Live from World at Work Total Rewards 2026 with Special Guest Kristy Durst

[00:00:08] [SPEAKER_03] Welcome everyone to another episode of HR and Payroll 2.0. I'm Julie Fernandez. I'm flying solo today without Pete and we are still here at the World of Work Conference for Total Rewards 2026. I'm super excited to introduce my guest today who is Chrissy Durst from Uline. Kristy, welcome to the show.

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_00] Thanks Julie. I'm super excited to be here. As Julie mentioned, I'm from Uline. I'm the Senior Manager of Payroll and HR Administration. This is my first Total Rewards Conference so just really excited to be here and talk to Julie today.

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, this is first for both of us so I think we're learning it together and I know you've probably had a packed schedule because I know you're a planner. So I bet you had mapped out probably all of the things you really wanted to cover and see. So before we jump in, I want to ask you one of our typical questions of our guests. We're always curious to know how you got into HR and payroll and why you stay.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, so it's kind of interesting. When I graduated from college, my husband was already out here. So I got a job at the Arena Football League and they needed someone to do their office work. So I started there and I kind of payroll fell into my lap. I think that's most people. No one goes into the profession saying I want to process payroll, but I love it.

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_00] So everything about it. I love the process. I love the steps to it. There are some things that make you want to pull your hair out when you're in it. But really what keeps me here is I have a great team and it's always changing. You're always learning. There's always something new out there. So for me, I think that's what keeps me. That's what keeps me here.

[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_03] That's awesome. I mean, that's what we hear all the time is nobody really tries to get here, but once it gets its claws in you, you're hooked, right? And you're just going to stay. Okay. So what a whole Uline are you responsible for in your role? Because some people have time, some don't. What sorts of things do you care take as a payroll leader?

[00:02:05] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, so I actually have a unique position there because I have the payroll side and I have the HR administration side of my team. So on the payroll side, we handle everything payroll, time and absence related. We also do a lot of the system configuration with our HCM system. And then I have the other side of my team, which is the HR support team. So they handle a lot of the calls that come in from our employees on a day-to-day basis or our managers.

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00] And they're also our workday support. So I have a different realm of both sides. They're completely different. So it keeps me on my toes, but super, super excited.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_03] Sure. The hot potato space, right? Where sometimes nobody really wants to own it except for us.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00] Correct. Yes. There are a lot of things I think that just get thrown at payroll because they think that that's where it belongs. But I'll always take it. Like my team loves to learn. There's different things that, you know, are changing every day with compliance that really keep us on our toes. So it's pretty exciting.

[00:03:02] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Awesome. And so you mentioned you use Workday, right? Is it Full Suite Workday? And we're here at a Total Rewards Conference. Did you use anything else with it?

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So we do use Workday. We are the full suite from recruiting through payroll benefits. We have the whole gamut of it. It's kind of interesting. We were an ADP client for a long time before that. So we definitely learned with it. There's so many things you don't know until you know. So it's like we've been on Workday a little over five years. OK. But now we're really looking at our processes and saying, OK, when we went live, we didn't really know any better.

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_00] So what can we change and what can we fix to make it better for us?

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Great point. You know, folks that have been and adopted Workday or whatever their other cloud platform are usually aren't worried about changing technologies. Again, they're usually thinking about how can I do more with less? How do I, you know, optimize whatever I have? What's new? How should I be using it? And that's just a whole different conversation than I got the wrong thing. Get me out of it. You know? Awesome. You know, let me ask one more thing that we don't always ask our guests, but I know it's the first thing I ask.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_03] We had a conversation when you and I first met, and that is what industry, for those who don't know Uline, how big is it? What is the industry? What's kind of unique about Uline and the types of business that you have?

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So Uline is located all over the United States. So we're a shipping supply company. I think most people probably received one of our catalogs in the mail. We have a little bit under 10,000 employees, but we're located all throughout the United States. And then we also have operations in Mexico and Canada.

[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_03] Okay. Okay. I know my husband, that's definitely bathroom reading for him. There's always a Uline catalog in our bathroom. So I know the brand well, for sure. Cool. And then I thought it was interesting that you've been at Uline for a while. I have. So can you talk a little bit about, you know, like where you started and how you got to where you're at?

[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_00] I sure can. So yes, last week I just celebrated my 11 years at Uline. So I've definitely been there a long time. And when I originally went to Uline, my company I was with moved. So they moved out to Las Vegas and I couldn't move. So I started at the beginning. So I went from the director of accounting to a payroll administrator, which is kind of an interesting start. I think everyone thinks that some rules in their career, you always have to go up.

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_00] But I have found that there was things where I had to go down a little bit. But you know what? Throughout, I kept moving through. I knew I could do it. So I started just as a payroll administrator. I went to a payroll team lead, the payroll supervisor. And now I'm the senior manager of payroll and HR administration. So I think for anyone out there, when you're thinking like everything has to go up, sometimes you can go down. Sometimes you can go lateral. It all just depends on what's right for you.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. You know, I do a lot of conference speaking. And one of my favorite sessions to deliver is about the skills that have changed over time in payroll. And how, you know, for me, for my liking, it's like the perfect go to anywhere you want to go career because you have all the stakeholders that are there. And payroll really gets to learn everything about everybody in the organization. That's where all the problems are detected.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah.

