Who replaces payroll’s most experienced people?

Payroll has always prided itself on being a profession people stay in, and our latest Payroll Salary Guide 2026/27 shows just how true that remains. Over a third of respondents now have more than twenty years of experience, and one in five have been in the profession for over thirty. Both figures are higher than last year. It is a powerful endorsement of payroll as a career capable of sustaining decades of rewarding work.

At the other end of the scale, early-career professionals are a shrinking presence. Those with fewer than six years’ experience now account for less than a fifth of respondents, a proportion that has fallen consistently over the past two years. Put the two trends together and the concern becomes that experienced professionals are steadily approaching retirement, however new talent is not entering the profession quickly enough to replace them. This is not a single employer’s recruitment headache. It is a structural challenge for the payroll profession as a whole.

Why is the payroll talent pipeline narrowing?

The wider labour market makes it harder still. Canada’s youth unemployment rate* for those aged 15 to 24 has reached a 15-year high, excluding the pandemic period, at 14.6%. There is, in other words, a generation of potential entrants who could be drawn into payroll, at exactly the moment the profession needs them. Yet in an uncertain climate, many businesses are keeping teams lean and favouring experienced hires over the slower work of nurturing junior talent. It is an understandable instinct, yet a risky one.

The risk is that the pipeline keeps narrowing. Every year that businesses default to experienced hires is a year fewer people enter at the bottom and begin the climb toward the mid and senior roles that are already the hardest to fill. The shortage at the top and the shortage at the bottom are the same problem viewed from different ends.

Practical steps to build a payroll team that lasts

So what can businesses do about it? The good news is that building a sustainable payroll team does not have to start with a large training budget. Some of the most effective steps cost very little beyond time and commitment, and they often deliver the most value because they draw on the knowledge and experience already sitting within the team.

Internal coaching is the natural place to begin. Your most experienced payroll professionals hold years of practical knowledge about your systems, your workforce and the judgment calls that never make it into a process manual, and much of that knowledge will leave with them when they retire unless it is deliberately passed on. Making coaching a recognized part of senior roles, with time properly set aside for it rather than squeezed in around year-end deadlines, turns individual expertise into something the whole team benefits from and gives senior staff a meaningful way to shape the next generation of the profession.

A buddy system is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to put this into practice. Pairing a new or junior team member with an experienced colleague gives them someone to turn to with the questions they might hesitate to raise in a team meeting, shortens the time it takes for them to work confidently on their own, and helps them feel part of the team from day one, which matters a great deal in those early months when new starters are most likely to leave.

Professional membership is another inexpensive lever that is easy to overlook. There are encouraging signs that the profession is investing in itself, with 4% more professionals holding a National Payroll Institute membership this year than last. Supporting your team to join gives them access to a wider network of peers, regular updates on compliance and legislative change, and a source of information and advice that extends well beyond their own organization. For junior professionals in particular, that sense of belonging to a profession rather than simply holding a job can be what persuades them to build a long-term career in payroll. Certifications and designations continue to matter to clients for the same reason, signalling that an employer takes the function seriously, but membership and credentials work best when there are people coming through to earn them.

Planning for succession, not just replacement

Perhaps most importantly, all of this needs to sit within a clear succession plan. With such a large proportion of the profession approaching retirement, every payroll function should know who holds its critical knowledge, when those people are likely to step back, and who is being prepared to step up in their place. Identifying potential successors early, giving them gradual exposure to more complex work, and documenting key processes well before they are needed means that a retirement becomes a planned transition rather than a sudden gap that has to be filled at short notice in a competitive market.

Paid training still has an important role to play, but it is most effective as part of a wider culture of development rather than a substitute for one. The businesses best placed for the long term are those willing to hire on attitude, aptitude and communication skills as much as track record, and then to invest in developing those people through coaching, mentoring, professional networks and education. It is slower than buying in experience, but it builds loyal, capable professionals who understand the organization from the inside, and it is the only sustainable answer to a profession that is aging faster than it is replenishing.

Our full Payroll Salary Guide 2026/27 explores the workforce data in detail, including experience, tenure and mobility trends across the country. If you are thinking about how to build a payroll team that lasts, it is worth a read.

*“Canada’s youth unemployment rate” — https://www.statcan.gc.ca  (link the specific monthly Labour Force Survey release carrying the 14.6% figure)