The future of payroll
advice becoming a nucleus but hosted within a much broader environment to complement the employee experience. Technologies that will identify the correlation between pay and aspects of financial, mental and social wellbeing and also allow for a two-way interaction. We often have too many forms and too little flexibility so one-click responsive options to join benefits, ask a question or submit information are likely to be the expectation. We can also expect to see much less interaction with employees in collecting information and more reliance on recording technologies passing information to payroll where needed. The end of the timesheet perhaps for additional information where instead technologies such as security systems will identify activities and how they link through to pay. We also see a move away from cash, meaning payroll as a collection vehicle for costs will be imperative within an organisation whether it be paying for lunch, parking, gym membership or a donation to charity. In respect of resolving enquiries chat bots will be the way we see of offering round-the-clock customer service and meeting the need for self-resolution of issues. We have become more curious as a nation and the customer now is not always just seeking a solution to a problem but also an understanding of why and how. Financial wellness The financial ripples of the recent months will be with us for many years, radically changing the financial position of many individuals. Statistically individuals do not have large amounts of reserves and the introduction of a period of furlough leave or no work will have meant an increased focus on finance. I am sure many individuals are now looking at their
pay slips with an extra interest in how they can make their pay go further, and going through their bank statements with some extra care. As payroll professionals we are needed here to help guide and shape the decision making of colleagues. The way we approach education and support needs to be more accessible and outward facing than ever before and we need to be making ourselves visible. Whether it be drop-in sessions, roadshows or signposting to external contacts, payroll departments need to build into their service offerings financial education and wellbeing, which will mean going out to build new relationships with external providers and planning financial activities. This is a way we can directly link to the productivity of the workplace as we know that financial worries will lead to an increase in distraction and a reduction in engagement. Predictive analytics We have always known that the data we hold in payroll is incredibly powerful as we are the one area of business that holds people and finance data together. This means that we can support the business with the identification of trends and the ability to analyse data to understand the impact of change. I am sure many payroll professionals have become important in predicting cash flow commitments or ...at the front of maintaining key activities for businesses and adapting to change and deadlines quickly
identifying ways of controlling pay costs or costing proposals to ensure that a business can stabilise. We can also expect to see our payroll systems become increasingly two-way for our employees with user-prompts being more intelligent and the use of data trends able to make suggestions. A system which can advise on pay trends, databases allowing users to engage in wider financial planning activities and which enable prompts for things that they have forgotten to do based on their prior activities. Data security In recent times data security has achieved organisational prominence, and we see this trend increasing over time. Any department that holds bank details will always be a target for cybercrime so perhaps we will move towards a world where individuals wish to see their funds not paid to a bank but instead in to holistic payment vehicles such as PayPal or Apple Pay with these methods becoming primary beneficiaries. With data also emerging from areas that don’t reside behind the safety of the company firewall payroll professionals will need to be leading the way with vigilant processes and customer education. We can certainly expect to see an increase in security enablers such as multi-factor authentication when accessing pay details and more controls over verifying that cyber changes are truly being made by the expected individual. Summary As a profession we have a springboard of prominence to build upon, and once again we have risen to the challenge and been at the front of maintaining key activities for businesses and adapting to change and deadlines quickly. Payroll has taken another step towards shaking off the shadows of the past demonstrating that it is truly now a strategic leader within any organisation and deserves to hold this position going forward. There is a diverse network of business partners working in conjunction with our profession and with their vision and developments we will continue to see the opportunity to develop presented to us. The world seems ready for us to lead, and we need to make sure we are ready to step up. n
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 61 | June 2020
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