Business benefits of automating payroll
The results were quite surprising. One in four respondents said they were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with the efficiency of their current payroll system. Of the unsatisfied respondents, half (47%) said too much manual inputting led to lots of errors, which was the primary reason for their dissatisfaction. As a result, 69% of respondents said they receive a payroll query from their employees at least once a month and 40% at least once a week, with the main reason (80%) being a question around pay or tax. One respondent stated, “It is very time consuming with a lot of manual entry, checking and re-checking. Mistakes are often made as a result.” Pay employees accurately, first time, on time, every time – and reap the rewards Payroll is often an overlooked function, no-one ever contacts payroll when things go right, but they are quick to question and complain when things go wrong. Unsurprisingly, given that it’s a legal requirement, 97% of respondents said their top priority was paying employees on time. Inaccuracy in pay leads to queries, which puts a strain on the resources of payroll teams. An employee making a query is also taken away from their everyday work to make the enquiry. Given the expectation from employees that organisations should ‘just get this right’, getting payroll wrong undermines their confidence, creates avoidable stress and can make employees feel undervalued. We’ve heard how pay and tax queries are the number one reason for contacting payroll departments, but an additional 15% of queries were from employees who didn’t understand payslip terminology or a tax code on their payslip. Shouldn’t this be a quick fix? Making the pay day experience easier and simpler would not only reduce these queries, but increase efficiency and empower the employee, not only to understand their data, but also to feel motivated that they’re in control of their finances. This has supplementary benefits, as payroll teams are focussed on their day jobs without the distraction of having to answer payroll queries, while employees can have confidence in the efficiency and professionalism of their employer.
confirmed online is their preferred channel for credit applications and 65% would prefer to submit payslip data online, rather than send physical copies (an additional 19% had no preference). Being able to share information online is one of the key drivers of satisfaction for consumers applying for a loan. At a time when so many of our experiences are online, it seems counter-intuitive to share your financial information as insecure PDFs or on paper. In fact, 83% said a credit application exceeded their expectations when they could conduct the whole process online – with 70% saying the application process fell short of expectations because they couldn’t do it digitally. Empowering employees to access, review and share their payslip data securely all from one place In response to this problem, Experian has launched Work Report™, with the mission to simplify the often time consuming and confusing process of sourcing and sharing payslip data, by automating it – with an employee’s consent – allowing a consumer to share their payslip digitally with an organisation of their choice. It’s an innovation that can save payroll and HR functions hours of time and resource, and which could speed up the process of, for example, buying a house. You can read about Work Report™ here: http://ow.ly/ pvFB50LXhnU. Experian is adding its new Work Report™ service to PayDashboard’s range of capabilities. Work Report™ allows employees to consent to share their payslip data directly with a lender via their employer’s HR payroll platform. Created in partnership with Salary Finance, Sage, Zellis and IRIS, Work Report™ enables employees to securely share their payroll data with a lender in minutes, to verify their employment and income when applying for a loan. The partnerships form part of Experian’s wider strategy to educate consumers of the power of their payslip and improve their financial well-being. If you would like to read the full research report from Experian around the future of payroll, it’s available to download at: http://ow.ly/SyNZ50Mq7bN. q
92.5% of respondents said being able to share payslip data with their employees was either important or very important. But with such focus on environmental issues today, it’s surprising 12% are still handing out paper payslips. Other than the obvious environmental impact, this also offers the opportunity for personal data to be unwillingly shared. There’s also the potential to put extra demand on payroll departments, when employees request three or six months of payslip data to evidence their employment and income when applying for a loan, such as a mortgage. It’s likely an employee would come to payroll to evidence this, unless they have safely stored all their payslips at home. And this seems to be the case, with 77% of respondents getting at least one pay or employment verification request a month. The answer? A payroll system which could automatically service this need, without any interaction from payroll or HR. This would not only free up staff resource but also allow for data to be shared more securely. Although not all respondents are happy with their current payroll platform, 69% chose to implement an online portal. The main reasons for their choice were because they believed it would: l be safer and provide more data security l be paperless l reduce the number of pay queries and time processing payslips. Experian asked respondents if they saw any business benefits of automating payroll. 90.4% said more secure sharing of payslip data would be beneficial.
Experian did further research into accessing and sharing payslips, by
interviewing employees from different age groups and financial circumstances who had recently gone through the mortgage application process, an application that often needs multiple payslips to complete. The conclusion of this research showed a disjointed, stressful and time-consuming experience that often included multiple requests to source and share payroll data. At a time of rising interest rates and changing mortgage products, time is not something applicants always have. A separate piece of research undertaken this year by Experian in collaboration with YouGov found that 88% of UK adults
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 87 | February 2023
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