JGA STUDY · SAVED-TEXT EVIDENCE EXPORT Original answer wording and recorded date preserved. Answer ID: S09-D-perplexity-r2 Recorded UTC: 2026-10-21T19:11:01.240Z Product: Perplexity Observation: 2 Collection country: UK Access: Dedicated signed-in / Free Model label: Search; automatic/default Model; underlying model not disclosed Mode: Free Search; native Incognito; default Model undisclosed EXACT QUESTION Which specialist recruitment firms could help our Manchester finance team hire a permanent Head of Payroll to manage UK and European payroll providers? The role is hybrid in Manchester and needs supplier oversight and service-transition experience. FULL SAVED ANSWER For a permanent, hybrid Head of Payroll in Manchester with UK/European provider oversight and transition experience, I would shortlist Portfolio Payroll, JGA Recruitment, McKinnon Talent, Hays, and Robert Walters . The strongest first calls are the payroll-only specialists, because they are most likely to have candidates who have managed outsourced multi-country payroll and change programmes. theportfoliogroup +2 Best-fit agencies | Firm | Why it fits | Manchester / coverage | Best use | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Portfolio Payroll / The Portfolio Group | Specialist payroll recruiter with dedicated permanent and executive teams; recruits up to Head of Payroll and Payroll Director level, and has a Manchester office. theportfoliogroup +2 | Manchester office, 0161 523 5585. theportfoliogroup +1 | Primary search partner for a permanent senior hire; ask for candidates with EMEA provider management and transformation evidence. | | JGA Recruitment Group | Payroll and HR specialist recruiting across the UK and EMEA; its Manchester division is led by Nick Day, and it places payroll implementation and manager roles. jgarecruitment +1 | UK/EMEA coverage with a dedicated Manchester payroll division. jgarecruitment +1 | Strong for multi-country payroll, implementation and service-transition backgrounds. | | McKinnon Talent | Manchester-based payroll specialist that explicitly recruits Head of Payroll, EMEA Payroll Manager, Global Payroll Manager and implementation specialists. linkedin +1 | Greater Manchester-based founders; UK-wide search. linkedin +1 | Good boutique option for a targeted senior search and EMEA payroll talent. | | Hays | Large recruiter with dedicated payroll consultants and UK-wide reach; recruits payroll managers and heads of payroll, including permanent roles. [hays.co](https://www.hays.co.uk/jobs/accountancy-finance/payroll) | National network; active Manchester payroll hiring. hays.co +1 | Useful as a broad-market contingency search alongside a specialist. | | Robert Walters | Recruits payroll professionals from specialists through Heads of Payroll, including payroll operations, systems and transformation experience; has a Manchester office in Spinningfields. robertwalters.co +1 | Manchester office, 1 Spinningfields. [robertwalters.co](https://www.robertwalters.co.uk/contact-us/united-kingdom/manchester.html) | Good for candidates combining payroll leadership with finance transformation and supplier governance. | | Robert Half | Finance and accounting recruiter covering permanent and interim roles, including Payroll Manager; has UK coverage including Manchester. [roberthalf](https://www.roberthalf.com/gb/en/finance-accounting-recruitment) | UK-wide, including Manchester. [roberthalf](https://www.roberthalf.com/gb/en/finance-accounting-recruitment) | Useful if you want finance-adjacent candidates, e.g. a Payroll/Finance Operations leader, rather than a pure payroll specialist. | Recommended approach • Retain Portfolio Payroll or JGA for the core search: they have the deepest payroll-specific networks and evidence of senior, EMEA and implementation-focused mandates. theportfoliogroup +2 • Add McKinnon Talent as a second specialist to widen access to Manchester-based EMEA payroll leadership talent. linkedin +1 • Run Hays or Robert Walters in parallel if you want market-wide coverage and candidates from larger transformation programmes. robertwalters.co +1 • Use Robert Half only as a supplementary route if the role may suit a finance operations leader with payroll and vendor-management responsibility. [roberthalf](https://www.roberthalf.com/gb/en/finance-accounting-recruitment) Brief to send agencies Ask each firm to target candidates who can demonstrate: • Ownership of UK and European outsourced payroll providers, including