This week's People Management Superhero is Carolyn Lesyshen, Payroll Supervisor at Servus Credit Union.
About Carolyn
Carolyn, a Certified Payroll Manager, has been working in Payroll for over 30 years, whether in a financial or a retail setting. 'I enjoy what I do as it involves me wearing various hats, being a detective and also a firefighter at times.'
Carolyn is also an instructor at NAIT, educating Payroll professionals on the latest curriculum from the Canadian Payroll Association, she recently won Payroll Instructor of the Year and currently sits on the Canadian Payroll Association's Board of Directors.
Q: What makes you a People Management Superhero?
I’m the go-to person for Payroll. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find it. I’ve been told I have incredible Payroll knowledge and a great ability to solve problems as I will always try to come up with solutions that work.
Q: How does Avanti help you take care of your employees?
Paying our employees accurately and helping us remain compliant. Avanti allows us the flexibility to give employees as much detail as needed when it comes to their pay. We can do test runs for budgeting purposes and figure out the pay ahead of time. It provides us with valuable information, for example when a new premium is introduced. It really helps us read between the lines.
Q: Is there something that you can provide to your stakeholders that you couldn't before implementing Avanti?
I love the reporting feature in Avanti. It’s easy to pull reports for managers when they’re looking at vacation or sick time reports for their employees.
I’ve spoken with Payroll people who have moved to other companies (that don’t use Avanti) and they miss Avanti so much because of its reporting capabilities.
Q: As you look ahead to the next year do you have any new initiatives that involve Avanti?
Web time entry. We’re also looking at the features we’re not currently using in Avanti and figuring out ways of how we will implement them.
Q: What is the single most important thing you do to make a difference to your employees?
Make sure they get paid accurately, on time and that we always remain compliant with our Payroll. I make sure that it’s always right the first time, that’s what’s expected of me as a Payroll Supervisor.
Q: What tip would you give to others who struggle with employee management?
Always test. Build test environments in your Payroll software so that you can do test runs. This helps alleviate any need for cleaning something up later on.
There’s no room for error in Payroll.
Q: How does Servus set itself apart from other employers?
Our values and our mission statement. We, the employees, were able to vote on what values we wanted as an organization.
Q: What is at the heart of making Servus a great place to work?
The people - it’s something special that cascades down all the way from the CEO.
Q: How do you make your people feel engaged, appreciated and help them thrive at your company?
Sharing my knowledge. I’m a strong believer in continuous learning. I wear many hats, including teaching Payroll courses at NAIT.
Look at Carolyn's super transformation in The Little Book of People Management Superheroes.
Are You a People Management Superhero?
Do you make a difference in your organization through your people management solution? We would love to hear how.
Visit avanti.ca/superherobook
