Your HR manager didn’t join the job to spend most of the time managing employees’ payroll. Company culture, policies, administrative, and other functions also demand the manager’s time. The salary generation process doesn’t just consume time, but it also consists of complexities; therefore, the errors cannot be evitated.
However, the payroll process is critical for any business, as it is directly related to employee satisfaction. Therefore, accuracy should be maintained. So, here are some solutions mentioned to overcome some common challenges faced by HR managers.
Payroll Challenges And Solutions
Integration Of Attendance And Performance Data
Nowadays, organizations tend to provide accurate salaries to their employees based on the time they dedicate to the work and their work quality. Therefore, they link the attendance records and performance KPIs with salaries. However, it again increases the complications of the payroll process.
No employee is consistent in managing the attendance; there are always some irregularities in the timings and work hours. It results in mistakes and inaccurate salaries, leading to employee dissatisfaction.
Similar to attendance, performance management is also hard to link with salaries. Performance is a qualitative measure that can hardly be converted into numbers. So, considering it in the salaries would be a tough job, and it can cause employee dissatisfaction also.
Solution
To effectively integrate attendance records and performance data with salaries, managers should define a clear structure and explain it to the employees. It should be included in the policies also. To get the data on employee absences for deductions, managers can leverage leave management system and ensure accuracy.
Time-Consuming And Complex Configurations
Probably the most complicated thing about the payroll process is defining its structure. The structure of your organization, way of operating, type of workforce, type of pay cycle, and its frequency affect the process. And all these things must be considered while determining the pay structure; therefore, it becomes complicated and time-consuming. Additionally, the volume of data and the variety of options and variations also contribute to how complex your payroll could be.
In addition, there has been a focus on an “employee-centric” work culture, so the salaries revolve around employee benefits and rewards along with the basic structure. Numerous organizations have shifted to this trend in recent times, leading to a significant increase in the number of adjustments and exceptions per pay cycle. In addition, it results in payroll executives providing more than half of their time to the salary generations.
We can all agree that running a business is challenging, and organizations full of complex departments with their own even more complex processes make it that much harder.
Solution
The best solution to overcome many complications of the pay structure configuration is to keep it as simple as possible. And if the volume of the data is too high, then providing effective training to the HR staff can help. In modern HR practices, managers use an automated payroll system to organize an efficient pay structure which leads to time savings.
Compliance Management
Intricate legislation makes the payroll process even more challenging for managers. Labor laws, state regulations, and statutory compliance are hard to understand, and the constant changes make things arduous.
Making compliance mistakes invites more difficulties for the business as it can result in massive penalties and legal issues. Some non-compliance cases end up in prison and cause huge damage to the company’s reputation.
Therefore, compliance management is not an option but a necessity for your company. However, it brings more complications to the payroll process.
Solution
The most useful solution to reduce the complexities of payroll compliance is to maintain accurate records. Employee personal details, pay stubs, benefits, and previous tax filings should be noted and verified. Hiring/consulting an expert to handle these compliance-related tasks would deliver valuable advantages.
Remote Work
With the sudden rise of remote work after the pandemic, numerous companies have adopted it permanently to execute their operations. It provides several benefits but also increases the worries of HR managers. With so many employees working from their homes, the conventional payroll administration process seems nearly impossible.
Hard copies of attendance registers and salaries wouldn’t be available, making the process even more complicated. In addition, communication barriers prevent the executives from connecting with each other and discussing issues, increasing time consumption.
In addition, companies add more benefits for employees in their salary structures to operate effectively in remote work. Health insurance, internet allowances, and many other components take place in the process and increase the number of efforts invested.
Solution
Virtual communication spaces help payroll executives communicate with each other and discuss the barriers. Furthermore, HR should set alerts for salaries to generate them on time. Moreover, automation technology helps to manage remote team salaries effectively.
Scorecards help managers get efficient numbers of employees’ performances and achievements, so they can easily attach them to the process.
Data Security And Accuracy
Maintaining sensitive personnel data in clumsy spreadsheets is a significant security challenge. Any breach in the security of these data can do big harm to businesses; therefore, ensuring a secure place for the data is a huge challenge for managers. In addition, manual payroll processing increases the likelihood that such data handling errors and information leaks would occur, which could cause numerous problems.
Data inaccuracies can be a huge barrier for managers, and they cause organizations a massive amount of loss. Payroll fraud can be in various forms, such as false wages & commissions, enrolling ghost employees, and faking injuries to claim insurance.
Solution
Managers should ensure that the spreadsheets are placed in a secure place and only authorized persons can access them. Moreover, the attendance data, incentives, commissions, and other costs integrated with payroll should be verified effectively to prevent fraud.
Summary
As progressive companies are changing their HR policies and shifting their focus to employee well-being and satisfaction, they are emphasizing the employer brand. Therefore, they tend to deliver accurate paychecks on time and make efforts to retain employees. But the challenges remain the same for the payroll executives in the salary generations, and they must overcome all. The above mentioned are some solutions managers can use to reduce the complexities of the salary process.
Automated solutions can enable great solutions and efficiencies when it comes to tackling the challenges related to payroll management. But choosing right payroll software can only provide these benefits, so choose wisely according to your company’s needs.
