REWARD
will certainly put them in good stead for the future.
useful tool for sharing information on all things pay, pensions and reward. You can add information, for example, on the latest statutory rates for maternity, sickness and paternity payments. Pensions is an area most people don’t know much about but want to know more. On your internal internet, you can have a section detailing information about your company’s pension scheme. All your staff benefits could also be in one place on there. Information on your internal internet will be available 24 hours a day for your employees to access as and when they feel they need to. Online communication tools Some people will want to talk to someone in the payroll and reward team. However, the team’s time may be limited. So, what are the options? In this age of technology, the need for people to travel to see someone in the payroll and reward team is no longer required. With the introduction of Microsoft Teams and Zoom, it’s now possible to have a conversation with someone as if they were in the same room as you. You could consider the option of offering drop-in sessions so that staff have a dedicated timeslot in which to speak with someone in the team, while limiting the number of interruptions the team get in a day. “It’s always good for staff to see that the payroll and reward team are humans and not robots pressing buttons every day” Hit the road! You may also want to think about going on the road. If you have staff working in multiple locations, it can be challenging to get information out to staff. It’s always good for staff to see that the payroll and reward team are humans and not robots pressing buttons every day. A dedicated week of roadshows is a great way to interact with staff as well as dealing with queries and generally getting payroll and reward knowledge and information
out to where it needs to be – with the employees. A fantastic time for doing a week of roadshows is in National Payroll Week (NPW) (this year it’s 2-6 September). It takes some planning, but you and your team will see the benefits of interacting with staff face-to-face. Pensions Awareness Week runs the week after NPW and so you may want to consider running a week of roadshows to coincide with both weeks. Whatever method you use to help people understand their pay, avoid jargon With all things payroll and reward, the complexities must be taken out so that people not working in the profession can understand it. As payroll and reward professionals, we have a responsibility to ensure the information we provide is simple and straightforward. We can do this by removing the jargon which so often appears in legislation and on websites. We can remove the acronyms and use the entire words. For example, instead of using SMP, we can use statutory maternity pay, so anyone reading it will know immediately what’s meant and won’t need to contact the payroll team or look it up to find out what it means. It’s all about thinking who your audience is. Sometimes, the first language of a person receiving information isn’t English. The use of plain English is vital. Our duty We cover so many important areas in pay, pensions and reward. To have things in one place, for example, on an internal internet and to enable staff to understand their payslips will ensure staff are: l claiming expenses correctly l being paid correctly l making the best use of their money through benefits, such as discount vouchers l checking their future income in the form of their pension is correct. We have a duty to share our knowledge and understanding in the same way that we have a duty to ensure staff are paid correctly. Being a payroll and reward professional is a privilege. The job we do has an impact on the daily lives of all employees. Be proud (and excited) to be a payroll and reward professional and seek ways to share your knowledge and understanding to enhance the lives of others. n
Helping employees Working within the payroll profession (and I include all pensions and reward professionals in this collective profession), we can help our employees understand their pay. Here are some thoughts on what you could do to help that understanding. “Pensions is an area most people don’t know much about but want to know more” Payroll newsletter By producing a regular newsletter, you can keep employees up to date with any changes to statutory payments and legislation affecting their pay. Within a newsletter, you can provide updates on when any pay awards will be made and include or signpost employees to the new salary scales. A newsletter is also a good way of sharing information on what a tax code consists of and how tax is calculated, for example. I have included ‘Understanding... ‘ sections in newsletters to explain NI, student loans and universal credit, to name a few. Ensuring data is received in a timely manner is essential to payroll and including deadline dates in a newsletter is a way to remind employees and managers of the importance of submitting data on time and when that data needs to be submitted. You can include contact details of your payroll team so it’s easy for staff to contact you should they need to. Weekly bulletin If your organisation issues a weekly update to all staff, any payroll and reward issues which everyone should be aware of can be included. This could include details of any up-and-coming changes to pay days, deadline dates or generic pay award information. Intranet page If you have an internal internet, do you have a page on there for payroll and reward? If not, consider having one. It’s a
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 100 | May 2024
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