Payroll Administrator

Payroll Administrator

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The Payroll Administrator manages and executes the end-to-end payroll function for Crescent Park Corporation, ensuring every one of our people across all sites are paid accurately, on time, and in full compliance with all federal, state, and local requirements. This role is responsible for strengthening and continuously improving payroll processes, controls, and documentation under the direction of the Manager of People Operations, while supporting the transition to modern systems and best-practice operations.

Reporting to the Manager of People Operations within the People Group, the Payroll Administrator serves as the organization's hands-on subject-matter expert for payroll processing, payroll tax compliance, and the payroll system modules. This role partners closely with People Operations (benefits, compensation, HRIS), Finance, and leadership to deliver a seamless, high-integrity payroll experience.

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This Payroll Administrator will operate as outlined in the Crescent Way- 3 P’s:

• Purpose
• Process
• People

While building on our Values of:

• Doing it Right
• Doing it Safe
• Doing it Well

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Qualifications

Education & Experience:                                                                                                                   

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, or related field.
• 7+ years of progressive HR leadership experience in compensation, benefits, compliance, payroll, and HRIS management.
• Professional certification (i.e. SHRM-CP, PHR, , Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC))
• Demonstrated experience partnering with Finance teams on budgeting, accruals, and fiscal reporting.
• Strong knowledge of payroll process compliance and federal/state labor laws.
• Experience working in multi-state or multinational environments to manage diverse labor laws, social compliance, and payroll processes.
• Experience managing payroll automation and analytics dashboards.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or related field.
• Certifications: SHRM-SCP, SPHR, CPP (Certified Payroll Professional),
• Experience administering UKG Pro or UKG Dimensions payroll modules.
• Experience with payroll system implementations, upgrades, or migrations
• Advanced skills in Microsoft Excel (e.g., macros, advanced formulas).
• Experience working with Power BI or other reporting tools to track, analyze, and present HR and financial data.

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Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Safety

1. Read and understand the Crescent Safety Playbook – Doing It Safe.
2. Ensure a safe and well-maintained work environment and conditions throughout all workspaces, facility, and surrounding areas.
3. Engage all people in cultivating and promoting a Safety-First Culture.
4. Support People Operations' workers' compensation documentation and incident reporting by ensuring payroll data (hours, earnings, job codes) is accurate and available for claims and filings.

Quality

1. Audit all payroll inputs and outputs each cycle: verify gross-to-net calculations, direct deposits, tax withholdings, deduction accuracy, and new-hire data before final processing. Escalate anomalies to the Manager of People Operations for review and approval.
2. Maintain compliance with all federal, state, and local payroll tax regulations including FICA, FUTA, SUI, and multi-state withholding requirements.
3. Review all payroll tax deposits and returns (Forms 941, 940, W-2, 1099, state equivalents) accurately and on time; monitor wage base changes and update UKG payroll configurations accordingly.
4. Coordinate year-end payroll activities: W-2 processing and distribution, ACA payroll data support, quarter-end reconciliations, and regulatory filings, in partnership with People Operations and Finance.
5. Maintain audit-ready payroll documentation; support and respond to internal and external payroll-related audits (DOL, IRS, state agencies, 401(k) auditors) with complete and accurate records.
6. Ensure data integrity, confidentiality, and security of all payroll information in accordance with company policy and applicable data-protection requirements.
7. Take a non-paint-by-numbers approach to continuously streamline and improve payroll processes, controls, and standard operating procedures, recommending changes to the Manager of People Operations for approval.

Productivity

1. Execute end-to-end payroll processing for all pay groups: weekly (hourly) and bi-weekly (salaried) cycles across all Crescent sites, ensuring every person is paid correctly and on time.
2. Ensure timekeeping data is accurate and submitted on schedule.
3. Process all compensation changes, new hires, terminations, transfers, retroactive adjustments, off-cycle payments, bonuses, incentives, and other special pay items as approved through People Operations workflows.
4. Process all income withholding orders (child support, bankruptcy, tax levies, garnishments) in compliance with applicable federal and state laws, applying correct priority-of-deduction rules.
5. Maintain all payroll deductions including taxes, benefits (as directed by People Operations/Benefits), 401(k) contributions, FSA, and voluntary deductions.
6. Manage the payroll calendar and coordinate with Finance on payment funding and cash-flow timing.
7. Manage relationships with payroll-specific vendors (tax filing service, garnishment processor) and escalate service-level issues to the Manager of People Operations. (Note: broker, carrier, and benefits vendor relationships are owned by People Operations.)

People

1. Participate in Crescent talent selection, talent development, and recognition processes.
2. Support the Training Program to ensure Crescent People have been appropriately trained to successfully satisfy required roles and responsibilities as defined.
3. Promote a work environment where Crescent People are valued and can safely communicate, grow, and develop.
4. Cross-train People Operations team members on payroll processes to build redundancy and ensure continuity; serve as the trainer and documentation owner for all payroll SOPs.
5. Serve as the primary point of contact for employee payroll inquiries, resolving issues with professionalism, accuracy, and appropriate confidentiality. Escalate questions involving compensation philosophy, pay equity, or benefits eligibility to People Operations.

