Ken W.

Lifelong Payroll Professional

When I left school I was unsure what I wanted to do, so almost by accident I joined my Local Council in their Central Offices and drifted into their Wages Team as I had always been comfortable dealing with numbers. Having worked in various roles within the Salaries and Wages Teams, dealing with monthly and weekly payrolls and control and systems areas, I progressed to the management team and after several years to become the Payroll Manager and then Payroll & Pensions Manager. Following a restructure within the HR Department in 2012, and after 34 years at that Local Authority, I was made redundant. At that time, I felt worthless, undervalued and nervous for the future, with a family to provide for. It was then, that my luck changed for the better. British Airways had just started a project to replace their payroll system and I was taken on for a 6-month period as a consultant to aid with the implementation. Now, over 10 years later, I am still here, having been made permanent after almost 3 years and working initially, as part of the project team and then in the Payroll Systems Team, I am now Payroll Team Manager for the Ground Payroll Team paying over 14,000 employees on a monthly basis and loving every minute of it.

I manage the Ground Payroll Team paying 14,000 ground-based colleagues

I manage the Ground Payroll Team, paying over 14,000 ground-based colleagues working across the business at Heathrow, such as ramp agents and engineers, Call Centres around the country including at Newcastle and Manchester and at our Waterside Head Office, to name but a few. Based at Waterside, the Payroll Team is at the heart of our airline, interacting with every singe one of our colleagues, from the top to the bottom of the organisation and from back office staff to front facing Cabin Crew. Our role is make sure each and every one of them is paid correctly and on time, so that they can focus themselves on delivering the service to our customers.

Having the flexibility to make decisions that make a difference.

Due to the numbers of colleagues on our payroll (over 35,000 in total across all payrolls) and the variety and complexity of the different roles that they do, we obviously have to have strict deadlines and processes in order to manage the different tasks that we have to undertake every week or month. However, we also have the freedom and flexibility to override these processes when the need arises in order to accommodate any changes of circumstance or individual requests that may crop up. It is this flexibility that allows us to help individual colleagues when they require one-to-one assistance with a specific issue and allows us to give as personal a service as possible.

BA is great to work for. I am always so proud when I see our aircraft.

British Airways is a great employer to work for. The range and variety of roles available is huge and the options to get involved in many of them is available. Everybody has the same goal to ensure that our customers have a great experience and whether you are part of the front facing Cabin Crew or Check In Agents, or Engineers ensuring the aircraft is safe and reliable or Ramp and Turn Round Agents making sure flights depart on time, it is all part of what makes it run so smoothly. Even back office roles, such as Payroll, play an important part of this whole process.

Professional and Death Defying achievements!!!

Professionally, in my previously role in Local Government, I managed to obtain to nationally recognised Payroll Award for our organisation. One of the first London Boroughs to achieve it. At British Airways, I am very proud of my team who work extremely hard and are able to cope with everything that comes our way. Personally, I have done a solo parachute jump from 2,000 feet and abseiled off the top of Twickenham Rugby Stadium, both for charity. I have zip-wired across a slate mine in North Wales, very high and very fast. I have also been on Safari in Kenya back in the 1980s, when the wildlife was still wild!