Getting Irish Rail’s payroll on the right track

Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail operates the national railway network of Ireland. It runs InterCity, Commuter, and freight railway services across the republic. Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail manages over 50 million passenger journeys annually, a figure that’s growing year on year.

The payroll team of eight is responsible for keeping more than 5,000 employees paid correctly and on time.

After 40+ years of a legacy payroll system, the organisation recently invested in a new payroll solution from Zellis. We caught up with John Kennedy, Head of HR Organisational Development at Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail, to hear how they embraced this once-in-a-generation move.

As if that complexity weren’t enough, the project began just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, adding new and unforeseen challenges into the mix.

Explore the Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail case study here:

Click to read On the right tracks with Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail)

Discover how the transformation delivered these advantages and more:

• Improved efficiency and better colleague service

• Significant benefits for employees

• Increased visibility and reporting

“Previously, someone would have filled out a timesheet on behalf of the employee, and that would have been imported into the payroll system. Now, employees have the ability to input their own time, simplifying the whole process and saving time.

“The responsiveness of Zellis, their willingness to quickly arrange meetings and resolve issues, is greatly appreciated. It is not always the case with other vendors,”

John Kennedy, Head of HR Organisational Development, Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail

Dawn of a new era

John feels this is the start of a new era for Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail, and he has a number of new projects in the pipeline.

There are other aspects of the business that were streamlined during the payroll project. These include introducing the expenses module to pay out-of-pocket expenses. This simplifies yet another challenging task.

The payroll system has been in place for a while now and John and his team are working on other business improvements, including close integration with the HR system.

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