Payroll is more than just a payslip - it is one of the only repeatable processes that touches every single staff member in local government with such high frequency, every payrun.
Get it right, and most people won’t even comment, but if it goes wrong, it creates noise, anguish and consumes time well beyond just the initial error. Think about the impact of a payroll officer not paying a council's workforce for a couple of payruns. No other single part of a council has such potential on all of the council's outcomes, so who is a payroll officer, and what do they think?
This is what drove us to launch the State of Local Government Payroll - because we think payroll officers are not just payroll officers; they are enablers of council outcomes, and the impact, responsibility, passion and care they have is far more than what the role title payroll officer suggests.
Welcome to our first State of Local Government Payroll. A closer look at the people, processes and experiences behind local government payroll.
Payroll professionals work across people, systems, awards, compliance, finance and organisational processes, often balancing a wide range of responsibilities within every pay cycle. We set out to build a clearer picture of what working in local government payroll entails, because for work so critical to every payrun, why is it that so much of what happens behind the scenes is still not widely understood?
About the survey
The State of Local Government Payroll Survey received 87 responses across 54 questions.
The survey looked beyond the mechanics of payroll processes to explore the broader environment surrounding the role.
It covered areas such as
Career pathways and payroll experience
Training, onboarding and knowledge development
Workload, responsibility and organisational support
Payroll systems and processes
Governance, resourcing and continuity
Areas payroll professionals would like to improve
Technology and the future of the profession
The survey included both structured questions and written responses, allowing participants to share more context around their experience of working in local government payroll.
“The fear of missing something because our processes are so manual”
Survey respondent.
%
Of respondents are self-taught in payroll
%
Reported no payroll governance policy
Why we completed the survey
The aim was to build a clearer picture of local government payroll as a profession.
Councils operate in different ways, with payroll teams varying in size, structure, systems and workforce backgrounds.
By bringing these experiences together, we can better understand what local government looks like across the sector, where common experiences exist and what payroll professionals themselves see as important.
The survey also gives us an opportunity to create a broader conversation around the people, knowledge, processes and support that sit behind every successful pay run.
“Not having the help needed to complete payroll, and everything is left to one person”
Survey respondent
87.2% of survey respondents identified that chasing missing or unapproved timesheets as one of the biggest sources of payroll noise.
What the answers told us together
Looking at each survey question individually tells us where payroll professionals are experiencing pressure. Looking across the responses reveals something more: the environment surrounding payroll appears to matter.
Looking across the responses revealed clear relationships between the results, with clearer role boundaries linked to lower day-to-day stress and stronger governance was consistently associated with a smoother pay run.
Taken together, these findings suggest that payroll pressure is not simply about the volume or complexity of the work but rather a mix of underlying stresses.
“Payroll still gives me satisfaction that I am helping fellow employees”
Survey respondent
What's coming up
There is a lot to explore across 54 questions, so we’ll be sharing the results through a series of articles rather than trying to cover everything at once. Each article will focus on five different key parts of the survey, including career and capability, support and pressure, systems and operating environment, process friction and resilience, future and improvements.
And, most importantly, we’ll hear more from the payroll professionals who contributed to the survey.
Next, we will take a closer look at the people working in local government payroll and the different paths that brought them there.
More insights are on their way
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