TECHNOLOGY
if employees start to demand the freedom to determine how and when they get paid. Despite technology flooding the payroll market with solutions that replace human effort, I still believe humans will remain a critical part of our payroll future. We must accept that much of the manual payroll process will be automated, but businesses will still need a human payroll team at its core. We also need to remember that data requires human analysis and interpretation before it can be used to support direct human-led boardroom strategy. Payroll is a niche and highly skilled industry which requires compassion as well as interpretation and analysis. It is the binary, mundane, time-consuming processes requiring little human thought that will be automated. Solutions will always struggle to solve problems that require compromise, and this is the crucial point. Remunerating for a job well done involves judgement. Has the work been done? What did we discover? Should we reward as agreed? Do we need to provide reassurance? Automation will provide more time for payroll professionals to add
professionals need to remain mindful about introducing futuristic technology developed to solve human payroll problems. If payroll departments implement without caution, they risk solutions potentially backfiring dangerously. For example, email provided us with a platform to communicate with anybody in the world at any time, and yet it has not necessarily made us better at communicating. Technology can also encourage lazy habits. How many of us have said “I’ll send an email” when we all know a call or a face-to-face meeting would solve the human problem much more efficiently.
professionals obsolete. On the contrary, the future of payroll will evolve to become a world less entrenched in process and more concerned with strategic thinking and data management. The future for payroll professionals is, therefore, an exciting prospect. Eventually, all payroll departments will possess platforms that incorporate AI, machine learning, RPA and self-service functionality. The lines between other functions such as finance and human resources will blur as the profile of payroll increases. Dull, repetitive tasks will be automated, while interactive chatbots manage enquiries. Employees will be accessing pay-on- demand and processes that govern payroll will become more transparent and open to public scrutiny. Fair pay practices will improve, and discriminatory pay gaps will reduce. Meanwhile, payroll managers will be focused on strategic payroll activities to improve employee engagement and wellbeing. Payroll will become more influential than ever, supporting businesses and their leaders to make critical decisions that promote growth and maximise profits to create new opportunities for the future. n
...supporting businesses and their leaders to make critical decisions...
To conclude, for those still concerned I want to reiterate that I do not believe technology will make human payroll
this human touch to the process. Consequently, I believe payroll
The quantum supremacy W ikipedia describes ‘quantum computing’ as: “the study of a non-classical model of computation. Whereas traditional models of computing – such as the ‘Turing qubits in superposition can represent four scenarios simultaneously. In October 2019, Google AI, in
refinements this can be further reduced. Google AI is investing to build a fault- tolerant quantum computer as quickly as possible. Such a device promises various valuable applications, such as helping to design new materials (e.g. lightweight batteries for cars and airplanes, new catalysts that can produce fertiliser more efficiently which is a process that today produces over 2% of the world’s carbon emissions) and more effective medicines. (Another probable use of quantum computers is to crack data encryption, or maybe design hack-proof encryption.) Although achieving the necessary computational capabilities will require years of hard engineering and scientific work,
partnership with the USA’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration, claimed that its quantum processor completed in 200 seconds a task that would have taken a state-of-the-art supercomputer approximately 10,000 years to complete. The Google AI team assert that the results of the experiment performed by ‘Sycamore’, its newly developed 54-qubit processor, provides evidence that more complex quantum computers should work according to ‘theory’. Google AI’s claim has however been challenged by IBM researchers who assert that because of its storage potential a classical supercomputer could do the same task in 2.5 days and with far greater fidelity. The IBM team say that with additional
machine’ or ‘Lambda calculus’ – rely on ‘classical’ representations of computational memory, a quantum computation could transform the memory into a quantum superposition of possible classical states. A quantum computer is a device that could perform such computation.” (Fifteen things everyone should know about quantum computers can be found here: http://bit. ly/2SvmtWS.) Classical computers use ones and zeros (binary) for processing. Quantum computers also use ones and zeros, but qubits have a third state called ‘superposition’ which means they can be one or zero or both at the same time. Two
Google AI is eager to move ahead. It is highly unlikely that quantum
computers will replace classical computers for routine processing such as payroll. n
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | March 2020 | Issue 58 50
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