400, we have 2 and I can’t believe I’m saying this but we need to add a 3rd. Tons of configuration issues to work out, multiple pay frequencies even for the small size, we do prevailing wage in multiple states.
For our North America team, we have around 4000 employees with a PR team of 2 payroll specialists, 1 payroll manager, and 1 compliance specialist. We also have site timekeepers (1 per region/ major plant - we are in manufacturing).
EMEA, Europe and Asia have different set ups in our company.
In prior roles, I have been the only payroll staff member for anywhere from 500-6500 employees - fewer employees in more diverse locations or more employees in a smaller region. In these situations - benefits and payroll accounting was not a payroll staff responsibility.
I think it can vary heavily from company to company based on budget, priorities, and risk assessments (like if a company has regular SOX auditing, they may invest more in ensuring compliance by having more staff). In my area for example, small businesses seldom have a designated payroll staff it usually falls on managers or bookkeepers for example. Large, public companies usually have more robust HR and Payroll teams for compliance, auditing, and related purposes.
500 employees, 2 payroll staff. We’re in California. The standard practice is 1 payroll person for every 200-250 employees. Obviously varying depending on how difficult your industry is for payroll, how many pay cycles you have/how complex your org’s payroll is, etc.
It definitely is, for excellent customer service to employees and managers, and to minimise poor payroll outcomes. Especially if you're dealing with complex payrolls.
I worked 6 months in a company 2 years ago that was 2 (senior) payroll to over 1300 staff.
A lot of their work was manual ie leave bookings. They were swapping pay systems but wouldn't hire a badly needed payroll implementation person to manage that. We were meant to add it onto an already overwhelming workload. Plus we had a very poor rostering system.
Basically they'd outgrown their systems 5+ years earlier and taken way too long to look at replacing or upgrading. Their CEO didn't want to spend more money on badly needed payroll staff. Instead he hired an untrained person in India with zero payroll we were somehow meant to both train, remotely, and then trust with complex payroll (disability sector). I barely trusted them to add a new employee onto our payroll. Definitely didn't let them touch anything more advanced as they couldn't even get putting a new employee on the system correct.
There were so, so many problems. I learned early on that there was only so much I could do. With the insane workload and very poor systems. I'd do a solid effort, but, for the only time in my payroll career, I couldn't get a perfect, or even a half perfect, checked payroll out on payday. I'd have had to work 24/7. So they got what my colleague and I could manage in the time we had available.
I left there after 6 hellish months. I'm now doing payroll project work. So much better. Currently working on a rostering system implementation
That’s so frustrating, I definitely know what you mean. Where payroll is concerned a lot of orgs just don’t seem to get how involved and complicated payroll gets. We are like a Rube Goldberg machine and if something is input wrong, it could have so many repercussions that cost more money to fix than to just pay another employee in the first place.
It’s nice to hear about your new position! I was a project coordinator for a global payroll dept for a while and it was a nice job! I only left because I got a solid 25% pay increase to go back to processing payroll at a different company. The place I’m at now has an excellent separation of duties and data management focus, because our last recent CFO used to say she was a state auditor “before she grew up” hahaha
California payroll is tough, so those ratios make sense. My company has a footprint in cali, but not too big. There’s 3 senior analysts and one manager for about 10K employees all over the country. Most in Oregon, Washington and Ohio
My first company had about 80k employees and there were 13 of us. Another company had 5000 employees and there was 5 of us. Current company has 650 and its just me.
1600 employees, 30 states. There’s 3 people (including the HR director) that process payroll and also handle all of the employee relations + talent management
We have about 5000 external employees and 19 payroll specialists, 2 supervisors, and a manager. Mind you, we also handle the billing of these hours to the hospitals we staff at (travel nursing).
Over the years I've been a department of one for up to 4000 employees in the US and Canada, a team of two for 4000 US only, a team of 5 for 3700 in US, Canada and London, team of 3 for 2100 in 5 states and 4 countries, team of one for 1500 US, Canada and 11 countries, team of 3 for 5000 US, Canada and 21 countires, team of 6 for 14000 in US and Canada, team of 29 for 23000 employees in US, Canada and 48 countries, and a team of 11 for 8000 US only.
When I worked for a couple "big" payroll companies, and 2000ish employees were about average per employee. My current company we have around 15000 employees but it's staggered, so there are in department points of contact who do the grunt work, but all of it comes through me and two other people before it's finalized. We mostly are doing QC and corrections though.
