Are you responding to countless payroll-related questions? Here’s how to recover 3 hours of your valuable ‘lost time’…

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Problem: are you responding to countless payroll-related enquiries?

Often, it seems as if all of our time is consumed by responding to staff and colleagues’ countless payroll-related questions.

This type of time-wasting is an easy trap to fall into. In fact, ‘lost time’ is the default result of ineffective workplace systems and processes.

Do you often wonder how you might be able to recover some of your ‘lost time’?

When providing payroll-related answers to enquiries made by staff and colleagues, the act of doing so is, more often than not, rather easily dealt with. The trade-off however, is that this act does require you to momentarily cease a task that you’re busy, in order to divert your attention for a while.

Sometimes you may have a quick answer for the person making the enquiry. More likely however, you may well find yourself spending a good few minutes preparing an answer for the person whom you’re attending to.

Therefore, in the final analysis the point being made is this: when several of these ‘interruptions’ take place quite frequently— throughout the course of an average workday—a considerable amount of time is lost.

[tweetthis remove_twitter_handles=”true” remove_hidden_hashtags=”true” remove_hidden_urls=”true”]Frequent ‘interruptions’ throughout the course of an average workday, WILL result in lost time![/tweetthis]

Solution: automated payroll self-help enquiry service for employees

A recent informal survey conducted by Paymaster Payroll revealed that there is an inordinate repetition of payroll-related questions being (repeatedly) asked of management and supervisors within organisations that do not have the benefit of an automated payroll self-help enquiry service.

Findings from the Paymaster Payroll survey revealed some interesting truths. You may be surprised to discover that the most frequently asked questions were:

Top 5 payroll-related ‘time wasting’ questions

  1. Employee: “Please may I get a copy of last month’s payslip, because I seem to have misplaced my original copy.”
  2. Colleague: “I urgently need the home address and mobile contact phone number of [Sally/Joe] who works in my department…”
  3. Colleague: “How much cumulative overtime did my department work for last month?”
  4. Colleague: “May I have a list of my employees’ salaries, their net pay and their official job titles.”
  5. Employee: “How much total leave (sick and annual) do I still have for the current leave cycle?”

On average, recoverable ‘lost time’ will add up to (about) 3 hours

Many organisations have made the switch to the use of an automated payroll self-help enquiry service. Consequently, after having made the switch, management and supervisors have recovered about 3 hours1 (per week) of lost time.

Does this come as a surprise to you? If so, it ought to be good news too, because it means that you may well end up recovering more of your own lost time too.

Accordingly, you are certain to find more available time for yourself too: more time to refine your productivity levels, more time to spend on planning and operational matters, and more time to do just just about anything you like.

What a pleasure!

Would you like to know more? You are invited to contact Ian, who will be happy to reply to additional questions that you might have.

1 This claim is based upon Paymaster’s set of estimated variables that we used during the calculation and testing process of the productivity survey.

Looking towards the distant horizon — the dedicated payroll department to possibly be ‘extinct’ within the next 5 years

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At the present moment you may well be thinking that the payroll department is the centre of the corporate universe.

Perhaps too, you are certain that organisations that rely on human capital, rightly consider their payroll department to be its primary axis.

These days most organisations simply cannot function without their dedicated payroll administrators sitting behind their personal computers, balancing countless figures whilst also faithfully keeping all the organisation’s human resource records in perfect order.

Stop. Reality Check!

Stop. The reality check is this: whilst the preceding introductory consideration may well be an accurate assessment of the current status quo in most organisations, the time has arrived for the (sensible) strategic thinking human capital professional to look towards the distant horizon, in order to consider the strong likelihood that the dedicated payroll department (as we know it), may well be ‘extinct’ within the next 5 years.

With that distant horizon fast-approaching, let us consider what the future of the payroll department might involve by highlighting 5 specialised services that it (in all likelihood) may need to offer the organisation in the not too distant future.

Provisioning of an all-inclusive Human Capital Management (HCM) solution

Market-leading HCM-solution software offers the fullest, most inclusive spectrum of operational functionality. Suppliers of preferred HCM software solutions are increasingly beginning to ensure that they cater for the broadest range of HCM functions that a successful and profitable organisation requires: from workforce acquisition, to workforce management, to workforce optimisation.

