I’m sure you agree, there’s a special kind of achievement in a payday that simply works!
Employees are paid accurately and on time, and most people never need to think about the complex web of calculations, compliance, changing circumstances, and last-minute questions that made it possible. But behind every smooth payday is someone bringing expertise, care, and an extraordinary level of attention to detail. 👑
Two weeks ago, we asked you to nominate the payroll people in your business who make that work look effortless. The response was incredible! 🤩
From navigating multi-country requirements and solving complex challenges to improving processes and supporting colleagues, your nominations revealed just how much impact these people have.
Now, as we celebrate National Payroll Week (7-11 September)….
We’re proud to recognize 22 Heartcore HR Payroll Champions for 2026! 🥳
(Psst. Click on ‘Show content’ to read amazing things about our unsung heroes!)
- 🎉 Eliana Barrientos, Payroll Manager at Puzzel | Nominated by Elin Maria Filipp, CPO
“We used to outsource our payroll, and it was so many issues. We're an international company, and there was always problems. It was so bad that employees brought it up in the employee survey that this is a genuine huge problem, that pay is never right with bonuses and commissions, and wrong dates, and so many issues. And then Eliana started. So instead of having a team of outsourced people for different regions, she's one person and she handles every country we are in. Very, very complicated. Her previous experience was just payroll for Denmark, so she's learned all the labor law, tax rules, everything for every single country we operate in, and not a problem since. Oh my god, it's night and day. And she's just one person. I can't think of anyone more deserving to win this or any award.”
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@Cindy Kelsey , People & Payroll Advisor at Thesis | Nominated by @Julianne Barnes , VP, People & Culture“She operates in a standalone capacity really and is a true payroll champion because she's independently managing a demanding multi-country payroll operations which includes two US twice monthly payrolls, a twice monthly Canadian payroll, monthly UK and finance payrolls, as well as employer of record payrolls for Peru, Mexico, and Poland. She demonstrates incredible attention to detail and reliability with the payrolls, consistently ensuring that our employees are paid accurately and on time across all of those jurisdictions. Her work is critical to keeping our operations running smoothly, and I think she deserves recognition for the ownership, commitment, and consistency that she brings to our payrolls every month.”
- 🎉 Hanna Liakhovich, Senior Accountant at Famly | Nominated by
@Ellie Cruickshank , People, Experience & Office Coordinator“She is a champion in everything finance. She's a Swiss Army knife of a woman... She just always seems to have time, energy, and capacity and patience and grace for all of the little questions that everyone gives her... She just knows everything and I don't know how it is that somebody can truly be so competent at their job. I am in awe of it, but she's definitely the payroll champion. And I think if you get a colleague like Hannah, who is so diligent, then you're lucky if it happens once in a lifetime.”
- 🎉 Amy Courtney, Finance Manager at Instep | Nominated by
@Lauren Green , HR Advisor“Amy is one of those people who works incredibly hard behind the scenes to make sure something that is so important to every single colleague happens seamlessly every month: we get paid correctly and on time. Having worked closely with Amy from a HR perspective, I know just how much work goes into making that happen. Whether it's starters, leavers, salary changes, deductions, bonuses, or those inevitable last-minute changes that come through, Amy is always on top of it. She's incredibly reliable, knowledgeable, and organized. But what I appreciate most is that she genuinely cares about getting things right for our people. If ever there's a payroll query or something that needs looking into, Amy will always take the time to help and make sure it's resolved. Payroll can sometimes be one of those jobs that people only really notice when something goes wrong. And I think the fact that we can trust Amy month after month to make sure it goes right deserves the recognition”
- 🎉 Stella de Souza Paulo, People Ops Team Leader at Indicium AI | Nominated by
@Cíntia de Souza Lopes , Head of People Ops & Talent Acquisition“She started as an analyst and was promoted to team leader because she's detail-oriented and always treats employees cordially. Her quality standards are high, so the guarantee that payroll will be 100% accurate is certain. She implements several improvements in the payroll verification process in addition to automating numerous controls. When we start using HiBob, she was the first to learn the system completely, teach her colleagues, and ensure that we had all the updated information so that payments will work.”