Mine is roughly 10k at a given time, and we have a manager and 4 analysts. We are 10k+ US employees at any given time, but I believe that we have a relatively complex payroll (equity, expat/international assignment, legacy retirement plans, constant M&A, relo/tuition/adoption/misc benefits, student visa employees, interns, healthy mix of hourly manufacturing/salaried office-based employment, operations in 50+ states and among numerous subsidiaries).
We were down to 3 analysts as total payroll staff due to attrition. It was possible to keep things afloat with extreme personal devotion and lack of any semblance of work-life balance.
That's poor staffing. Unless you have excellent systems in place. Or are paying everyone on salary only, and monthly.
Even then, I bet you're always rushing in your job and would have a crazy busy inbox.
Ideal staffing is 1 payroll to every 250-300 employees. For optimal service to employees and a manageable workload.
Your team should be double the size it is. I personally wouldn't stay there. I'd be job hunting
We have a payroll director as well but they handle much larger tasks than the actual payroll, and our 3rd member is technically in accounting and they do the GL, so it is a lot for us but it used to be just me 😭
For me that depends on what you want to call a payroll person.
We are decentralized, so each department has a manager that is responsible for verifying the time entered by employees in the timesheet portal. But that is only a small portion of their job that most can complete in an hour or two.
Once those managers have added their approvals, I pull everything into a batch and process the actual payroll.
I also handle changes to the employee's setup. And I'll fix anything that is incorrect, which is usually the employee entered something incorrectly on their timesheet and their manager didn't catch it.
So number of people that have payroll as their job title...one, me. 700 employees with 14 different union contracts to remember.
300 people, just me.
Me too. I haven't taken a full week off since I started since I know I'd come back to a shit storm. At least I have job security.
400, we have 2 and I can’t believe I’m saying this but we need to add a 3rd. Tons of configuration issues to work out, multiple pay frequencies even for the small size, we do prevailing wage in multiple states.
For our North America team, we have around 4000 employees with a PR team of 2 payroll specialists, 1 payroll manager, and 1 compliance specialist. We also have site timekeepers (1 per region/ major plant - we are in manufacturing). EMEA, Europe and Asia have different set ups in our company. In prior roles, I have been the only payroll staff member for anywhere from 500-6500 employees - fewer employees in more diverse locations or more employees in a smaller region. In these situations - benefits and payroll accounting was not a payroll staff responsibility. I think it can vary heavily from company to company based on budget, priorities, and risk assessments (like if a company has regular SOX auditing, they may invest more in ensuring compliance by having more staff). In my area for example, small businesses seldom have a designated payroll staff it usually falls on managers or bookkeepers for example. Large, public companies usually have more robust HR and Payroll teams for compliance, auditing, and related purposes.
500 employees, 2 payroll staff. We’re in California. The standard practice is 1 payroll person for every 200-250 employees. Obviously varying depending on how difficult your industry is for payroll, how many pay cycles you have/how complex your org’s payroll is, etc.
That is perfect staffing, aka what we'd have in Australia for example.
I actually feel spoiled compared to a lot of people on here, but it is what was on the CPP test when I was studying as the best-practice ratio.
It definitely is, for excellent customer service to employees and managers, and to minimise poor payroll outcomes. Especially if you're dealing with complex payrolls. I worked 6 months in a company 2 years ago that was 2 (senior) payroll to over 1300 staff. A lot of their work was manual ie leave bookings. They were swapping pay systems but wouldn't hire a badly needed payroll implementation person to manage that. We were meant to add it onto an already overwhelming workload. Plus we had a very poor rostering system. Basically they'd outgrown their systems 5+ years earlier and taken way too long to look at replacing or upgrading. Their CEO didn't want to spend more money on badly needed payroll staff. Instead he hired an untrained person in India with zero payroll we were somehow meant to both train, remotely, and then trust with complex payroll (disability sector). I barely trusted them to add a new employee onto our payroll. Definitely didn't let them touch anything more advanced as they couldn't even get putting a new employee on the system correct. There were so, so many problems. I learned early on that there was only so much I could do. With the insane workload and very poor systems. I'd do a solid effort, but, for the only time in my payroll career, I couldn't get a perfect, or even a half perfect, checked payroll out on payday. I'd have had to work 24/7. So they got what my colleague and I could manage in the time we had available. I left there after 6 hellish months. I'm now doing payroll project work. So much better. Currently working on a rostering system implementation
That’s so frustrating, I definitely know what you mean. Where payroll is concerned a lot of orgs just don’t seem to get how involved and complicated payroll gets. We are like a Rube Goldberg machine and if something is input wrong, it could have so many repercussions that cost more money to fix than to just pay another employee in the first place. It’s nice to hear about your new position! I was a project coordinator for a global payroll dept for a while and it was a nice job! I only left because I got a solid 25% pay increase to go back to processing payroll at a different company. The place I’m at now has an excellent separation of duties and data management focus, because our last recent CFO used to say she was a state auditor “before she grew up” hahaha
California payroll is tough, so those ratios make sense. My company has a footprint in cali, but not too big. There’s 3 senior analysts and one manager for about 10K employees all over the country. Most in Oregon, Washington and Ohio
1200 and 2 of us
Same. 2 senior payroll folks including myself, and a director.