For example, software functionality is likely to include the facilitation of cutting-edge recruitment best-practices, inventive application of face-to-face and online training tools, optimal leveraging of automated skills-evaluation tools, the implementation of progressive performance evaluation controls, the rolling out of comprehensive digital document cloud-storage, and options to make constant software-adaptations to payroll management processes.

[tweetthis remove_twitter_handles=”true” remove_hidden_hashtags=”true” remove_hidden_urls=”true”]Seemingly, we are fast-beginning to see the end of purposed payroll-only software solutions. [/tweetthis]

Consequently, we are seemingly fast-beginning to see the end of purposed (i.e. isolated) payroll-only software solutions. On the rapidly approaching distant horizon, we are already beginning to see suppliers of ‘all-rounder’ HCM solutions claiming the traditional purposed/isolated payroll solution space.

Facilitating technical compliance with the utmost of ease

Nowadays, easily implementable software-development tweaks easily caters for additional HCM parameters to be built into software products. For example, consider your organisation’s ever-increasing need to speedily respond to ever-changing tax-table formulae. In a case such as this, the discerning human capital professional needs to procure a HCM solution that offers the fullest scope for manifold legislative requirements to be amended and managed with the greatest of ease (without experiencing any upgrade downtime either).

Empowering line-management

Progressive HCM executives (inclusive of their functional management teams) ought to be excellent all-rounders. The HCM function make a truly relevant contribution towards the realisation of line-management’s operational contribution to the organisation. After all, this is what the organisation’s executive management team expects — nothing less.

For example, innovative HCM-solution software allows line-management to authorise all payroll-related documentation. Consequently, in most cases, not only does the line-manager take usual accountability for production processes and outputs, but he/she now also takes a (shared) accountability for the employees working in his/her department.

At Paymaster Payroll, some of our clients (whom we provide our HCM-solution to) are beginning to (confidently) allow their line-mangers to process the full payroll-run for their respective department/s. For example, line-management is empowered with the management of additional cost-incurring overtime hours and takes responsibility for making changes to employees’ basic salary settings. The Paymaster Payroll HCM-solution ingeniously encourages line-management to take empowering accountability for the safe-keeping of relevant documents and files — in an extremely safe, secure and risk-free environment, if the supplementary online cloud-server storage is used.

Additionally, further empowerment of line-management is made possible when, for example, a line manger personally manages the full interview process: from the reviewing of CV’s/resumés, right through to the online cloud-capture of the interviewers’ notes, comments and recommendations.

Thus, as demonstrated in the aforementioned examples, it’s clearly evident that there is no longer any need for the dedicated payroll department to manage these HCM processes. Further, from an auditing control/oversight perspective, at the very end of the ‘production line’, the financial manager simply ‘signs off’ (i.e. approves) the payroll-run. Thus we see that, in this case, a dedicated payroll department is indeed unnecessary.

 

Distributed accountability through employee self-service tools

It is becoming increasingly popular (and practical) for employees to be entrusted with the accountability of maintaining their own biographical data, submitting and administering (online) their own leave applications (which is also ‘online-authorised’ by their line-manager). Immediately thereafter, all leave records are automatically updated.

By employing this process of ‘distributed accountability’ employees are given access to self-service tools that smartly facilitates the submission of their own overtime claims, …the input of their own subsistence and travel-allowance claims, …and the facilitation of numerous other (ad-hoc) employee-specific claims — all processed via the integrated self-service functionality of progressive HCM-solution software.

Employee self-service tools may also be programmed to allow unrestricted access to an employee’s personal payslip and tax certificate archive — which is (most) conveniently stored on your organisation’s dedicated secure servers, or online in a secure (shared) cloud-server environment.

Easy access to data analysis and exception reporting tools

In the present business-era where real-time decision-making is becoming increasingly necessary and (perhaps even) desired, HCM-solution software must possess a reporting-ability to enable managers (at various levels within the organisation) to instantaneously gain access to meaningful reports that facilitate informed (and accurate) management decisions.

With progressive HCM-solution software, skilled and informed financial mangers no longer require reams of printed documents in order to get a glimpse of what’s happening in his or her department (or within the entire organisation for that matter). With a single login instance, a request for a report, accompanied with the shortest of waiting periods, will allow a comprehensive payroll-run for thousands of employees to be authorised (without worrying that multiple errors may result).

