Lessons from leaders: How top companies align finance, HR, and payroll for success

May 11, 2025

Sara Maginn Pacella

When someone says they work for a “top company,” what comes to mind? A large company, an award-winning company, a company celebrated for positive corporate culture, innovation, employee satisfaction, reach, or reputation – or a combination of all the above?
No matter how you define it, an essential quality of top companies is the people who work there. These are the people who lead and become advocates and champions for their industry and profession. In human capital management (HCM), people who work among industry leaders can align finance, human resources (HR) and payroll, contributing to the overall success of their organization.
HCM Dialogue was fortunate to gain insight from two such leaders, Marty Sokolov, PLP, F.NPI, Acc.Dir, a Senior Customer Success Manager at Workday and board member for National Payroll Institute, and Carolyn Lesyshen, PLP, Payroll Supervisor at Servus Credit Union and past Chair of National Payroll Institute Board. With decades of combined experience in pa

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Fostering cross-departmental collaboration

Marty Sokolov says, “Collaboration begins at the top for these three departments, from executive sponsorship to representation for each pillar to best understand the touchpoints of each department.” She adds that regular scheduled meetings, often on a quarterly basis, allow the departments to review their common and overlapping objectives and standard key performance indicators and other metrics. Sokolov also emphasizes the importance of using the same software to enable data to flow from planning to hiring to retirement. Using one system across the board reduces discrepancies caused by having different data sets in different departments.

Carolyn Lesyshen echoes Sokolov’s comments, asserting that communication is key to understanding each other needs and requirements and that use of an integrated human resource management system (HRIS) system, something she is currently rolling out with her employer this year, will help foster continuous improvement in all departments and limit risks. She adds that having one system that updates in real time across all departments eliminates the question of what your source of truth is.

” Collaboration begins at the top for these three departments, from executive sponsorship to representation for each pillar to best understand the touchpoints of each department. ”

Addressing common challenges & opportunities

Sokolov speaks to a gap in opportunities to collaborate on a strategic level, with one key player not necessarily having a seat at the table. She says, “If you consider payroll in relation to HR and finance at the executive level, you’ll notice that most organizations have a Chief Human Resources Officer and a Chief Financial Officer, however there is no Chief Payroll Officer. Consider this: if payroll doesn’t have an executive role, and aligns either to HR or finance, they are often left out of critical and strategic conversations.”

To change this paradigm, Sokolov reminds us that organizations need to ensure that payroll is represented in executive-level meetings where payroll resources will be utilized, as they are equipped to understand compliance and the nuances needed to execute in a timely manner.

Lesyshen adds that when all three pillars work together to solve complex issues facing the business, it creates organizational unity, trust and transparency.

Refining payroll processes together

To get the best collaboration in shared processes, Lesyshen recommends starting with the common touch points between all three departments. Professionally, her team boasts a 1 percent error rate. She says, “When handling new tasks or tasks that haven’t been completed in a long time, team members proactively collaborate with each other or consult me to ensure correct processing. Additionally, we collaborate closely with HR and finance to ensure the accuracy of the data and address any discrepancies, reinforcing a culture of quality control and continuous learning.”

As a part of procedural improvements, both recommend regular meetings, with all three stakeholders to plan what is coming down the pipeline and determine each pillar’s role. Regular reviews should include honest conversation and continuous feedback about:

What’s working?
What isn’t working?
Who is going to fix the specific issue moving forward?

Regular audits individually and collectively can enhance understanding of gaps to ensure ongoing improvements and efficiencies.

Training and development

No matter what pillar you represent within your organization, embodying and encouraging education as a leader can help retain employees, empower staff, build workplace relationships and better develop leadership skills for the future of your profession.

Creating an environment of learning and allowing staff to apply professional development within their department and beyond serves the organization in many ways. Sokolov concludes, “Ongoing training and development for all teams involved is essential to keeping everyone updated on evolving payroll, HR and financial best practices.”

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