[00:06:21] [SPEAKER_03] Not caused, but detected.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00] Right. Yeah. So I think it's interesting, too, because being in payroll, we're really the end result. But we are the keepers of the data. So there's a lot of things that we can look at in our data to look for problems or we get a lot of questions. So, like, we work closely with HR. I'm part of HR. I, like, know in payroll sometimes it's finance. Sometimes it's HR. I report into HR. I think me personally, I do love that reporting into HR. We've always had a great relationship with finance.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00] But for us, it's just the money piece of it. Right. But all of our work comes from HR, promotions, new hires, terms, merits, bonuses. A lot of that is driven by our HR.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_03] Sure. Operation.

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_00] So for me, it's been great reporting into HR. But I think it does give you a unique perspective. I think payroll, people used to think it's, you know, you hit the button, it's the easy button. But it's not. There is so much compliance that goes into it. But people used to think, oh, it's just transactional. And back in the day, we weren't really transactional. But now I think payroll has a seat at the table and you can be more strategic.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_00] I think people are looking more to what we have to offer than just, oh, we're just processing your check. You're here. I think we really have a seat at the table.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. And I think automation has taken out all of what used to be a bookkeeping role. Right. And you're just processing rate times time. And now it is more about analytics and the data that you keep that nobody else sees. I'm curious to know, like, what most payroll folks that we're talking to today are data nerds and they just love what they can do with data. Do you have a something I'm doing with data that's really cool type of a story?

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So we do a lot of reporting at our company. So I know AI is the big talk right now. So I've actually, we look at AI for some of our reporting capabilities. Things that you look at all the time tend to blend in. But when you can put it into a different program and have it look at things a little bit differently, I think have really opened up my eyes to some things and things that we can focus on. And, which has been really good. It's been really good for our company and things that would take hours. I can give you a recent example.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00] We have employees in New York and we are looking at, like, the convenience of the employer role for them. So it's like, sometimes it's hard to understand as a payroll professional when you're working in it every day. You have terms and you know things. But when you're trying to explain it to someone and it might not, like, work in it every day. I mean, I'll use some technology. I just say, hey, can you help me simplify this? So, like, my employees can understand. Can you simplify this so that if I would need to tell my kids what it is, they would understand it? Right.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_00] So it's been really beneficial for me and things along that line.

[00:09:10] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, I think that's a great use case for sure. You know, just to simplify or explain or, you know, give a cool explanation. I hope that benefits is doing a lot of the same stuff, right? Because there's so much noise about how nobody understands their, you know, their benefits well or like they should. So payroll is another one of those areas for sure. Awesome. Let's see. I also wanted to ask, like, just kind of a fun question. So you've been in payroll and you've been even in payroll at Uline for a long time.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_03] So tell me something that you thought about payroll at the beginning of your career that now that you've lived it for so long, you know, you just don't think that at all. Your perception has totally changed and you completely disagree, you know, with whatever you had first thought.

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. It's just like you think it's just a paycheck. There's so much more to payroll than that than you actually see.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Yeah. And I think you can almost direct your own fate in that space. Right. Like, if you find that compliance, you know, really geeks you out, then you're probably going to lean in that direction and really emphasize some of that.

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_03] How is Uline's culture and attitude toward payroll?

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. I think I've been really lucky. So I think reporting into HR, I think Uline's a little bit unique where we have access to our executives at a higher level. So getting a seat at a table, like, we have a seat at the table. How cool. So it's taken some time, right? It's been there. But it's like, instead of things just saying, oh, we're going to do this, we now get asked about it. Like, I think that's a lot of things people just say, hey, make this work.

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_00] And you're kind of stuck and you're trying to figure it out on the fly. But when you have a seat at the table, you're able to have those conversations up front. Yeah. And then kind of help lead some different conversations. I'm like, are you sure you want to do this? We can do this. But we have X, Y, and Z that could be an issue for us. So I think at Uline, it's been really beneficial. But it's been great, too. I know a lot of people might not have a seat at the table. But I think that's something we should work for as payroll professionals.

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_00] Because you do have, like, it's not always transactional. It is more strategic, I think, nowadays.

[00:12:18] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Are there certain things that having that seat you're repeatedly asked for, expected to bring to the table? I know you said you're doing more and more with data. And sometimes that's the first, you know, that's the first thing. What do some of those senior leaders look to you for as you sit at the table with them?

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, I do think it's data. We do get a lot of questions. But we're also kind of our policy keepers. Like, I know that belongs in HR. But in payroll, really, we're making sure that the rules are being followed. So a lot of times we are getting asked some of those questions like, hey, can we do this? Is this allowed? And even though we're not making the policies, we're the ones that are making sure the policies are followed.

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_02] Right.

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_00] So I think that's been a lot of questions that come our way is, is this okay? Are we doing this right? Just to make sure we're not making too many exceptions.

[00:13:06] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. So another thing that I think is really cool, I wanted to have you share with folks is Uline and the industry that you're in is unique. It has warehouses, right? It has a lot of frontline workforce. What sorts of things are a part of Uline's workforce or payroll specifics that make it unique or tricky or, you know, that are particular watchouts for folks that are in a similar industry with a lot of frontline?

