PAYR LL INSIGHTS SURV Y REPORT 2025
This report looks at data collected from outsourced payroll teams Part of the CIPP Payroll Insight Survey Report series including In-house and Payroll Professional. See page 9 for links to the other reports.
OUTSOURCED
PAYROLL INSIGHT SURVEY REPORT 2025
Foreword
Welcome to the new Payroll Insights Report 2025.
This report looks at data collected from outsourced payroll teams. Thank you to all who responded. We hope this report provides some valuable insights into how such teams and functions operate. The results can be used for benchmarking and understanding where you need to make changes in your payroll team and function. Please share this report with other payroll professionals, colleagues and peers. It is important that we raise the profile of payroll as a profession and shout about the hard work that we do.
CIPP Policy and Research Team
Contents Key takeaways
3 4 4 5 6 7 7 8
Payroll employees
Working arrangements Qualification requirements
Pricing
Payroll cut offs
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Top challenges
2
In most cases percentages have been rounded to two decimal places for clarity and may not add up to 100%. Graphics may have been rounded to whole percentages.
OUTSOURCED
PAYROLL INSIGHT SURVEY REPORT 2025
1/640 One payroll employee produces 640 payslips per month
Hybrid is the new normal working arrangement for payroll professionals HYBRID
Key takeaways TAX CODES Tax code queries are the most likely to be asked to the team
SHORTER CUT OFF
23% of employers require, or prefer, payroll staff to hold a CIPP-approved qualification CIPP QUALIFIED
Outsourced providers have half the payroll cut off period of in-house payroll teams
3
In most cases percentages have been rounded to two decimal places for clarity and may not add up to 100%. Graphics may have been rounded to whole percentages.
OUTSOURCED
PAYROLL INSIGHT SURVEY REPORT 2025
Results Payroll employees
Working arrangements Hybrid working is by far the most popular option for payroll teams now. However, this is less prominent in outsourced respondents than it was in the in-house teams. Specialist outsourced teams may find it more productive to have all team members located together. Hybrid arrangements are operated on a 3 / 2 split, but with no consensus on the bias, averaging around 2.5 days per week for both in office and remote days.
The median number of clients and payrolls per payroll employee is 70 and they produce 640 payslips per month. This is higher than that of an in-house team, possibly due to some job specifics being different between the teams, outsourced providers being more focused on the delivery of payroll than employee interaction for example.
The average presented were significantly skewed by a response from an umbrella company payroll provider, it is therefore important to consider the median primarily.
70 MEDIAN
110 AVERAGE
38%
HYBRID 58%
Clients per payroll professional
OFFICE BASED
74 AVERAGE
70 MEDIAN
Payrolls per payroll professional
19% REMOTE
4% OTHER
640 MEDIAN
930 AVERAGE
Payslips (monthly) per payroll professional
4
In most cases percentages have been rounded to two decimal places for clarity and may not add up to 100%. Graphics may have been rounded to whole percentages.
OUTSOURCED
PAYROLL INSIGHT SURVEY REPORT 2025
Qualification requirements While requirements can vary depending on the job role, 23% of respondents require or prefer that the candidate has a CIPP approved qualification. The majority of respondents, at 65% , have minimum education level requirements but 19% had no requirements at all.
65% HAVE MINIMUM EDUCATION LEVEL REQUIREMENTS
Do you have any qualification requirements for new payroll staff members?
65%
8% Require a CIPP-approved qualification (i.e. Payroll Technician Certificate / Foundation Degree)
Minimum education levels
19% Other
19% No requirements or preferences
15% Prefer CIPP-approved qualification (i.e. Payroll Technician Certificate / Foundation Degree)
4% Require other industry qualification
Prefer other industry qualification scored 0% of respondents
5
In most cases percentages have been rounded to two decimal places for clarity and may not add up to 100%. Graphics may have been rounded to whole percentages.
OUTSOURCED
PAYROLL INSIGHT SURVEY REPORT 2025
Pricing While many respondents use multiple pricing structures, through a need to accommodate standard and more “niche” client types, the standout winners were bespoke pricing ( 69% ) and price per payslip ( 58% ).
Most likely tasks to be included as standard 1. RTI and EPS submission ( 92% ) 2. End of tax year processing ( 81% ) 3. Leaver processing ( 81% ) 4. Dealing with HMRC as an agent ( 80% ) 5. New starter processing ( 77% )
Bespoke pricing packages Price per payslip 69% 58%
Most likely tasks to be chargeable as extra 1. P11d reporting ( 77% ) 2. Forecasting ( 75% )
Price per employee Price per pay period 35% 35%
3. Processing of benefits ( 58% ) 4. Payments to employees ( 54% ) 5. TUPE transfers ( 50% )
Most likely tasks not provided or offered 1. Right to work checks ( 88% ) 2. Telephone queries from the clients’ employees ( 50% ) 3. Email queries from the clients’ employees ( 38% ) 4. Payment to HMRC ( 31% ) 5. Payment to employees ( 23% )
15% 4%
Other
Contigency (% of processed)
6
In most cases percentages have been rounded to two decimal places for clarity and may not add up to 100%. Graphics may have been rounded to whole percentages.
OUTSOURCED
PAYROLL INSIGHT SURVEY REPORT 2025
Payroll cut offs Payroll service providers give on average between 2 and 4 days before pay day to provide final input for payroll processing.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Payrolls completed on time is the most popular KPI used, with client satisfaction and payroll errors being closely behind.
12% of respondents did not use any KPIs at all.
Where this differs significantly from in-house payroll is for monthly processing. In-house teams gave on average 7 days , whereas outsourced teams give an average of 3 days . This may be due to allowing the client time to get the data together, more streamlined processes or using it as a selling point.
Payroll completed on time Payroll errors (before payment / no worker impact) 73% 69% 54% Client satisfaction Payroll errors (after payment / worker impacted) Payslip error (client data error) 46% 35% 31% Payslip errors (payroll processing errors) None Other 27% 12% 8%
TAX CODE QUERY
TOP 3 PAYROLL RELATED QUERIES
ACCESS TO PAYSLIPS
Queries resolved
SUPPORT TO UNDERSTAND PAYSLIPS
Other KPIs reported include: chargeable time, time spent per client, billing recoveries and number of payrolls re-run.
7
In most cases percentages have been rounded to two decimal places for clarity and may not add up to 100%. Graphics may have been rounded to whole percentages.
OUTSOURCED
PAYROLL INSIGHT SURVEY REPORT 2025
Top challenges
8
In most cases percentages have been rounded to two decimal places for clarity and may not add up to 100%. Graphics may have been rounded to whole percentages.
OUTSOURCED
PAYROLL INSIGHT SURVEY REPORT 2025
Other reports
CLICK TO VIEW
PAYR LL INSIGHTS SURV Y REPORT 2025
This report is part of a series of three payroll benchmarking surveys, exploring in-house operations, outsourced services, and the role of payroll professionals. Together, they provide a comprehensive view of the payroll landscape across the UK. To gain the full picture, please explore the other reports in this series by clicking the links to the right.
This report looks at data collected from in-house payroll teams Part of the CIPP Payroll Insight Survey Report series including Outsourced and Payroll Professional. See page 9 for links to the other reports.
SPONSORED BY
PAYR LL INSIGHTS SURV Y REPORT 2025
This report looks at data collected from payroll professionals Part of the CIPP Payroll Insight Survey Report series including Outsourced and Payroll Professional. See page 10 for links to the other reports.
CLICK TO VIEW
9
In most cases percentages have been rounded to two decimal places for clarity and may not add up to 100%. Graphics may have been rounded to whole percentages.
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker