CIPP FUTURE OF PAYROLL REPORT 2019
calculations and the lack of clear guidance on how exactly these calculations should be made. We know there are also many employers who are reluctant to make any changes to their processes because they think (or hope!) that subsequent Employment Tribunal cases may change the rules again. We know that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is in the process of producing more detailed guidance, including case studies and scenarios which may help this uncertainty. Next came Expenses and Benefits ( 29.5% ) and the payrolling of benefits in kind. Again, as with holiday pay calculations this isn’t a new topic, so it is interesting to see this as the number four issue. Changes to salary sacrifice and the introduction of optional remuneration may well account for this uncertainty, and again, the lack of clear and timely guidance could well have been a factor in this concern. Automation of business processes ( 28.75% ) followed; this isn’t a big surprise because companies/businesses here in the UK and around the world are looking for lean and streamlined processes with as much automation as possible. This should be seen as a positive, as it should enable payrollers to really look at the strategic element of what they do and to add further value to their organisation. Here’s one of the respondents’ comments on this issue: “LIKE MANY OTHER COMPANIES WE ARE LOOKING AT EFFICIENCIES, COST-CUTTING AND HEADCOUNT REDUCTION. UNFORTUNATELY, WE HAVE MOVED AWAY FROM A DEPARTMENT THAT HAD A MISSION STATEMENT THAT INCLUDED EITHER “FIRST CLASS OR WORLD CLASS DELIVERY” BUT NOW ONE THAT IS “FIT FOR PURPOSE” BUT STILL THE FOCUS HAS TO BE ON PAYING STAFF CORRECTLY AND ON TIME BUT IN A MOST ECONOMIC AND EFFICIENT WAY” Gender pay reporting ( legislation that requires large employers to report and publish their overall mean and median gender pay gaps from 2017 ) continues to be an issue with 24% of the respondents still ranking it high on their list. This was a slight change up on last year’s where it was 22.58% . Back in July 2018 Personnel Today published an article (https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/up-to-one-in-six-organisations-have-misreported-gender- pay-gap/) which stated ‘one in six employers may have misreported gender pay gap’ so it’s no surprise that this was in the top issues reported by the respondents. Finally, in this section is Implementing a new system ( 21% ); tied to the comment above, it’s no surprise that companies are looking to improve their systems, the correctness of data and to automate as much as possible. Surprisingly given the other issues above you would have assumed that this would have been higher up the list. However, we touch on payroll systems and software later in the report. Before we move on, two things stood out from the answers which came back, and one was Brexit ( 0% ) and the second was Blockchain ( 0.5% ). Taking Brexit first, in the last survey Brexit was 8.47% (small yes but still there) so given that it is imminent you must question why this isn’t an issue for the respondents any longer? To explore this the CIPP put in a new question in the survey this year which asked ‘are you concerned about the potential implications Brexit may have on your payroll?’ The answers that came back were ‘yes’ ( 29.62% ) and ‘no’ (7 0.38% ); here are some of the comments that were received:
“NOT CONCERNED AS WE WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH CHANGES AS THEY OCCUR LIKE WE DO FOR ALL OTHER CHANGES.”
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