FEATURE TOPIC
which include timesheets, rostering, human resources (HR), employees, tax codes and notices from HMRC. It must also process the payrun calculations for: ● tax ● National Insurance (NI)
Therefore, AI can only serve to enhance a payroll professional’s skill set. In fact, AI can be used to deliver instant results that would take a person ages to analyse. This allows a payroll professional to focus on strategic interpretation of the AI results, thus enabling the company to make quicker or better-informed decisions. Payroll departments can bring a lot of insight to the reward process Will AI create the need for payroll roles to be more grounded in system support and development rather than transactional processing? AB: Payroll professionals have been using payroll software for decades. Introducing AI and robotic process automation is merely another element of the software to embrace and enjoy the benefits of. Of course, like all new technology, it brings its challenges, but supporting payroll software is nothing particularly new for the average payroller. PG: I see AI helping promote the role of payroll professionals and their skills. We have seen this in the accountancy area. Accountants have gone from transactional processing to utilising their knowledge and skills in accountancy, to becoming key business partners. Payroll professionals can make the same transition. They can also help with system support and development. It’s about embracing the change and increasing the profile of payroll within the business. SH: When computers took over the calculation of payrolls from manual systems, payroll professionals were thrust into the need to support the software and develop new skills. Adding AI into payroll processing could be seen as just an added extra to the support already given. A full understanding of how a decision was reached in an AI environment will be important so that payroll professionals can provide support to anyone affected by incorrect algorithms or breaches of data. JR: Payrollers are already used to working with highly sophisticated software
solutions, so using an AI solution should be no different, provided they receive the appropriate training. The knowledge and skills they acquire broadens the payroll industry landscape, leading to new career opportunities for payroll professionals. With AI freeing time, should payroll departments strive to be more involved in the design of fair and transparent reward processes? AB: In payroll, much like banking, no one ever says thank you for a timely payment (but they’re quick to shout about mistakes). Yet banks are now moving with the times, to the extent that consumers are now shouting about the benefits of new, exciting banking features. Payroll has got to do the same, think pay-on-demand, faster payments, and integration with digital wallets – this is the not-so-distant future of employee experience. And payroll departments must drive this forward. PG: Absolutely they should. Rewards not only have an impact on individuals but on the company. It is totally logical that payroll should be at the heart of the process. Also, when there are queries on the rewards, the first port of call is usually payroll. Utilised correctly, a good rewards process can help with employee retention. Payroll professionals need to show how knowledgeable they are, and this is an excellent example of how they can show this to the business. SH: In short, yes. Any perceived unfairness of employee rewards can be the root of disgruntled employees. Unfairness not only creates a climate of distrust but can be totally counterproductive. Payroll professionals are seen by most, if not all employees, as the trusted people to go to, especially when there is a decision that affects their pay. So yes, payroll departments should strive to be more involved. JR: Payroll departments can bring a lot of insight to the reward process. Often at the tail end of this process, payroll can provide insight on whether the process is working efficiently or needs to be improved. Furthermore, rewards programmes are designed for employees who will often turn to the payroll department first, should they have any queries – again, payroll can share this feedback, thus supporting the fairness and transparency of reward programmes. n
● attachments ● student loans ● pensions ● auto-enrolment ● parental pay ● benefits.
It also has to output RTI data to HMRC, journals to accounting packages, payments to banks, pension information to a multitude of providers (in several formats), payslips to employees in secure portals and reports to the business owners/ clients. That’s a lot of data flowing in and out of a payroll system, and I’m sure no-one would ever want to go back to manually processing. Good payroll professionals will always require a high level of payroll knowledge as they are the ones having to deal with the employee/client queries. Even though software is there to help with these things and more, it’s also designed to allow for many options, which can vary per business. The payroll professional will always be expected to understand how the payroll should be set up for a particular business. Just selecting the wrong option when setting up a pension, for example, can have a devastating effect, once an error is discovered some months down the line. It can be difficult and time- consuming to unpick. In respect of automated tasks, such as automated pay runs, these are primarily ideal for the simplest payrolls – those with few employees, single directors or those which predominantly remain consistent each period, but still require the user to follow the same processes as a more varied payroll. A certain amount of set-up knowledge would still be required, but the idea is based around taking these payrolls out of the users’ workload to allow them more time to focus on those more in- depth pay runs. JR: Payroll software has always been designed to meet operational demands; by doing so this reduces the risks associated with manual input. This hasn’t stopped payroll professionals from developing their skills; instead, it’s allowed them to focus on resolving complex matters that require human intervention.
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | February 2022 | Issue 77 20
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