10 Years Long Service Award

We recently celebrated a Haines Watts career milestone with Alison Cox, our Payroll Manager who is based in Derby. 

Congratulations Alison, on your 10 year work anniversary and thank you for being such a valued team member!   

We took the opportunity to ask Alison a few questions about her career journey to date with Haines Watts.

How did you find your role at Haines Watts and what attracted you to apply?

I found Haines Watts through a recruitment agency. Having worked in mixed role of HR and Payroll, I was attracted to this role being solely payroll.

Why did you choose to work for Haines Watts?

I liked the fact that the role involved working with a variety of clients, which was something I hadn’t done before so I was really looking forward to taking on a new challenge.

What does your current role involve? 

I’m the Payroll Manager at Haines Watts Derby, I oversee the end to end processing of payroll for a number of clients on a weekly, fortnightly and monthly basis including all reporting to HMRC and administering a number of different pension schemes.

My role is also to ensure that our clients’ needs are met and to provide the best, most timely and accurate service we possibly can, whilst ensuring ever changing legislation is adhered to.

What is the most enjoyable part of working for Haines Watts?

The people - we spend half of our lives working so good people really do make a difference. I almost see my colleagues as my second family - this is still the case even though I am home based. I also enjoy the relationships I have built up over the years with our clients.

What do you like to do outside of work? 

I love to spend time with my family and friends, usually with a Tia Maria and Coke in hand!

If away from home, my favorite pastime is relaxing on a powder white beach somewhere hot and paradisal.

If you weren’t our Payroll Manager what would you be doing? 

I would love to be a guide/companion dog trainer.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Work hard at school, try to decide if you want to go to university or find an apprenticeship early on in your career.  If you don’t find something that fits from the offset, don’t worry, take a chance on trying something else to find a career path you enjoy.  You can always study whilst being employed once you find out what it is you want to do and focus your energy on something you enjoy.

What is your work/life balance like? 

My role enables me to work from home and gives me the flexibility I need in my home/work life balance and Haines Watts is able to support me and allow me to do this, for which I am very grateful.  

What has been the most challenging part of your career?

My role is quite varied and can change from day to day. Some days are steadier than others, whilst some days can be hectic, especially near to the end of the month, where I can find myself trying to work on a number of payroll jobs at once! Thankfully, Eloise, our very competent, hardworking Payroll Assistant is always on hand.

I think in my ten years at Haines Watts, the toughest, most stressful challenge to date has to be coping with the infamous Furlough Scheme - but we got through and I’m still here to tell the tale!

How Haines Watts can help you with your payroll

With payroll legislation becoming more complex and constantly changing:-

• Are you 100% sure your payroll is correct?

• Are you worried you’ve made mistakes?

• Does the thought of incurring penalties that you can’t afford worry you?

Outsourcing your payroll to us means that you have the time to concentrate on running your business, confident that you’ve got payroll matters covered.

Talk to Alison and our Payroll Team today, to find out how we can help take the stress out of running your payroll.

We’d be happy to provide you with a quotation for dealing with your payroll administration. Click here to talk to us today.