04:05 Issue 14

04:05 GLOBAL

Payroll Success is a Shared Responsibility Payroll teams play a vital, complex role and often face disproportionate pressure due to misaligned responsibilities. When organisations embrace payroll as a strategic partner and share accountability across teams, everyone benefits. Payroll professionals can deliver accurate pay with less stress and greater confidence. Employees receive their rightful pay on time, fostering trust and engagement. Leaders demonstrate governance that satisfies regulators and stakeholders alike. Behind every pay run is a person, each deserving to be paid correctly, supported thoroughly, and valued consistently. To uphold this responsibility, organisations must recognise and treat payroll professionals with the respect and support their critical role demands.

2. Build stronger processes that support people Once listening has highlighted key friction points, organisations can start improving processes. Fixing cumbersome workflows, like leave requests, timesheet approvals, or onboarding documentation. removes daily friction for payroll. Clear, standardised checklists, well-defined role descriptions, and reliable data flows reduce manual fixes and errors. These improvements allow payroll teams to spend less time firefighting and more on accurate pay delivery. Process improvements do not have to be massive or immediate; even incremental changes create meaningful relief. 3. Resource payroll as a critical compliance function Payroll is not merely an operational task. It is a compliance-critical area involving legal, financial, and reputational risk.

Organisations should invest in adequate staffing, ongoing professional development, and executive sponsorship for payroll functions. Giving payroll a seat at the table alongside legal and audit teams in compliance and risk discussions elevates its strategic role and reduces single points of failure. 4. Involve payroll early in upstream decisions Most payroll issues originate upstream, from unclear position descriptions and misclassified employees to uncommunicated system changes and ambiguous policies. Involving payroll professionals early in restructures, onboarding design, Enterprise Agreement negotiations, and system upgrades enables practical insights that prevent costly downstream errors. This early engagement empowers payroll to be proactive, reducing last-minute crisis management.

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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 14

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