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So we do have a lot of frontline workers. Most of our workers are general warehouse. I mean, we do have corporate employees. But our heart of our company is our warehouse and our customer service employees. So we need to make sure that when we're doing something right, we're doing something right for everybody. I think something unique to Uline is we call them timekeepers. They're really our people who handle our time throughout our company. It's not necessarily owned. The end results owned by my team.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_00] But we probably have 200 timekeepers throughout our company that are really there with our employees day to day. If you missed a punch, they're the ones you reach out to. They're the ones that are making the adjustments on your on your time sheets. And then at the end, then it comes to our team to review just to make sure everything is correct before we process payroll. But I think that's something that's unique. Yeah. And we are a big company. So I know 200 sounds a lot of timekeepers.

[00:14:25] [SPEAKER_00] But when you have almost 10,000 employees and they're clocking in and out every day, we want to make sure their payroll's active.

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, sure. And sometimes it's a portion of their job, right? They split and they do a lot of other things. When I see folks that have timekeepers, and at least a part of that is brought local, right, to the employee workforce, I also can't help but wonder, like, how do you have shared services or is the employee expected to go to their timekeepers? Or do they have options like ticketing or other centralized payrolls, inquiry support or service support?

[00:15:02] [SPEAKER_03] How does that experience work for you guys?

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So their main line of contact is their timekeepers. But then we also have our shared services. So my team would be considered the shared services for payroll. So anyone can email into our inbox and my team's able to handle any of the questions that come in. But the more day-to-day of, hey, I need this updated does come from our timekeepers specifically. But then I have my HR administration team, which is completely different. And we do have a ticketing system. If someone calls in, we're logging the ticket.

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_00] We're able to review what types of questions are coming in and answering them. So that's been able to help streamline some of our issues and help us with some training that we need to get done. Yeah. Cool. Cool.

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_03] Well, thank you for sharing a little bit about, you know, Uline and your delivery model. Those are the types of conversations that I really geek out having with practitioners because everyone has a different flavor of something going on in their organization. I have, I brought a handful of kind of rapid fire payroll reality check items. So nothing fancy, but I just thought I'd get your first reaction, right? Opinion to a few things. Okay. So here we go.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_03] What would you say is the most underestimated payroll risk?

[00:16:15] [SPEAKER_00] Compliance.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_03] Any ones that are particularly a thorn in your side right now?

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_00] I would say paid sick leave laws right now for us. I mean, we own the time system and absence. So just keeping up with each state having their own different paid sick leave policy. It's tough sometimes. Yeah. So we just need to make sure we're really on top of the legislation, things that are changing. But it is just, it seems like nothing is ever the same. If every state could do the same thing, I think I would be happy. But we're located in almost all of the states in the United States.

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_00] So compliance, I think it's the most underrated and most important.

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Listen, I love the fact that you brought up the paid time off one because I'm working with a client today that is really struggling. They want to have a universal policy so that it's simple and it can just be applied universally. And yet the state laws for PTO payout really make that very expensive to do. You know, like if you've got to follow the most favored nation, you know, kind of policy, you're probably overpaying in a lot of different areas. Do you do state specific? We do state payouts. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_03] And is it your team that actually has to stay up or do you have any anybody or any resources helping you stay up on when these crop up like daisies?

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_00] So we do. So our HR department will help us stay up to date with it, but it's kind of a joint effort. So, like, I subscribe to a lot of different publications that come in. Like, I'm looking at the ADPI on Washington. I have a subscription to Bloomberg. So it's like anything that we can do from the compliance standpoint just to keep up to date, we do. But it's, you know, things change. And it's things that you, like New York recently, have the 32 hours of unpaid sick leave.

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_00] And so we're trying to figure out, well, are policies more beneficial? So do we have to give it unpaid? So there's just sometimes when these laws are made, they're not always clear. So we're still waiting for the guidance on how exactly we can handle it.

[00:18:12] [SPEAKER_03] Sure. And what a full-time job just to even evaluate what do we even do in this, you know, in this very specific scenario compared to what law just came up and told us we had to do. It can be a harrowing job for sure. Okay. Here's our next one. One metric you always trust.

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_00] Oh, one metric I always trust. Time to process. So that's an important metric for our team is how long does it take us to process payroll? So that's the one I normally trust to see if there's anything that's missing or if we're missing something within the system. There are so many metrics in payroll that you can use, but we usually look time to process.

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_03] Okay. How about, is there a metric you particularly never trust or distrust?

[00:18:55] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, there's one that says like on-demand or how many manual checks do you process? And I don't think that necessarily says that there's errors in your payroll if you have a lot of manual checks or things like that. We are like a very white glove service. We never want our employees to wait if there's something that they need. So I think our manual checks or on-demand checks aren't a true thing of that we had a payroll error.

[00:19:19] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Oh, for sure. That's a great point. I don't know how many leaders, you know, the senior leaders would misinterpret that as a marker for error versus just compliance. Right? So interesting. That's a great one. Okay. How about what, in your opinion, is the best time of the payroll cycle to find mistakes?

