Uriel Kieley, PLP Manager, HRIS

Manager, HRIS, City of St. John’s, Petty Harbour–Maddox Cove, NL

Uriel Kieley has called the scenic town of Petty Harbour-Maddox Cove, Newfoundland home for the past 

20 years. She and her husband have built a beautiful life there together and spend most of their spare time running between basketball courts and hockey arenas with their two sons, aged 11 and 17. 

Uriel has a big heart and is incredibly loyal. Throughout her career it’s clear she’s loved her work and the organizations she’s worked with. 

Originally, Uriel went to school for a business management program, where she floated back and forth between accounting and HR, eventually choosing HR as her focus. For the program, she had to complete a work term which she secured with the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation (NLC). She made such a great impression that they kept her on for the summer beyond her co-op term, and also hired her back after she graduated the following year. She worked there as an HR Assistant for a couple of years, until an opportunity opened up for a payroll position. 

She took the role as a Payroll Officer, and over the next seven years, grew in the role and pursued her payroll designations. Eventually, she was promoted to the role of HR Consultant, HRIS, Payroll and Benefits taking on both HRIS, payroll and benefit oversight responsibilities. In all, she was there for two decades before moving on to the position of Team Lead, Payroll & HRIS with Nalcor Energy. She worked with the Crown Corporation for two years before moving to her current role. 

Now, she works for the City of St. John’s as Manager of HRIS and Payroll — and she loves it. She says the City is a great place to work and is a workplace that people come and stay — there isn’t a lot of turn over. In fact, she only was able to get in because her predecessor, who was in the role for over 36 years, retired. 

Many people debate whether payroll should belong to Finance or HR within an organization, but for 

Uriel, while she recognizes that every organization is different, in her experiences she has felt the common thread that binds the work of payroll to HR. 

“I think there are such close ties between the two functions,” she says. “Payroll is an employee facing function and decisions that HR makes drive payroll process.” “ 

For Uriel, the biggest shift she’s witnessed throughout her career has been the advancement of payroll and HR technologies. She feels that the systems in place within an organization should be integrative and consider both HR and payroll needs.  

“I was with NLC when we implemented a new HRIS/Payroll and Time and Attendance solution which included electronic timesheets, leave and biometrics,” she explains. “And, to be honest, that was a tough sell from a unionized and budget perspective. But ultimately it brought many benefits from a timekeeping perspective and from an accuracy perspective. I think that was definitely one of the highlights of my career.” 

Working now for the municipality, Uriel is bringing the learning and experience from her previous roles to her new department. 

 “In the public sector you don’t always have the budgets available to work with that you would in the private sector, but you still have to try to keep up with technology,” she says. “So that’s one of the one of the projects I’m working on right now is introducing electronic leave, which I’ve had in my two previous jobs. You have to be adaptable, depending on what industry you’re in.”  

For anyone new entering the payroll field, she would encourage them to seek out opportunities to cross train – be that in HR or finance. 

“It can help to open up more career opportunities for you,” she says. “Definitely get as much experience as you can, however you can.”