With exception reporting and approval processes, the era of individual-entry verification and interim payroll-run verification checks is fast coming to an end.

Responding to the challenge — prepare for change

Should the reader of this article be suitably convinced that we may well be seeing a future where the dedicated payroll department may well be ‘extinct’ within the next 5 years, here are a few suggestions on how you may respond to the challenge by suitably preparing for imminent change:

— Make a critical analysis of what kind of HCM-solution software that your organisation will need in order to adequately prepare for a future that has no dedicated payroll department.

— As a payroll professional, periodic personal introspection is crucial to your career growth and success within the HCM field of expertise. Constantly consider what new skills you may require in order to remain employable and, (more importantly) to remain relevant once employed.

— From an organisational perspective, adequate training (at various levels) coupled with progressive change-management practices, needs to take place on a regular basis. In this regard, be sure that you do your homework thoroughly.

— Always consider your relevance factor. By setting a time-constraint to your medium-term career planning, constantly assess how you are you going to reinvent yourself (particularly within the next 5 years), in order maintain the highest ‘relevance factor’ that you are capable of.

[tweetthis remove_twitter_handles=”true” remove_hidden_hashtags=”true” remove_hidden_urls=”true”]Strategic-thinking HCM professionals take proactive, decisive steps to transition to what the future promises to be.[/tweetthis]

Concluding thoughts

This article presumes the almost inevitable arrival of a future where the dedicated payroll department is fast on its way towards becoming ‘extinct’ within the next 5 years. As this distant future horizon fast-approaches, a prudent planning approach—to be taken by the discerning strategic thinking Human Capital Management (HCM) professional—will see him/her taking proactive and decisive steps towards transitioning to what the future (almost certainly) promises to be. Be sure to source HCM-solution software that not only keeps your HCM function relevant, but guarantees that you maintain (or improve upon) your HCM relevance factor too.

5 Hidden payroll and HR productivity killers

by with No Comment ProductivityUncategorised

According to Dr. John Sullivan, one of the most respected voices in Human Resources research, there are five levels of contribution that HR departments can make to a business. If you’re eyeing a spot in the boardroom, it’s critical to position your team in that top tier, where HR transcends an administrative, functional role and becomes what Sullivan calls a strategic “business unit”—using HR skills and tools to forward the company’s big picture objectives, like acquiring a larger market share.

 

Other leaders in the field agree with Dr. Sullivan, including Len Jillard, Chief People Officer at McDonald’s. “I firmly believe in being an HR business partner,” he says. “If you’re just going to be a transactional HR leader, you are not providing the full value you can to the business.” Here, “transactional” corresponds to the first and second tiers in Sullivan’s model—the time an HR professional spends on relatively routine tasks, like answering employee questions or explaining a benefits package.

Transactional HR isn’t a dirty word—it’s a necessary and important part of the role. But as Jillard says, you can’t “just” be that. An enterprising CHRO may no longer be content with tiers one and two.

When we say the HR role is changing, we really mean that it is expanding. Sure, it’s possible to climb ever higher, but you need solid footing at the top—which means that you can’t bypass levels one through four on your quest to reach the top tier of Sullivan’s contribution model.

Let’s recap: there’s nothing getting crossed off of your job description and science still hasn’t figured out a way to add an extra hour (or ten!) to the day. Clearly, your only option is to figure out where you can save time on tasks you do routinely. That’s easier said than done—and takes time in and of itself—so we’ve done the legwork for you. After consulting the most recent research, we’ve uncovered the top five payroll and HR productivity killers. Take a look to see if they’re plaguing your department—and then start climbing those tiers.

1. Employee management

HR professionals report that employee management—answering questions, mediating disputes, or handling discipline and recognition—takes around 71 percent of their time. If you follow Sullivan’s model, that means the vast majority of every working day is spent operating in and around tiers one and two, quite a long way from the top.

Investing time in your hiring process can pay off tenfold down the line, if you approach it with the right mindset. Instead of hiring based on competency alone, consider the other important question of cultural fit. You’ll find you spend far less time resolving disputes or meting out disciplinary measures.

