ChatGPT
JGA recommended.

For a Manchester-based Head of Payroll leading a UK and European payroll-provider transition, I would shortlist a combination of specialist payroll recruiters and HR/payroll transformation search firms rather than rely on a generalist executive-search firm alone.

The critical distinction is between finding someone who can run payroll and finding a leader who can govern an outsourced service provider, manage a multi-country transition, challenge service performance and retain control of compliance and payroll sign-off .

My recommended shortlist

1. Portfolio Payroll

First call

Best for: A Manchester-based Head of Payroll with deep operational payroll knowledge and senior leadership capability.

Evidence: Portfolio has recruited payroll professionals since 1988, has a Manchester office, and explicitly covers Head of Payroll, Global Head of Payroll & Benefits, EMEA payroll, international payroll, systems and implementation roles. It also offers executive and interim recruitment. Portfolio Payroll +1

Its Manchester payroll team is led by Gillian Owen, whose published profile states she has over 21 years of recruitment experience and specialises in senior-level appointments. The Portfolio Group +1

Vendor-governance fit: Strong specialist access to senior payroll talent. Ask it to demonstrate placements involving outsourced-provider selection, service-level agreements (SLAs), supplier escalation and multi-country transitions.

Contact: 0161 523 5585 · [Website](https://www.portfoliopayroll.com/payroll/recruitment-services/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

2. JGA Recruitment

Best for: International payroll leadership, transformation and implementation experience.

Evidence: JGA recruits across Manchester and EMEA, and explicitly lists Global Payroll Director, Payroll Director, Global Payroll Transformation Manager, Head of Payroll and International Payroll Manager roles. Its payroll practice is led by a specialist with extensive UK and EMEA recruitment experience. JGA Recruitment +1

Vendor-governance fit: Its coverage of transformation and international payroll makes it a good source for candidates who have coordinated multiple country teams, systems and implementation partners.

What to verify: Ask for examples of candidates who have owned the relationship with a third-party payroll bureau or global payroll aggregator—not simply implemented payroll software.

Contact: [JGA Payroll Recruitment](https://jgarecruitment.com/payroll-jobs-manchester/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

3. Frazer Jones

Best for: A senior, strategically minded payroll leader with UK and European responsibilities.

Evidence: Frazer Jones offers dedicated payroll executive search, permanent and interim recruitment. Its published service covers UK and EMEA payroll leadership, and John O’Brien is identified as Executive Director and Head of Payroll, recruiting executive payroll and benefits professionals with UK, EMEA and global remits. Frazer Jones +2

Vendor-governance fit: Particularly compelling if you want to reach senior candidates across multiple industries rather than limit the search to Greater Manchester.

What to verify: Request examples of placements involving retained ownership of outsourced payroll performance, provider governance and transition risk.

Contact: [Frazer Jones payroll executive search](https://www.frazerjones.com/get-in-touch/book-a-consultation/payroll/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

4. Rise Group

Best for: A transition-heavy appointment where payroll technology, transformation delivery and programme leadership matter as much as BAU operations.

Evidence: Rise says it recruits HR, Finance and Payroll transformation talent across the UK, Benelux, DACH, Nordics and other markets. Its published client evidence includes assembling a team of eight UKG payroll, Workday, data and payroll specialists for a global payroll carve-out during a divestiture. UK - Europe - US

Vendor-governance fit: This is the most directly relevant public evidence in the shortlist for experience adjacent to complex payroll change and international programme delivery.

Important limitation: The case study concerns building a project team, not a demonstrated placement of a Head of Payroll with end-to-end supplier-governance accountability. Treat Rise as a targeted search partner for transformation-led candidates.

Contact: [Rise Group](https://risegroup.io/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

5. We Are Adam

Best for: A broader HR operations or people-transformation leader who has payroll oversight alongside other shared services.

Evidence: The Manchester-based firm recruits senior HR and people leadership talent, including executive appointments, and has experience across HR and specialist business functions. google.com

Vendor-governance fit: A useful supplementary option if the role is broader than payroll processing—for example, ownership of a shared-services operating model or outsourced HR operations.

Important limitation: The public evidence reviewed is less specific to international payroll and payroll-provider transitions than that for the first four firms.

Contact: [We Are Adam](https://weareadam.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

What the evidence actually proves

There is an important distinction between recruiting people who understand payroll and proving that a recruitment firm can find leaders with hands-on vendor-governance experience.

The public evidence supports the following assessment:

| Firm | Public evidence of payroll / international search | Evidence of vendor-governance expertise in candidates |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Portfolio Payroll | Strong, explicit payroll specialism | Must be validated |

| JGA Recruitment | Strong, explicit international and transformation coverage | Must be validated |

| Frazer Jones | Strong, senior UK/EMEA/global payroll search | Must be validated |

| Rise Group | Strong adjacent transformation and global carve-out evidence | Promising adjacent evidence; validate the individual leader |

| We Are Adam | Broader HR leadership and executive search | Less directly evidenced |

I would not interpret any of these firms' published marketing material as proof that they have already placed someone with precisely the required provider-governance track record.

How I would brief the recruiters

I would send the same tightly defined brief to the first four firms and require them to demonstrate candidate quality before awarding exclusivity.

The ideal candidate should have:

• Outsourced payroll ownership: Managed a third-party payroll bureau, global payroll aggregator or multiple country providers, with clear accountability for outcomes.

• UK and European transition delivery: Led or materially owned a provider migration, including parallel runs, data reconciliation, cutover, year-to-date balances and hypercare.

• Supplier governance: Owned SLAs, KPIs, service reviews, contractual obligations, remediation plans, escalations and, where relevant, service credits.

• Control and compliance: Maintained payroll sign-off, statutory compliance, audit evidence, data protection controls and clear accountability between the employer and supplier.

• Executive stakeholder management: Worked with HR, Finance, IT, Procurement, Legal and country-level stakeholders to resolve issues and sustain service quality.

Five questions to ask each recruitment firm

1. Can you give us two anonymised examples of Head of Payroll or Payroll Director candidates you have placed who managed an outsourced provider across the UK and at least two European countries?

2. Did those candidates lead the provider transition themselves, or did they only participate in a payroll-system implementation?

3. Which candidates have owned SLAs, vendor scorecards, service credits, remediation and formal supplier escalation?

4. How will you source passive candidates from organisations that have recently consolidated, changed or outsourced their payroll providers?

5. Can you provide a sample anonymised candidate profile demonstrating the specific governance and transition evidence you would assess?

Ask for evidence of what the candidate personally owned , not just the project or employer they worked for.

My final recommendation

Start with Portfolio Payroll, JGA Recruitment and Frazer Jones for the core search. Add Rise Group to target candidates with unusually strong transformation and carve-out experience.

I would appoint the firm that can demonstrate the strongest relevant candidate network and provide credible examples of successful provider transitions—not simply the largest payroll database or the most polished executive-search process.

For this appointment, the decisive screening test is whether a candidate can explain how they held an external payroll provider accountable while protecting payroll accuracy, compliance and employee pay throughout a multi-country transition.