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_00] You know, it's funny. We allow our employees to see their paychecks two days before. So, and we did it on purpose too. Like if there's an error, which we tend not to have many errors, we can usually catch it before payday. Okay. So, I mean, we do a lot of auditing. We, I mean, we probably audit a ton. I mean, I think it's part of our culture. I think it's something that payroll practitioners probably do. But I think it's the worst when you find it after you process, when you can find it before it's easy to fix.

[00:20:10] [SPEAKER_00] I think it's funny. I always tell my team, like, if there's a mistake or if there's something that we did wrong, like, you got to tell me about it. Because if you try to cover it up, it's so much harder to fix. So I think that's the other thing is, like, when you have that open respect or conversation with your team, it's like, it's okay to make mistakes. We all do it, but we just got to own them and figure out how to fix it and move forward.

[00:20:33] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. And who knows if it's just a person or if it's going to affect a whole lot more, right? I'm sure most payroll people are very detail-oriented and they would know that long before they ever squealed on themselves, right? Cool. Okay. How about in thinking about your HR partners, what's one thing you would tell them to stop doing? Stop making exceptions. I love that.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_00] The HR partners are, like, they're there to help their business and their people. So sometimes they're like, how can we do this to help? But it always doesn't align with what we can do. So I'm like, ask us before you say yes, I think would be my best advice to them.

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_03] That's wonderful. And you know what? I didn't ask, but does ULine have union agreements?

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_00] We don't.

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_03] It really is? Okay. Because that's an area where, you know, maybe you get into the rhythm or the pattern of having no choice. So why ask beforehand? Because it's going to be done unto you, right? But yeah. Okay. Awesome. How about thinking about the finance partner side of the house? What's one thing that finance partners should better understand?

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_00] That we always can't control costs. I think that's the one thing, right? A lot of companies are driven by budget. And I know ULine is unique in some sense where, I mean, our workers come first. If the work needs done, the work needs done. So if there's overtime that needs to be done, it is what it is. So it's not always about the numbers at the end of the day. I think it's really great that they are looking at the people versus the numbers sometimes.

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_00] So I think we have a unique situation where we're at.

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. It sounds like you just have a great culture. I don't know if you respond to Pete's PPCI index. It's like the payroll, you know, sentiment index. But you're describing a culture and a payroll environment that a lot of people are craving and they just don't have it. Okay. Done with the rapid fire. Let's talk a little bit about payroll and the enterprise and technology and automation and some of that stuff.

[00:22:37] [SPEAKER_03] So payroll has to work with all the stakeholders, right? HR, finance, legal operations. Where you said you already you sit in HR in your organization and you like that. Where do you find handoffs most often break between and among those stakeholders?

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_00] You know, it's funny. I would say before we went to Workday, we saw it more often. But now that we're in one platform, we don't see it break as often anymore because we all have one system. So, I mean, there are things where I think companies like, oh, we find out about terms late. I think I work for a company that they're on it, right? Like we're making sure that if there's a termination in there, it's in there and it's processed timely. If someone gets a promotion or it's moved, it's done timely.

[00:23:24] [SPEAKER_00] We have checks and balances in place. I think Uniline is such a structure. So it's like we don't miss very many things. So we don't have many things break, which I think is really good.

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_03] That's awesome. And did you say also that you use Workday's admin module as well?

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_00] We do.

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_03] And you internally administer that? They do. Using Workday? Yeah. Yes. There's a lot more noise about that these days. You know, integrating the benefits platform as a part of the HCM and the capabilities have been lagging, significantly lagging for many years. And that's changing. So there's a lot more discussion about that. Do you like that? Does that contribute to having everything in one environment?

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_00] Pros and cons? Yeah. I don't think I have a pros or cons for it. That probably lands more on our benefit side. They might have a different idea or things on it. I know we have a lot of documents and PDFs that we store that's a little bit different than what we had before that I know has been a challenge for them. But really, at the end of the day, we have so many checks and balances in place. So it's kind of hard to miss things.

[00:24:27] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, or at least it's all in one system. And you don't spend the time reconciling data feed one to, you know, data receive two. Right. And I know that's frustrating for a lot of folks.

[00:24:40] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. That was something different going to Workday, right? Coming from ADP, everything's one system. So, yeah, we definitely have to audit a little bit more, right? Our quarterlies, our tax filings are periodic. Like, things are just a little bit different for us going through because we do have a lot more integration since Workday doesn't necessarily, like, they don't process the taxes. They'll do the calculations for the payroll, but we do have to have other vendors.

[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. And is tax, sometimes tax is owned in finance, even if payroll is in HR. So do you own it all? Is it all your cookie? It's all my cookie.

[00:25:09] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah.

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_03] Awesome.

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_00] So it's funny. Our accounting team, they own the GL part of our payroll. But no, tax compliance all still is under my.

[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Yeah. That's the one I most often see slip over to finance, and it just kind of depends on who wants the hotter potato of the whole mix, right? Okay. Well, so thinking about the fact that all the data is in one place and how awesome that is and how much you like that, what payroll data do leaders have access to that they just don't really know how to use or use well? And you're like, it's just right there, guys.