2.  Recruiting

Of course, you can only hire the best if they apply to your organization. Modern methods have revolutionized recruitment—it’s far more common for a candidate to see a job posting on Facebook than in a newspaper, for example—and made it less time-consuming: how long does it take to craft a Tweet compared to a classified ad? Still, HR professionals report spending 42 percent of their time on recruiting alone.

If you want to expand your staff roster, look to the existing one. Ask employees to recommend potential candidates—referred hires have a higher retention and satisfaction rates. Bonus: it takes less time for referred candidates to be hired and onboarded.

3.  Manual or double data entry

No one values strong communication like the HR department—and not just for the reasons you’d expect. Human Resources makes use of cutting edge technology, but when all of that software doesn’t ‘talk’ to each other, users are forced to fall back on manual or double data entry—work that we here at Paysavvy consider a special kind of Hell. Even though HR has gone high tech, professionals still find themselves manually transferring data from a payroll journal entry to their accounting software, or moving updated employee information from their Human Capital Management system to their payroll module.

Fortunately, the answer is simple. When you’re shopping around for software, make sure to keep your options open. Look for flexible systems that offer numerous, varied integrations, and say so long to the painstaking, headache-inducing, mind-numbing work of manual data entry.

4.  Tracking hours, vacation time, and holiday requests

Tracking hours can be a fraught business. How often does it happen that an employee believes he or she  has worked longer than you’ve recorded? Likewise, holiday requests can make for one hectic HR department. Come summer and the end of year, you’re inevitably inundated with queries from employees wanting to check how much time they have available and see whether or not they can leave the office for an extended period.

The solution? Go high tech. Biometric clocks scan an employee’s fingerprint and register when he or she starts and leaves work. That information is directly relayed to cloud-based payroll servers, eliminating the need for manual data entry. In the same vein, some software allows employees to submit vacation requests digitally or check how many days off they have remaining—which means you’ll spend far less time answering routine questions.

5.  Staying compliant

Between overtime regulations and employment legisaltion—both of which seem to be ever changing—staying compliant with payroll legislation can seem like a full-time job. When the alternative is waiting on hold with a government department, Googling answers seems like a solid alternative—until the department of labour comes knocking and you realize that pRiNcEsS_PaYrOlL23 really shouldn’t have been the foremost authority in that forum.

Most HR and Payroll professionals make compliance a priority, but searching for answers and then verifying them is a time-intensive productivity killer. Look for software that comes with personalized 24/7 support—you won’t waste time on hold and you can be confident in the advice you receive.

In conclusion

These days, CEOs and CFOs are asking more of their HR departments. It’s possible to rise to the occasion, but only if existing work is expedited. After all, even superstar employees have a limited number of hours in the day. With this list of productivity killers, you can make the most of your daily eight and position yourself as a strategic business leader, worthy of a seat at the table.

August 14, 2015 | Chelsea Pratt – www.paysavvy.com

From apps to platforms: the evolution of software

by with No Comment Productivity

The consumerisation of IT and the rise of social media and mobile apps are changing employees’ expectations of the software that they must use to do their jobs every day. That means that payroll and HR software vendors and the enterprises that use their products must look to provide end-users with software as intuitive, attractive, and social as the personal tools people use daily on their smartphones.

One of the trends we’re seeing is that end-users want applications that resemble tools they use all the time in their personal lives, such as Facebook. People want to interact with their employers as simply as they do with consumer services and apps.

They want an interface that is as attractive and simple when they need to apply for leave, log their work hours or file an expense claim. Indeed, it could even be possible that something like Facebook could one day become the portal for companies’ interactions with their employees.

For now, however, most enterprises are still tied to time-consuming, often paper-based interactions with their employees. Instead, it should be as simple for an employee to, for example, let the line manager and the HR department know that he or she will be on sick leave as it is to update a Facebook status. We still are stuck in our old ways of doing things – HR and payroll processes are still not as easy as they should be.

Even though many enterprises have embraced mobility and the cloud to give employees access to company applications and data wherever they are, this has brought its own challenges. Most companies have seen the number of mobile apps they must support multiply at a frightening rate; from the end-user’s perspective, it also becomes annoying to have dozens of apps on his or her smartphone or tablet.

