Tag: payroll

What does ‘truly integrated’ HR and payroll really mean?

For both HR and payroll professionals, recent years have brought about a significant shift in role. More and more, HR is expected to deliver…

For both HR and payroll professionals, recent years have brought about a significant shift in role.

More and more, HR is expected to deliver added value to the business through analytical and transformational work, rather than solely focusing on people administration.

Payroll departments, meanwhile, have seen their responsibilities grow significantly too, largely thanks to legislation like RTI (Real-Time Information) and auto-enrolment.

While some businesses have sought to meet these new-found challenges separately (often outsourcing payroll altogether), more and more organisations now recognise the value in tackling these challenges in parallel, integrating HR and payroll into one single system.

Done correctly, the integration of HR and payroll brings a vast array of benefits – with one single set of data which means fewer duplications, less work, and far less room for error.

It also makes reporting more accessible and insightful, bringing together employee and payroll data to help you accurately relate pay to performance.

The problem is when HR software providers say “Integrated HR and Payroll” they don’t all mean the same thing. And while providers will almost always promise some kind of payroll integration – it will often fail to live up to your expectations.

In this blog post, we’ll identify what truly integrated HR and payroll looks like, and how the right system can help you deliver big benefits to the business as a whole.

Why true HR and payroll integration means a single source of data

Speak to HR software suppliers about their platform and it won’t be long before you hear the word ‘integration’. Vendors know that bringing HR and payroll data together is a key driver for many businesses, and it’s, therefore, becoming a primary selling point for the software.

Make no mistake though, one supplier’s idea of integration can be very different from the next.

While true integration can be defined as the use of one single database, many suppliers simply offer the link-up of two existing systems so that they “talk” to each other – but with data still existing separately in each system.

While this does offer some advantages, it isn’t integration in the truest sense – and it can present some problems.

Firstly, when systems are bolted together in this way, the data typically only flows in one direction. From HR into payroll or vice versa.

This means the data can easily become inconsistent if something were to be manually edited in the ‘receiving end’ of the system.

What’s more, with two separate datasets in existence, even the simplest of formatting issues (for instance £10.00 v £10) can cause significant headaches, putting up a roadblock to accurate reporting.

Perhaps most significantly, bolting systems together leaves the integration open to potential failure. Ultimately, you’re still transferring or syncing data from one system to another – and that’s less reliable than having both systems use the same dataset automatically. This situation is far from ideal, as inaccurate people data can cause all sorts of problems, particularly when it relates to your employees’ pay and benefits.

When you’re in the market for integrated HR and payroll software, it’s important to ask suppliers if their solution is built on a single (‘unitary’) database.

Only the single database approach can guarantee a reduction in administration, and eliminate the pitfalls of duplicate data entry.

The benefits of properly integrated payroll

As well as putting duplicate data entry to an end, single-database HR and payroll systems can bring a raft of benefits for the wider business.

Here are just some of the ways true payroll integration can support your overarching business aims:

1 Improved, insightful reporting

Pooling and analysing your HR and payroll data can be a significant undertaking when you’re operating separate systems – and even when your systems are bolted together, the existence of separate data sets can still make accurate reporting a challenge.

Given the enhanced capabilities of today’s analytics and reporting tools, that’s a real missed opportunity for any business.

With true HR and payroll integration, you’ll always be working with one single version of the truth. A data set you can trust for actionable insights, deliverable in one click.

2 Better employee engagement

When you integrate payroll with an HR system that offers self-service functionality, you take another positive step in delivering an engaging employee experience.

As well as being able to book time off and manage their personal data online, employees will also be able to view their payslip and benefits data at their own convenience.

This gives your employees greater visibility over their pay records and more understanding of their benefits entitlement. It also becomes easier to spot and solve inaccuracies.

This shouldn’t be underestimated, given the clear correlation between efficient, accurate payroll and continued employee satisfaction.

3 Reduced exposure to compliance issues

Maintaining compliance with fast-evolving employment legislation is arguably one of HR’s greatest modern-day challenges. From tax issues to working time regulations, there’s no shortage of red tape to wrap you up – but having all your data in one place can help you keep you compliant with the latest employee legislation.

Single database systems can also help you keep your house in order from a GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) perspective too. Responding to a request for data removal, for instance, becomes easier when you know you only have to delete it from one single system.

Summary

As HR and payroll gradually intertwine to play a larger, more strategic role in the business, pooling the departments’ data resources makes a logical and sensible step.

