How can you streamline your payroll system?

The demand for payroll professionals with a strong background in systems is on the rise. As businesses look to upgrade or integrate their payroll system to streamline processes, this has increased the need for applicants to possess these skills and experiences.

Cameron Davies, our Senior Finance Recruitment Consultant, recently ran a poll on LinkedIn to gain insight into what the most important aspects are for businesses when streamlining payroll systems. In this article, we identify those challenges and suggest what companies can do to streamline their system.

Time & Cost (39%)

The poll found that ‘Time & Cost’ was the biggest challenge when streamlining the payroll systems process, with 39% selecting that option. This could suggest the payroll system is inadequate or there is no capacity within the function to complete tasks.

If it’s the first option, consider moving your payroll to a new or updated system in order to become more efficient. Automating your payroll system can help maximise efficiency, with many businesses already starting to invest in this. Research from Workato found that payroll processing has risen dramatically in automation adoption, growing by 3,700% year-on-year.

Automating processes will allow employees to be paid on time and receive benefits when they are supposed to, ensuring they are happy in their place of work. It will also free up capacity for HR teams to spend time in other areas, making everybody happier and more efficient.

Data transferring (36%)

Data transferring (or migration) was identified to be the next biggest challenge, with over a third (36%) choosing this. Payroll migration involves moving information from one system to another, which is not always straightforward and can be a lengthy process. So, what can you do to solve this?

Plan out your data migration. Delegate tasks to relevant employees involved in the migration process by identifying the right time to migrate, setting deadlines and establishing a plan. To keep systems in sync, it’s also a good idea to remove out-of-date data. It may be worth outsourcing this task to experienced payroll professionals.

Payroll Talent (14%)

The poll found that 14% of people felt finding high-quality payroll talent was their main challenge when streamlining their payroll system; given the current talent shortage, this is to be expected. There is talent, but you may just need assistance finding it.

Searching for candidates is as difficult as it ever has been and hiring managers often do not have the time.

Outsource your recruitment to support you in finding the best candidates and attracting them to your business. That way, you can find people who have the skills needed to work with your payroll systems and run them efficiently, streamlining the whole process and becoming more productive.

Regular training on the system (11%)

Despite most selecting other options, ‘regular training on the system’ was chosen as the main challenge for 11% of respondents. This suggests businesses feel their people are not trained to use the systems they are working with, which can make your process inefficient.

If this is the case, it may be worth scheduling some time for training. An eLearning course, online tutorials and other employee demonstrations could all help. It’s important that you encourage development of your employees in order to maximise the efficiency of your business.

When payroll systems are inefficient or employees are untrained, a business can find it difficult to perform tasks and meet deadlines. Hopefully, this guide will help you streamline your payroll system for a more efficient business.