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Creating a Productive Payroll Team
When you look at an event, project, organization or department, its success is largely based on the people behind it. Whether it is a billion dollar corporation, the Olympics, or the payroll department, a good supporting team will bring success. Who creates these teams? The team leader may be a manager, CEO, president, or an elected official who is in charge of creating a cohesive team.
Team building is about getting the right mix of people together to do the job. Sound easy? No, I didn’t think so. Leaders need to look for a team that will work together and offers a variety of personality differences to keep productivity moving along. When developing a team, the leader should look for at least one common denominator – the job is important to each person. When people like what they are doing and care about what they are doing, it shows in their work. Another motivating factor for employees is their team. When individuals respect and like the people on their team, they don’t want to let their team down. If they feel indifference to their team, there may be a lack of motivation.
Let’s look at creating a payroll team and the types of people and personalities that make up a successful department. Dennis Danilewicz, director of payroll services for NYU Medical Center, and speaker for the April Learning Series Webinar, “Developing a Cohesive Team,” discusses four types of behavioral styles: controlling, supporting, promoting, and analyzing.
The controller is strong-willed, forceful, task-oriented, and confident. The controller is often perceived as competent and determined, as if they know where they are going and how to get there. Each team needs this type of person, because this person is results-oriented and efficient. Drawback? This individual could be insensitive and impatient with others, so finding a controller who works well with the team can be the challenge.
The supporter can work well with the controller, because this individual is patient and understanding. This individual brings a team together – a critical role for a team environment. Although this person can be overly tolerant and unassertive, he or she works well with anyone and can bring many good assets.
The promoter is always on the go and looking for new challenges. This is a goal-oriented person who tends to be impulsive or even manipulative to shake things up. If you are ready for new challenges and changes within your department, this person will help find those challenges and be ready to take them on.
The analyzer is the logical one in the group, who is persistent with follow through, planning, and details. This person may be opposed to risk and appear to be aloof, but this person will show you the pros and cons and many other details you didn’t realize existed before making a decision.
Let’s say your department is looking to implement an automated time and attendance system. This can be a big project, from implementation to training to making a change organization-wide. If you have the right mix of people on the team, the project will go more smoothly. The analyzer will outline a detailed plan for each step, while making sure everyone is aware of any possible issues. The controller will make sure tasks are being done, whether this person is doing the job and/or assigning tasks. When you look at making a change to all employees, the biggest challenge is implementing that change. The promoter will be ready to tackle this important and critical challenge, and figure out how to get it done. Then, there is the supporter, who is ready and willing to help anyone on the team. Unlike other roles, your team can be comprised of a number of supporters with a positive attitude to help with anything and everything.
Whether you are creating a team for a project, a department, or you have inherited a department, as a leader you need to get to know the people. What types of personalities are there? How do these personalities work together? What are the dynamics? You may recognize that you have a promoter personality doing data entry. That person probably won’t last long, and you will have to spend time and resources to replace the knowledge. Do you need to move people around based on their roles? Is there a “bad seed” in the group? Listen to the team.
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