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@Sheridan Conklin , Human Resources Manager at Sibylline | Nominated by @Chelsea Lew , Senior People & Organization Business Partner“She has always been on top and proactive every time we have our payroll. She's been critical in the actual integration of moving into Paylocity and also integrating it to HiBob itself through the payroll hub. And so, finding all those little nuances and making sure that it is accommodating to all of our different clients and needs in the system, and always finding and auditing and looking for and utilizing the AI so we can make sure that everything is on top of each other, reporting makes sense, there's no gaps or inefficiencies, and always there to make sure that people get paid on time, get paid the right way. There's no issues with taxes, especially since a lot of our employees also include remote employees or people who transition between different clients, different states, which is such a big deal when it comes to their taxes, when it comes to direct deposits, and just being an all-outstanding person that really builds trust and allows people to constantly see that they will get paid on time. Changes will be made in an efficient manner, and always able to answer any questions and pull any reports as needed when it comes to payroll.”
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@Sara Mbwiti , Compensation, Benefits & Payroll Practitioner at Made Tech | Nominated by @Alli Benfield , Head of People Enablement“Sara consistently goes above and beyond in her role, and this stood out most clearly during our July 26 payroll delay when some payments failed to process due to a system-wide issue with our payment provider. Sara was the first to provide transparency to the whole company, keeping everyone updated in real time right through to resolution and also following up afterwards with a full incident report and root cause explanation once that was given to us by the provider. Turning what was a stressful situation into a model of clear, calm communication. Beyond crisis response, she's a steady, reliable presence for anyone with payroll and benefit questions, making sure that payroll runs correctly and smoothly each month. She also puts in the extra work to make the processes better for the whole of our people team. For example, building a Q&A sheet to help colleagues fully understand the process. Sara brings a rare mix of technical accuracy, genuine care for the people affected by her work, and also good humor even under pressure. Exactly what makes a great payroll champion.”
- 🎉 Victoria Spencer, Payroll Team Leader at The National Exhibition Centre Limited | Nominated by
@Fiona Pearce , People Services Manager“When I think of a payroll champion, I think of Victoria Spencer. Earlier this year, she was given an enormous challenge, launch Bob Payroll in June with only a few weeks of preparation from the start of May. Most people would have been overwhelmed. Instead, she embraced the challenge. While still leading our payroll operations, she worked tirelessly behind the scenes to test, troubleshoot, learn, and help deliver a completely new payroll platform. Her commitment, attention to detail, and determination never wavered. What makes her truly special is that she doesn't just focus on solving today's problems. She's always looking for ways to improve her future. And even now, she works closely with me and the Bob team to provide feedback and drive enhancements that will make the product even better. Payroll professionals are often the unsung heroes of an organization. And for me, Vicki is the perfect example of that. Her hard work, resilience, and passion have made a real difference to our business, our employees, and our payroll journey.”
- 🎉 Christina Petzny, Finance/People/ EA Manager at Doccla | Nominated by
@Shefali Davda , Head of Talent“Christina is diligent, proactive, and seamlessly gets through our payroll every single month. There are last-minute changes. There are things to be taken into account like commission, ensuring everyone gets the right pay, taking out benefits in kind, ensuring everyone's on the right tax code, and a bunch of other invisible bits and pieces around payroll... not only does she do payroll, but everything else that surrounds people operations and ensuring that not just people getting paid, but everything else surrounding people's benefits as well.”
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@Bryan Reyes , Senior Manager of Finance & Business Affairs at Partnership for Los Angeles Schools | Nominated by Dominique, Chief People & Operations Officer“Brian is second to none when it comes to accuracy, detail, timeliness, responsiveness with any payroll issues that our staff have. Not to mention, we have a very complicated payroll setup given the number of employees that we have, the types of employees that we have. And Brian leans in and meets the moment as opportunities present themselves.”