[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So we do have a lot of reports. We have like a manager dashboard that we use for our managers that they're able to pull certain reports. So we're looking at hours. They have access to some overtime reports. I guess it depends on what level of access you have in our system. But we've done a pretty good job of making sure our managers have access to the data they need. That was especially important when we went to work day. Like our managers didn't really have access to our system before. My team, when we were at ADP, were the only ones that can enter in the system.

[00:26:13] [SPEAKER_00] Employees couldn't even really see their time punches. And now they can see, okay, I clocked in and out. I can see my exact punch. I can see how many hours I have. So that's been a really great benefit for our employees that we didn't have before.

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. And do you feel like that's contributed to, I don't know, a lot of times we're hearing the word trust come up these days, right? Has it contributed to a greater trust by employees in the fact that, yeah, this is probably right and I could see it at any time. And, you know, I start to learn and know and experience what it is and why it changes. Or does it just create a lot of noise and confusion because any penny that changes from one thing to the next triggers a call?

[00:26:51] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, I mean, we definitely will get some calls. But I think what's been great is we've been able to build the trust with our employees. We get their pay right. It's accurate. If there's an issue, we would fix it right away. But I think giving them that visibility into the system, even requesting time off, it's not a send a note to your manager and he approves and you put on a calendar. You do it all in Workday now. So there's just been some great changes for our company, which has been good. I do think, you know, you always start with the trust until you lose it.

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So I think that's been really important for our team is we don't ever want to lose the trust of our employees.

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, makes sense. And especially if you don't have the misfortune of being starting in an organization that already lost the trust and you're the guy who has to bring it back, right? Right. So, so much happens in technology and automation and that sort of thing. So you've been at Uline for a while. You've gone through the implementation of Workday and certainly probably optimizations and enhancements along the way.

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_03] What can you tell us about, you know, any major enhancements or things still on your radar or even how you're starting to see AI or use AI that's embedded in the system?

[00:27:59] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, it's funny you ask that. So last week I had a team meeting and I challenged my team to use AI. We have co-pilot at Uline. So I just gave them a picture and said, caption this. And some of my teams never used AI before. Right. And it was really just to get them comfortable with it. I know like you always have to trust but validate. Like there are things that came through and like, as you can see, it's not always perfect. So you got to make sure you're validating the data that's in there. I think AI will be a big change for us.

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_00] I think it will help us be able to analyze things a little bit faster that we might have missed before. But I think you'll always have that human connection to it.

[00:28:36] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. And hey, don't you also want them to play with it as if they're an employee so that when something comes to them, they might know already, you know, well, hey, my employees are out doing me and this stuff. You know, they're already they're already exploring long before I even get to it. Are you doing that as like team, you know, like collaboration issues? I know I've been doing that with my teams just because we learn from each other. And there are people who are faster adopters than I am for sure that have a lot they could teach me. And there are others that just like, which screen do I use?

[00:29:06] [SPEAKER_03] And am I in a safe space to put something in here?

[00:29:09] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, I think that's what's kind of nice is we do have a safe space that we can kind of test and validate. I still tell my team like you can't we have to still watch any confidential information that we're putting there into the system because anyone can do it. You can read emails and you could have confidential information in there and it's things. Do we really want that to be out there? So it is giving my team the ability to go through and test and validate. I tell them, like, just try it. Like some of my team when they were like, I've never even used AI before. How do I get in here?

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_00] And then they're like, oh, that was really easy. This was great. Sometimes I think change is hard. I went to a conference. I don't remember the class, but it said AI won't replace an employee. That's right. But it will replace an employee who doesn't know how to use AI. Yeah, I think that's fair.

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, yeah, yeah. It kind of pushes you, right, to put yourself out there and figure it out. And it sounds like, you know, you also have a great environment where IT has already kind of set the governance, figured out where you can safely go and directed, you know, directed the teams to use the co-pilot. But that's got the right security clearance and it's all locked down and everything is kosher, right? And copacetic. Cool. Okay. So let's do something else a little bit like a rapid fire round.

[00:30:21] [SPEAKER_03] And I'm going to call it let's play this or that. Okay. Let's start with the best skill for a payroll leader. Would you say it's process discipline or judgment?

[00:30:34] [SPEAKER_00] Judgment.

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Especially more as the process is automated, right? Yes. I would have leaned the same direction as you. There's clearly no right or wrong. But you did say you were very process, like you had process strength. So I don't know which way you were going to go. Okay. How about better controls or faster processing? Better controls. True blue payroll diehard, right? Okay. How about exception? Some of these are dumb, right?

[00:31:03] [SPEAKER_03] How about exception reporting or manual reviews?

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_00] Exception reporting.

[00:31:08] [SPEAKER_03] Believe it or not, there are still practitioners out there that have done it one way and just are always going to do it that way. All right. How about system accuracy or team expertise?

[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_00] System accuracy.

[00:31:21] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, right?

[00:31:22] [SPEAKER_00] I think it starts with the system. If your system's not set up right, then you are doomed to fail. Or you need much bigger teams, right? Or you need much bigger teams, yes. Yeah.

[00:31:31] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. All right. Here's kind of a fun one. How about monthly close pressure or payroll cutoff pressure?

[00:31:38] [SPEAKER_00] Payroll cutoff pressure.

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah.

