Name: Sara Dempsey,
Title: Payroll Manager ROI, Diageo Ireland
Name of company: Diageo Ireland
Industry: Brewery
Size of company: We pay 6000 (including 4000 pensioners)
Who you report to:
My Line Manager is David Robertson in Edinburgh, his title is Head of Payroll Services UK/ROI
Please describe your current role in brief including job title, day to day duties;
In the payroll team there are 8 members and I manage their performance and career paths. Our payroll is broken into 10 pay groups, 4 weekly and 6 monthly, these are within 3 different Companies, I sign off the payroll calculations and send the Bank files. There are a different terms and conditions for each Company and within the each Site (Dundalk, Kilkenny, Waterford, Baileys and Storehouse) so we need to be careful validating any payroll changes. Control and Risk Management is now a major part of all jobs and Payroll is audited on a regular basis both external and internal. We also have our own internal controls for Risk, which I document and manage. I reconcile payroll deduction accounts, of which we have about 50, to ensure what we receive we pay over to the necessary 3rd party. Payroll is a large cost to any company so budgets are very tight and I would run a lot of ad hoc jobs on costs. On a continuous basis I am looking for the most efficient way to run the payroll and the financial reporting.
How many years have you worked in this position?
8 as Payroll Manager.
How many years have you worked in accounting? -
I have always worked in accounting and I am working 33 years!!
Did you do a degree or certification, if so, which type and where from? -
I did the Payroll Management course in 2000. Diageo as a Company encourage people development and I have done a lot of courses to help me in my career
What was your biggest career break, and why? -
When I took over the Payrolls for all of Diageo ROI, each Site ran its own payroll. There were 28 payrolls to run when this happened and the challenge was to merge and reduce these. I succeeded in achieving this and as a result this gave me confidence in my own ability to manage.
What is your preferred industry to work in and why? -
I have only worked for the Brewing industry and I have enjoyed it.
What trends do you see happening in the next 18 months - 3 years in your specific area of expertise?
I work for a Global Company and I would hope we would have a Global Payroll or even a European Payroll System within the next few years. I would also see technology being used more by employees so access to print payslips and other personal data would be available online.
What advice would you give to grads / what would you have done differently if you could "reel back the years" career wise?
If you want a career in Payroll you should do the IPASS training courses. These are very good courses and IPASS are always a phone call away if you need advise. There were a lot of courses in the Brewery that I could have attended and I didn’t because I thought they were not relevant to me but you can always learn from any course.
Out of 10, are you happy in your choice of career and if so why?
I am very happy in my job, I love working with figures and because of my years service I have a lot of knowledge and experience of the Brewery and payroll, which in itself gives you confidence. Diageo is a very good Company to work for, they will help you develop and look after their staff very well.
What are your top 3 favourite business resource web sites you use?
Revenue
Social Welfare
Redundancy
What are your top 3 favourite non business web sites? -
Holiday/flights/hotels
AA route planner
Google earth