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@Gladys Lebsund , Group Payroll Coordinator at Mercell | Nominated by @Sandra Malgerud , HR Operations Partner“She's our global payroll coordinator and she's truly amazing. She is an expert. She handles payroll across a lot of different countries that we have, for example, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the Baltics. She is always available. She is always doing her best when a lot of employees tend to have the same questions, and she's always happy to give answers in a good way to each one of them. As a colleague, I value her very much. When you have a colleague like her who is always helping and always making sure the processes are right, then it's also much easier for me in HR to practice and be good in my role”
- 🎉 Victoria Olteanu, Head of People Operations and Services at LucaNet | Nominated by
@Silvia Heredia Minthorne , VP, People and Organization“Payroll is our backbone. Invisible when it works, and it has to work every month. In a business like ours, there's always something unexpected, and no month is like the one before. These three make sure that everyone gets paid and everything keeps running. On top of that, they helped us in 2026 to launch our new global payroll platform, Lano, which integrates with HiBob, alongside setting up a new entity in Japan and completing our sales hiring project. They do that with high accountability, personal commitment, and real teamwork.”
- 🎉 Ricarda Strutz, Account Manager DACH at LucaNet | Nominated by
@Silvia Heredia Minthorne , VP, People and Organization“Payroll is our backbone. Invisible when it works, and it has to work every month. In a business like ours, there's always something unexpected, and no month is like the one before. These three make sure that everyone gets paid and everything keeps running. On top of that, they helped us in 2026 to launch our new global payroll platform, Lano, which integrates with HiBob, alongside setting up a new entity in Japan and completing our sales hiring project. They do that with high accountability, personal commitment, and real teamwork.”
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@Anda Ipate , Senior Employee Relations Partner, LucaNet | Nominated by @Silvia Heredia Minthorne VP, People and Organization“Payroll is our backbone. Invisible when it works, and it has to work every month. In a business like ours, there's always something unexpected, and no month is like the one before. These three make sure that everyone gets paid and everything keeps running. On top of that, they helped us in 2026 to launch our new global payroll platform, Lano, which integrates with HiBob, alongside setting up a new entity in Japan and completing our sales hiring project. They do that with high accountability, personal commitment, and real teamwork.”
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@Deeanne Martin , HR Systems Coordinator at Hysata | Nominated by @leanne Isabella , Chief People Officer“Deeanne is an absolute HiBob and payroll queen. She's the person that keeps our HR stack running smoothly at Hysata. She manages our HRIS and all the integrations... as well as all the moving pieces behind the scenes that make things like onboarding, employee changes, and payroll feel seamless. She has an incredible amount of knowledge and is always looking for things to make our systems and processes work better and more efficiently. So much of what Deeanne does happens quietly in the background that it makes a huge difference to our people and culture team and to the experience of everyone here at Hysata.”
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@Nicky Ravindranath , Human Resources Manager at KodeKloud | Nominated by @Swati Bajaj , Director of People & Culture“Payroll is one of those things in a company that just can't go wrong. It's the most promise an employer makes and it has to be kept perfectly every single month for every single person. Get it right, nobody notices. Get it wrong even once and you've probably broken trust that took years to build. Now picture doing this at KodeKloud. We are fully remote, globally distributed, which means Nicky runs direct payroll across three of our entities, three countries, plus global contractor payouts, plus payouts through EoR partners in several more countries. Every one of those has its own compliance requirements, its own tax calculations, its own vendors, and in some cases, its own pay schedule as well. There is no single system, no single deadline, no single rule book that she can follow. It's a different set of moving parts in every geography, and they all have to land on time and accurately calculated. Over the last year, Nicky hasn't just managed that complexity; she's mastered it, and then she's improved on it. She's brought structure where there was scramble. She's built processes where there was memory and turned what used to be a monthly firefight into something more predictable and calm. She catches the errors before they reach a payslip. She chases vendors before the deadline chases her. And she does all of this while all of us global CodeClouders simply see our pay arrive correctly without ever knowing what happened at the backend.”