Customer Value

1. Be viewed by operations, leadership, and all Crescent People as a trusted resource and go-to expert for payroll questions, processes, and compliance guidance.
2. Deliver exceptional employee experience by resolving payroll inquiries quickly (target: same business day for routine questions, <24 hours for complex issues).
3. Execute the payroll side of life-event changes, open enrollment deductions, leave impacts, and benefit arrear recovery as directed by People Operations.
4. Communicate proactively with site leadership on payroll deadlines, process changes, and any issues that could affect pay accuracy or timing.

Financial

1. Reconcile payroll to the general ledger each period; identify and resolve variances before the close.
2. Capture, track, and recover benefit arrears through payroll; manage negative PTO balances and severance tracking.
3. Ensure terminations are processed completely and correctly in payroll, including final pay, PTO payouts, benefit arrear recovery, and any outstanding balances.
4. Complete all governmental payroll reporting requirements accurately and by deadline.
5. Ensure the integrity of the payroll process and confidentiality of all financial data.
6. Provide accurate payroll data and analysis to support budgeting, forecasting, and cost modeling as requested by People Operations or Finance.

Systems & Process Improvement

1. Serve as the primary administrator for payroll modules (pay codes, deduction setups, tax tables, earning codes).
2. Support upgrades and configuration under the direction of People Operations to automate manual processes (back pay, retro calculations) and strengthen controls.
3. Identify and implement automation opportunities within the payroll process to reduce manual work, eliminate errors, and shorten the processing cycle.
4. Build and maintain written payroll standard operating procedures (SOPs), escalation criteria, and process documentation to ensure consistency and knowledge continuity.
5. Participate in payroll process and value-stream mapping to define current and future state workflows with appropriate audit checkpoints.

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Cultural Competencies 

Do It Right

Doing what is right for our customers, doing what is right for our company and doing what is right for our People. Continually improving the quality of our products and services. Monitoring and measuring every key ingredient which could negatively impact our quality. Doing it Right ensures we are always becoming a Premier Service Provider.

• Identifies and counters resistance to change
• Advocates continuous improvement
• Forges teams and provides direction
• Provides constructive performance feedback
• Willingly adjusts the make-up of the team
• Plans, delegates, and follows up
• Guides others to improve collaboration
• Entrepreneurial initiative

Do It Safe

Creating a safe environment and supporting our People to reach their highest potential. A safe environment where all forms of risk are assessed and controlled. A safe environment open to new ideas, where our people’s opinions and overall well-being count. A diverse environment where everyone fits and can be successful.

• Self-assured yet humble
• Able communicator—good clarity, balanced talker and listener
• Patient
• Effectively assertive and able to handle conflict and confrontation
• Solution vs. blame oriented
• Mixture of firmness and flexibility
• Has energy and enthusiasm
• Holds self and others accountable
• Willing to take calculated risks

Do It Well

Optimizing all our resources to efficiently and effectively perform all tasks well. Our overall productivity as a company is a reflection of the thousands of activities performed well each and every day by everyone.  At Crescent, our ability to Do it Well is a real source of pride valued by our customers.

• Systematic trainer, willing and able to develop people
• Good work ethic, task focused and willing to extend extra effort
• Able to follow structure where it exists and create structure where it does not
• Resilient—able to deal with the unexpected, not easily flustered
• Maintains sense of urgency
• Follows up to ensure quality task completion
• Disciplined Self Starter

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Work Environment / Physical Demands

• Dynamic, fast-paced environment requiring adaptability to changing business and customer needs.
• Ability to frequently sit, stand, walk, reach with hands and arm’s length, climb or balance, stoop, kneel, and crouch.
• Ability to travel occasionally for audits, leadership meetings, and external compliance reviews, 10-15% travel required annually.
• Ability to sit, stand, and lift/move materials as needed (up to 25 pounds).

Systems Usage

• UKG Pro / UKG Dimensions – Payroll modules (including PayCal 2)
• Microsoft Office Suite (Excel [advanced], Word, Outlook, Teams)
• Tax filing and garnishment vendor portals
• Scanners, printers, fax, telephone

Performance Metrics and Trends

• Safety
• Quality
• Productivity
• People
• Customer Value
• Financial
• Ontime reporting, useability of reporting, corrective actions from reporting

We will absolutely know the Payroll Administrator is successful if they can:

• Independently execute the complete payroll cycle (weekly and bi-weekly) with near-zero errors and on-time every cycle.
• Maintain document payroll processes, SOPs, and controls that are audit-ready and sustainable beyond any single person.
• Support the successful implementation of continuous improvement to drive measurable results in processing accuracy and
• Become a trusted partner to People Operations, Benefits, Finance, and site leadership, viewed as the go-to payroll expert across the organization.
• Maintain full compliance with all payroll tax and wage-and-hour requirements, with zero penalties or fines.
• Cross-train at least one backup to ensure continuity and eliminate single points of failure in the payroll function.
• Demonstrate a propensity to learn Crescent’s business, culture, and systems while continuously seeking opportunities to strengthen the function.