Arrive, check in, and get oriented for the day ahead. Take this time to relax, meet fellow attendees, and connect with speakers and organizers before the program gets underway.

Kick off the day with a warm welcome to the Reward and Payroll Summit. We will introduce the agenda, highlight what to keep an eye out for ahead, and help set the tone for a interactive and informative day.

Many organisations face limited reward budgets while needing to deliver pay-for-performance, manage pay compression, and advance pay equity. This session explores practical strategies to prioritise funding giving you actionable insights to maximise payroll and reward impact, maintain fairness, and preserve employee trust even under budget constraints.

Pay transparency legislation is reshaping the relationship between employers and employees. As European organisations begin to respond to the EU Pay Transparency Directive, reward leaders are gaining valuable insight into what effective compliance, and credible communication, really looks like. This session explores early lessons from across Europe, highlighting how organisations are adapting reward frameworks, managing risk and evolving their communication strategies. The panel will also examine what these developments could mean for UK employers, helping leaders anticipate future regulation and take proactive steps now.

Take a break to connect and get to know fellow attendees. This  is a chance to share ideas, exchange experiences, and build new connections with peers and speakers.

This engaging session explores how to harness a Growth Mindset, ignite innovation through clarity, creativity and confidence a grounded in building a shared culture. Drawing on Mark’s diverse experience from founding award-winning businesses to building international brands and achieving creative success, this presentation offers powerful, real-world insights and actionable strategies. Attendees will gain practical tools to unlock individual potential, elevate team dynamics, and foster a high-performance environment. Whether you're a seasoned leader, an entrepreneur, or an emerging changemaker, this session will leave you motivated, equipped, and empowered to lead with clarity, resilience, and lasting impact in any organisation.

"Future-proof your global payroll with a confirmed purpose and design principles. Service delivery models are then designed to adapt to any portfolio changes.

To book your place, enter registration code ""GlobalPayroll26"" at checkout when buying your tickets

A part of the Global Payroll Excellence Programme:

The Global Payroll Excellence Programme is a premium learning experience embedded within the Reward & Payroll Summit on 16th September, offering delegates the best of both worlds: access to headline plenary sessions alongside a dedicated deep dive into global payroll leadership.

Facilitated by Max van der Klis-Busink, this programme brings together experienced payroll leaders to explore the realities of operating payroll at scale across multiple regions. Covering strategy, governance, and operating models, the sessions are grounded in practical application, using real-world examples to test thinking and unlock new approaches.

Designed to be highly interactive, the programme creates space for open discussion, shared challenges, and collective problem-solving. Delegates will leave better equipped to lead with clarity and confidence in an increasingly complex global environment."

The rules of global payroll are being rewritten. From remote work crossing borders to rapid legislative change and political unpredictability, payroll leaders must navigate a growing web of compliance challenges. This session will explore the new era of global payroll compliance, focusing on cross-border grey areas such as tax residency, accountability and risk for mobile and hybrid workers. Panellists will also provide a practical guide to today’s global vendor landscape, comparing legacy providers, emerging platforms and micro-providers, helping attendees understand which models best support compliance, scalability and long-term resilience

"Confidently confirm to the CFO and CHRO that they can sign off on all payroll-related reporting by demonstrating an evidence-based Global Payroll Control Framework. No hypothetical ideas, but a framework that everyone can use.

To book your place, enter registration code ""GlobalPayroll26"" at checkout when buying your tickets

A part of the Global Payroll Excellence Programme:

The Global Payroll Excellence Programme is a premium learning experience embedded within the Reward & Payroll Summit on 16th September, offering delegates the best of both worlds: access to headline plenary sessions alongside a dedicated deep dive into global payroll leadership.

Facilitated by Max van der Klis-Busink, this programme brings together experienced payroll leaders to explore the realities of operating payroll at scale across multiple regions. Covering strategy, governance, and operating models, the sessions are grounded in practical application, using real-world examples to test thinking and unlock new approaches.

Designed to be highly interactive, the programme creates space for open discussion, shared challenges, and collective problem-solving. Delegates will leave better equipped to lead with clarity and confidence in an increasingly complex global environment."

Join us for a practical session on relationship-led networking and business development. We’ll explore why relationships come before transactions, how curiosity builds stronger connections than pitching, and why being human, adding value early, and showing up consistently leads to better long-term outcomes. The session also looks at the power of connecting the dots for others to create meaningful, lasting partnerships

Today’s compensation benchmarking environment is increasingly complex, with a growing range of surveys, data sources, and tools competing for attention—often without additional budget to support deeper analysis. This session focuses on how executives can make informed, strategic decisions about which compensation data to use and how to align it with their organization’s reward philosophy, workforce needs, industry context, and geographic footprint. The discussion will also address how to integrate multiple data sources, identify meaningful market trends, and translate benchmarking insights into clear, actionable guidance. Attendees will gain practical perspectives on using compensation benchmarking to support talent attraction, retention, and sustainable pay decisions in a dynamic market.

Its time to position payroll as more than a transactional function and highlight how pay accuracy, transparency, and communication can shape employee trust, engagement, and brand perception. With a CX mindset we can transform payroll into a strategic driver of satisfaction and impact.

