Technology
Transforming payroll
Jaspal RandhawaWayte ChMCIPP, director of product management, Payroll Solutions, Zellis, discusses the issues
T he pandemic has led to a prolonged spike in activity for the payroll profession. So, how can technology support payroll operations? To answer this, it’s important to highlight key challenges payroll professionals face in the current climate.
● Artificial intelligence – A particular example is chatbots, which are used by many businesses to field queries and provide automated answers – something which could be highly useful within the payroll function. Nonetheless, as payroll handles a vast amount of confidential data, proper security procedures need to be in place when utilising chatbots. The following questions should also be considered: ❍ Which types of queries can chatbots answer? They may be able to handle common queries that require a simple, straightforward answer, but may not be capable of addressing more complex questions. ❍ How would employees respond to chatbots in an easy and timely manner? ❍ How would you monitor feedback, to make sure this is an effective solution? ● Automation and analytics – Using automation, many routine, time-consuming tasks could be scheduled outside of business hours, such as the processing of large payrolls and incoming data, as well as the output of reports. In expanding use of automation, the following questions should be considered: ❍ Is it possible to automate repeated transactions to free-up the payroll team’s time, allowing them to focus on delivering true expertise and value to the business by performing more strategic tasks? ❍ Is there value in delivering payroll data via external data feeds to fuel rich, automated analytics, and provide meaningful management information that can be easily disseminated across the organisation with little manipulation? ● Cloud software – Clearly those businesses that had already adopted cloud software solutions would have found it easier to mobilise their staff to work from home during the pandemic, but some
other questions to ask are: ❍ Does adopting cloud technology help to reduce costs for the business? ❍ Would outsourcing non-core business activities such as IT allow the business to focus on core activities, therefore increasing productivity? ● Strategic payroll – Ideally software solutions should include built-in compliance tools, alerts and other notifications that empower users to manage and reduce payroll errors. These solutions would allow payrollers to focus more on strategic issues like compliance, building their technical software skills, and developing an analytical mindset. ❍ The combination of automation, improved data management, and an agile delivery mechanism allows strategic updates to be delivered more frequently to payroll staff and decision makers across the business, through a secure platform. Much of this key information would be delivered ahead of payroll closing for the pay period thus reducing mistakes (e.g. around starters, leavers, and timesheet payments). ❍ Applied correctly, technology can enhance the payroll profession because rather than spending time on monotonous tasks, teams can get ahead of new and more challenging areas; for example, pay ratio reporting and off- payroll working – two areas that at one time had little to no payroll involvement. In summary, the future of payroll should be focused on developing a set of capabilities, processes and technology solutions that empower teams to deliver rich data insights, drive greater payroll accuracy, and optimise costs. And, as payroll becomes more strategic, software gives teams time to focus on emerging priorities, including employee financial wellbeing and complex compliance requirements. n
Anyone who has been working in payroll for at least a decade will
remember what payroll was like before the introduction of real time information and pensions auto-enrolment. In addition, the legislative changes impacting payroll have grown significantly which means there is a greater need to work with accurate data to ensure employees are paid correctly and on time. Making corrections post-payroll is not only time-consuming and costly, but also attracts unwanted attention and penalties from regulatory bodies. In my view, many payroll teams face one of these two scenarios: ● The payroll is accurate and compliant, but it takes a significant amount of time to process. The payroll team has a lot of expertise, but the software solution they are using requires a lot of manual interaction, which means the team spends significant amounts of time preparing, inputting and checking payroll data. ● The payroll is quick to process, but often results in errors and/or doesn’t provide the required output. Whilst data loads are automated, the payroll runs with fewer checks, due to lack of expertise within the payroll team. Although this allows for the end-to-end process within payroll to be achieved in a timely manner, there is a higher risk of error. So, the real question is how can payroll software evolve to reduce risk, save time, and help teams to manage more demanding workloads? Technology can transform the payroll experience when a number of the following elements are combined in the right way.
41
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 68 | March 2021
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker