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Payroll excellence

Providing clarity and confidence in the complex world of payroll.

How we can help you:

Payroll is one of the most critical functions in any business. For many, it is the only day-to-day interaction an employee will have with their employer, and the performance of payroll can be the biggest factor in employee experience.

As a function, Payroll is too often low on the priority list for optimisation. Whether targeting ‘one payroll’, optimising payroll processes, operating models or systems, improving collaboration with HR, IT or Finance, or simply moving payroll provider, it can be a tough sell for a function that in theory doesn’t directly impact the bottom line.

Whether it’s executing or getting buy-in for the change, you need a reliable partner who can support you throughout any of these processes. At LACE we pride ourselves on having walked the walk, our team is built on a combination of operational, leadership and consulting experience. If it can happen in Payroll our team have done it, and we get you.

Important to our ethos is clarity. We know the picture can change and you need a partner who can be flexible while providing you with the certainty of outcome. We ensure you are clear on what you will get, and if you need us to pivot slightly we will do so in collaboration with you and with clarity around the outcomes.

Payroll is a critical function, often the only daily touchpoint between employees and employers. Yet, it’s frequently overlooked for optimisation. Whether unifying payroll, improving processes, upgrading systems, or switching providers, making the case for change can be challenging.

At LACE, our team brings real-world payroll expertise—spanning operations, leadership, and consulting. We’ve seen it all and truly understand your challenges.

We prioritise clarity and flexibility, ensuring you know what to expect. If your needs evolve, we adapt—always keeping your outcomes in focus.

No matter your payroll challenge, we’re here to help. Some of the most common issues we’ve solved include:

  • Unclear pain points: “Something isn’t working, but I don’t know where to start.”

  • Provider transitions: “We need to switch providers.”

  • Scaling struggles: “We’ve grown fast, and payroll hasn’t kept up.”

  • Inefficiency concerns: “We have too many people handling payroll, and we don’t know why.”

  • HR misalignment: “Payroll and HR aren’t working together.”

  • Strategic direction: “We need a payroll strategy.”

  • Post-implementation issues: “We changed providers, but our problems remain.”

We tailor our approach to your specific needs, offering solutions that fit your business—whatever the challenge.

Health-check

A short, sharp (but holistic), overview of your entire Payroll function. We’ll engage with your operation and closest stakeholders to build a picture of current strengths, challenges, and recommendations for improvement across all key areas such as operating model, technology, capability, data, process and governance.

Strategy development

We’ll spend time understanding your organisation and operation before playing back our insights to align on the as-is strengths and challenges. We’ll then work with you to define your ambition, leaning on our extensive experience and industry insights to bring best practice and options to the table before bringing all of that together, coupling the challenges with where you need to get to and providing a realistic strategy to get there including thorough roadmap factoring all in-flight and planned initiatives

Partner selection

Selecting a new partner is more than a tick-box exercise. Our team will support you in finding the right partner for your organisation, we can build and lead the whole process for you, or support your process with our expertise and recommendations. From requirements definition, through to shortlisting, engagement and demo’s, selection, and implementation planning, we can support you or lead through the process.

Change management

Often an afterthought in payroll transformation, we recognise the importance of robust change management in achieving your goals. If you have a project team or are using your own resources to implement your changes we can own the change management of your programme, owning engagement, communication, success measures, or any part of programme governance.

Payroll operating model

It is increasingly common that payroll teams, particularly when global and at scale, have expanded or become reactive over time, impacted by frequent and/or poorly embedded change. Our team can assess the efficiency, cost, and suitability of your current payroll operating model and provide you with recommendations to achieve best-practice. We will factor the broader landscape, from employee experience through to key impacted functions such as HR, Finance and Reward, and provide you with an assessment and recommendations for the future.

Workforce management / time and attendance

Often the key input for the Payroll team, and the only frequent interaction an employee may have with their organisation. Our team have extensive experience with market-leading solutions and processes and can help you assess, select, implement, optimise, or provide a strategy to ensure you get the most from your workfoce management and time and attendance tools and processes.

Payroll optimisation

Sometimes it is just about making the most of what you have, or getting more for less. Our team can lean on their extensive operational experience to help you optimise your current technology, operating model, or processes. We’ll embed ourselves into your payroll team to fully understand current processes and issues, provide recommendations and options, and help you optimise what you have. We’ll ensure effective change management, mindset shift, and communication are adopted so your improvements aren’t lost when we leave.

Value case

One of the biggest hurdles to enhancing your payroll function can be getting buy-in. Our team are experts in ensuring the benefits of investing in payroll are understood. It is more than numbers and headcount. Investing in your payroll function reduces risk, benefits employee experience, morale, and brings benefits across other key functions such as HR, Finance, Reward and IT. We’ll spend time understanding the current issues and opportunities, assessing any cost benefits in line with traditional business case approaches, and ensure your case for change is robust and strong enough to get the investment you need.

What makes us HR experts

We have great insight and a large network within payroll, so we know the things to consider and the options to explore.

We have been around payroll for years, so we have the expertise to develop a strategy for your future.

We are passionate about payroll, its importance within an organisation and we’ll do all we can to raise its profile.

We are systems agnostic, so we have no hidden agenda when it comes to finding the right tools and solutions for you.

We flex and tailor the approach to suit your needs and identify a fit-for-purpose solution.

We believe in partnering with you and your team to implement the changes and minimise risk.

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Speak to a Payroll excellence expert today.

We’ll assess your current situation, design an approach tailored to your business needs and culture, and deliver solutions that fit your timeline and budget.