[00:31:39] [SPEAKER_00] I think it's hard to say no sometimes. So we've had to be very dedicated to saying, okay, we can't take any more changes because we tend to never want the employee to wait. So I think, yeah.

[00:31:49] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Yeah. All right. Cool.

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_00] Thank you for playing my silly little games.

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_03] How about let's switch a little bit to like risk, talent, skills and upskilling. Tell me a little bit about, you know, the resources on your team. We know most organizations have people that are going to age out, you know, before not. And we're all struggling to bring in younger workers and especially to this industry where you don't exactly raise your hand and try to get here. How, what are kind of the dynamics in Uline and on your team?

[00:32:19] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So that's interesting. I have a very tenured team. So my lowest tenured person just celebrated their fifth anniversary this year on my payroll side. And then my highest tenured person celebrated her 18th anniversary. Okay. So, you know, we've done a really, like we had a focus on cross training. So we didn't want one employee just to be that person who is the only one that knows it.

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_00] And that's even with myself. So my supervisor, I make sure that she knows everything that I know. I always tell her, if I win the lottery, sometimes it's if I get hit by a bus. But we say, if I win the lottery, if I win the lottery, I need you to know this. And I think the most difficult part is that knowledge you just know. Like going through that workday implementation and building it, there are just things you know that you can't always train. Right.

[00:33:13] [SPEAKER_00] So it's making sure that they understand the way the system works and making sure, hey, if this person's not here, we're able to cover their work. And we do that on both sides of our team. So I think that cross training is a big need.

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, I feel the same having, you know, gotten to a certain space in leadership where I have teams that support me and they're my lifeblood. But I also feel like if I don't know how to do the basics of the basic stuff, you know, that we're having junior or newer folks do, then I have that same risk of being out of touch and, you know, unable to really think through what's happening.

[00:33:51] [SPEAKER_03] You mentioned kind of a linear career path, right, at Uline, going from an early, you know, analyst up to a senior level role. Is that still the way payroll teams or HR and payroll teams are looking at their career progression? Or are you seeing things change?

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_00] You know, it's funny. I think my team might be unique in a sense because they're payroll people. And I think sometimes payroll isn't for everyone you just fall into and you try to figure it out. But sometimes I think payroll can be a starting point. When you're in payroll, you have access to see a lot of different things. So I think it also opens up a path that might not be payroll, but maybe it's benefits that you're interested in. You're seeing it. You understand it. Maybe it's leave administration or compensation. It's funny.

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_00] I know you talked to Sarah Severson yesterday. And I helped in comp a little bit and it was a little bit of a struggle for me going from a very black and white, like right or wrong answer to, am I doing this right? There's gray in it. So I think sometimes you have to be able to force yourself to be able to handle different things. But yes, my path was like that. But I don't think that has to be everyone's path.

[00:35:02] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, yeah. Do you know, do you actually promote or do you see much within your own team conversations, explicit conversations about where do you want to be? Is there, you know, I don't want to lose any of my great payroll talent. But by the same token, I don't want our company to lose a great piece of talent that really just wants to try a different dimension. They say Gen Zs are very much like that, right? I've got three of them. They feel like it.

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, I think it's fine. We do always try to promote within if we can. I mean, I have a pretty senior level team on my payroll side. Most of them are actually all of them are all senior payroll administrators. And then we have our supervisor. But if they came to me and said, hey, I want to try this. I'm open for it. I would much rather keep them in our company, especially as being a good employee, than to lose them to somebody else. So it's we always open that. Hey, what if you're interested, go do a side by side.

[00:35:56] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. With it.

[00:35:56] [SPEAKER_00] Or, hey, do you? It's funny. We will ask, like, is leadership an interest?

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, not everybody, especially in payroll or data fields. Not everybody wants to manage people.

[00:36:06] [SPEAKER_00] No. And I think that's the thing where they're like, they do it inadvertently. Like they're, you know, helping train and they're doing different things. But that leadership part, they're like, I don't know if I want that. And it's not for everyone. And I think that's OK. Yeah. I think as a leader, you have to be OK with someone saying, hey, I'm comfortable with where I'm at. And I just want to do this. And then you also have to be able to find some of those people are like, hey, I think you can do this. Are you sure this? Like, I think at Uline and even stuff, like you have to take control of your own destiny.

[00:36:36] [SPEAKER_00] And if that's what you want to do or that's, I will, we will be there to support you and get you there. I think that's one thing where it's always like, I'm for my team getting their CPP. Three of my, three of my team members have their CPP. If that's why they want to go, hey, let's do this. But I also say, too, like, if payroll's not where you want to be and they're like, I think I want to do my CPP. Do you really want to do your CPP if you're not sure if payroll's one of there? Because I'm not sure I would have went, like, I have my CPP. And if payroll wasn't my love and passion, I'm probably sure I would have been like, I don't want to put that time and energy into doing this.

[00:37:06] [SPEAKER_00] But, yeah, so I think there's a balance.

[00:37:08] [SPEAKER_03] I think, I hate to say it, but I think that about a lot of the credentials. I'm like, oh, gosh, I'm so glad nobody's mandating. I have to have that because I think I'm fairly proficient. I'm no expert, but I really don't want to, you know, dig into that level and do that. When you have a next hire, which it sounds like you have a great season team. So, you know, unless something happens or somebody moves or life changes happen, you might not necessarily need to recruit.

