How to celebrate National Payroll Week at your organisation
Getting paid wouldn’t be possible without the people who make it happen. National Payroll Week (NPW) is a great opportunity to celebrate your payroll talent and educate your employees about one of the most critical areas of your business. Here are some tips for planning your NPW celebrations.
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What is National Payroll Week?
It’s that time of year again – happy National Payroll Week! But what exactly is National Payroll Week (NPW)? It’s the annual weeklong event where payroll professionals get their time in the spotlight and take stock to celebrate, collaborate, and learn together.
What week is National Payroll Week?
National Payroll Week 2024 takes place between September 2-6 and is the perfect opportunity to refocus on your payroll strategies.
When did National Payroll Week Start?
The American Payroll Association began National Payroll Week in the United States back in the fall of 1996. National Payroll Week 2024 marks the occasion’s 28th year.
What is Global Payroll Week?
Not to be confused with National Payroll Week, Global Payroll Week takes place earlier in the year during the month of May. While each country celebrates their domestic payroll professionals during NPW, the Global Payroll Management Institute began Global Payroll Week for payroll leaders around the world to consider multi-country and global payroll topics and issues.
Why National Payroll Week is important
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the criticality of timely and accurate payroll for continued business success. As workforces around the world rapidly moved to different work arrangements, organisations needed to ensure their people were paid accurately, on time, and in line with rapidly changing local or regional legislation. In this new reality, organisations needed to approach payroll differently to make smarter business decisions, and without their payroll talent, businesses would not be able to navigate increasingly complex payroll challenges.
Every year, the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) hosts National Payroll Week to help celebrate payroll professionals and highlight the crucial role they play in the oversight of accurate, timely payment of workers. Employee satisfaction depends largely on the functions of the payroll professionals who keep processes smooth and efficient behind the scenes.
The campaign is also an opportunity to help workers better understand the payroll system, their compensation and benefits, and their paycheque documents in general, including how to make the most of their paycheques.
National Payroll Week is the perfect time to celebrate and recognise the value of your payroll professionals and thank them for ensuring payroll runs like a well-oiled machine. It’s also a great opportunity to generate awareness and education about one of the most critical areas of your business.
Here are some National Payroll Week celebration ideas for your organisation.
Five ways to celebrate National Payroll Week
1. Spread the message
The first step to acknowledging or celebrating any event is to spread the word. Inform your employees about National Payroll Week and educate them on what it’s about. Get your workforce excited for upcoming events and share related links to encourage them to learn more. With wide-ranging employee buy-in, your payroll staff will feel seen and appreciated by their co-workers and managers. The more you share the message, the more people are likely to be involved and participate, making National Payroll Week a success.
2. Give recognition and say thanks with your own campaign
Whether you go all out with posters and balloons or show recognition through small gestures, these actions can make your payroll team feel appreciated. Here are a few examples from past Dayforce NPW celebrations to help plan your own:
- Send out personalised thank you notes from the leadership team
- Bring people together with food – organise a virtual or in-person breakfast/lunch
- Share interesting facts about your payroll department or fun photos so people get to know the faces behind their paycheques. Posting information on your company intranet or in your employee newsletter is a great way to reach your whole workforce and spread the message
3. Give National Payroll Week gifts
Organisations are increasingly turning to gift-giving as an effective means of employee engagement. Back in 2021, Forbes reported that “over 80% [of gift-giving companies] said gifts have improved relationships with employees,” and gifts made the “recipient feel valued (45% reported substantial benefits)…and improved employee retention (41% substantial benefit).” In an era where remote work is increasingly the norm, corporate gifting is here to stay. For this year’s National Payroll Week, gifts are a great way to engage payroll employees and help them feel valued all year long.
4. Help employees get involved with their pay
As mentioned above, National Payroll Week is a great time to build awareness of what the payroll team does. One way to do this is by creating opportunities for employees to ask your payroll talent their most pressing questions. Connect people with the payroll team to allow them to start a conversation either through a team collaboration tool or a virtual information session.
5. Invest in smarter payroll solutions
If payroll talent isn’t given the technology needed to do their job efficiently and with fewer errors, they will spend more time fixing issues associated with manual data entry and processes. Integrating payroll, time, and HR data into a single system can help cut down on reporting time and make data management much easier for payroll teams – avoiding the “payroll crunch” at the end of the pay period. Organisations can leverage software that continuously calculates and updates payroll data immediately, cutting back on wasted time and helping reduce the number of errors.
While payroll is complex, it shouldn’t be complicated for the payroll professionals and business leaders. Successful businesses are investing in payroll solutions that help them make smarter business decisions while providing the flexibility to do payroll their way.
Reinvent how you pay your people with a smarter payroll solution
Payroll in a rapidly changing world of work
There has never been a better time to acknowledge and appreciate payroll professionals. As organisations embrace disruption today and in the future, payroll teams will be under continued pressure to pay the workforce accurately and on time. Legislation will continue to change, making it difficult to keep up with regional requirements. Companies that are rebuilding, restructuring, or expanding face even greater complexity when adhering to local laws and regulations in various areas.
No matter their job, all employees should understand the importance of what the internal payroll team does for your organisation. This is a great time to show your appreciation to payroll professionals and all your employees who work together to drive growth and success on a daily basis. Whether you celebrate it as National Payroll Week or Payroll Appreciation Week, make sure your payroll staff feel seen and valued.
The focus on payroll doesn’t have to stop after National Payroll Week ends. Explore other payroll-related resources to learn how to navigate the increasingly complex payroll landscape:​
- GUIDE: The case for a single global payroll solution
- BLOG: Everything to consider for a successful global payroll transformation
- BLOG: The hideen cost of your fragmented approach to global payroll
- BLOG: Payroll challenges organisations will need to overcome to thrive in the future
- BLOG: Overcome global payroll challenges with a single cloud solution
- WEBINAR: The future of pay: How payroll can drive employee engagement in the new world of work
- WEBINAR: International growth requires a global payroll strategy
- WEBINAR: Ready for the Future: Global Payroll Management
- WEBINAR: The case for global workforce management and pay
- CUSTOMER STORY: Cornwall Care delivers top-tier service to both patients and employees
- CUSTOMER STORY: Aquent takes care of its remote workforce with global pay
This blog was updated on 29 August 2024. It was originally published on 11 August 2023.