HM Treasury has announced plans to make Britain a global hub for cryptoasset technology and investment. Part of the plan is to bring stable cryptoassets within regulation so that they can be used for payments in the UK. Do you think this will have a major impact on the payroll profession?
MAYBE 62.61% ?
YES 24.77%
NO 13.51%
Being paid in cryptoassets isn’t completely unheard of. The survey had one respondent who confirmed they’re already paying employees in cryptocurrency. Three respondents said they have plans to introduce cryptocurrency payments in the future. 58% of respondents stated they’re unsure about whether they’ll introduce such payments. If crypto payments do increase in popularity, it will affect payroll payments in many ways. Experts predict that the speed, security and transparency of transactions offered through cryptotransactions would make a significant improvement to what’s currently offered through bank transactions. It’s also expected that costs from transaction fees would be lower, with the removal of third parties, especially for international payments. One consideration is that the administration of pay as you earn (PAYE) would be more difficult than normal payments, as cryptoasset payments are classed as non-cash payments. Additional tasks would be required such as valuing the assets, calculating deductions and then recovering the deductions from the employee. As payment technologies develop, practices around the transparency of payments are also evolving. In 2017, legislation was introduced making gender pay gap reporting mandatory for employers with 250 or more employees. The survey found that alongside publishing gender pay gap information, 29% of respondents are also reporting on either ethnicity pay gap, disability pay gap or pay banding information. 24% of respondents said they plan to begin publishing data of this kind in the future. If legislation and practices go in this direction, it’s likely to be a payroll responsibility to collate and present this data. These trends again highlight the wealth of invaluable data that payroll professionals maintain and store. This data can provide important statistics that can inform organisations of trends within their workforce. Analysis of payroll data helps identify financial trends; for example, overtime records identify costs incurred by different departments or which departments are under/overstaffed. Many payroll professionals currently use payroll data to help financial analysts by filling journals and ledgers. If more organisations harness payroll data for other areas, such as financial well-being, it could add to the role of payroll professionals surrounding payments and pay information.
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