APAC Regional Payroll Specialist

Job Description

About the Department
abrdn’s Human Resources function is globally led by Tracey Hahn, our Chief People Officer (CPO) and has a vision that positions our Culture and Talent as a market differentiator. The HR function has a lead role to play in making our brand meaningful for colleagues. This encompasses creating the right culture, development opportunities, remuneration principles and organisational structures to attract, reward, retain, develop, and successfully deploy a high-calibre, impactful, diverse, and inclusive workforce.

About the Role
Reporting to the Head of Global Payroll, the Regional Payroll Lead role is responsible for the successful planning, execution, and delivery of regional payroll services covering 8 jurisdictions - Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Malaysia, and Australia. The Regional Payroll Lead is responsible for working with our payroll vendors to ensure the end-to-end payroll process is efficient and accurate. The lead should also be able to apply best practice thinking around operational practices in the Payroll space.

The role holder should understand and adhere to compliance and local legislative requirements linked to the region they support. The role holder should be analytical and able to demonstrate initiative. Additionally, the role requires the ability to manipulate data and analyze data and reports. The role holder should be able to manage escalations and be comfortable challenging where required.

The role also requires contributing as part of the global payroll team to deliver against the required metrics and internal management reporting requirements, ensuring that the current payroll model continues to be delivered on time and correctly the first time.

Activities Required to Perform in This Role:

• Engage with key stakeholders across the business and geographies to ensure processes and overarching governance and design are appropriate and fit for purpose.
• Delivery of payroll processing for each jurisdiction, inclusive of out-of-cycle payments.
• Responsible for delivery of controls and risk management framework for our end-to-end global Payroll processes.
• Successful delivery of Finance posting files ensuring stability, supporting the finance team with reports and reconciliation.
• Support and manage escalations related to payroll and tax issues.
• Ensure that our colleagues are paid according to regional pay dates, right first time, on time.
• Help ensure that abrdn is up to date with local payroll laws, regulations, and reporting requirements in each country of deployment, ensuring compliance in all payroll activities.
• Undertake quality assurance processes to ensure accuracy, timeliness, and integrity of payroll data and related processes in line with internal and external audit requirements.
• Support with delivery of payroll metrics and analytics to provide insights on payroll performance, costs, and trends.
• Work closely with the reward team to ensure all pay-related benefits are processed accurately via payroll where legislation requires.
• Continuously improve current processes, ensuring SOPs are reviewed and updated.

To Be Successful in This Role You Will Need:

• Experience working in a global organization; Finance Services preferred.
• 5 years of progressive experience in regional payroll or a similar role, managing payroll across multiple countries in a global payroll function.
• Extensive experience in the Workday Payroll module, as the UK payroll is run in-house from Workday.
• Subject matter expert on complex payroll-related issues including share-based compensation, employee mobility and local statutory requirements, and non-exempt employee pay.
• Strong understanding of upstream and downstream processes such as HR functions and payroll accounting.
• Strong communication skills.
• Knowledge of payroll processes, regulations, and compliance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley.
• Internal stakeholder and external supplier management skills.
• Analytical and problem-solving abilities, with high attention to detail.
• Good communication and people skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders across multiple functions such as HR and Finance.
• Act as a subject matter expert on relevant Payroll processing.
• Proficient in using payroll software, HRIS systems, and Microsoft Office Suite.

Moreover, We Recognise That Supplementary Skills Beyond the Minimum Criteria Can Greatly Enhance Your Success in This Position:

• Good communication skills, both verbal and written in English and local language.
• A team player – able to collaborate effectively with colleagues and virtual team members.
• Excellent time management skills – the ability to demonstrate exceptional time management skills by efficiently planning and prioritising tasks to meet payroll and period closing deadlines.
• Self-motivation – exhibiting a high level of self-motivation and initiative to identify and tackle challenges proactively.
• Ability to work independently.
• Ability to solve unique problems with creative solutions.
• Strong advocate for process improvement.
• Resilient, positive with an enthusiastic attitude.
• Strong organisational skills and acute attention to detail.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. Therefore, if you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire and one of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Important: abrdn has recently signed up to the UK Disability Confident scheme and candidates who have self-identified in their application as disabled and meet our minimum job requirements will be guaranteed an interview. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure the job description has clear minimum requirements.

Our Benefits:
There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported. When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around, including 40 days annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare, and a range of flexible benefits including gym discounts, season ticket loans, and access to an employee discount site amongst many others.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment. We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance. We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone. If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.