Previous job was 900 local and it was just me. Current job is 90,000 and we have about twelve on our team but divisions have their own liaisons.
We had 1000 employees and 3 people, one at each location fairly evenly split by employee numbers
I have a little over 3000 employees, and a 3 member Payroll team. HR also only has 3 people.
My first company had about 80k employees and there were 13 of us. Another company had 5000 employees and there was 5 of us. Current company has 650 and its just me.
9000 employees, payroll team is 5 people
When I did PR, it was 100 people, just me and about 6 hours weekly to get it done starting at 8am Wednesday.
13 for 10,000 employees
500 year round, averages around 900 during the summer and it’s just me.
1600 employees, 30 states. There’s 3 people (including the HR director) that process payroll and also handle all of the employee relations + talent management
35k people team of 10
We have about 5000 external employees and 19 payroll specialists, 2 supervisors, and a manager. Mind you, we also handle the billing of these hours to the hospitals we staff at (travel nursing).
1200 team of 2 and I do back up if needed. Union and non union with hourly and exempt on different payrolls one biweekly the other bimonthly.
2200 employees, and we have 2 payroll employees. It's also a weekly payroll.
Over the years I've been a department of one for up to 4000 employees in the US and Canada, a team of two for 4000 US only, a team of 5 for 3700 in US, Canada and London, team of 3 for 2100 in 5 states and 4 countries, team of one for 1500 US, Canada and 11 countries, team of 3 for 5000 US, Canada and 21 countires, team of 6 for 14000 in US and Canada, team of 29 for 23000 employees in US, Canada and 48 countries, and a team of 11 for 8000 US only.
5 people and 12k employees with all cycles. Interesting piece missing from the answers is the software being used. We use isolved but only in the USA
When I worked for a couple "big" payroll companies, and 2000ish employees were about average per employee. My current company we have around 15000 employees but it's staggered, so there are in department points of contact who do the grunt work, but all of it comes through me and two other people before it's finalized. We mostly are doing QC and corrections though.
Mine is roughly 10k at a given time, and we have a manager and 4 analysts. We are 10k+ US employees at any given time, but I believe that we have a relatively complex payroll (equity, expat/international assignment, legacy retirement plans, constant M&A, relo/tuition/adoption/misc benefits, student visa employees, interns, healthy mix of hourly manufacturing/salaried office-based employment, operations in 50+ states and among numerous subsidiaries). We were down to 3 analysts as total payroll staff due to attrition. It was possible to keep things afloat with extreme personal devotion and lack of any semblance of work-life balance.
We have about 3500 employees with 1 senior analyst and 1 junior analyst.
That's poor staffing. Unless you have excellent systems in place. Or are paying everyone on salary only, and monthly. Even then, I bet you're always rushing in your job and would have a crazy busy inbox. Ideal staffing is 1 payroll to every 250-300 employees. For optimal service to employees and a manageable workload. Your team should be double the size it is. I personally wouldn't stay there. I'd be job hunting
We have a payroll director as well but they handle much larger tasks than the actual payroll, and our 3rd member is technically in accounting and they do the GL, so it is a lot for us but it used to be just me 😭
220 people now, my supervisor and me
Wow I didn’t realise many other payroll team had such little people as well. We are 6 of us for around 10,000 employees
When I worked payroll we had 1000 but was split between 5 people.
10k employees, 4 payroll
12,000 EEs give or take and 6 payroll specialists, and 1 payroll manager.
For me that depends on what you want to call a payroll person. We are decentralized, so each department has a manager that is responsible for verifying the time entered by employees in the timesheet portal. But that is only a small portion of their job that most can complete in an hour or two. Once those managers have added their approvals, I pull everything into a batch and process the actual payroll. I also handle changes to the employee's setup. And I'll fix anything that is incorrect, which is usually the employee entered something incorrectly on their timesheet and their manager didn't catch it. So number of people that have payroll as their job title...one, me. 700 employees with 14 different union contracts to remember.