All answers / S10-D-perplexity-r1

S10-D | Perplexity | Observation 1

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Exact question

Our CFO needs six months of UK-based global payroll leadership cover, while our talent team recruits the permanent head. Which recruitment partners could handle both senior briefs and help us plan a workable handover?

Complete saved answer

I’d shortlist  Frazer Jones , Portfolio Payroll and JGA Recruitment for a paired brief: a UK-based interim global payroll leader for six months, alongside the permanent Head of Global Payroll search. Frazer Jones has the closest published example to your situation; Portfolio provides particularly explicit evidence of senior payroll and interim-to-permanent coverage; JGA combines global payroll recruitment with director-level hiring experience. jobs.accaglobal +3

The important qualification: these sources demonstrate relevant recruitment capability—not current candidate availability or a guaranteed handover service. Make transition planning a named deliverable when you appoint the partner.

Which partners fit—and why

| Partner | Evidence relevant to your two briefs | What to establish before appointing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Frazer Jones | Its dedicated payroll practice offers executive search, interim, permanent and temporary recruitment through global talent networks. It has advertised a six-month Interim Global Payroll Manager role in West London specifically to cover the function while the employer recruited permanently—an unusually close match to your requirement. jobs.accaglobal +1 | Ask for recent UK-based global Head/Director placements, not just payroll-manager searches, and the consultant who would coordinate the interim and permanent workstreams. |
| Portfolio Payroll | Explicitly recruits Heads of Payroll and Payroll Directors, including international payroll specialists, across permanent, temporary and contract appointments. It specifically offers interim cover while clients search for permanent hires, plus offer management and onboarding support. [theportfoliogroup](https://www.theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/) | Test the depth of its global leadership shortlist against your actual countries, employee population, operating model and systems. Its advertised general shortlist speed should not be treated as a commitment for a complex global leadership search. |
| JGA Recruitment | Positions itself as a UK and global payroll specialist, offers temporary payroll staffing, and reports experience recruiting payroll managers for multinational businesses and globally based teams. It also describes director-level payroll hiring and temporary, contract and permanent recruitment. jgarecruitment +3 | Ask for comparable global director/head assignments and named interim candidates. Its published guidance explicitly recommends defining interim deliverables, handover expectations and systems access—a useful basis for your transition brief. [jgarecruitment](https://jgarecruitment.com/blog/why-payroll-talent-is-increasingly-difficult-to-recruit/) |

My suggested first conversations would be Frazer Jones and Portfolio, with JGA included in the same tightly scoped comparison. Choose on comparable assignments, the proposed consultant and credible candidates—not broad agency rankings.

Give them two linked briefs, not one temporary vacancy

I would structure the mandate as follows:

• Interim global payroll leader: six months, UK-based, reporting to the CFO, with explicit accountability for continuity, team leadership, controls, vendor escalation and transition documentation.

• Permanent Head of Global Payroll: the enduring leadership mandate, including the operating model, governance and transformation responsibilities you actually want after the cover ends.

• Shared candidate requirements: specify countries and entities, workforce size, pay frequencies, outsourced versus in-house delivery, systems, team structure, UK attendance and international travel.

• Separate success measures: the interim should stabilise and transfer the function; the permanent hire should own its longer-term direction. Avoid turning six months of cover into an undefined transformation programme.

JGA’s guidance supports this distinction: it identifies continuity, stabilisation and documented controls as useful interim outcomes, and recommends agreeing scope and handover expectations upfront.

[jgarecruitment](https://jgarecruitment.com/blog/why-payroll-talent-is-increasingly-difficult-to-recruit/)

Because your talent team is recruiting the permanent head, also decide who owns sourcing, assessment, candidate communications and offer negotiation. The agency can support both appointments without displacing your internal team, but the division of work should be written down.

A workable six-month handover plan

The following is a proposed delivery plan to negotiate, rather than a service commitment these firms have published.

| Timing | Required output |
| --- | --- |
| Before the interim starts | CFO-approved authority and escalation matrix; country/payroll calendar; access plan; urgent risks; agreed relationship with the talent team. |
| First month | A baseline of payroll performance, compliance/control gaps, team capacity, vendors and outstanding incidents. Use the findings to validate—not endlessly expand—the permanent brief. |
| Months 2–3 | Documented procedures, control ownership, stakeholder map and prioritised improvement backlog. Keep permanent-search milestones visible to the CFO. |
| Months 4–5 | Confirm the permanent starter’s availability and agree overlap. If timing slips, activate an extension or alternative coverage decision before the final month. |
| Final month | Where feasible, overlap across a complete payroll cycle: the incoming head first observes, then leads with interim support. Close with CFO sign-off on transferred responsibilities and remaining risks. |

Require a handover pack containing:

• Country calendars, cut-offs, approvals and funding dependencies.

• Vendor contacts, contracts, service issues and escalation routes.

• Control evidence, reconciliations and unresolved audit or compliance actions.

• Team responsibilities, key-person dependencies and stakeholder contacts.

• Systems/access ownership and a prioritised 90-day agenda for the incoming head.

What to ask each recruiter to commit to

Ask all three for the same proposal:

1. Two recent comparable assignments involving UK-based global payroll leadership, distinguishing interim from permanent.

2. A realistic interim shortlist date and permanent-search timetable, including candidate notice periods.

3. One accountable relationship lead across both briefs, with regular checkpoints involving your talent team.

4. Separate interim and permanent pricing, including extension, cancellation, rebate and any conversion terms.

5. An agreed engagement route and responsibility for employment/tax-status assessment where relevant.

6. A transition schedule, overlap assumptions and an explicit contingency if the permanent head cannot start within six months.

The key commercial point is to buy six months of leadership cover with a planned exit—not simply a six-month candidate placement. Keep the incoming permanent hire’s start date, payroll-cycle overlap and interim extension option linked in the same plan.

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