MEMBER TAKEOVER
Automation vs advice: the big payroll battle
Amy Johnson MCIPPdip, payroll advisory and guidance lead, Pento, discusses why payroll professionals should embrace both automation and advice T here’s a phrase frequently thrown around which sends shivers down the spines of payroll professionals – and no, I’m not referring to furlough, but of payroll. Being a payroll professional isn’t keying in hours, it’s humanising complex legislation to help employees and employers understand its impacts.
changes are made – they don’t question what calculations need to be done, simply what those changes mean for them. So, in the battle of advice vs automation, there is no winner. In an evolving payroll world, true payroll specialists will embrace both. Fantastic technology can automate administrative tasks, freeing up those with the wealth of knowledge needed to work in payroll to do what they do best – shine bright with advice, query resolution and enablement. ... freeing up those with the wealth of knowledge needed to work in payroll to do what they do best – shine bright with advice, query resolution and enablement The future of payroll is a combination of both, and it’s vital payroll professionals embrace this, so the kudos our profession gained in the depths of furlough isn’t lost. Never again shall we just be those button- pushing, back-office payroll teams – we’ll be tech-savvy payroll experts. n
‘payroll is just pushing a button.’ There, it’s out there, the definition of payroll to those who don’t work in the profession, and believe it consists of simply pushing a button, which results in employees being paid accurately and on time. But for those of us in the know, it’s so much more than that. Since I started my career in payroll, the nature of the questions I’m faced with has moved on from ‘what is minimum wage?’ to more strategic, thoughtful questions such as ‘what can I do to help my employees with the cost-of-living crisis?’ A payroll superhero (because that’s what we are) is now expected to cross check calculations, provide detailed explanations of complex legislation and is often expected to guide and advise employers on best practices. So how do we make sure that those with the button-pushing view start to see the true value a payroll function has? That the skillset of a payroll professional is akin to that of individuals working in any other area of a business? By embracing technology There can be an undercurrent of fear when considering automating payroll, but there’s a lot to be gained from the automation of data entry and calculation elements
Payroll will always require specialist people with knowledge and skills to review legislation and ensure payroll is being calculated correctly and compliance is observed. In the last few months, we’ve seen a chancellor announce changes to tax bands and then reverse them completely the following week. Working in a software company, our advisory team was needed to help the business understand what needed to be implemented – and then what needed to be ignored! The software didn’t ‘automatically’ do this. Our customers still need someone to reassure them of the impact to their business when Being a payroll professional isn’t keying in hours, it’s humanising complex legislation to help employees and employers understand its impacts
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 86 | December 2022 – January 2023
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