Unless you’re operating a heavily embedded HR system that you simply can’t move away from, firms should now be seeking as much integration between HR and payroll as possible.

Remember though, every software supplier has its own definition of unified data. Only single-database solutions can deliver the ‘holy grail’ of true integration.

This article was curated from naturalhr.com
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Jonathan Borba from Pexels

How Integration Is Shaping the Future of Payroll

For years major organizations around the world have been adopting and upgrading enterprise technology solutions to improve essential business functions…

For years major organizations around the world have been adopting and upgrading enterprise technology solutions to improve essential business functions, most notably in HR, Finance, and Sales. Recently the digital transformation has extended to the payroll function, a development that appears perfectly timed with the next key step for companies looking to improve their performance and control: system integration.

Although data, big data, and better data have been hot topics for years, their significance and application have been an ongoing discovery for both innovators and end-users. Now the widespread ability to link the software systems used across functions serves to supercharge our data quality, accuracy, and access, and thereby elevate both process results and potential. In global payroll, this confluence of advancing technology and systems integration is serving to transform payroll from a poorly understood back-office function to a key source of business information and performance insights.

The Process

Behind every successful payroll, runs tedious hours of manual data collection and verification, adjustments, calculations, and information transfer. Advanced payroll solutions and automation technology are already transforming those processes to improve accuracy, security, speed, and results—integration takes it a step further.

By connecting systems across related functions through seamless interfaces, the benefits of these better solutions can be shared throughout the workflow. More complete employee data in a company’s HRIS can be accessed directly by their global payroll platform, which can automatically validate the information in minutes to highlight any critical errors in need of attention. Suddenly a process that took days and required an employee in HR to engage with an employee in payroll is completed in a fraction of the time with almost zero labour.

Integrating systems requires a level of standardisation of both processes and data formats across functions, which can create opportunities for greater alignment and understanding between related departments. It presents a fundamental change to the way we process payroll and shares the benefits throughout the organisation by enabling better access to better data for all integrated solutions.

The People

For the payroll professional, integration brings greater opportunities to contribute to and engage with their organization. Our research shows that up to 40% of current payroll activities can be automated, a figure exclusive of the potential savings available through system integrations. That’s a significant amount of time that payroll professionals could be spending on higher-value tasks.

Integration can afford payroll teams the opportunities and time to work upstream of their function to improve the overall process. A payroll professional could focus their saved time on minimising or expediting error resolutions, thereby directly improving payroll performance and the employee experience. Another could work towards shortening cycle times to include more complete and accurate data in each payroll run, enabling more comprehensive reporting on the company’s workforce.

As the quality and totality of data improves, its value increases. And as payroll data becomes more important to organizations, so will the people who understand it. The role of the payroll professional will expand beyond processing data changes and pay calculations to interpret trends and applying their unique insight to help support and improve overall business performance.

The Perks

As I’ve mentioned, the importance of improving payroll solutions and integrating related systems lies in the data. Acknowledging data integrity as both the end and means of payroll innovation is the key to unlocking its potential.

Systems integration creates opportunities to standardise both processes and formats, which can speed data collection and movement between functions. Integration minimises or eliminates manual intervention, diminishing the risk of introducing errors into datasets and improving accuracy—not only for payroll but for each function accessing integrated data.

Integration is key to creating what’s called a single source of truth (SSoT) for an organization. There are no versions of data, no files stored on desktops, no manual entry of Excel content. There is only one source of accurate, up-to-date, complete data that is maintained and accessible through the linked systems. Everyone who needs it has access to it, and today’s leading systems automatically track and control access and changes to ensure transparency and traceability.

For global payroll, this means more complete, true data in every cycle, minimised errors, and better performance. For organisations, it means greater control and visibility of their largest cost centres, as well as related functions. Rather than payroll data being a security risk, an advanced, integrated payroll solution can become a vehicle for compliance, as well as positive process change. Audits are easier and quicker to manage, reporting is more flexible and accurate, and analytics can happen in real-time for instant insights and problem-solving.

The Full Picture

For any company processing payrolls for multiple populations or multiple regions, moving to an advanced, unified solution will improve results. For enterprise organizations with complex needs, integrating that solution with other core functions like HR and Finance will transform payroll data into a tool for elevating performance and maintaining compliance. While integrating systems can be a major undertaking, its benefits are no less tremendous, with advantages shared across integrated functions, related departments, business leadership, and in fact every employee—including the ones responsible for processing the future of payroll.

This article was curated from CloudPay
Featured Image Credit: pxfuel.com