SLAs, controls, escalation and performance management. • Experience leading payroll service transitions—migration, TUPE/vendor change, implementation, parallel running, and post-go-live stabilisation. • Multi-country payroll knowledge, ideally with exposure to EMEA regulatory and data-privacy requirements. • Stakeholder management across Finance, HR, Legal, IT and external suppliers. • Permanent senior-leadership experience in a hybrid Manchester setting. A practical scoring test for CVs: require at least one completed provider transition or payroll-platform/outsourcing change, plus named examples of countries, providers and governance forums managed. JGA’s own senior EMEA Head of Payroll mandate similarly emphasises outsourced-provider management, controls, systems improvement and payroll transformation. [talents.studysmarter.co](https://talents.studysmarter.co.uk/companies/jga-recruitment-group-b-corp/head-of-payroll-emea-54267510/) SOURCES S09-D-perplexity-r2-G01-1 | supporting_citation | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/recruitment-services/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G01-2 | supporting_citation | https://talents.studysmarter.co.uk/companies/jga-recruitment-group-b-corp/head-of-payroll-emea-54267510/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G01-3 | supporting_citation | https://linkedin.com/company/mckinnon-talent S09-D-perplexity-r2-G02-1 | supporting_citation | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/recruitment-services/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G02-2 | supporting_citation | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/hire-with-portfolio-payroll/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G02-3 | supporting_citation | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/register-a-vacancy/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G03-1 | supporting_citation | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G03-2 | supporting_citation | https://linkedin.com/company/the-portfolio-group S09-D-perplexity-r2-G04-1 | supporting_citation | https://jgarecruitment.com/payroll-jobs-manchester/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G04-2 | supporting_citation | https://jgarecruitment.com/home/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G05-1 | supporting_citation | https://jgarecruitment.com/payroll-jobs-manchester/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G05-2 | supporting_citation | https://jgarecruitment.com/jga-hr-recruitment-manchester/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G06-1 | supporting_citation | https://linkedin.com/in/lisavwilson S09-D-perplexity-r2-G06-2 | supporting_citation | https://linkedin.com/company/mckinnon-talent S09-D-perplexity-r2-G07-1 | supporting_citation | https://linkedin.com/in/lisavwilson S09-D-perplexity-r2-G07-2 | supporting_citation | https://linkedin.com/in/adam-mccartney-9a58b6139 S09-D-perplexity-r2-G08-1 | supporting_citation | https://hays.co.uk/jobs/accountancy-finance/payroll S09-D-perplexity-r2-G08-2 | supporting_citation | https://hays.co.uk/job-search/payroll-assistant-jobs-in-manchester-uk S09-D-perplexity-r2-G09-1 | supporting_citation | https://robertwalters.co.uk/contact-us/united-kingdom/manchester.html S09-D-perplexity-r2-G09-2 | supporting_citation | https://agencycentral.co.uk/agencysearch/accounting/skills/payroll/payroll.htm S09-D-perplexity-r2-G10-1 | supporting_citation | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/recruitment-services/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G10-2 | supporting_citation | https://talents.studysmarter.co.uk/companies/jga-recruitment-group-b-corp/head-of-payroll-emea-54267510/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G10-3 | supporting_citation | https://jgarecruitment.com/payroll-jobs-manchester/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-G11-1 | supporting_citation | https://linkedin.com/company/mckinnon-talent S09-D-perplexity-r2-G11-2 | supporting_citation | https://linkedin.com/in/lisavwilson S09-D-perplexity-r2-G12-1 | supporting_citation | https://robertwalters.co.uk/contact-us/united-kingdom/manchester.html S09-D-perplexity-r2-G12-2 | supporting_citation | https://hays.co.uk/jobs/accountancy-finance/payroll S09-D-perplexity-r2-D1 | supporting_citation | https://hays.co.uk/jobs/accountancy-finance/payroll S09-D-perplexity-r2-D2 | supporting_citation | https://robertwalters.co.uk/contact-us/united-kingdom/manchester.html S09-D-perplexity-r2-D3 | supporting_citation | https://roberthalf.com/gb/en/finance-accounting-recruitment S09-D-perplexity-r2-D4 | supporting_citation | https://roberthalf.com/gb/en/finance-accounting-recruitment S09-D-perplexity-r2-D5 | supporting_citation | https://roberthalf.com/gb/en/finance-accounting-recruitment S09-D-perplexity-r2-D6 | supporting_citation | https://talents.studysmarter.co.uk/companies/jga-recruitment-group-b-corp/head-of-payroll-emea-54267510/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R1 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/recruitment-services/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R2 | retrieved_result | https://talents.studysmarter.co.uk/companies/jga-recruitment-group-b-corp/head-of-payroll-emea-54267510/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R3 | retrieved_result | https://linkedin.com/company/mckinnon-talent S09-D-perplexity-r2-R4 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/hire-with-portfolio-payroll/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R5 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/register-a-vacancy/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R6 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R7 | retrieved_result | https://linkedin.com/company/the-portfolio-group S09-D-perplexity-r2-R8 | retrieved_result | https://jgarecruitment.com/payroll-jobs-manchester/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R9 | retrieved_result | https://jgarecruitment.com/home/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R10 | retrieved_result | https://jgarecruitment.com/jga-hr-recruitment-manchester/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R11 | retrieved_result | https://linkedin.com/in/lisavwilson S09-D-perplexity-r2-R12 | retrieved_result | https://linkedin.com/in/adam-mccartney-9a58b6139 S09-D-perplexity-r2-R13 | retrieved_result | https://hays.co.uk/jobs/accountancy-finance/payroll S09-D-perplexity-r2-R14 | retrieved_result | https://hays.co.uk/job-search/payroll-assistant-jobs-in-manchester-uk S09-D-perplexity-r2-R15 | retrieved_result | https://robertwalters.co.uk/contact-us/united-kingdom/manchester.html S09-D-perplexity-r2-R16 | retrieved_result | https://agencycentral.co.uk/agencysearch/accounting/skills/payroll/payroll.htm S09-D-perplexity-r2-R17 | retrieved_result | https://roberthalf.com/gb/en/finance-accounting-recruitment S09-D-perplexity-r2-R18 | retrieved_result | https://reed.co.uk/jobs/head-of-payroll-jobs-in-greater-manchester S09-D-perplexity-r2-R19 | retrieved_result | https://reed.co.uk/jobs/on-site-head-of-payroll-jobs-in-manchester?workingOption=onSite S09-D-perplexity-r2-R20 | retrieved_result | https://linkedin.com/company/portfolio-payroll-limited S09-D-perplexity-r2-R21 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/hr-reward/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R22 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R23 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/jobs/emea-payroll-senior-specialist/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R24 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/jobs/director-of-payroll-4/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R25 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/payroll/why-use-us/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R26 | retrieved_result | https://theportfoliogroup.com/page/6/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R27 | retrieved_result | https://uk.indeed.com/q-apac-payroll-jobs.html S09-D-perplexity-r2-R28 | retrieved_result | https://robertwalters.co.uk/our-services/permanent-recruitment.html S09-D-perplexity-r2-R29 | retrieved_result | https://hays.co.uk/job-search/payroll-specialist-jobs S09-D-perplexity-r2-R30 | retrieved_result | https://hays.co.uk/job-search/hr-manager-jobs S09-D-perplexity-r2-R31 | retrieved_result | https://hays.co.uk/job-search/payroll-jobs S09-D-perplexity-r2-R32 | retrieved_result | https://hays.co.uk/job-search/payroll-manager-jobs-in-birmingham-uk S09-D-perplexity-r2-R33 | retrieved_result | https://linkedin.com/jobs/view/head-of-payroll-at-jga-recruitment-group-4227277181 S09-D-perplexity-r2-R34 | retrieved_result | https://jgarecruitmentinc.com/payroll-manager-jobs/ S09-D-perplexity-r2-R35 | retrieved_result | https://linkedin.com/jobs/view/4463928189 S09-D-perplexity-r2-R36 | retrieved_result | https://jga-recruitment.app.loxo.co/jga-recruitment?type_sort=asc