Rachel Abbott

From shop floors to payroll transformation, Rachel Abbott’s journey into finance leadership has been shaped by curiosity, resilience, and a human-first approach to change. Today, she leads rewards and payroll at Octopus Energy - one of the UK’s fastest-growing energy providers, where she helped deliver a major payroll overhaul while quadrupling headcount in just four years.

A career built on reinvention

Rachel didn’t start her career in finance. Her early days were in retail, selling everything from suitcases to shoes. But long hours and limited career progression led her to customer service and eventually HR, where she found herself asking a big question: how can we make work feel better?

After completing an HR qualification and gaining experience across several companies, she interviewed at Octopus Energy in 2019. She wasn’t successful the first time around—but in the post-COVID recovery, Octopus came knocking again. This time, it was for a payroll manager role: “I was ready for a change. HR had been emotionally draining, and payroll felt like something you could fix. If something goes wrong in finance, you can trace it. You can make it right.”

Scaling a lean finance team

Rachel joined just as Octopus was entering hyper-growth. The company would go on to more than quadruple in size, adding over 8,000 employees during her time.

To keep up, the payroll system had to evolve. Rachel led the transformation from a bureau model reliant on spreadsheets to a fully in-house operation with smart integrations: “We did the whole implementation in three months. It was intense, especially for such a lean team. But we made it.”

Leading through people, not process

Rachel believes great leadership is about trust, empathy, and setting clear expectations. In today’s hybrid, fast-changing world, she sees flexibility and listening as non-negotiables.

“You’ve got to be a good human before you can be a good leader.”

She leads by example, never asking her team to do something she wouldn’t do herself. At Octopus, managers have autonomy, and Rachel sees that as a huge enabler for tailored leadership.

Her leadership values were also shaped by the challenges she faced returning from maternity leave in a previous role—an experience that pushed her to lead with greater compassion.

Getting buy-in for transformation

For those facing resistance to transformation, Rachel emphasises one thing: the business case.

"Do your due diligence. Test systems. Compare vendors. Show where time will be saved, where accuracy improves, where people benefit. If you can tell that story, it’s hard to say no."

She points out that the finance team, though often behind the scenes, is critical to every function in a business. Recognition for that work, like winning Transformation of the Year at the GENCFO Awards, matters deeply.

Payroll keeps people housed and fed. That responsibility drives me every single day.

Exploring AI’s potential

Rachel is cautiously optimistic about AI. Octopus already uses it in customer support to triage basic queries, freeing up specialists for more complex work. In payroll, she sees potential for variance checks and summarising large datasets, but believes human oversight is essential: “Use it as a tool. Don’t let the tool use you.”