EMEA Payroll Operations & Compliance Manager (VP) recruitment

Morgan Stanley has earned a worldwide reputation for the excellence of its advice and execution in financial markets. With over 1,300 offices in 42 countries, the firm is truly global- and a market leader in the U.S, Europe and Asia as well as in Emerging Markets.  We provide institutions and individuals with almost every kind of financial product and service across all the world’s major markets.

In 2000 the Institutional Securities division established an operations team in Glasgow with just 6 employees.  Since then our office has grown to over 1000 employees across 6 divisions: Operations, PWM, Finance, Fund Services, Information Technology and Risk Management.  Our offices are located in Glasgow’s city centre in the heart of the International Financial Services District.

We have built a world class reputation for quality and service and the talent and passion of our people has been critical to our success.  We can provide a superior foundation for building a professional career – a place for people to learn, to achieve and to grow.  Together we share a common set of values rooted in integrity, excellence and a strong team ethic.

The Glasgow Finance Division helps senior management and its individual business units manage the firm’s risk by implementing financial controls over our business activities. The division is crucial to safeguarding the firm’s franchise, reporting on current performance, and evaluating business opportunities. The Payroll team is part of the overall Finance organisation.

Payroll Group, Glasgow


A decision was made recently to transfer the compensation accounting controller and EMEA payroll administration teams from London to Glasgow.  Therefore, the Glasgow office is looking to build a new team of approximately 19 people who will be responsible for the processing and booking of compensation related expenses for all UK employees and for employees in certain other EMEA locations.  Due to the nature of the firm’s compensation arrangements, the group is involved in processing and accounting for a range of complex compensation arrangements.  The team works closely with its counterparts in other global locations, in particular in New York and Europe, and with other departments in Morgan Stanley including Human Resources, IT and across the finance division.  The set up of this new department in Glasgow creates an exciting opportunity for someone to help create and develop this team.

The group is split into 2 main teams, which have significant interaction between them, as follows:

Payroll Administration Team:
The Payroll Administration team consists of approximately 10 people with its core function being to manage the processing and compliance of the payroll for all UK employees and for certain payrolls in EMEA.  This entails the processing of all monthly net salary and bonus payments to approximately 8,000 employees plus the payment of associated taxes and contributions to benefit plans related to these employees. This currently achieved through a combination of both hosted and outsourced vendor arrangements across 11 countries within EMEA.

Compensation Controller Team:
The Compensation Controller team consists of approximately 8 people with its core functions being to manage the accounting for the UK payroll and certain EMEA payrolls including managing the booking of salaries and related benefits and taxes, cash bonuses, hypo taxes, severance accruals and recharges in relation to certain EMEA locations, managing currency exposure on the UK payroll entity and working with Treasury and senior management to hedge the currency exposure related to the compensation expense and providing compensation related information to legal entity controllers for disclosure in the annual statutory accounts of certain EMEA entities and to the tax department for use in their tax computations.  The team is involved in providing input on technical accounting issues and liaison with different groups and individuals within the organisation.

In addition, both groups are involved in managing a number of key initiatives and projects in order to ensure that processes and procedures are kept up to date in line with best practice and in line with new legislation changes.

EMEA Payroll Operations Compliance Manager (VP)

The successful candidate will perform a key leadership role within the Payroll team, reporting to the Head of the Payroll, who in turn is responsible for overseeing both the Controller and Administration teams.  The successful candidate will initially play a significant part in recruiting and developing the new administration team in Glasgow and for helping to manage the successful transition of responsibilities from the London team to the new Glasgow team.

Essentially this role will be the key lead for all governance, responsibilities and knowledge around Payroll administration within the EMEA region for all locations managed from Glasgow. These include the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Israel, South Africa, Dubai, Qatar, Spain, Poland and Turkey.

Ongoing responsibilities will incorporate a combination of project work, ownership of key monthly/annual processes, people management, statutory accounting, and input on PAYE accounting issues including liaison with different groups and individuals across the firm.

