Payroll vs COVID-19
John O'Brien MREC, AAT
Executive Director - Head of Global Payroll Recruitment Division
At this current time everyone is experiencing a global crisis caused by the Coronavirus. World travel and gatherings are being cancelled, schools are being shut and a number of companies have started to ask their employees to work from home.
However, Payroll is a crucial function that needs to run smoothly to ensure that all employees whether working from home or when on sick leave continue getting paid correctly and on time.
This puts tremendous pressure on Payroll Teams and sole Payroll professionals everywhere beyond the continuous high workloads that most are facing under normal conditions.
Some of the changes Payroll teams and individuals will need to put in place are as follows:
- Having to work from home/remotely
- Manage tasks and track status of your payrolls from any location
- Get remote access to all of your payroll documents – Close liaison with your IT Teams/HR & Finance
- Be able to run reports and data queries: by employee, department, business unit, country etc.
- Automate time consuming tasks like validating payrolls to save time for other activities
- Be on call for any Payroll, Benefit and Pension question or query
- Having to put in split shift teams
- Having to fill in for team members who are off sick
- Having to battle against external provider risks: Systems and Benefits providers who are also suffering the same working conditions due to being overwhelmed or facing overall business risks
- Having to create special new payroll rules in relation to e.g. COVID-19 sick leave and new payroll tax rules.
It’s important that you get set up very quickly for every eventuality so you can hit the ground running if or when the time comes.
The payroll community will get through this crisis and I’m confident that we will emerge from it stronger than before.
John O’Brien. 02073377608
Strategic Lead - Payroll / Head of Payroll Operations
5 年Fabulous.. Very helpful
Executive Director - Head of Global Payroll Recruitment Division
5 年Hi Tosin, I have been speaking to a number of Payroll professionals this morning and many have come up with something similar to the following: My advice is to put in place/develop a contingency plan: Every Payroll professional needs to assess their level of exposure to business disruption caused by the virus. Your plan will need to take account of current and potential impacts and manage the specific risks associated with the disruption, including service delivery and workforce issues. Communicate the plan to key teams and individuals across the business. Build a contingency team: Identify a person (sole payroll), or small group of people, to take responsibility for operating the Payroll Contingency Plan and allocate clear responsibilities for its implementation. As the situation develops those responsible for the contingency plan should meet regularly via Skype or WebEx to review the preparations and ensure they are still fit for purpose. It’s important to act early, even if planned contingencies are not then needed.
Strategic Lead - Payroll / Head of Payroll Operations
5 年How then do you keep the payroll team safe as we are critical to the Business at the moment?
Strategic Lead - Payroll / Head of Payroll Operations
5 年This is worth thinking about.??