The Scout Association is one of the UK’s largest youth volunteer organisations, with a dedicated team of 500 paid staff supporting over 500,000 Scouts as well as 88,000 frontline adult volunteers and 19,500 young leaders.

“We have a fairly complex set-up,” explains Vishal Badiani, the Scout Association’s Payroll Operations Manager. “There are multiple allowances and three different ways that employees can pay into the pension, including a salary sacrifice option.”

Making sure everything is configured correctly, and that contributions go to the pension provider accurately, is critical. Yet, until recently, this complexity was managed via a payroll system that had been in place for 25 years. This brought multiple challenges.

“Our old payroll system required constant manipulation just to get the numbers right,” Vishal says. “Everything had to be manually maintained. Pension reports, for example, needed significant tidying up to meet our pension provider’s requirements, and tasks like National Minimum Wage checks were handled as separate manual processes. At the same time, generating information for finance and HR was cumbersome.

The search for a future-ready solution

The tipping point came when the Scout Association’s existing payroll provider announced it would be retiring its solution from April 1st 2026. Determined to embrace a more modern, future-proof approach, Vishal and his team began evaluating software suppliers against several key requirements.

“We were looking for a cloud-based solution so that we didn’t have to maintain our own servers or infrastructure,” Vishal says. “Security was also non-negotiable, as was automation, HMRC compliance and the ability to export information easily to finance and pension systems.”

The Scout Association team screened around 14 potential suppliers, but quickly eliminated several that either couldn’t support an organisation of its size, or required on-premise setups. However, Zellis immediately stood out with its Zellis HCM AIR solution.

“We read a number of positive client references from Zellis customers, including those with thousands of employees,” Vishal says. “We also saw it had strong Trustpilot feedback.”

But it was Zellis’ proactive early contact, exceptionally clear documentation and the high level of support it offered right from the outset that was the real differentiator. “From day one, we had a Zellis point of contact who understood exactly what we needed,” Vishal says. “Despite being a smaller client, we were never treated as such.”

Partnering for success

The Scout Association team immediately felt confident that Zellis HCM AIR was the right solution for them. And the implementation proved that to be the case. In fact, Vishal says what the two organisations have is a true partnership.

“We felt guided at every step,” Vishal says. “We included Zellis in our board meetings, so any issues could be resolved quickly and collaboratively. It wasn’t about escalating problems – it was about working together. From discovery onwards, we built a true partnership, with joint lessons-learned sessions and hands-on consultant support, including week-by-week guidance during the system build. This gave us confidence to manage future changes ourselves.”

After a period of requirements gathering and training, rollout began in July 2025. “Zellis supported us through user acceptance training, parallel payroll runs, and data migration,” Vishal says. “We went live on 2nd February 2026 and processed our first payroll on 20th February. It’s been a true team effort.”

Communication with staff was proactive and clear. As a result, the transition was seamless. “We engaged employees early, asking them to download documents from the old system and test access to the new system,” Vishal explains. “We kept everyone updated via SharePoint, including casual staff. When payday arrived, inquiries were minimal.”

Expected impact: Automation, compliance and confidence

While it’s early in the implementation, Vishal is confident that the Scout Association’s payroll team will feel significant benefits from Zellis HCM AIR. “Manual keying is no longer required,” he says. “Imports and exports have been automated, reducing errors and saving time.”

Zellis HCM AIR has also made compliance easy. Pension reports now align directly with the provider’s format, requiring far fewer manual adjustments. Meanwhile, built-in compliance features – like immediate National Minimum Wage error flagging – remove the need for end-of-month manual checks. “We have confidence that any new allowances or complex pay structures can be handled in the future,” Vishal says.

Enhancing the employee experience

The benefits don’t end with the payroll team. From an employee perspective, clarity and engagement have already improved.

The app is fantastic. Single sign-on makes it easy for staff to access information without frustration. Payslips are clear, FAQs are helpful, and employees can access all payroll documents in one portal.

Vishal Badiani, Payroll Operations Manager, Scout Association

Unlocking future potential

Looking ahead, the Scout Association sees further opportunities to leverage more Zellis capabilities. “There’s a lot of potential to build on what we’ve established. Vishal says. “We want to explore dashboards, automation and integration with our HR system. We’re also considering real-time payroll once processes are bedded in; we’ve already had initial discussions with Zellis about HR services.

AI-enabled features like intelligent payslips and anomaly detection also hold promise, helping to reduce the burden on payroll and give employees even greater insight into their pay – explaining changes and improving overall transparency.

Reflecting on the project, Vishal doesn’t hesitate to recommend Zellis to other similar organisations. “It’s great to have a proactive approach from the Zellis Customer Success team with such a hands-on approach, it’s something we haven’t experienced with previous suppliers. Their involvement in the project governance to build the relationship and gain knowledge of the organisation has been very well received across the business”.

The effort Zellis put in at every stage was above and beyond any competitors. The system is robust, the support has been excellent and we now have confidence for the future.

Vishal Badiani, Payroll Operations Manager, Scout Association

Since implementing Zellis HCM AIR, the Scout Association has:

  • Reduced manual processing and compliance risk
  • Improved pension reporting accuracy
  • Strengthened payroll-to-finance data integration
  • Enhanced employee clarity and engagement

Key features of Zellis HCM AIR:

  • Cloud-native infrastructure: Reduced operational burden, increased security and scalability.
  • Advanced automation: Reduced manual work, automated pension reporting, built-in compliance checks, improved accuracy
  • Real-time compliance and risk reduction: Embedded HMRC compliance, automatic validation of pay and allowances, in-built error checking
  • Data integration and reporting: Easy export of payroll data to HR, pension and finance systems, dashboard for enhanced reporting
  • Improved employee experience: Single sign on, clear and simple digital payslips, built in FAQs and support