As a result, the software industry is seeing a gradual shift away from discrete applications to socially connected, cloud-based platforms that simplify life for IT administrators and business users alike. An average small business has up to eight software systems to run the company. It’s complex to support, creates training issues, and hinders employees’ productivity because they need to switch between so many different tools throughout the day. We’re hearing demands for mobile and social platforms that empower end-users to connect customer, accounting, payroll and finance data from one system, accessible from any device, anywhere.

In future, business software will no longer represent different systems or layers of complexity – it’ll be simple, collaborative, and real time,” says Meyer. “This will allow companies and employees to focus on their core business without worrying about the underlying technology.

by Philip Meyer

7 Steps to Incredible Personal Productivity

by with No Comment Productivity

Occasionally you need to go the extra mile. Sometimes you need to complete a major project, tackle a task you’ve put off, or just knock out a ton of work in one day.

Here’s the best way to turn a normal workday into an incredibly productive workday:

1. Let everyone know. Interruptions destroy focus and kill productivity. So are the guilt trips your family “sometimes unintentionally” lay on you. Let coworkers and family know you’re planning a “project day.” Tell key customers too. Announce you will be tied up on, say, Tuesday, and that you will respond to calls and emails on Thursday. Let people know who to contact in an emergency. Some will get with you before Tuesday, and the rest will make a mental note you’re not available. In either case, you’re covered.

Plus you get the “peer pressure” benefit: When you tell people you plan to finish a project you will be more likely to see the job through. Peer pressure can be positive motivation harness it.

2. Set a target. Don’t plan your project day based on fuzzy parameters like, “I will stay at it as long as possible,” or, “I won’t leave until I no longer feel productive.” Those approaches give you an easy out. Commit to working for as long as you estimate it will take. Pick a number.

There’s a cool benefit to this approach too: The longer the time frame you set the quicker the early hours seem to go by. When I worked in manufacturing we normally worked eight-hour shifts. The hours before lunch seemed endless; the last two hours of the day were even worse. During busy periods we worked twelve hour shifts and the mornings seemed to fly by something about knowing you will be working for a long time allows you to stop checking the clock. When you know you’re in for a long haul your mind automatically adapts. Try it, it works.

3. Start unusually early or unusually late. When you step outside your norm, your perspective of time shifts as well. Start at 5 a.m. or revisit your college days and start at 6 p.m. and work through the night. Set the stage for an unusually productive day by dramatically changing your normal routine.

4. Delay gratification. Say you like to listen to music while you work. Don’t, at least for the first couple of hours. That way, when your enthusiasm really starts to wane, turning on the music will perk you back up. Hold off on whatever things you use to brighten up your workday, at least for a while. Delayed gratification is always better gratification, and in this case can provide just the spark you need to keep going.

5. Refuel and recharge before you need to. When endurance athletes wait until they are thirsty to drink they’ve waited too long. The same premise applies at work. Have a snack a little earlier than normal. Start drinking water right immediately. If you normally sit, stand up before you start to feel stiff or cramped. If you normally stand, sit before your back stiffens or your legs ache. Be proactive so discomfort can’t dampen your motivation or weaken your resolve.

And make sure you plan meals wisely. Don’t take an hour for lunch. Plan food ahead of time that you can prepare and eat quickly. The goal is to refuel, re-hydrate, and keep on rolling. Remember, this is an unusual day treat it that way.

6. Don’t take rest breaks. Take productivity breaks. Newton’s Law of Productivity states that a productive person in motion tends to stay in motion. Maintaining momentum is everything. Don’t take a TV or Internet break. Take breaks that reinforce your sense of activity and accomplishment. Take a quick walk and think about what you’re tackling next. Then jump back in. Even a few minutes spent in the land of inactivity make it hard to regain momentum.

7. Don’t stop until it’s done. Stopping simply because you’re tired or bored is habit-forming. (Plus you’re always capable of doing more than you think.) If the only barrier to completion is effort or motivation, stay at it and bust through that barrier.

Think about your normal workday; at some point you typically think, “That’s it. That’s all I have in me today.” That limit was set long ago, but it’s an artificial limit based on habit. Pushing through the “pain” is a habit anyone can develop, and when you do, you automatically set your effort limit a little higher making you capable of even more on a regular basis.

Practical advice to turn an average workday into an incredibly productive day.