[00:37:32] [SPEAKER_03] But would you, are there new or different skills or things that you would look at differently when you're thinking about new or adding payroll talent to the team?

[00:37:44] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, I think looking at some of those technical skills, right, we, it's not just processing. It's funny because when you have a system that processes it for you, sometimes it just processes and it's just, okay, I did this step, this step, and this step. I think my, like, what we need to look for is who, like, do you understand some of the rules and the guidance and the compliance of it? Because that's what's ever changing. I think you can teach anyone how to process the payroll, right?

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_02] Right, right.

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_00] Steps. Steps, yeah. But can you teach them to understand why they're doing it and why we can't do certain things?

[00:38:17] [SPEAKER_03] Right, right. And are there any particular adjacencies that, that pique your interest? I know you get involved in a lot of probably hairy time things and absences, you know, loads, buckets, oh fun, right? You know, that sort of thing. What are the, what are the areas that you kind of gravitate toward that are adjacent to payroll?

[00:38:37] [SPEAKER_00] Actually, in the compliance piece, I know I talked to you that my team owns some of the paid sick leave. Right. Like, we're making sure it's there. I love that stuff. Like, it's funny, it's not necessarily a payroll process, but we kind of take it on because we're the end result. We're making sure the system is set up correct. But I love that. Like, and if there's a problem my team comes to me, I'll always go back to them and say, hey, you come, like, you tell me what you want the answer to be. I don't want to do it.

[00:39:05] [SPEAKER_00] But sometimes I love being able to dig into the details and figure something out.

[00:39:08] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, yeah. In a day where it just feels like everything's been so, like, high level or, you know, esoteric, sometimes it's good just to take some piece of data and something and just dive into it and let your brain go deep. I know, payroll people are so weird, right? All right. Well, how about this? When you find your payroll professionals that want a broader role, what types of experiences do you think they should be seeking out?

[00:39:36] [SPEAKER_00] Well, yeah, so it's interesting. So I always will tell them, let me know, like, are there classes you want to take? Even if it's not payroll, is there a leadership class? Is there an Excel class? Is there, like, sometimes, right, payroll is repetitive and it's a process and you need outside of it.

[00:39:55] [SPEAKER_00] But, like, I have two of my team who's going to Congress this year, which I think will be really good for them because when you're in the day-to-day and you don't get to see everything, you get to see a broader, you know, array of classes. And they are technical. Let me, I always tell them, like, go to the ones you don't think you'll like. Like, go look at the California law. Go look at the New York law one. Like, things that we have to deal with but you just kind of understand a basic level, like, that's what I always challenge them to do.

[00:40:24] [SPEAKER_00] Like, I know it might not sound great. I think that's probably the tax nerd in me a little bit is, like, but those are the most important pieces of it.

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. I love that advice and linking it to payroll Congress because that is the, you know, the Super Bowl of events, right, for payroll folks. And it's where you and I met last. It is. We were connected by a mutual friend that works with me now who worked with you and worked with Sarah. So by now, I think when, by the time this episode airs, folks can go and listen to Sarah's episode as well.

[00:40:59] [SPEAKER_03] And you handled kind of the payroll end of the stick and then she did the compensation and benefits portion, right? Yes. So you'll hear both experiences rounded out a little bit. And she did tell me to rib you a little bit about your black and white nature versus, you know, loving the gray spots. And there are certainly domains in HR that love gray.

[00:41:22] [SPEAKER_00] Yes, I know. That was my, like, being at this conference because this is my first time here and coming from the payroll perspective to a comp and benefits perspective, like even walking around the expo, I'm like, I don't know many of these vendors and what's going on, but it's nice to hear different perspectives. And it's nice to learn different things. And I think that's what I would always challenge someone to do.

[00:41:44] [SPEAKER_00] Like, even if payroll is your passion or compensation is your passion, it benefits you to, like, learn a little bit about the other standpoints or other things. Because a lot of your work comes from there. And I think when you can understand where they're coming from, it kind of helps you see things from their perspective, not just, well, no, we have to have it this way and that's how it is. But it could be, well, this is how we have to do it.

[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_03] So, yeah, that's a great tip. And it also goes right to, you know, maybe attending payroll congress folks that are there. I always feel like even if you're super content with whatever system or technology you use, you really need to kind of just keep your eyes open to what's out there. And, you know, and it's very easy to get kind of siloed into being an expert in something, a platform, workday only or ADP only or day force or whoever, anyone that it may be.

[00:42:39] [SPEAKER_03] I also think, you know, that there's a lot of times pairing. So no matter what you choose, certain organizations are going to do basic comp in their core system and they might need an HR software, a Deku software, some of the folks that are here because they have some just freaky, you know, compensation things. And so it just helps you get a little better perspective. And if you're someone in payroll who's been in the same industry forever, like the same company or the same industry, industries are very different.

[00:43:09] [SPEAKER_03] You know, your industry has some really cool things with frontline workers and warehouses and timekeepers that resemble, you know, like other other companies and other industries. But they don't at all resemble, you know, an energy company or some other type of company. And so there's patterns out there. And a lot of numbers people are also patterns people. And just being able to recognize, oh, that's a big deal because that's, you know, health care. And that always happens in health care. But thank God I don't have to.

