Payroll
...60% of respondents providing an
Chart 2
outsource their payroll, up to 35% from 22% in 2018. When the research began in 2008 only 10% of respondents partially outsourced payroll processes and this figure remained relatively constant until 2018 when the sharp increase began. (Chart 3) ● Method of distributing payslips – Once again, online distribution is the most common way for employees to receive their payslips, with 60% of respondents providing an online self-service facility and 32% using email. This is a significant online self-service facility and 32% using email
requests from employees to be ‘paid on demand’ i.e. to be paid as they do the work rather than at the end of the week or month. Employers often pay employees early in December, but HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) rules say that the normal (or contractual) payday must be reported to HMRC even if payment is made before this date. Whilst 68% of respondents pay employees early at Christmas, almost a fifth report the actual pay date to HMRC rather than the normal contractual pay date. Given the widely reported concerns about the impact on Universal Credits of changing the payment date, this subject will be explored further in 2020. (Chart 2) ● Most popular pay days/dates – Friday is yet again the most popular pay day for weekly (87%), fortnightly (89%) and four- weekly (90%) payrolls. Throughout every year of this research, the last working day of the month has been the most common pay day for monthly paid staff and this year is no different with 41% of respondents in 2019 paying on this date. ● Personal Information included on payslips – The personal information included on payslips appears consistent throughout the duration of this research and does not seem to have been affected by any fears over the General Data Protection Regulation. All respondents include the tax code although less than three quarters include the National Insurance contributions (NICs) category, and slightly more than 2% do not include the worker’s name. ● Additional information on payslip – Since the previous report in 2015/16, the roll-out of automatic enrolment (AE) has been completed and this is reflected in
the number of respondents now including employer pension contributions on the payslip, up from 66% to 74%. This is a significant increase on the results prior to the roll-out of AE when, possibly reflecting the number of employers offering workplace pension schemes, fewer than half of employers included information about employer pension contributions on the payslip. In a further reflection of the change brought about by new practices, almost 40% of respondents now include information about payrolled benefits, up from 20% in 2015/16 when payrolling of benefits was first introduced. ● Responsibility for processing payroll – Whilst there has been an increase in the number of respondents processing payroll completely in-house since the last report, up to 85% from 72% in 2018, over the duration of the report, this is within the range of previous results. However, there is a significant increase in the number of respondents stating they partially
shift in behaviour from 2008 when this research began, when 67% of
respondents sent paper payslips directly to the department for distribution and only 12% used online self-service with no figures available for those using email; and in 2009, 10% used email to distribute payslips. ● Complaints regarding the distribution of payslips – In a key finding, for the first time since 2012/13, the number of complaints regarding the method of distributing payslips has fallen, down from 60% in 2018 to 41% in 2019 perhaps reflecting the nation’s increasing acceptance of sending and receiving information online. In fact, the number of complaints regarding all areas of payslip distribution have reduced in 2019, with
Chart 3
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 60 | May 2020
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