Job Title: Payroll Analyst
Job Description
The Payroll Analyst manages day-to-day payroll operations in a complex, high-volume environment, processing biweekly payroll for approximately 9,000 employees across Canada. This role ensures accurate and timely payroll for multiple pay groups, maintains compliance with Canadian payroll legislation and collective agreements, and supports ongoing process improvements and system enhancements, including a large-scale Workday implementation.
Responsibilities

• Process complex biweekly payroll accurately and on time for approximately 9,000 employees across Canada.
• Support multiple pay groups in a high-volume environment where payroll is continuously running.
• Review and process hires, terminations, transfers, leaves, earnings, deductions, and retroactive adjustments for assigned employee groups.
• Investigate and resolve payroll discrepancies and respond to employee payroll inquiries in a timely and professional manner.
• Perform regular payroll audits, reconciliations, and exception reporting to ensure data integrity and accuracy.
• Ensure compliance with Canadian payroll legislation, employment standards, and provincial regulations.
• Apply and interpret multiple collective agreements and union rules in a unionized payroll environment.
• Support year-end activities, including regulatory reporting and payroll-related audits.
• Develop, maintain, and optimize payroll reports and queries to support operational and management needs.
• Collaborate closely with HR, Finance, Operations, and Technology teams to resolve issues and improve processes.
• Contribute to payroll process improvement initiatives and system enhancements, including Workday implementation activities.
• Manage multi-provincial payroll requirements and ensure adherence to CRA guidelines and payroll compliance standards.
• Handle payroll data audits, including new hires, terminations, status changes, and mass file uploads.
• Apply a strong understanding of pension, benefits, vacation, and sick leave rules in a highly regulated environment.
• Demonstrate strong communication skills when explaining payroll impacts, union rules, and agreement changes to stakeholders.

Essential Skills

• Hands-on experience with end-to-end payroll processing in a high-volume environment, including biweekly payroll for large employee populations.
• Strong proficiency in Canadian payroll legislation, employment standards, CRA requirements, and provincial regulations.
• Demonstrated experience working with unionized payroll and multiple collective agreements.
• Ability to interpret and apply union rules and agreements and understand their impact on payroll processing.
• Experience with multi-provincial payroll and associated compliance requirements.
• Proficiency with payroll data auditing, reconciliations, and exception reporting.
• Strong Excel skills, including pivot tables, VLOOKUP, and HLOOKUP for data analysis and validation.
• Ability to manage complex payroll environments with continuously running payroll cycles.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and respond to employee inquiries.
• Diploma or degree in Accounting, Human Resources, or Finance.
• Professional payroll certification (PCP) or working toward PCP.
• Experience supporting payroll in a highly regulated and complex environment, including pension, benefits, vacation, and sick leave.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Experience with PeopleSoft payroll systems, including the PeopleSoft Time & Labor module.
• Experience in payroll process optimization and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Experience in the healthcare industry and familiarity with healthcare-specific payroll considerations.
• Experience with union payroll in environments with multiple unions and collective agreements.
• Exposure to enterprise-level payroll environments and large-scale system implementations, such as Workday.
• Ability to develop and maintain payroll reports and queries to support business needs.
• Strong analytical skills for payroll data analysis and trend identification.
• Comfort working in a complex environment with multiple stakeholders and moving parts.
• Ability to handle occasional overtime or weekend work during peak project phases.

Work Environment
This role operates within a complex, enterprise-level payroll environment supporting over 9,000 employees across Canada. The position is based in an office in Markham, with a hybrid work arrangement: initially 12 days per week in the office, increasing to 3 days in October for Workday training. Around the January go-live, the team will work 45 days per week in the office for the first month, and then every other week during payroll runs. The standard work week is 37.5 hours, typically from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM with a 30-minute lunch break, with some flexibility. Occasional overtime or weekend work may be required during peak project phases, subject to prior approval. The environment is people-first, inclusive, and supportive, with a respectful team culture and opportunities to gain valuable exposure to a large-scale Workday implementation and a complex, multi-provincial, unionized payroll operation. There is potential for extension depending on project timelines.
Job Type & Location
This is a Contract position based out of Markham, ON.
Pay and Benefits
The pay range for this position is $45.00 - $55.00/hr.
Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.
Workplace Type
This is a hybrid position in Markham,ON.