Take a break for lunch while catching up with colleagues and meeting new connections. This is the perfect time to relax, chat, and exchange ideas before the next sessions begin.

Leaders share real use cases, from HR and payroll chatbots to automated calculations and anomaly detection, and debate where AI adds value, where it doesn’t, and what’s coming next. 

A insight session into how apprenticeships work, can be fully tailored to your organisations therefore allowing you to maximise your investment in your team, breaking down the myths and barriers, whilst demonstrating the depth of training and support in our Payroll and HR apprenticeships. 

Despite significant investment in reward and benefits, utilisation across many organisations remains stubbornly low. The challenge is rarely the offer itself, but how it is understood, experienced and reinforced throughout the employee lifecycle. This session explores why traditional reward communication often fails to drive engagement, and how payroll and reward leaders can apply behavioural insight, smarter timing and clearer value messaging to shift employee behaviour. Panellists will discuss practical approaches to designing reward programmes and communication strategies that genuinely improve take-up, enhance employee perception of value and deliver a stronger return on reward investment.

"To unlock the power of data, you must understand your tech stack and how data travels. Get the data connectivity untangled with a hybrid approach, and compartmentalise the data so that it is ready for the power of AI.

To book your place, enter registration code ""GlobalPayroll26"" at checkout when buying your tickets

A part of the Global Payroll Excellence Programme:

The Global Payroll Excellence Programme is a premium learning experience embedded within the Reward & Payroll Summit on 16th September, offering delegates the best of both worlds: access to headline plenary sessions alongside a dedicated deep dive into global payroll leadership.

Facilitated by Max van der Klis-Busink, this programme brings together experienced payroll leaders to explore the realities of operating payroll at scale across multiple regions. Covering strategy, governance, and operating models, the sessions are grounded in practical application, using real-world examples to test thinking and unlock new approaches.

Designed to be highly interactive, the programme creates space for open discussion, shared challenges, and collective problem-solving. Delegates will leave better equipped to lead with clarity and confidence in an increasingly complex global environment."

"Confidence Under Pressure: Confronting the Imposter Saboteur in Leadership

Discover how to recognise and quieten the inner voice of self-doubt that undermines your leadership. This session explores imposter syndrome, a psychological phenomenon where people commonly doubt their own skills, talents, or accomplishments. Sue shares her observations and insights through the lens of real-world leadership and, informed by empirical research, offers practical strategies to build authentic confidence and step into your full potential."

Workforce expectations are evolving faster than many pay and reward strategies. What attracts and retains employees today may not resonate in one, five or ten years’ time, particularly as career paths, life stages and employee priorities continue to diversify. This interactive conference session explores how payroll and reward leaders can use employee personas to design pay and reward packages that remain relevant over the short, medium and long term. Attendees will gain insight into future-proofing engagement strategies, aligning reward design to changing workforce needs, and ensuring their organisation continues to attract, engage and retain talent, positioning themselves as an employer of choice both now and in the years ahead.

"This case study, featuring a company operating in over 35 countries with 20.000 employees illustrates global payroll strategy, governance, and operating model in a way that will inspire and motivate you to challenge the status quo.

To book your place, enter registration code ""GlobalPayroll26"" at checkout when buying your tickets

A part of the Global Payroll Excellence Programme:

The Global Payroll Excellence Programme is a premium learning experience embedded within the Reward & Payroll Summit on 16th September, offering delegates the best of both worlds: access to headline plenary sessions alongside a dedicated deep dive into global payroll leadership.

Facilitated by Max van der Klis-Busink, this programme brings together experienced payroll leaders to explore the realities of operating payroll at scale across multiple regions. Covering strategy, governance, and operating models, the sessions are grounded in practical application, using real-world examples to test thinking and unlock new approaches.

Designed to be highly interactive, the programme creates space for open discussion, shared challenges, and collective problem-solving. Delegates will leave better equipped to lead with clarity and confidence in an increasingly complex global environment."

As more organisations bring payroll back in-house, this panel debates the trade-offs, impact on agility, and what “good insourcing” looks like.

Take a break to connect and get to know fellow attendees. This  is a chance to share ideas, exchange experiences, and build new connections with peers and speakers.

From incremental rule changes to significant legislative reform, payroll and employment law updates continue to reshape how organisations operate. Missing or misunderstanding these changes can expose businesses to financial, reputational and employee risk. This session offers a focused update on the most important regulatory developments, explaining what they mean in practice and where payroll and reward leaders should focus attention. The emphasis will be on clarity, impact and practical next steps rather than technical detail.

"Most payroll leaders have had a thought or an insight they didn't share. They've attended a meeting they stayed quiet in when they wanted to speak. Or they've introduced themselves and added the word ""just.""

And yet three-quarters of payroll professionals feel strategically underutilised, not because they lack capability, but because fear has quietly convinced them to stay invisible.

In this session, Nick Day shares The Fear Equation™: a practical, payroll-native framework that explains exactly why talented payroll and reward leaders stay hidden and he will then give a clear roadmap to change it.

Evidence-based, immediately actionable, and delivered by someone who has spent 24 years watching brilliant professionals become the strategic leaders they always were."