Novopay pain returns for principal

Lakeview School principal Ed Hodgkinson, says the Novopay system had been winning friends until the latest pay round landed with "a multitude of problems".

A Masterton principal has echoed the ongoing frustration of his peers at the Novopay payroll system that still misses the mark after wreaking havoc when first introduced.

Lakeview School principal Ed Hodgkinson, who also is president of the Wellington Regional Primary Principals Association, said the Novopay system had been slowly winning friends at the Masterton school until the latest pay round landed payroll staff with "a multitude of problems".

Mr Hodgkinson had responded to the federation survey and said there had been "a significant number of our staff affected by pay problems" in the latest pay round.

There were 45 staff paid through the Novopay system at Lakeview School, he said, and up to nine teachers "had issues" in the latest pay round where the process was flawed and needed correction.

He said teachers were getting paid but there were historical problems rooted in pay periods from last year that were yet to be corrected as well.

"While we might have one issue in any given pay period, this time there were eight or nine. We seemed to be making some progress and then with the change over we struck issues that set us back and set the Novopay relationship back.

"There's still a long way for Novopay to go before they get it right. Yes, it was improving but they've had a very long time to get things right and the latest pay round was certainly a step in the wrong direction.

"The issues took me away from other core tasks I could have been doing and it is still not completely fixed. It is annoying, frustrating and a waste of time and we find that as soon as something new happens, then a whole raft of issues arise.

"It's only through the goodwill of schools that we are still putting up with it. If this was a business, Novopay would have been dumped long along."

Mr Hodgkinson, who a year ago took up the presidency of the regional association, said the organisation represents more than 200 primary and intermediate schools in the greater Wellington region and his views on Novopay "are echoed by others".

Philip Harding, New Zealand Principals Federation (NZPF) president, said a federation survey conducted this week had provoked "a strong response" from 714 principals across the country, who reported that on average close to six staff members at each school had been incorrectly paid in the latest pay period and two thirds of the surveyed schools still have unresolved problems from last year.

"School principals report that the Novopay payroll system that caused so much chaos when it was first introduced is still struggling to deliver accuracy, and judging by their feedback, principals are still hugely frustrated at the inadequacies of a system that continues to suck their patience dry."

"We always expect the first pay round of the year to be a bit challenging but this error rate is way beyond anything we imagined," he said.

Mr Harding also was disappointed by the slew of problems unresolved from last year.

"Unsurprisingly, a whopping 72.7 per cent of principals have no confidence that Novopay is on track to providing an effective payroll tool that is fit for purpose," he said.

"Government has already poured millions of taxpayers' dollars into patching and propping up a payroll system that continues to let schools down, when it was supposed to create significant savings."

Mr Harding said principals "want to know when the government will finally acknowledge that Novopay can't be fixed and start work on its replacement".