Returning to work after maternity leave is often a blend of excitement, adjustment, and fresh perspective. Our Head of Payroll shares her experience of transitioning back to work after a year focused on family. As she dives back into the world of payroll, she reflects on the challenges of balancing work and home, the joy of reuniting with her team, and the insights she brings back into her role. We also discuss some key payroll challenges companies face when team members go on maternity leave and how businesses can better support employees during this time.
How long have you worked in Payroll? 10+ years, with a break between when I focussed solely on finance and accounting.
What made you get into payroll and finance? Understanding the full implications and cost of things, I have a real need to see the result of something, and working in finance allows for this, seeing the results from the top line through to the bottom line.
What are some common payroll challenges employers face when employees take maternity leave, and how can businesses better support employees? Maternity leave brings unique payroll challenges for employers. Whilst statutory maternity pay is reclaimable, there is a cash flow impact on the business as the reclaim for this will generally happen post-payment to the employee.
There is often a further cost to the business to support maternity leave as cover will usually be required, with an element of overlap for handovers. The impact of this is increased if employees are offered an enhanced maternity package.
Maternity leave can be a financially difficult time for an employee to manage. Therefore, any further support an employer can offer during this time will always be seen as an excellent employment benefit. One option a business could help support this is through keep in touch (KIT) days, where employees can work up to 10 days during their maternity or adoption leave. Keeping in touch days are optional – both the employee and employer need to agree to them. The type of work and pay employees get should be decided before they come into work. It’s important to note that an employee’s employment rights, such as holiday entitlement, are protected during maternity leave. Therefore, many employers allow employees to use their accrued holidays at the end of their maternity leave to allow for full pay before returning to work physically.
What advice would you give to other payroll professionals about managing leave pay, ensuring compliance, and maintaining accurate payroll records? Each business is different regarding the level of leave pay they offer. When it comes to maternity pay, some businesses will choose to offer statutory pay, which is reclaimable from HMRC through the submission of a monthly EPS, whilst others will offer an enhanced package. There are requirements for certain records to be kept, notice periods, and qualifying criteria for paying and reclaiming statutory maternity pay. The gov.uk website provides a comprehensive guide to this.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of working in payroll? I like things to be black and white and have a methodical approach to processing payroll, as well as keeping up to date with all current legislation.
What do you believe sets Cactus Payroll apart from other payroll providers?
The flexibility of our approach. We provide payroll services to various clients with payrolls of different sizes, frequencies and requirements and are well-resourced to scale up/down accordingly. We are, therefore, a great choice for businesses with changing payroll requirements. We understand that payroll is not always straightforward and have first-hand experience in dealing with data coming in different formats and at the last minute. We work with our clients to help make this as pain-free for them as possible by taking on the burden that payroll can often be for businesses.