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ISSUE 4
Programming models representing the stepwise movement through code to reach an outcome are certainly very similar to payroll processes. Even some of the language used is similar, with ‘batch processing’ (borrowed from mainframe computing) applied each cycle before the whole, time- dependent roundabout begins again. Although workflows can be less than ideal, it’s an area so sensitive that a wholesale change, like that which might be brought about by digitization, is often treated with great trepidation: in Australia, companies can be taken to court for getting it wrong , and everywhere, payroll errors are a PR nightmare waiting to happen. Sometimes, necessary changes to payroll policies have to happen, of course, like the implementation of Domestic Violence Leave , plus an increasing raft of equal pay legislation to be observed by every organization. But the fact remains that the majority of payroll functions in businesses today may be accurate but are reactive rather than proactive to change, and there is huge scope for improving business
productivity and employee experience with the digital transformation of this central part of every organisation. People at the core The types of people who work in Payroll are most definitely specialists: “They really get into the minutiae of things – the check and the balance,” Judy said. As the Operational Director of a company that specializes in the digitization of Payroll, Judy has experienced the understandable friction between payroll staff and other stakeholders who would like to reform the process. Recent fears that AI will take over some very specialist roles (like computer programming, for example) feed the tendency to be protective of what is a highly complex job that’s very difficult to achieve well. Many staff are wary of change not necessarily because they fear for their jobs, but because the results might not be as reliable as those existing highly accurate albeit inefficient processes. Digitization is not, Judy stressed, going to lead to mass redundancies. “So rarely do we end up in a conversation that says, well, I won’t need Payroll in my organization anymore. That’s not it at all.”
“Digitization and automation in Payroll are about what Payroll practitioners should and could be doing in an organization rather than worrying about data entry, manual calculation and processing, and file and report creation.”
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