Professional February 2019

Industry news

Fewer working hours ACCORDING TO a global survey of nearly 3,000 employees across eight countries conducted by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated, 45% of full-time workers say it should take less than five hours each day to do their job if they worked uninterrupted, while 72% would work four days or less per week if pay remained constant. Yet, 71% of employees also say work interferes with their personal life. The case for a 4-day workweek? explores how employees spend their time while on the clock and if the standard forty-hour workweek is most effective. Joyce Maroney, executive director, The Workforce Institute at Kronos, commented: “Organisations must help their people eliminate distractions, inefficiencies, and administrative work to enable them to work at full capacity. This will create more time to innovate, collaborate, develop skills and relationships, and serve customers while opening the door to creative scheduling options, including the coveted four-day workweek.” Dan Schawbel, best-selling author and research director, Future Workplace , observed: “This study confirms that we can all be more efficient with our workday, that there’s an opportunity to remove administrative tasks in exchange for more impactful ones, and that the traditional workweek isn’t as relevant in today’s business world. Employees need more flexibility with how, when, and where they work, and leaders should be supportive of an employee’s professional and personal life.” Ahead in the cloud ANALYSIS OF Google trends data by payroll specialists, Paycircle, reveals that in 2018 UK-based searches for ‘cloud payroll’ soared by a significant 86% compared to 2017. Worldwide, including the UK, such searches were also 60% higher compared to the previous. The number of UK monthly Google searches for ‘online payroll’ was also up 39% compared to 2017, with such searches globally up 10% relative to 2017. On average, 3,500 queries for ‘cloud payroll’ and ‘online payroll’ were made monthly during the first eleven months of 2018. The data suggests many within the payroll sector, and perhaps businesses directly, are increasingly looking to and enquiring about cloud-based systems in order to streamline their payroll processes. Catherine Pinkney, co-founder of Paycircle, commented that: “the number of cloud-related payroll searches over the past year shows this trend is something few in the industry can now afford to ignore...” and “for anyone involved in payroll, it seems quite timely to have your head in the clouds.”

Moorepay invests in northern hub MOOREPAY, A market leader in payroll and HR solutions for UK businesses, is investing over £100 million with the opening of a new hub in Lowry Mill, Salford, Greater Manchester, showing commitment to the region and local talent, and demonstrating confidence in the area as the ideal place for business growth. The investment over the next ten years includes £90m on people costs, training and development across 180 employees. Alistair Blaxill, chief executive officer (CEO) at Moorepay, said the opening of the new hub “…marks the beginning of an exciting new phase of growth for us as a company.” Opening the new hub, Paul Dennett, Salford City mayor, commented: “We are proud to have another great business in Moorepay who buy into the vision we have of the area.” Among those attending the official hub opening were CIPP chair Jason Davenport and CIPP CEO Ken Pullar, and representatives from more than fifty local businesses. Together THE CHARITY Together Trust, which provides care, special education and support services across the north west of England, has taken steps to modernise its HR and payroll processes by partnering with MHR for the provision of its cloud-based iTrent system to replace current systems. Brian White, director of resources at Together Trust, says: “With a workforce of over 900 people that continues to grow, it has become clear that we need to replace our manual, paper-based systems and spreadsheets to improve efficiency across our organisation.” Anton Roe, CEO at MHR, commented: “By adopting more digital methods of working, Together Trust will benefit from faster and more accurate processes, while transferring certain tasks to self-service will empower its employees to take more ownership of their work, improving engagement and productivity.”

| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | February 2019 | Issue 47 14

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