The HR department is a busy place – this part of the business will be managing every aspect of the workplace environment. On top of this, HR will need to manage individual issues such as the payroll process. This can get stressful when the process is disorganised, adding more work to an already swamped team. Below, we explore how to streamline the payroll process.
Gather all the correct information
There’s nothing worse than having incorrect information. This can result in you going back over your work to make corrections. Or, you might find yourself in a position where you’re chasing up employees for up to date information. Instead, you can avoid this inefficiency by gathering all the correction information at the start of the payroll process. From there, you just need to update the system accurately whenever you’re onboarding a new member of staff. This can save you time and help avoid any painful back and forth.
Know your deadlines
Being organised and completing the payroll process before key deadlines is key to efficiency. Indeed, strong organisation skills are known to reduce stress and boost productivity. As such, it’s worth noting down all the crucial deadlines to meet: tax year, payday, payday deadline, bank holidays etc. By sticking to these deadlines you can avoid any last-minute stress and hassle.
Use a system
Leave paper behind and switch to a payroll software system. By automating a number of steps in the process such as electronic time tracking, direct deposit, and online pay stubs you’ll save yourself plenty of time and supply costs. By setting up an online system, the whole process will be easier to track too. You’ll be able to see who entered the data on each specific task. Plus, you can easily check on your progress each month. The days of wasting time searching for files in the office will be over.
Connect systems
Integrating your employee systems together can help the payroll process become even more efficient. If employees fill in a timesheet or their hours each week then you should incorporate this into your system. All you’ll have to do is verify that the submitted hours are accurate and then you can automatically let the system calculate weekly pay and accrued holiday pay from there. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you can connect other systems such as bonuses and reimbursements to your one payroll system.
Streamlining the payroll process can make life a lot easier for your HR department. Although it can seem daunting adjusting your process, once you’ve set up an online system, integrated timesheets and gathered all the correct information, you should reap the benefits immediately.