TECHNOLOGY
W hen was the last time you just enhance payroll; it’s a key enabler of the wider human resource (HR) and financial ecosystem (when done right). It’s also expensive, and requires the right service, support and safeguarding. It must be implemented properly (and maintained) and subject to vigorous risk assessments (more on that further down). Payroll technology has come a long, long way in 70 years, with ample benefits to an industry in a constant flux of worked on your tech rather than in it? Technology doesn’t legislative and business policy change. Payroll can, at times, be a labour-intensive practice but is often upgraded by the use of technology and tools which allow automation. Payroll must deliver a compliant function, carefully balanced with positive employee experiences. Technology not only enables the payroll function, but also drives the essential service towards employee satisfaction. After all, employees don’t work for free, and payroll is an emotive and trust-based service. When addressing the foundations of payroll, reviewing the key functional pillars is essential to ensure efficiency for interdependencies on each other. Technology works in harmony with all pillars – it’s both an enabler and a dependant. See the pillars in the diagram to the right. “Technology doesn’t just enhance payroll; it’s a key enabler of the wider human resource and financial ecosystem (when done right)” It isn’t enough to implement a solution and outsource application management services, so technology must be constantly and consistently assessed, maintained and reconfigured, to ensure optimum effectiveness and automation. It must have an accountable business owner, driving efficiencies and vendor partnership to deliver roadmap improvements. This is the necessity of payroll strategy; to drive a vision and roadmap to create a team of collaborative, iterative improvement
Using technology to advance the payroll industry
mindsets generating positive productivity, skills and enjoyable work.
Employee experience As payroll evolves and becomes
positioned for strategic influence (for those able to take it to that level), payroll technology focus is where the consumer is the employee – and this offers businesses an easy way to boost retention. For a business driving customer experience for higher profitability, they know they need to approach employee experience in the same way, resulting in strong talent retention and acquisition. Payroll technologists and vendors alike who drive a strong customer loyalty base listen to business feedback and industry / economic demand. They’re supporting the drive of payroll to consider how the department impacts overall business strategy. According to Harvard Business Review, businesses which focus on employee experience can increase revenue by up to 50%. Reviewing vendor technology products and services, such as data validation, analytics, on demand pay, mature integrations and payment platforms contributes to better service and flexible offerings. Employees trust that payroll will get their pay right each month. Trust goes a long way in retaining employees as does quick service, query resolution and accurate / timely payments, along with ease of updating personal data and accessing relevant documentation. For the first time in decades (Bacs was introduced in 1968), employees want the freedom to get paid anywhere and they’re not bothered how – payroll technology is addressing this. Automation Payroll, at its core, is an aggregation of mass data and workflow. We put data in, it’s processed and then output. Robotic process automation (RPA) and vendors working on / developing this technology go further to reconcile your data for you, saving more time and flagging errors and risks. The result? Faster decision making, faster processing, better service, transparency and efficiency gains, allowing payroll to spend more time on value-add activities. Those who understand their enterprise and solution architecture landscape will reap
Lara Smart ChFCIPPdip, BA (Hons), consulting director, LSC Group, discusses the opportunities technology opens up for the payroll industry but also advises where caution should be exercised, encouraging strong governance in this space
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | April 2024 | Issue 99 40
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