When I think about the ordeal that some payroll professionals go through when it comes to taking time off it reminds me of a sketch that comedian Michael McIntyre does about the difference between people with and without children leaving their house.
Most people that don’t work in payroll will have the following experience when it comes to going on holiday.
- Decide when and where they want to go.
- Request the time off.
- Book their flights and accommodation.
- Do a handover before they leave and put on their OOO.
- Enjoy their uninterrupted holiday.
- Return to work and catch up on what they missed.
Those of us that work in payroll have a slightly more convoluted approach to holiday planning.
- Decide when and where we want to go.
- Change the when multiple times as it clashes with payroll deadlines/busy periods.
- Perhaps change the where too as the wifi is bad in certain destinations and we might need to be able to log on.
- Request the time off and hope that no one else on the team has already taken that slot.
- Book flights and accommodation.
- Do a handover and put on our OOO.
- Pack our laptop (just in case).
- Go on holiday and enjoy the break, minus the occasional checkin to make sure all is ok.
- Return to work and catch up before the next payroll deadline.
This is the reality for a lot of payroll professionals and it is one of the key inspirations for our Payroll Cover service. We call it emergency cover as that is when it is seen to be reputation saving but it can be utilised at any time to act as a back up. We use the analogy of a dial or a tap to illustrate it. If you have signed up to our Payroll Cover retainer you can decide that because someone on your team has a wedding or a family commitment that clashes with payroll you can activate your payroll cover for that specific payroll run and then go back to business as usual for the rest of the year. You can turn the dial or the tap as and when needed and you may choose not to use it at all but for a minimal annual fee you have that flexibility to decide.
We see this as almost more of a year round employee support or benefit as opposed to an emergency protection and below is a prime and real life example of where it would work.
Lisa (not her real name) is the Head of Finance in a large real estate company in Dublin and she manages the payroll for the team as well as all other financial responsibilities. She is busy all day everyday with the end of month peak for payroll and annual chaos around bonus time. Lisa is excellent at her job though and manages to keep on top of her work.
She recently got married and as a gift was given tickets to an event abroad. When this event came up she couldn’t not go but it did clash with payroll so she had to find a solution and her solution was that she would be in transit for 9 hours between taxis, flights and airport layovers so she would get the payroll done in that window.
If she had Payroll Cover in place she could have gotten CR Payroll to step in and manage that one payroll cycle for her so that she could enjoy her break and indulge in a glass of wine and some people watching at the airport.
Whether it is you that can’t take holidays when you want to or your team that are restricted, imagine the joy of being able to take holidays like the rest of the people in your organisation, knowing that the work is being done by payroll specialists in your absence. You aren’t letting anyone down, you are just enjoying the same flexibility that everyone takes for granted.
If this sounds like you, get in touch and we can talk you through the Payroll Cover offering. Get in touch with us.
