REWARD
P ayroll professionals know that the big acts such as the trapeze, clowns, knife throwing or any other headline event takes centre stage, none of it would happen without careful planning and timing. This is where I see us fitting in. Please don’t be mistaken that I mean behind the scenes and never to be seen or heard as it’s quite the opposite, but in a way that really matters. In this article, I have named some of the areas that are thrown into the air to start our juggling act, but I also suggest some ideas juggling tasks and stakeholders is a must-have skill. While, like the circus, on how to help manage them better. There is the usual churn of payroll processing – at least, until artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) catch up and help us more with the processing side, such as paying the employees correctly, reporting to government departments and third parties, and providing output reports such as payslips – but we also need to do so much more. Understanding stakeholders Knowing your stakeholders is crucial. I’ve found that if you talk to your key stakeholders and fully understand their needs, then juggling becomes so much easier. For example, in an accountancy business a payroll client can be a firm-wide client touching on one or more of the services provided. The client’s accountant asks you for a payslip or some other report, hoping to find what they need. But by reversing roles and listening to their needs, you find the easiest and quickest solution because you know payroll, you know your system and potential outputs, and you know what projects you are working on, such as a new RPA process. Could that same RPA provide information to your key stakeholder too, while doing the task required for payroll? This article isn’t in essence about technology, but it might be part of the solution to help us manage all those tasks. Employees and / or key stakeholders. They will come to you with queries about their pay, some of which won’t be related to payroll, such as “why have I only received ten hours of overtime and not 15?”. This might be down to another of your stakeholder departments such as human resources (HR) or the site manager. However, there will be those queries that naturally sit with payroll, such as “why has my tax code changed?”.
Again, you will likely not be able to answer that as only HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) knows why a person’s tax code is what it is (there are of course some we can answer, e.g. new starter), but instead of taking up your valuable time answering these questions, why not introduce a signposting tool? This could be via the payslip portal where some suppliers will highlight the change and then provide handy tips on where to go to seek help, such as HMRC’s helpline. You might have an intranet help guide, or a chatbot facility. Your employer is another key stakeholder, especially as payroll costs will likely be one of the highest in the profit and loss statement. Whether an in-house payroll or a service provider, all costs of employment will affect the business. Maybe your payroll system is no longer fit for purpose, and you need to seek a new one. Perhaps for the first time in your career you are having to undertake a scoping exercise of your needs, sourcing potentially suppliers, getting involved or leading the tender process, managing the budget and or seeking budget via a business case all due to the organisation changing its terms and conditions (T&Cs) or legislation changes? Perhaps your company wishes to introduce a salary sacrifice scheme for electric cars, in which case you may need to undertake a national minimum check to see how many of your employees would be excluded from such a scheme to aid the understanding for the business on whether a benefit or not to aid their retention problem or recruitment issue. Your HR or people team will be a key stakeholder as it might provide your employee personal details and salary information. You might integrate with its HR system if it’s not directly integrated. Any changes to either system will potentially impact both parties. When new legislation is coming into effect or is known about, consulting your HR team is vital. It may be the conduit for information to your employees or an added service for your clients. It may need to potentially amend the employee’s T&Cs or handbook to reflect the new legislation, for example, family related policies. I’ll use the new Carers Leave Act 2023 as an example. While the legislation permits up to five days of unpaid leave, the company and / or the client may wish to make this paid leave depending upon certain circumstances. In payroll,
you must be aware of this, and if the communication to employees or clients isn’t clear, the queries will inevitably come through to payroll as employment and pay related. By chatting this through with your HR colleagues in advance, this potential increase in queries could be avoided and your employees and / or clients will be better informed. Use of technology Another juggling activity will be around making best use of the technology you have or want. Information technology (IT) colleagues play a crucial role in ensuring payroll runs smoothly. I have discovered this over the years by finding that great IT person who accepts that while I’m not a tech guru, I do know the outcome I want or need. They discuss this with me to understand my needs and then translate them back into technology language. Many years ago, I used to raise the issue / obstacle / challenge and then recommend to my IT colleagues how it could be resolved because I like to find solutions. However, I’m pleased to say I learnt quickly that it never really worked as I am a payroll professional with knowledge of systems and software, but I’m not a technology expert. I now share the problem and what I would like the outcome to be and see what they come up with. It won’t surprise you to learn there is always something they can do to make life easier, albeit sometimes the cost prohibits the solution. Support and advice You will also have your own team members with their personal career aspirations. Perhaps they are a student studying for a formal payroll qualification and need your support or maybe they are an apprentice needing your expertise to guide them. Perhaps you have empowered a team member to take on a challenge such as writing a new procedure, and something they haven’t had experience of before and need your support? There are also family members. If I had a pound for every time a family member asked me about something to do with their pay, I would be a very wealthy person. Whatever the task, we always find a way to deliver, but my advice would be to take a step back and look at everything in your circus act and see where you can make improvements to help you and your team manage it better. n
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 103 | September 2024
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