Feature topic - Compliance success
Compliance
Jerome Smail, freelance journalist , presents the views of five industry luminaries
C ompliance is, and has always been, at the very heart of payroll. But nothing in this sector remains static and the goalposts are moving all the time – and the pile of regulation, legislation and guidance is growing ever higher. To get a handle on how to navigate successfully through the compliance maze, I spoke to these key players in the payroll industry: ● Sarel Daysh MSc ChFCIPP, implementation director at Payescape ● Elaine Gibson MSc ChFCIPPdip MCMI FHEA, director of people and quality at Dataplan ● Jeni Morris, senior manager, people advisory services, National Minimum Wage team at Ernst & Young ● Julie Northover ChFCIPPdip, CIPP head assessor for Payroll Assurance Scheme ● Jaspal Randhawa-Wayte
the turnaround times on processing the payroll? Then we need to consider the turnaround on resolving issues or client queries. How do we maintain data accuracy? How do we review and analyse overdue payrolls or tasks? Elaine Gibson: To ensure technical compliance, it is essential that we continually monitor and apply ever- changing government legislation. But it is also about provision of a payroll and pensions service. All Dataplan customers are unique in their own right; and each client has their own contractual requirements and nuances. Also, not all customers require us to just take care of the full lifecycle of payroll. We listen to our customers and are constantly monitoring trends to establish individual customer needs. To support compliance, the workforce at Dataplan does not just consist of our technical payroll teams – we are supported by innovation, projects, legislation and compliance, developers and IT, customer service and pensions teams, headed up by our team of four directors. Across the teams we have a wealth of technical knowledge and experience. However, it is important that all these vital departments work in cohesion to ensure the best service provision. To ensure a strategic, compliant and joined-up approach, as well as senior team meetings we set up a quality and compliance group. This involves key stakeholders across the business and enables us to identify potential barriers
to success and make speedy and timely decisions to ensure we create consistency in our approach to service delivery. Jeni Morris: The foundation of national minimum wage (NMW) compliance is knowing the correct worker category – as defined by NMW legislation – of each employee. Sounds simple enough. However, many businesses consider their workers to be salaried, only to realise that NMW rules place them into the unmeasured category. The way NMW is calculated varies depending on each worker category. This often leads to unintentional breaches occurring but, unfortunately, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) does not differentiate between intentional and unintentional breaches. Working hours often become a risk point during many HMRC NMW investigations. Actual working hours – not contracted hours – are routinely required to evidence that no NMW breaches have occurred. This will also include any flexi or TOIL (time off in lieu) records. Robust and regular payroll checks are required to ensure the pay received is at least the NMW rate for the working hours – and extra care is particularly required when salary sacrifice agreements are involved. Julie Northover: Organisations should have a programme of strategies for ensuring payroll compliance and they should be far-reaching within the business and not just focus on the payroll department, as it is not a standalone function. Understanding and identifying what and where the potential risks are is the foundation to forming efficient strategies to counter those risks.
ChMCIPPdip, director of product management, payroll, at Zellis. Here’s what they had to say.
What are the key strategic considerations for a payroll operation in its aim of achieving compliance? Sarel Daysh: Payroll teams need to consider who we work for, what their requirements are, where we work, when we do the work and how we are going to do it. How do we get the information we need to process the payroll – is it by email, paper return, online portal or other method? How are we going to record and analyse the data? Once processed, how do we then return that data? What are
...timely decisions to ensure we create consistency in our approach to service...
27
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 63 | September 2020
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker