Payroll Controller & Reporting Manager – DSM, Geleen

Last year DSM announced that its Engineering Materials Business will become part of a newly created joint venture, together with LANXESS’s High-Performance Materials business, which will be co-owned by Advent International (60%) and LANXESS (40%). This will create a new global specialty materials company with the focus and investment that can drive the development of customer-focused innovation, in particular for the industry’s transition to bio-based and circular solutions. The transaction will create a platform for further growth for the business and its people. Completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions and approvals are expected in H1 2023.

To establish this leading global engineering materials company we will continue to hire into our DSM Engineering Materials business to strengthen the foundation for the new organization. This is the perfect time to influence change, challenge the status quo, be part of something new and exciting, craft, create, and develop the best in ALL WORLDS and be part of something truly innovative, inspirational, and transformational, Creating brighter lives for all.

Do you want to be part of this exciting journey ahead? Do you love working in an international, highly energized, and collaborative team?

Maybe it’s you we are looking for in our global HR team, as our new Payroll controller and Reporting Manager

Up for the challenge?

As payroll controller you are a key person in our team providing valuable insights in wage cost and head count development and HR reporting. You are the linking pin between the global HR and finance colleagues. Global payrolling is your key knowledge area and for this you are the product owner of the wage costs dashboard and the wage costs posting RPA/tooling. You are subject matter expert and participate in Finance & HR projects (onboardings/carve outs, forecasting etc.) and take ownership for continuous improvements on payroll to finance activities and HR reporting.

You drive the payroll to finance process and HR reporting across the regions and ensure proper knowledge transfer, information sharing, standardization and continuous improvement regarding your area of expertise.

Audit Support:

You support LEC with payroll related items in audits (e.g. Interim/Year-end-audit & specific audits related to government grants). As Payroll Controller you are responsible for the content of the accrual build-up and knowledge of the payroll process. The LEC is the first point of contact for the auditors and responsible for making the reconciliation between Payroll and the local books. For the Interim/Year-end-audit the you will support the LEC with specific questions on build-up of accruals, balance sheet items related to payroll and explanations on process and cost developments. For the government grants you will support with detailed reporting of actual costs with substantiations on wage types and supporting documentation.

Business Advice:

• Budgeting/Forecasting: For the Budget and forecast cycles the business should get the latest/current payroll data. This means that you have to provide – before the start of these cycles – basic salary info such as details per employee on salary scale (incl. mid/end point) and input to calculate financial impact on open budget vacancies. Data should include the local CLA for the coming period(s).
• Advice and support in substantiation of Payroll related Balance sheet items to provide the business on a monthly/quarterly basis with the information needed to ensure the correct amounts are posted in their books which might lead to accruals, to have a view on total level what the impact of the changes are on the balance sheet items and what the status of the specific balance sheets items is and whether corrective actions have to be taken.

The payroll controller supports further standardization and automation and robotization of the payroll posting process.

• This means that you define solutions to optimize the payroll to finance process within the payroll system leading to a perfect basis to automate. As Payroll controller you act as Subject Matter Expert (SME) in HR-driven projects to assure financial impact is correctly included/embedded & verified before go-live in order to prevent negative impact.
• You also analyze HR Payroll impact by organizational changes/shared services onboarding/financial onboarding new sites.

Payroll Check: As payroll controller, you check the initial posting run with regard to the impact on the company, GL account level, and new wage types being mapped to the GL account to prevent corrections on wage costs afterward. Large deviations need to be explained. After any corrections, the final payroll data will be posted on the SAP R3 books.

Payroll Reporting: you set up and maintain payroll reporting to improve insights. The aim is to create a standard wage cost dashboard by using payroll cluster data on the employee levels delivered by the payroll provider. The purpose is to give insights into wage costs developments including monthly deviations and preparing reconciliation data for ICF controls

Payroll Knowledge training: You train mentioned users on basic wage cost knowledge and ensure knowledge is shared throughout the team.

Are you the one?

Ideally, you have a background in Business/Economics with relevant payroll and HR reporting experience in a global company. You combine strong accounting knowledge with attention to detail, and strong analytical and numerical skills. You understand and comply with all SOX controls and departmental processes and procedures. SAP knowledge is key in this role as well.

Strong written and verbal communication skills are required as you will be collaborating with people at all levels and from different backgrounds across the globe. Speaking English fluently is a must.