REWARD
...important factor in an
employee recognition organisation, says companies should actively seek employee feedback on how added value can be delivered. He comments: “Pulse surveys can be a very effective way of doing so, particularly via an anonymous and easy-to-use interface, such as single-click surveys. Offering a fast and secure way for employees to voice their opinion can give businesses a clear understanding of the engagement of their staff and insight into their views on particular issues.” While payroll departments unquestionably add value to their organisations, it’s often said that this isn’t duly recognised and the strategic role they play is overlooked. However, there are steps that can be taken to address this and increase the function’s visibility. Davenport suggests “promoting learning among the workforce and ensuring tasks and processes are well-documented and easy to follow”. Key is ensuring workers understand their payslip – “by promoting what deductions are all about and how the mechanics of payroll and pensions operate”. This, says Davenport, could be via webinars, promotional videos, fact cards or any other medium that works in the workplace, adding: “A suggestion would also be for the payroll department to agree a dashboard of key statistics that are useful and meaningful – this may be by department, by cost centre or whichever directorate may work best for an organisation. This could include how many or few advances are paid, how much overtime has been paid
going to be a peak around December because you had to employ more people. But what does that actually mean, and how does that work by store? And how did that feel? How does that affect manpower? And how can that store actually increase by a certain number of employees but have a better return?” Hall concludes: “It’s about looking at the analytics and modelling. To my mind, payroll departments need to move beyond just reporting and compliance.” Lysa Morrison, director of transformation at Cintra, provides views about getting value from employees. She says: “The top predictor of an employee’s success is emotional intelligence (EQ). Ninety per cent of top performers are also high in EQ but, on the flip side, just twenty per cent pf bottom performers are high in EQ.” Lysa asserts that perhaps the most important factor in an organisation’s success, and in getting added value from employees, are its managers. Their impact on performance, she says, is directly linked to their self-awareness, self-management, self-motivation, social awareness and relationship management skills – or in other words, their EQ skills. Continuing this argument, Lysa contends that “The relationship employees have with their line manager has the most influence over performance, retention, stress levels and growth”, adding that the good news is that EQ and management are skills that can be learned and developed. However, Lysa observes that “If it’s that’s easy, why do so many EQ, management and leadership training programmes fail to deliver meaningful value?” The answer opines Lysa is that “Many approaches are too generic. Managers must recognise that great employees come in all different shapes and sizes. Teams are made up of individuals, with different strengths that can be nurtured and developed to create high-performing units. The most important experience at work is the experience of team; the biggest decision an organisation makes is who it appoints as managers.” Lysa notes that though “skills and knowledge can be taught, talent cannot. It needs to be identified and nurtured. To bring about real performance-enhancing change, the organisation itself needs to have a supportive environment that enables and nurtures growth.” n
organisation’s success, and in getting added value from employees, are its managers
out compared to budget, or how much sickness costs each department and typically whether this is short term or long term. “There is such a wealth of information available to the payroll department and working in a timely and accurate manner allows other departments to focus on their objectives. One of the best examples may be the customer service telephone that never rings for a query because the business teams are so well educated as everything is delivered one hundred per cent, with all information at the managers’ fingertips. Isn’t that what each department would like?” Hall agrees the goldmine of data and information payroll gathers can be hugely significant in adding value to the function, especially when it comes to predictive analysis. He explains: “If you’re a retail business, for example, think about what you can get by going back over the last three or four years. You can say, ‘Right, when’s the peak?’. So, you know there’s
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | April 2020 | Issue 59 28
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker