Today, we live in an era where technology is rewriting the rules of businesses across industry sectors. Harnessing the power of technology is more a strategic move rather than an option for most businesses. At the core of these changes lie a few essential aspects such as enhancing customer experiences to drive revenues and improving operational efficiencies to reduce costs. One other factor that has come to the fore in recent years is driving great employee experiences. A Gartner survey found that less than one-third of the workforce express complete contentment with their work experiences.

Why does this matter?

It has become exceedingly challenging to attract and retain talent. The Gartner survey also concludes that organisations that invest in shaping employee experiences have significantly higher chances of driving better performance and retention. A recent Harvard Business Review research found strong links between employee experience metrics and the financial performance of companies. These inputs are good enough for HR leaders to make a robust case to invest in modernising HR, especially in a core operation like payroll service. While many HR operations have been digitised, payroll has largely been immune to technology innovations due to the sensitivity involved. That also meant errors and inaccuracies, leading to inefficiencies, delays and bad employee experiences. However, with changes triggered during the pandemic, this has slowly changed due to many factors.

Key factors heralding changes in payroll services

Meeting employee expectations: Earlier employers had full autonomy on the payment modes and schedules. However, today, employees have a say and they expect flexibility not just in their work schedules, but also in their payments. The rise of the gig economy, recession fears and other economic uncertainties have only added to this. Flexi-pay, on-demand pay or earned wage access, which is described as on-demand/instant, have come into play as employees feel they have a right to access the wages they have already earned.

Ensuring compliances: Today, more enterprises have globally distributed workforces in diverse employment formats like flexi-staffing, part-time employment, fixed-hour working, gig-working, freelancer hiring, etc. The regulations for these vary across countries and sectors and also change constantly. That makes it tough to ensure compliance and lapses can prove costly with hefty penalties.

These factors emphasised the genuine need for adopting technology into payroll services to make it seamless and also drive employee experiences.

Technology to the rescue

Technology is reshaping modern payroll experiences, making them more flexible, intuitive, fast and accurate. Modern payroll services are powered by automation and that helps save time spent on repetitive tasks and eliminates human errors. Of course, it all adds to the employee experience and the resultant cascading benefits.

Let’s quickly glance at some of the specific technological impacts.

The cloud advantage

Like many other enterprise solutions, payroll has also moved to the cloud. These solutions can be easily accessed by a global workforce while offering flexibility and scalability. These features make cloud-based payroll outsourcing services attractive for business continuity plans (BCPs). Especially, those businesses that are looking at expanding must consider this option. Cloud-based payroll providers also keep adding new features and functionalities to ensure necessary compliance. Most of these have mobile apps for anytime, anywhere access, making it easy to submit timesheets and process approvals and payments on the go. Automated cloud backups are an add-on benefit. Cloud-based solutions also mean businesses need less resources and time for processing payroll.

Identifying fraudulent behaviours

Cloud technologies also bring in the added benefit of data analytics that can help streamline processes. Data analytics also help identify fraudulent behaviour patterns in employee timesheets such as excessive overtime or sick leaves. Customised, auto-generated reports provide key HR insights to bring about strategic changes to key aspects such as workforce planning, compensation planning, gender pay equality, other benefits, etc. Informed data-driven decisions taken at the right time will also enhance the employee experience.

The power of AI

From analysing historical data to predicting future patterns, AI can help businesses make sense of the vast payroll data available. It can compare pay stubs on multiple factors to flag anomalies and improve accuracy. AI chatbots can be used to respond to employee queries 24*7 to ensure faster responses to people across different time zones.

Enhanced security

Many businesses shy away from offering on-demand pay access to their employees because they feel it increases security risks. Indeed, it is important to protect sensitive information from ever-increasing cyber threats. And security of payroll data is sacrosanct. But it is just a question of evaluating and finding the right partner. Most credible payroll providers ensure security and adherence to requisite guidelines and data governance policies. Some of the main measures in place are encryptions, access control, multi-level checks, and software updates to match the constantly increasing vulnerabilities that hackers exploit.

(Srimathi has a professional experience of over 32 years. She was a founding member of a leading BPM company. Being a Bachelor of Electronics and Communication Engineering, she has worked extensively in the Technology Services domain. As the global head of Strategic Planning and Operations (SPO) and a Champion for DEI at the organisation, she is involved in driving various strategic initiatives. She ensures that the performance of delivery units is in line with their revenue targets, and has worked to align the Talent Engine to generate this top line for the company. She is avid at networking, extremely diligent, and a deeply sentient individual.)

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The power of technology in modern HR payroll services