Now that we've covered why implementing GHR Payroll is different than previous versions, let's discuss defining your project team and what their responsibilities should be. Make it a priority to ensure that the functional team lead can be fully dedicated throughout the lifecycle of the project. This is not a situation where someone can only dedicate a few extra hours a week to design your new payroll system. Instead, you need to backfill & have someone handle their usual duties so that they aren't distracted, ideally for the duration of the project.
If you've got someone in place to alleviate the day-to-day operations, then your functional team lead can be fully available to make decisions about what the new system should look like. Since they know what the problems and pain points are, they're in the best position to decide how to fix them. You don't want a lead from HR or finance side because they're not in the weeds dealing with payroll and its downstream effects on a day-to-day basis.
Although this isn't the person who's going to design everything, they are responsible for ensuring that everyone has collaborated to make a decision and agree upon the future state design. The functional team lead is also a sort of tiebreaker since there are times when nobody can make a decision, but one has to be made to move forward. They are the one to either make the decision or be the one that takes responsibility to run it up the flag pole and get some answers so that you don't veer off schedule. They will also work with your partner's project team to identify testing scenarios and training.
Next week, we'll dive into the responsibilities of the super users, as well as the technical team.
