Is HR doing enough to help organisations adapt and innovate to the changing world of work?
Increasingly flexible workforces and digital transformation will have a great impact on payroll systems, said Mike Ellis, President of HCM at Rizing APAC.
Despite the rapidly changing world of work, is HR doing enough to help the organisation adapt and innovate?
HRD spoke to Ellis who shared how some of the latest trends are shaping payroll transformation in Asia.
Trend #1: Payroll needs to keep pace with changing times
Workforces are becoming more flexible and agile — more people work second jobs, freelance and take short-term contracts.
“While this flexibility can be great news for workers and companies, it can put a strain on the payroll system and its integrated time-keeping capabilities,” Ellis said.
With more people working shifts and the workforce database growing, an efficient time-keeping system is essential to keep pace with this new way of working.
As a result, more companies are making sure they have a robust time-keeping software as part of a highly integrated payroll system.
Trend #2: Payroll errors lead to resignations
Research shows that it takes between three to eight days to fix an error made by payroll. Not having an accurate and reliable payroll solution lead to a costly mistake involving manpower and wasted time — the knock-on effects are just as damaging.
A study by the Workplace Institute found that 24% of people will start looking for a new job as soon as they experience a mistake by payroll.
This figure rises to 49% for the second mistake. And roughly half of all employees have experienced one or more errors. This has huge implications for retention strategies, with so many disgruntled employees looking to leave.
Recruitment and retention are two hot-button topics in Asia, so having lots of payroll errors will simply push staffers to leave.
“You need to have a solid foundation to build a skyscraper,” said Ellis. “For a company, that involves having an accurate and secure payroll system as part of its core functions.”
Trend #3: Systems need to grow with companies
A lot of growing companies start by investing in payroll solutions but simply pick something off the shelf, usually making sure it’s cloud based.
But a payroll system that is “not well planned” can soon become clunky and hard to maintain as the company and its headcount grows.
Add to that the challenge of scaling to deliver increasingly complex payroll capabilities as a firm starts growing its headcount above 500 employees.
Beyond Payroll, HR may need extra functionality to help with recruitment or to install a performance-goal system. As systems and functionality are added on top of the company’s basic payroll system, integration, management and reporting gets increasingly complicated and expensive to manage.
This is where a fully integrated system shows its advantages in terms of cost and ease of use. As a company grows, such a system is robust and flexible enough to grow with it.
“I tell my clients it’s a bit like learning to swim in the kiddie’s pool,” Ellis said. “It will soon be too small and you will have to move to a bigger pool.
“So why not just learn to swim in the big pool, but ring-fence so it can expand as you get better.’’
Mike Ellis will be talking about these challenges and more in a webinar taking place on March 11. Click here to register and find out more about the latest trends in 2020.
