Payroll Can Be a Force for Good Throughout the Organisation

Payroll has often been ignored for many businesses. It only draws attention when issues arise. However, with advances in technology and automation, payroll now plays a strategic role for many organisations.?

Major Challenges in Payroll

Every business faces unique challenges, but generally, the main hurdles include:

1. Lack of Automation: Payroll often remains a transactional function due to outdated processes. Inconsistent, disorganised, and manual payroll processes hinder a strategic modern pay experience.

2. Payroll is an Invisible Component in the Organisation: Payroll is frequently noticed only when problems occur or when other departments need something from it. This is often because other departments lack visibility into payroll’s capabilities.

3. Inability to Process Payroll Metrics: If the payroll team can't maximise their data, neither can other departments. Without payroll metrics, it’s tough to showcase payroll’s potential to non-HR leaders. Consequently, these leaders may not understand payroll to support significant changes. Payroll team needs to excel at turning their data into useful reports for other departments.

Strategies to Drive Payroll Transformation

The goal for every payroll team today is to become a well-regarded, highly visible, and an essential part of the business. Here are four strategies to achieve this:

1. Take the Initiative: Given that payroll is one of the largest expenses for a company, it's crucial for the CFO to stay informed about it. This means involving payroll in discussions with the CFO from the outset, rather than only during crises. It's crucial to educate non-HR key players on how the result of modern pay experience can strategically benefit the business.

2. Identify issues in other areas: Consulting with other employees is the best way to identify where changes are most needed. Nobody knows that better than the people who are doing the work. For example you can discover which country or department with the most pressing issues.

3. Utilise Analytics and Reports: Data is essential to ground opinions in fact. Using metrics to benchmark and quantify performance improvements can demonstrate payroll’s progress. It can also explain how errors were identified and resolved positively in the long term.

4. Invest in Automation and Flexibility: Leveraging technology and automation can enhance payroll speed and accuracy. This will reduce the administrative burden on staff and allow them to add value in other areas. Our software (Workplaze) is designed to flexibly comply with Asian-specific regulations, avoiding the need for customizations or extra costs.

Conclusion

Enhancing payroll visibility and technology can significantly improve your payroll operations and overall organisation. This approach will increase the understanding of payroll complexities across the business. It ensures consistent payroll processes and experiences.

Can we help?

Humanica has been providing regional HR services for SE Asia since 2003. We have offices in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. In total we have more than 5,000 customers, with over 2 million employees

If updating your HCM or regional payroll services would improve your organisation, we'd be delighted to assist with your planning. Feel free to reach out to our Global Head of Client Care, Matthew Pearson, by email at [email protected] or by phone/WhatsApp/Facetime at +66 820 950 880.