A cool rock song could help explain the process, or you could drop by the payroll office on the Allen Center's second floor and meet the six people who make it all happen. Sometimes they might even offer you food. Led by Darlene Banning, payroll manager, and Gwen Aldridge, assistant manager, the payroll office processes nine payrolls each month, or about 100,000 checks each year. There are five different types of payroll, and four of those are processed twice each month. There are a lot of opportunities for something to go wrong with the payroll process, Banning and Aldridge explained.
Most problems happen when a new employee is hired.
Sometimes the paperwork process doesn't work quite like it's supposed to, and employees don't get their checks on time. Once employees are entered into the payroll computer system, the process generally runs smoothly, with only the occasional glitch. Banning and Aldridge encourage all employees to review their paychecks, just to make sure everything is correct. Once a payroll is processed, the checks are printed and signed by the administrative systems office and then sent back to payroll, where a machine stuffs all the checks into envelopes. Aldridge noted that the payroll office has used a machine to do the stuffing for only about two years.