With an ever-changing workforce and new payroll challenges across the globe to address, payroll professionals need to be on top of current education and information on the latest tools and solutions to make their processes as efficient and compliant as possible. With that goal in mind, the APA and GPMI collaborated once again to create the 2nd annual Payroll Solutions Showcase (PSS).
PSS is the virtual one-stop marketplace of innovation, featuring new product demos, expert panel discussions, and the ability to chat with leading service providers around the world to compare payroll solutions. PSS ran live March 3-4, 2022, but will remain live as a free, on-demand event through October 31.
“This is a unique opportunity for you and your team to canvas the marketplace and compare innovative solutions all in one event,” said Dan Maddux, APA Executive Director and GPMI President.
During the live event, attendees also had the chance to provide ratings for the Showcase Standout Awards immediately following.
Expert Panel Discussions
During the live event, attendees participated in one-on-one discussions with payroll vendors and providers to find solutions tailored to their company’s needs and also heard from educational expert panels to gain insight into current payroll topics. Four new panel discussions are still available for free on demand in which attendees can earn up to 4 RCHs or 0.40 CEUs. The panels include the following under the “Lobby,” and “Agenda” tab:
- “The Next Evolution of Net Pay”
- “Can Murphy’s Law Have a Silver Lining for Payroll Professionals?”
- “The Implementation Road Less Traveled—Driving With Control, Security, and Data”
- “Rallying Through The Great Resignation”
During the panel “Rallying Through the Great Resignation,” attendees could address their concerns about the Great Resignation—the post-COVID-19 pandemic trend of employees resigning from their jobs in search of better opportunities—with experts to get their insight into how companies can confront and respond to employee needs.
“I think the Great Resignation is creating opportunities for a lot of people; we hear it called ‘The Great Reshuffle’ as well,” said Pete Tiliakos, Director and Principal Analyst, HR Research Lead at ISG, and the panel’s moderator. “Payroll, like in every profession right now, is struggling to find and retain top talent and it’s a challenge for everyone. What I’ve seen in my research, some of the things we’ve been monitoring over the last few years is that talent gap has led to some opportunities to use managed services or reach out for help and connect their solutions,” he said.
Expert panelist Stephanie Salavejus, CPP, Vice President and COO at PenSoft, gives examples of how employers can attract and retain new talent in the industry using non-traditional, innovative offerings.
“Compensation isn’t the only driving factor for satisfaction at work,” Salavejus said. “I’m seeing more interest in profit sharing, but as far as ‘out-of-the-box,’ we have a client who really wanted to attract talent, and he had already offered remote work, flexibility in schedule, and had a 24-hour workforce. In addition to that, he had incorporated ‘nap pods’ which are little pods where employees can go and rest for awhile and a lot of the employees would go and take a power nap for 20 minutes, come back, and be completely revitalized and ready to work for another four to five hours.”
Demos, Plus Networking Opportunities
During the live, interactive event and on-demand playbacks, attendees and their teams can get step-by-step demonstrations by representatives on the latest tools and solutions to help their payroll processes.
One of the demos provided by rapid! and presented by Brian Slowik, Senior Vice President, rapid! PayCard Founder, Green Dot Corporation Wage and Corporate Disbursements, addresses the COVID-19 pandemic and its role in increasing the need for paycards and paycard innovations in today’s workforce.
“We’re constantly innovating our product, and we wanted to show you the latest innovations that have been brought to market within the rapid! PayCard suite,” said Slowik. “We’re going to demonstrate for you our latest app to interact with your paycard and earned wage access product within the rapid! suite of products. We are one of the few, maybe even the only, that has it all combined into one mobile digital access suite of services. It’s a one-stop-shop.”
During all live demos and walkthroughs, PSS hosted text chats during the sessions so attendees could provide live feedback to both presenters and their fellow payroll pros.
“Thank you for this great informative session!” said Kristine Mittan, FPC, in the chat during Slowik’s demo.
Just like Congress Xstream and Virtual Congress, PSS also hosted a Networking Lounge where, outside of panels and product demos under the “Networking” tab, attendees could chat with their peers about the event and asked questions directly to APA staff regarding more information. The chat will be available to all attendees throughout the event.
Attendees can also use the “Who’s Here” tab to see who is also accessing the on-demand event and use direct messaging to get in touch with their payroll peers.
Get Social
Under the “Engage” tab, attendees of both the live and on-demand event can earn exclusive badges and view the Badge Leaderboard. Badges can be earned by attending PSS expert panels, demo sessions, and interacting with the Networking Lounge and session chat functions. Attendees can also engage with vendor and peer social media accounts under the “Engage,” and “Get Social” tabs, and the official #payshowcase22 tag on Twitter.
“Use the tag to connect with your fellow attendees on social media by taking a Showcase Selfie or sharing a takeaway from the event,” Maddux said.
Register now for the on-demand PSS event on the APA website under the “Conferences” tab. Invite your whole team to attend!
4 Payroll Solution Providers Stand Out During PSS Event
The APA and GPMI are honored to announce the recipients of its 2nd annual Showcase Standout Awards. Featuring four categories, these awards recognized the best product demonstrations featured during the Payroll Solutions Showcase (PSS), which took place this past March. Finalists were selected through ratings given by PSS attendees.
“The Showcase Standout Awards recognize outstanding payroll solutions providers and their presentations of premier products for the payroll industry," said Dan Maddux, Executive Director of APA and President of GPMI.
This year’s award recipients were the following:
Congratulations to all the finalists and recipients! The APA and GPMI look forward to seeing next year’s demonstrations.