Risk is part of the day-to-day reality for any organisation, but you have to be able to determine what risks are worth it in order to achieve business goals or objectives and what risks can be mitigated. In the past few months, anytime we have been speaking to prospective clients on sales calls or at events, the below 3 risks are the key payroll concerns for companies.
Increasing demand for Payroll Professionals is exposing companies to the risk of staff leaving.
There is a reason that the Global Payroll Association is focusing its efforts on a campaign around promoting Payroll as a Career and that is because it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit experienced payroll specialists. Education and training are always cyclical and people choose to study in areas where there is high earning potential and job security. Traditionally, payroll was seen as a basic financial service, but it is now increasingly recognised for its fundamental contribution to the operation and strategic direction of organisations and as such is becoming a more pivotal role within an organisation. Companies that have experienced and valued Payroll staff need to hold on to them and have a plan B in place in case they can’t.
New demands on payroll teams of changing regulatory requirements require regular upskilling for your teams.
There is a lot of pressure on payroll teams to keep up to date with the changing regulatory requirements coming their way. On top of their core role of processing payroll, they are now expected to attend webinars and conferences and ensure the knowledge is shared across the team. If your team is being spread too thin, something will have to give, and what is more important, processing payroll accurately or ensuring you are adhering to legislation and regulatory requirements? Should you have to choose?
Key Person Dependency – no bigger risk than having any department in your organisation reliant on one person.
This is true across all departments within an organisation. It is great to have a leader and a high performer in your midst, but the successful functioning of a department cannot be dependent on a single individual. Similar to the above you need to make sure that knowledge and experience are shared but you also need to ensure that if that person leaves, there is an alternative source of information for the people left behind until that gap is filled.
And now for the punchline of this blog, how can CR Payroll help to mitigate the risk of all the above scenarios?
- Staff Retention – Our Payroll Cover solution takes the pressure off your payroll team, allowing them to go on end-of-month holidays, family weddings, children’s plays, graduations, etc. The cover can be turned on and off when needed. This flexibility was unheard of to date within the payroll sector, making your company a much more attractive option for staff if you have it in place.
- Peace of Mind of a Plan B – What if the worst happened and all your payroll team was unavailable at the end of the month due to an unforeseen emergency? It is rare but if you have Payroll Cover it isn’t an issue, our team would be able to step in and complete your payroll after our 2-hour SLA notice.
- Focus on other Priorities – We mentioned the need for payroll teams to upskill on regulations and new industry trends. If you want your people to be able to attend events and manage internal training sessions then we can help process payroll, or alternatively, our Payroll Advisory team can manage the upskilling on your behalf if you want to prioritise the payroll internally.
- Beholden to no one – We are a support system that kicks in when you need it while your internal team is the core service delivery. If you are concerned about a dependency on a specific member of the team, we can (a) help upskill the rest of your team (b) help you recruit additional payroll specialists, and (c) step in to cover if they ever do leave.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in relation to the ways that we can support your payroll process and if you would like to talk to us in more detail about how we can help, please reach out to us to set up a call with one of our team.