- 🎉 Maria Elisa del Valle Lovelle, Payroll and Global Rewards Manager at Ebury | Nominated by
@Michelle Kelly , Head of People Operations & Experience“We faced a very critical situation in our payroll department this year whereby we had quite a big restructuring and the four most senior members of the team—including the head of the department and the deputy head of the department—left the business. That unfortunately exposed our company to payroll issues and operational issues in terms of actually just processing payroll and allowing nearly 2,000 employees to receive their pay. We asked Maria to step up and manage the team, and within days, she was already processing a new payroll run for nearly 2,000 employees across 40 different locations globally. She managed this smoothly with a huge lack of resources. Within that time, we obviously had to rebuild the team, so Maria recruited several new members of staff, trained them up, and built an environment in the team where people felt comfortable, excited, and wanted to be there to learn and grow. During that time, we also were mid-transition to a new payroll provider for most of our countries, which was additional workload on top of the normal operational, day-to-day processing of payroll. So, we literally would not have managed and would not have succeeded the past few months with the basics of processing payroll had it not been for Maria.”
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@Isabella Skrobek , Senior People Operations Specialist at Flipp | Nominated by @Katie Rothert , Manager of People Ops and People Technology“Izzy runs Canadian payroll every single pay period, while also owning payroll for Australia and across LATAM—Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. That’s six countries, almost as many payroll providers, and a different set of tax and compliance rules every time.
What makes her stand out is that she runs toward the messy stuff nobody else wants to touch. She took on the handover for Australia and LATAM and made it hers, and she’s always looking beyond simply processing payroll—building audit tools that make our checks faster and more reliable for the whole team. For everyone else at Flipp, payday is boring: it just happens, the right amount, on the right day. That quiet is Izzy’s whole job—and in payroll, quiet is the highest praise there is.”
- 🎉 Jeffrey Ramberg, Senior Payroll Administrator at Kindsight | Nominated by
@hanaarneil , People Operations Business Partner“Since joining Kindsight, Jeff has completely transformed the way we approach payroll and benefits. He has integrated HiBob across our Canadian and U.S. teams, creating greater automation, efficiency, and visibility, while bringing an impressive depth of knowledge and a sharp eye for detail.
Jeff is an absolute shark when it comes to the details—constantly identifying potential issues, getting to the root of them, and making sure they’re corrected quickly and properly. His expertise in U.S. payroll, benefits, multi-state compliance, and local policies has been an enormous asset, and he has taken on Canadian payroll and benefits just as seamlessly.
He has raised the bar for how we manage payroll and benefits, and we’re incredibly lucky to have him on our team.”
- 🎉 Ricardo Gonçalves, Source of Good Life Specialist at Infraspeak | Nominated by
@Carlos Santos , Head of People Journey“Ricardo is an exceptional payroll professional who consistently goes above and beyond to ensure accuracy, compliance, and efficiency across our payroll operation. What truly sets him apart is his rare blend of technical mastery, proactive problem-solving, and unfailing empathy.
Whether navigating complex tax regulations, integrating new payroll technology, or resolving individual employee questions, Ricardo handles every challenge with precision and a high-energy, positive attitude. He has maintained a flawless track record of timely, error-free payroll, while streamlining workflows and automating tasks to improve efficiency across HR and Finance.
He doesn’t just manage numbers—he builds trust, ensuring everyone in the organisation feels supported and valued.”
- 🎉 Tīna Vecvagare, Payroll Team Lead at GoCardless | Nominated by
@Zelma Bagla , People Operations Partner“Tīna always knows how to solve the most difficult payroll problems and answer the most specific questions. Her perseverance and care for employees ensure that everyone is always paid on time.
She brings a level of expertise and commitment that makes her an invaluable part of our team—and she’s simply an amazing teammate to work with.”
- 🎉 Kelsey Beaty at Constructor.io | Nominated by
@Bianca Fernandez , People Operations Generalist“Kelsey manages an incredibly complex payroll setup for more than 400 people across almost 50 countries—and she does it as a payroll team of one. Across three to four different payroll systems, she ensures every U.S. and international team member is paid correctly.
From my vantage point, payroll runs smoothly and most of the company never has to think about it—which is honestly the highest compliment you can pay a payroll person. Behind that quiet is a huge amount of coordination and problem-solving, and I appreciate her efforts so much.”
To every champion recognised here: THANK YOU! Your work may happen quietly behind the scenes, but it reaches every person in your organisation, every payday.
And to everyone who nominated a colleague, thank you for taking the time to shine a light on the people who make it all happen. ❤️