58 | INNOVATION
Trust and resilience are core to the new payroll experience
Discover how payroll experience and artificial intelligence (AI) are shaping the future of payroll and human resources (HR)
T he experience that employees get during their time with your organisation has many facets, but payroll is by far the most personal. We believe this is a critical factor for payroll and HR leaders when it comes to curating the employee experience. Research by Sage shows that 88% of payroll and HR leaders say accurate and timely payroll drives employee satisfaction and trust, yet 82% say there’s still room to improve connectivity between HR and payroll. So how can you fix that link? Through payroll experience. But that’s more complex than simply paying people correctly. Payroll experience is about how confident your employees feel about pay and how easy you make it for them to understand what’s happened each pay period. And where to get help if something looks incorrect. We can see this boils down to five components. The first is accuracy , because if the numbers aren’t right every time, nothing else matters. Next is transparency , so employees can see what’s happening and why. Third is communication , because being proactive with updates beats reactive firefighting. Fourth is digital access, as the standard is always-on access to payslips and key documents, readily available from any device. And finally, is resilience , because payroll must withstand change, disruption and growth. Improving these areas means reducing errors and uncertainty, which we can see is key to building trust.
New payroll expectations are driving change Employee expectations around payroll have shifted. Therefore, so have the needs from your payroll team, even if your payroll process hasn’t changed. We’ve seen firsthand the actual cost of managing new requirements with manual or outdated tools, especially in terms of time spent. It’s unfortunate that in so many companies, it’s taken for granted that payroll teams will always get things right, when they’re prone to the same errors that any other parts of a business would be. Our research shows 69% of payroll and HR leaders say payroll-related administration holds HR and payroll back from higher-value work. Pair this with hybrid working, variable pay, benefit changes and organisational changes which all increase the number of pay-impacting events, and it’s clear why modernisation is necessary for sustainability. Creating a better payroll experience A simple, seamless strategy for improving the payroll experience is to focus on what reduces errors, increases clarity and builds resilience. Start with the data flow and stop doing manual inputs that you can automate. Then make payroll easier for employees to understand. Reduce payslip confusion by
explaining standard deductions and changes in everyday terms. Clarity reduces questions and lessens the emotional spike which happens when employees don’t understand what they’re seeing. Next, use better digital access to reduce routine queries. It’s so important that employees have early access to payslips before they’re paid. If they can self-serve payslips, tax documents and pay history, your team will spend less time answering repeat questions and more time handling genuine exceptions. Finally, build resilience into the process. Some payroll and HR leaders have reverted their organisations to manual payroll out of concern for cyberattacks. Outages and system changes can disrupt payroll continuity. Therefore, resilience requires documented processes, clear controls and a plan for when the unexpected happens. AI and automation are practical solutions
AI and automation could help bridge gaps in payroll and HR processes, say 85% of payroll and HR leaders in our
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