Improving payroll efficiencies

The rise of the gig economy welcomes a step towards flexibility with roles and a sense of autonomy on work hours.

Whilst its benefits reach far and wide for employees, employers, however, have to deal with any obstacles associated with remunerating contingent workers. With the Uber scandal opening a floodgate of claims about employee status, there is a degree of uncertainty about the future of zero-hours contracts.

However, companies should remember that no matter whether staff are self-employed or ‘workers’, arrangements should not be abused.

One thing we can be certain on is pay.

Sandra Walker, a Consultant from Frontier Software, explains how a smarter payroll system could benefit both HR and employees with more flexible work patterns: “When considering the rise of the gig economy and evolving work arrangements, the smart employer is looking for ways of delivering flexibility to employees whilst ensuring compliance with HMRC and payroll legislation.”

“Both the employer and employee should be willing to work together. Helping employees to understand that the key to being paid correctly is sometimes in their hands will help reduce post payslip queries.  There is no reason why payroll should chase and input every item of data relating to employees. For example, chasing expense forms is a time consuming task made more tiresome by the fact that some employees do not make the connection between their failure to submit information on time and not being paid correctly (or at all). 

“Introducing self-service and mobile access will give greater responsibility to employees in a variety of ways and ease the burden on the payroll team.  From submitting timesheets and expenses to requesting holidays, self service makes it easier to review and approve requests as they arrive and puts the onus on individuals to submit correct information. At the other end of the process, access to online payslips can be a quick win for employee engagement.”