Payroll is one of the largest costs any business has. The employer must have confidence that their payroll staff are fully competent to run all aspects of payroll so that staff are paid correctly and on time, while also ensuring compliance with legislation.

• Hiring the wrong payroll person can put your business at substantial financial risk in not paying employees correctly as well as the risk of legal action. In addition, it can result in employees losing confidence in the employer being able to pay them on time and correctly.

Selecting a competent payroll practitioner is, therefore, essential and the NZPPA certification framework has been designed to assess competence based on the five levels of certification.

Our certification framework has been prepared in conjunction with the payroll industry and is an essential part of developing payroll as a recognised profession in New Zealand.

How certification can be used for the selection of new payroll staff

We have created a special page that mirrors the NZPPA certification online process which is customised to suit the selection of a new payroll staff member. To assess competence at a specific certification level the following is undertaken:

1. Depending on the type of payroll role, we will help you match the requirements of your payroll role/position to one of the five certification levels.
2. Your candidate will complete the online application and supporting documents used to undertake the initial assessment on the appropriate certification level they can undertake based on their skills and experience. We will advise at this point if the candidate is not suitable for the role they have applied for.
3. If the candidate is assessed to be suitable to undertake the certification level that links to the position sought, they will complete the online assessment based on a question bank of over 400 payroll-related questions (questions are selected from the bank based on the certification level and candidates will have different timeframes to answer based on the certification level). This online assessment can be conducted at your location under supervision.
4. Once the online assessment has been completed we will report on the result with a “competent” or “not yet competent” result and provide a written response on any areas of weakness that the assessment has identified. If needed the candidate can attempt the assessment up to three times as questions are selected on a random basis so the same set of questions cannot be repeated.

How to arrange NZPPA certification

If you would like to discuss how NZPPA certification can be used for the selection of a new payroll staff member and the cost involved, please email: [email protected]