Anyone work in Payroll / HR Department? Need advice on classes

[Can219]

Hello. I am pursuing an HR degree but I also love dealing with numbers....I'm thinking of focusing on Payroll. So my questions are what classes should I focus on? SO far I have decided to take: compensation management, employee benefits, training concepts, labor relations as some of my business/HR electives. What do companies like to see you take to pursue payroll or do these classes work?

Also I am thinking about doing a double major by completing an accounting degree. Would this help me land a payroll job? Or would a different degree go better with the HR degree?

Thanks!

[cannoda]

Also I am thinking about doing a double major by completing an accounting degree. Would this help me land a payroll job? Or would a different degree go better with the HR degree?

Thanks!

Three things: First, payroll is one of the easiest functions to outsource to companies like ADP, Paychex, Intuit, or a local CPA or storefront bookkeeping practice and a substantial proportion of companies DO outsource payroll. This is true for companies of ANY size. I would forget about payroll as a career goal.

Second -- a 2-year accounting degree would be sufficient to do payroll and would typically be one part of a full-charge bookkeeper role.

Three --Payroll would be considered a marginal job for someone with a 4-year accounting degree except for very large organizations. Even in such organizations, a payroll manager would be rank near the bottom of the accounting-finance pecking order.

[mrs.b]

What cannoda said, pretty much in full.

If you're looking for a happy medium that applies numbers and HR in one go, look into Industrial/Organizational Psychology. It is literally the application of measurable metrics to HR. Much of the usage comes in determining whether selection, performance review, and promotion processes do not create disparate impact, and how to properly do job evaluations to determine essential job functions using measurables. There are tons of other uses, but those are the most common I've seen. A LOT of statistics is used, so if the Intro Stats course for the general BSBA degree is not a challenge, it might be up your alley to look at some more.

To rain on that suggested parade just a little, you'll need a graduate degree in it to get much more than an HR Generalist position with most employers (which you could also get with a BSBA-HROM from TESC). Also, a lot of I/O Psych degree-holders are self-employed consultants, so it's a potential option if you'd like to be self-employed (with all the pitfalls that can go with it). Many are consultants because very few companies 1) realize the usefulness of it, and 2) are large enough to justify keeping an I/O Psych on staff full-time. That said, if you do not want to be self-employed, a grad degree in it can open doors to some of those higher, shinier management roles at the top of the HR chain, though you will likely not be putting your I/O degree to use as much as you might like. The last downside is that many will not know what I/O Psychology is, or how it differs from more traditional Psychology degrees, unless/until you tell them.

If you're interested after that thunderstorm, it's really interesting if you're at all interested in that sort of thing. I'm a numbers person as well, and am undecided between an MAcc and a Masters in I/O Psych. After being in HR for a while, I'm leaning heavily towards the MAcc. I like parts of HR, but not enough to make up for the parts I do not. That, and...I did well in that Intro Statistics course, but it was enough of a taste to know I do not want to take any higher-level Stats courses.

[Can219]

Thanks for the info. Again this just goes back to the fact that I have struggled so much with deciding a major. I had to finally "choose" something. I can read descriptions of occupations all day long but not really understand what they do? It will probably be good for me to have a "general" HR position for the experience of course but If I like it TESC offers a masters in HR. I still may do accounting as a second major and if I like it just may go into that field. I just want to have options because when we move back from South Korea who knows where we will land? I appreciate your responses.