Supporting three direct reports, specific responsibilities will include:

• Ownership and governance for the Glasgow based payroll administration function incorporating compliance and controls in the European, Middle East, and African regions. This covers 8000+ employees in multiple legal entities in a complex compensation structure involving bonus, benefits and deferred awards.
• Key partner and regional lead for global initiatives.
• Act as the Service Risk Manager for all service providers including the UK payroll software and multiple overseas BPO arrangements whilst completing regular due diligence and contract renewals.
• Maintaining and enhancing the control framework around all payroll responsibilities. This includes SOX and internal controls.
• Maintaining a detailed understanding of current payroll legislation, with a proactive approach to plan for future changes.
• Reporter responsibility for certain 3R’s balance sheet and PL accounts related to payroll processes, reporting and variances and issues to senior management on a monthly basis and ensuring team resolve issues and queries that arise
• Responsible for the interpretation and management update of key metrics to optimize resource usage and identify process improvements.
• Overall responsibility for payroll systems, including maintenance, upgrades and any necessary changes to system requirements (working with payroll IT where necessary).
• Responsible for the timely and accurate disbursement of all payroll related payments through BACS and the multi currency accounts managed through an online banking tool including all internal reconciliation processes.
• Liaison with a variety of groups and individuals (including payroll teams in the US, Far East and within all European regions, HR, tax groups, procurement, HMRC, and PwC) in agreeing payroll policy, changes in processes, discussing payroll related issues and roll out of changes to payroll systems.
• Liaison with internal and external auditors to assist with understanding the key processes, giving access to systems for sample testing and providing evidence of key controls.
• Responsibility for pension administration to ensure effective controls are utilized and payments are delivered to correct funds within the scheme deadlines.
• Work collaboratively with the firm’s corporate services  department to provide relevant expense policy advice to ensure maximum tax advantage and minimize expenditure.
• Ensure effective documentation is in place and regularly updated to account for changes in process and legislation.
• Responsibility for reviewing and advising around the PAYE process and compliance in relation to the Senior Accounting Officer sign off.

Skills Required
Work Motivation:
• Keen and motivated to work hard and achieve.  
• Shows a willingness to learn from others and increase own knowledge base.  
• Takes responsibility for own tasks and proactively looks for opportunities to increase responsibility.
Problem Solving Judgment:  
• Shows the ability to identify and analyse the situation through gathering relevant information to understand the root cause.  
• Determines the potential impact and implications of issues and takes appropriate action to avoid future recurrences.  
• Knows when it is appropriate to resolves matters and offer solutions themselves and when it is critical to escalate to others.
Communicating Effectively:  
• Able to explain issues and ideas succinctly, using appropriate mediums and language, to ensure others understand.  
• Always ensures that the relevant people are kept informed.
Building Maintaining Relationships:
• Awareness of other people and environment and own impact on these.  
• Responds appropriately to others to build and maintain an effective network of contacts.  
• Goes extra mile to ensure needs of others are addressed to highest possible standard.
Commitment to Excellence:  
• Consistently shows concern for all areas no matter how small.  
• Ensures tasks are always completed accurately, without exception.  
• Checks, verifies and reconciles information to ensure no mistakes are made and work is completed to the highest possible standard.
Planning Organising:
• Able to quickly and accurately establish priorities.  
• Plans own and others’ time to meet tight deadlines and is flexible when priorities change.

Role specific competencies and key responsibilities:

Guardianship:
• Consistently maintains a high level of Franchise protection
• Confidence to ‘push back’ when required
• A high level of stakeholder management and update  is required
• Consistently manage all areas of risk across the payroll function
• Proven proactive approach in dealing with statutory changes
Client skills:
• Ability to form strong business partners across the firm
• Strong vendor management skills
• Ability to negotiate
Leadership:
• Ability to define clear expectations to team
• Ability to define goals and strategy to team and key stakeholders
• Ability to build, inspire, motivate and retain a strong payroll administration team
Technical and Job skills:
• Considerable payroll experience
• CIPP qualified
• Proven track record in similar EMEA role at professional organization
• Ability to develop and implement on clearly defined strategy
• Proven stakeholder and vendor management experience, including contract management
• Knowledge of benefits and pension administration
• Knowledge of international assignment PAYE compliance legislation
• Experience of PSA reporting

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to fair treatment, regardless of background