If staff are the beating heart of an organisation, then payroll is, in many ways, the blood. When done correctly, payroll has the potential to be a strategic force for good within the businesses. It can enable an agile, flexible, and engaged workforce while facilitating global growth. However, get it wrong and the opposite can happen. Staff will become demotivated very quickly and will start searching for alternative means of employment.
With staff being the biggest intellectual property in any organisation, business leaders are taking payroll far more seriously than ever before. And for good reason. By thinking about payroll as a strategic asset, businesses can build a payroll infrastructure with the agility and scalability to grow with them for the next 20 years and beyond. But what should they prioritise when putting a payroll strategy in place?
Ensure payroll is at the core of any HCM transformation
The most common mistake I see is a business leaving payroll until last or treating it separately from its broader human capital management (HCM) transformation. This can lead them to inadvertently creating an overly complex flow of data that can be a time consuming and expensive challenge to fix. To ensure this does not happen, it is important that organisations don’t let payroll become an afterthought in their HCM transformation, but place it front and centre.
Understand the four ingredients of successful payroll
If there is one thing I have learned about payroll, it is about understanding the four fundamental ingredients of great payroll: data, people, process, and technology. Organisations may get excited by the latest shiny payroll technology on the market but not pay enough attention to the quality and availability of their data. Or they may have the right processes in place to ensure accuracy, but not have the in-house expertise to bring them all together. Like any great dish, it is important that all the ingredients work together in balance.
Think long term
I am yet to meet an organisation that wants to change its payroll solution, but I meet many that have to. When this is the case, it is important not to go for a quick fix. When choosing a payroll solution, it is important that the organisation considers what it needs over the long term and questions the longevity of its choice. Yes, solutions should be evaluated on the basis of how well they work today. However, take the time to consider the direction the solution and the vendor that produces it are taking. Can you see a track record of investment and a roadmap that aligns with your future needs?
Understand where the value and costs sit
Unfortunately, all too often organisations place undue weight on features that are going to have little impact. It is important not to lose sight of the fact that the priority of payroll is to ensure staff are paid accurately and on time, whilst safeguarding compliance and security. If any of those were to fail, the impact would quickly minimise the value of any other feature.
Payroll is like a utility within the business that staff just expect to work. It may take a lot to make payroll happen. It may be tricky to ensure all data remains safe and that the business remains compliant to increasingly stringent regulations. Yet, after seven years, I am still waiting for a call to say thanks for paying all my people correctly!
Ensuring one version of the truth
A scalable, unified payroll platform can streamline payroll processes across an organisation’s entire international footprint and brings all data into a single, consolidated view. This is key, as can reduce overall costs and errors, whilst improving compliance and the employee experience.
Rather than relying on a piecemeal approach across the business, organisations should always strive for consolidation. By ensuring one version of the truth, they will be able to unlock more informed decision-making, increased security, extra flexibility to integrate future markets, enhanced employee experience, and quicker reactions to changing industry trends and market events.
Do not run before you can walk
Organisations need to ensure that their payroll keeps up with the relentless pace of change within modern business. The longer they stand still or patch together existing solutions, the greater the risk. To help drive innovation, efficiency and growth across the business, organisations must develop a unified, global, secure, and resilient payroll model.
Whilst many organisations now get this, all too often they are unsure how to put a modern payroll strategy in place. More than anything, my advice is not to run before you can walk. Payroll can’t progress from covering the basics – paying staff – to the level of driving strategy if employees can’t rely on receiving accurate payslips, or if managers can’t access the data and reports they need quickly and easily.
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