If staff members are considered the beating heart of an organization, then payroll is, in many ways, its life blood. When done correctly, payroll has the potential to be a strategic force for good within a business. It can enable an agile, flexible, and engaged workforce while facilitating global growth. However, get it wrong, and the opposite can happen. Staff members may become demotivated and start searching for alternative means of employment.
An organization’s staff is its greatest intellectual asset. As a result, 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 prioritize when putting a payroll strategy in place?
Why Payroll Must Be the Core of Any HCM Transformation
The most common mistake I’ve noticed happens when a business doesn’t take the mission of payroll as seriously or treats it separately from its broader human capital management (HCM) transformation. This can inadvertently create an overly complex flow of data that can be a time consuming and expensive challenge to fix. To ensure this does not happen, organizations should place payroll at the center and not allow it to become an afterthought in its HCM transformation.
Organizations may get excited by the latest shiny payroll technology on the market but then do 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.
Choosing the Right Payroll Solution
I’ve yet to see an organization that wants to change its payroll solution, but I see many that must change to ensure greater payroll accuracy and compliance. 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 organization considers its long-term needs and questions the longevity of its choice. Yes, solutions should be evaluated based on how well they work today. However, take the time to consider the direction the solution and the vendor that produces it are taking. Ensure that you see a track record of investment and a roadmap that aligns with your future needs.
Understanding Payroll Solutions
Unfortunately, some organizations will place undue weight on features within some payroll solutions 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, while safeguarding compliance and security. If any of those were to fail, the impact would quickly minimize the value of any other feature.
For many businesses, payroll is like a utility that staff members 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 from someone to say, “Thanks for paying all my people correctly!”
Streamlining, Consolidating Payroll Processes
A scalable, unified payroll platform can streamline payroll processes across an organization’s entire international footprint and brings all data into a single, consolidated view. This is key, as it can reduce overall costs and errors, while improving compliancy and the employee experience.
Rather than relying on a piecemeal approach across the business, organizations 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.
Developing a Resilient, Secure Payroll Model
Organizations 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, organizations must develop a unified, global, secure, and resilient payroll model.
While many organizations 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.