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_03] It might make you feel better about your messes too, right? Yes. Oh, thank God I don't have to deal with that terrible mess. I'm never going to go work for a health care company or whatever it is. Cool. All right. Well, let's think about just, you know, kind of some closing thoughts or some suggestions for other HR or payroll leaders. What's something you think that every HR or payroll leader really needs to understand about how these things all fit and where they're headed?

[00:44:06] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, I think it's that we're a team, right? That it's not just you against me or us against each other. At the end of the day, we all have a common goal. And I think that's what's important to recognize is it's not a power struggle. It's we have the common goal and we all need to work together.

[00:44:24] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah, so true. So true. And a lot of times there's so much emphasis on, you know, payroll will say, well, you know, the problem obviously is with my paycheck, but I didn't create this problem. You know, and so there's a little bit of just not wanting to be the fall guy for everything, I think. But there's an awful lot about building relationships with stakeholders. And maybe do HR and payroll people interact pretty fluidly at Uline? Or how about with the finance team?

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_00] The same? Yeah, we do. So I think because we sit in HR, we're there, but we have a good relationship. So like our business partners know they can come to us for questions. If we have a question, I can go to compensation and ask them. I could go to anyone within our HR department and ask them a question. But that's the same thing with finance. I think that's really important. What you said, Julie, is you have to build those relationships and you have to build that trust. Right? I always tell my team, like, we're an in-person company, so we're not remote.

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER_00] So for us to go up and see someone, it's a lot easier. I always tell them sometimes, like, don't just send them an email. Pick up the phone and call them. Sometimes it's easier just to have the conversation that things are lost in translation. So it's building those relationships and building that trust, I think, is really important.

[00:45:38] [SPEAKER_03] Yeah. Excellent. Excellent advice. What's next on your radar? Like, what's a big thing you're looking forward to tackling here in the coming months or years?

[00:45:48] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. So I know we've been in Workday for a while, but now it's just really honing in on are we doing things the best we possibly can? Are our processes as streamlined as they can be? So I think that's our focus right now. We spent so much time implementing and doing different things. Now we need to see, okay, now we understand the system. Now we know how it works. How can we make it work better for us? What tools or things don't we know that we're missing that we can go?

[00:46:17] [SPEAKER_00] I know that Workday Rising is coming up. There's some things we can learn from there. So we're sending people out there. But it's just never stop asking. That's what I always tell my team. I'm like, ask for it. They might, like, our systems team might tell us no, right? But if we don't ask, we don't know.

[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_02] Right, right.

[00:46:34] [SPEAKER_00] And if it makes our job easier, even if it's minutes, like it's a report that needs to be updated, that you're doing things a little bit different, ask for it. It might take some time to get it done. But don't be afraid to ask.

[00:46:46] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah, yeah.

[00:46:47] [SPEAKER_03] Are you finding that they do ask or inform you enough? So I don't know when your next Workday renewal is, but a lot of times new modules are coming in or new features and capabilities get added. And, you know, the natural next question is, well, why? What can I do with that? You know, would you even know ahead of time? Are they good at that?

[00:47:06] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, they are. I think our systems team is, like, they're looking at things that's happening and things that are coming out. So they're coming to us and saying, like, when we have, you know, our biannual updates that come through for Workday, a lot of the things are, okay, let's just see if we can get through this. And then we'll go back and see, hey, here's our optional features. Do any of these interest you? Hey, I'll configure this in the system and let you test it. So I think that's been a really good relationship. But you have to have those partnerships built.

[00:47:34] [SPEAKER_00] And you have to be able to push back sometimes, I think. Sometimes you're like, I don't know if I can do this. And it's like, okay, that's fine, but I'm still going to ask for it.

[00:47:43] [SPEAKER_03] Exactly. Well, Chrissy, this has been great. These are the types of conversations that I love to have with practitioners, just going deep into what, you know, what's on, what makes your payroll world tick and what you're seeing. So thank you so much for taking time out of the conference and spending it with us. Where can people reach you?

[00:48:01] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, so I have a LinkedIn. You can find me, Chrissy Durst. But yeah, I look forward to any questions, please.

[00:48:08] [SPEAKER_03] All right. Awesome. And I know I've mentioned before that we also interviewed Sarah. And so there's a podcast episode that was with your counterpart before she left and went to a smaller, fast-growing company, but that knew, like, the other half of the puzzle, right? With comps. So shout out to Sarah's episode. Hopefully folks will want to go give that a listen and just see both halves of the Uline talent expertise team, you know, before.

[00:48:32] [SPEAKER_03] And I didn't do this on the last episode, but shout out to Pam Haley, who is the glue that connected us together and got us introduced. And just a fabulous resource and great people know great people. So I'm always happy to meet and know folks through this medium and through others in these conferences and events. Hope I'll see you at a coming one.

[00:48:52] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, thanks, Julie. Thank you for having me. Yep, my pleasure.

[00:48:54] [SPEAKER_03] Bye, everyone.

[00:48:55] [SPEAKER_00] Bye.

[00:48:56] Bye.