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Without effective payroll, businesses fall apart. Incorporating payroll into business strategy can be a great way to ensure it is treated with the respect it deserves, and tech can make this a whole lot easier.
“Strategic payroll” is a theme that has previously been discussed by HR Leader. It relates to utilising payroll data to drive business outcomes, through subjects like salaries, benefits, taxes, overtime, leave and more.
“The research highlights the often-overlooked goldmine of data that’s right in front of us and offers tangible steps for businesses to turn this information into a strategic asset, assisting organisations to make informed decisions and drive efficiencies,” Kerry Agiasotis, president for Asia-Pacific region at The Access Group (TAG), said.
Seeing payroll as more than merely a means of paying people is the first step towards creating an effective strategy.
Some areas that a strategic payroll plan can assist are:
- Workforce management visibility
- Making informed decisions at the right time
- Enhancing employee experience
- Managing compliance and risk
“Payroll has come a long way, first and foremost, it’s for paying people on time and correctly every pay run, but there is so much opportunity to think differently about the data you can use from payroll and how you can apply it,” Alison Merner, chief people officer at Endeavour Group, said.
Despite the advantages of integrating payroll into strategy, according to TAG, less than half (49 per cent) of leaders depend on payroll data to make more informed decisions. Meanwhile, only 28 per cent understand that payroll extends beyond paying people.
There is a desire to change this, however. In fact, 62 per cent of executives want to use their payroll data more strategically.
So, how can leaders leverage payroll data to drive business outcomes? According to TAG, this is done through tech.
There are a few considerations that must be acknowledged by leaders. First and foremost, the system used needs to be evaluated. What makes an effective system is one that can provide the following functions:
- Single set-up: Modern payroll and workforce management platforms offer rules-driven, intuitive, and comprehensive employee set-up for compliance and record keeping.
- Payroll: Integrated payroll processing with intuitive and flexible award interpretation to eliminate manual processing and errors.
- Data consistency: A single source of truth can be easily achieved with modern payroll and workforce management systems that are on one platform that stores all the data in a single repository, reducing manual input, reconciliation, data entry errors, and inconsistent and disparate risks.
- Data-driven solution: Reduce manual calculations and record keeping for accurate pay runs with a data-driven payroll and workforce management that automates processing and reporting and delivers accurate analysis – especially for timely strategic decisions at any time during a period, ensuring timely and trusted data.
- Streamlined monitoring and processing: A strategic modern payroll and workforce management platform monitors employee data, work schedules, rosters and timesheets to ensure accurate data capture for award calculations and helps eliminate salary underpayments.
- Online, real-time, accurate and easily accessible data: The latest payroll and workforce management solutions deliver live, accurate data in real-time and online. This provides a single source of truth for all data on a single platform. Ensure data accuracy and timeliness, particularly important for compliance and strategic reporting.
Lizzie Davis, former payroll and HR system manager at Followmont, said: “Single source of data is extremely valuable as we have access to data in real-time. A single unified platform means all managers have access to their staff information in one place.”
Tech will shape the future of work, and payroll will be affected simultaneously. Those who are able to effectively leverage the power of payroll and use tech to drive these outcomes stand a better chance of remaining competitive in the coming years.
Jack Campbell
Jack is the editor at HR Leader.
