HR Consultants have unsurprisingly mastered the art of multitasking while kicking butt on everything from employee relations management, HR operations to even more specialized areas like payroll management. And to answer the question you are thinking about this very moment, yes, HR people are superheroes. However, when processes are not streamlined, more time is spent asking questions rather than finding practical solutions.
Have you ever wondered how HR functions got simplified even amid the chaos? The word is ‘automation.’ Automating your HR processes using technology will save time, ensure accuracy, and create space and time for HR to handle more complex functions. This saves some of the outsourcing costs as you can be sure only hard-to-tackle tasks are being outsourced.
Softwares have been developed to complete activities like payroll processing which have been true lifesavers. This not only ensures access to data on a secure platform anytime and anywhere, but it also makes you less reliant on traditional methods like Microsoft Excel, which is error-prone.
Streamlining Payroll Management Tasks
A badly implemented payroll process is like a poorly made sandwich. Once you’ve had it, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth and leaves you suspicious of future bites to come. This is the same for payroll management.
Payroll is one of the essential foundations in HR and organizational operations as it involves funds going in and out of the organization. An error here can lead to more paperwork and potentially difficult conversations with employees or vendors that you would rather avoid. To the delight of both employees and organizations, technology has efficiently advanced, providing businesses the benefits of lower cost and resource optimization while employees enjoy uninterrupted and efficient services.
Payroll stands as one of the most procedure-bound and legally demanding HR functions. Simplifying and breaking down the whole process will only bring advantages. Ways to streamline the process include:
Automating Workflow And Employee Involvement
As stated earlier, manual data isn’t the way to go as this method is time-consuming and susceptible to errors. A flowchart can help to re-evaluate your workflows while checking for unnecessary repetition. The merging of employee schedules and digital timesheets is another excellent way to reduce errors as this automatically pulls relevant data. Employee involvement can also be automated by including onboarding, employee hours, and employee scheduling in the process.
Going Paperless
Paper checks are becoming a thing of the past as they are prone to fraud and bad for the environment. Direct deposits are a better option as they ensure accuracy and protect sensitive data while reducing costs by running fewer payroll runs. For those employees who may be “unbankable”, pay cards are a safe and efficient way for employees to receive their payroll funds.
Having A Solid Control System
Errors are inevitable. Through the incorporation of checklists, it can help to prevent and reduce errors. The checklist should include the audit of payroll, compliance, checks, and balances. This would help in breaking down the process while catching mistakes in good time.
Integrating Time Tracking With Payroll
Integrating your time tracking and payroll into one system increases payroll accuracy as it will genuinely reflect time worked. This reduction in errors will save money and the headaches that come with inaccurate payroll information.
Streamlining payroll is just the beginning of finding efficiency and ease of use within the HR functions. Other ways you can streamline can be through:
Investing In Self-Service Portals
Prioritize getting an easygoing HR software that organizes and assists employees better by keeping relevant data and documents easy to find and access. This small but mighty change will eliminate those ongoing, never-ending back-and-forth email chains that everyone loves so much (just kidding!)
Cloud-Based Systems
Still harnessing the many benefits of technology, cloud computing is the way of the future and here to stay for all the right reasons. Not only does it require less storage space, but it is also easy to maintain and is accessible anywhere there’s an internet connection. That means asking for your vacation request while already on the beach sipping your favorite beverage (Oh yeah!)
Instant Connectivity And Interdepartmental Communication
Think instant messaging is not for corporate organizations? Think again. Softwares now have the instant messaging feature, which eases better communication between employees and teams. That means instead of sending an email and getting a reply the next day, you can send a chat message and get a response almost instantly.
Centralizing The HR Function
It becomes problematic when the HR department is scattered, especially if it has a global footprint. Not only will the repetition of tasks be eliminated, but when HR is centralized, it will prevent discrepancies in policies and procedures. HR can spend more time on more pressing and critical tasks that add strategic value to the company through smoother operations.
If the HR team of specialists does not work efficiently, this negatively affects all other organization departments. For this reason, streamlining HR processes, especially crucial areas like payroll, is essential. Streamlining will enable the organization to direct efforts properly while making cost-effective changes to drive the business forward.