally.

Contributes as a member with multiple teams that span function, issue,
and location.

Establishes and maintains credibility and appropriate confidentiality with
stakeholders

Proactively Identifies and addresses potential issues with stakeholders.
Leverages partnerships to improve the performance of programs or

portfolios, and expertly resolves conflict and other obstacles to team performance.

Able to coach and influence internal and external stakeholders, building
productive working relationships.
Continuous • Implements new systems, procedures and tools efficiently when changes Transformation occur in the work environment. Essential
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Works with agility, adjusting current working processes or adopting new
approaches in response to changes in the business environment.

Seeks challenging opportunities or assignments to grow and develop one's
own knowledge, skills and abilities.

Uses digital tools to innovate programs, processes, systems or services.
Communicates and analyses assumptions about a particular issue with

colleagues to gain new perspectives or more effective solutions.
Organisational • Recognises and acts immediately to address any issues with equity, Leadership diversity and inclusion in the team and/or in direct reports. Essential • Manages appropriate systems, structures and processes to meet

departmental requirements.

Works to develop team capability and performance, through coaching and

feedback.

Builds engagement and collaborations within department / functional area

that aligns with the University's goals.
Communication  Develops a clear, complete understanding of needs and problems through
Essential careful listening, probing, reflecting, and summarising.  Leads discussions in a respectful manner, that are sincere and
professional.  Delivers written and oral communications that engage audience
participants, respond to their questions and concerns, and produce specific outcomes and impact.
 Communicates in a timely manner using the appropriate style and method.
 Able to address broad audiences and stakeholder groups, working with communication plans and a mix of communication methods.
 Able to present information clearly, concisely and logically. Varies content, style and form to suit the subject.
People  Manages a team to the successful completion of a project or task. Management  Facilitates discussion of team goals, roles, needs, and responsibilities and
Essential how these link to the wider organisation  Leads individual and team meetings to review progress and performance,
ensuring follow-up on previous decisions.  Responsible for proactively engaging in people management activities such
as performance, recruitment, development, engagement, budgeting.  Manages individuals and team behaviours in line with capabilities/values,
expected standards and staff conduct policies.
Delivering Results  Maintains focus on critical work and expectations.
Essential  Helps others drive tasks to completion. Able to track and complete agreed work in planned timeframes.
 Takes responsibility for escalating issues that impact on planned work and outcomes.
 Documents how results were obtained to support knowledge transfer and best practices.
 Supports self during change by remaining flexible, focusing on the positives, and proactively seeking out opportunities to get involved
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Service Centric  Acts with the internal/external stakeholder or customer in mind, seeks to
Essential understand and deliver on customer perceptions and expectations.  Able to respond to common stakeholder/customer queries and problems
or escalate if required.  Responds to unexpected stakeholder/customer requests with a sense of
urgency and positive action.  Provides a level of customer centric service excellence that contributes to
the department's objectives.
Strategic Thinking  Sets the agenda and communicates expected outcomes to others and and Business allocates resources to deliver on university objectives. Acumen  Makes sound recommendations when faced with complex and
Essential contradictory alternatives.  Raises awareness of potential strategic alliances and partnerships.  Communicates key considerations for business decision making process.  Analyses and interprets workforce and financial information and uses this
to make cost effective planning decisions for the team or direct reports.
Capabilities - Technical Planning: • Contributes to short-term operational plans ensuring they align with long Operational and term plans and strategies. Strategic • Monitors progress of work against plan as required to meet objectives. Essential • Reports variances and makes agreed upon corrections.

Facilitates development of team objectives and plans with team members.
Anticipates and adapts to plan changes.

Risk Management • Proactively identifies and manages risk within business area. Essential • Develops or implements risk mitigations and ensures key control measures

are operating effectively.

Makes use of organisational resources for risk avoidance and management.

Payroll • Lead a quality payroll function, taking a high-level operational view in Management planning and coordinating activities, together with actively engaging in Essential continuous improvement and projects.

Lead the day-to-day operation of the payroll systems and processes,
providing accurate and timely payroll services for all employees and
meeting business and legislative requirements.

Lead the proactive and ongoing development of the payroll function within
the organisation, including business improvement and process change
initiatives.

Lead and manage the day-to-day performance of the payroll team to
ensure the team have a comprehensive understanding of all relevant
aspects and functions of payroll and are fully trained, motivated, and
performing to the highest level of effectiveness.

Proactively manage data integrity and legal risks.

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Lead by example and uphold the highest standards of integrity and
conduct.
Priority Setting  Describes team or unit priorities and how they relate to roles.
Essential  Demonstrates an expectation that there will be ongoing shifts in demands and priorities.
 Clarifies and handles multiple concurrent and diverse activities.  Addresses potential conflicts that impact current delivery commitments.  Works with or leads others to re-prioritise work and reschedule
commitments as necessary.  Responds to shifting priorities while maintaining progress of regularly
scheduled work
Accuracy and  Identifies tasks or outputs that require accuracy and detail-level attention. Attention to  Processes large amounts of detailed information with good accuracy. Detail  Utilises specific approaches and tools for checking and cross-checking
outputs.  Develops and uses checklists to ensure that information goes out error-
Essential free.  Accurately gauges the impact and cost of errors, omissions, and
oversights.  Learns from mistakes and applies lessons learned.
Resilience  Remaining calm, composed, and optimistic in stressful or high-pressure
Essential situations. Ability to adapt flexibly and comfortably to changing work demands.
 Perceives and manages one's own emotions and has basic ability to perceive emotions of others in pressurised situations.
 Diagnoses unresolved issues that result from day-to-day operations.  Is patient, tenacious, and resourceful when seeking information to satisfy
a request or complete a project.  Responds to changes in others' roles and responsibilities.  Accommodates different levels of ability to respond to change.  Maintains reasonable boundaries between work and personal life.  Maintains progress when handling multiple tasks and projects, even under
stressful situations or when faced with competing deadlines.
Pre-employment checks
Essential  Requirement to pass a Criminal and Traffic Convictions (Security) Check performed by the Ministry of Justice.
 Requirement to pass a Credit History and No Asset Procedure (NAP) Credit History Check performed by Equifax.
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