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Industry Trends: What’s Shaping Payroll in 2025/26
AI adoption, flexible working, and professional qualifications have joined salary and benefits as decisive factors in where today’s payroll professionals choose to build their careers.
This year’s guide digs into four of the biggest shifts we’re seeing across the profession: how payroll teams are starting to adopt AI, how working patterns are settling into a new normal, what benefits professionals actually value, and why qualifications are becoming a bigger part of career progression. Here’s what the data shows.
Is AI actually making it into payroll teams?
AI adoption in payroll is still in its early stages: just 12% of payroll functions are actively using AI or automation tools, and a further 13.5% are testing options. The majority — 53.5% — aren’t currently considering it at all. But the barriers are organisational rather than technical: lack of time or resources (25%), leadership not prioritising it (22%), and budget (21%) are cited far more often than any lack of belief in what AI could do.
Where teams are using AI, it’s overwhelmingly through the tools already built into their payroll software (42%), rather than bespoke platforms — a low-risk way to start. And there’s a clear view on who should lead adoption: 71% of respondents think payroll teams themselves should drive it, not IT or external consultants, with confidence in that view rising sharply at senior levels.
What does a typical working week look like now?
0%
Now work 2 days from home — the most common arrangement, up from 19% in 2024
0%
Had no change to their working arrangement in the last year
0%
Rate their current working arrangement 4 or 5 out of 5
Office attendance has stabilised after last year’s push back to in-person work. Fully office-based roles have dropped three points to 15%, four-day remote weeks have eased back, and two days in the office, three at home is now the norm. Employers are still nudging for more time on-site, particularly for new joiners, but employee expectations have barely moved — most people already have the balance they want.
After salary and benefits, working arrangements remain the single biggest reason payroll professionals change jobs, so the gap between employer policy and employee preference is one employers can’t afford to ignore.
Which benefits actually move the needle?
0%
Would use festive shut-down leave if offered — the single most valued benefit
0%
Want a bonus if they don’t already get one
0%
Would use a hardship loan if available — currently the most undervalued benefit
0%
Rate their overall benefits package 4 or 5 out of 5
Benefits now sit alongside salary and working arrangements as one of the three most decisive factors in job mobility. Bonuses remain patchy — 58% of payroll professionals received none in the past year — while flexible extras like early Friday finishes and birthday leave are cheap to offer and highly valued when they are.
The biggest opportunity, though, is in the benefits professionals want but rarely get: 86% would use childcare support and 89% would use a hardship loan if their employer offered one, yet both remain rare. For employers, benchmarking against what people actually use — not just what looks good on paper — is now central to attracting and keeping payroll talent.
Do qualifications still matter?
Qualified payroll professionals are typically paid around 8% more — and are far more likely to be trusted with complex legislation, compliance, and strategic decisions.
Qualifications are becoming less of a nice-to-have and more of a baseline expectation, particularly at senior level — 68% of Heads of Payroll and Directors hold a qualification, compared with 60% at manager level and just half of entry-level professionals.
For candidates, that gap is also a lever: qualified professionals are more competitive in the market, more likely to move into leadership roles, and increasingly able to negotiate funded study as part of their package. For employers, funding qualifications is no longer just a perk — it is quickly becoming one of the clearest ways to invest in retention.