This year provides business owners with many opportunities to make changes and refresh their business strategy. Take advantage of the post-pandemic shift in 2022 and instill new payroll practices which can help save money and time and get employees adequately paid.
Like any industry, the payroll industry has trends that help companies continue what is essential – helping customers and clients and conducting business. New payroll technology is being used by businesses and companies of all sizes, helping streamline payroll processes and track necessary salaries, payroll taxes, and other financial matters.
On-Demand Pay
When facing a financial crunch or crisis, having access to on-demand pay allows employees to access monies owed for work completed before the scheduled pay date.
On-demand payment can help manage their cash flow, allowing them to pay bills and for unexpected expenditures. Overall, providing employees with on-demand pay helps ease stress and could increase work engagement and overall productivity.
Speedier Payroll Processing
With new payroll systems available, it is easier to calculate payroll, enabling small businesses and companies to process payroll faster. In addition, this payroll trend allows companies to pay employees on the same day or accommodate an on-demand pay module.
Payroll Accuracy and Fewer Errors
Payroll accuracy has been vital to businesses to ensure employees are happy and paid accurately and on time.
Using a payroll software program or hiring an experienced payroll accountant can help increase the accuracy of a company’s payroll system while reducing and potentially eliminating any errors which could delay or significantly decrease an employee’s pay. As a result, more and more companies are focusing on making their employees happy, starting with an accurate payroll system.
Payroll Transparency
New payroll trends will revolve around several levels of transparency, providing business owners with more insight into their outsourced payroll needs. Employers need more transparency and take accountability for the work completed by third-party providers.
For more transparency, the third-party providers must be willing to sit down with business owners and discuss all vital information about the actual costs of labor, employees, and all data surrounding pay equity.
Flexibility
Even if a business cannot financially compete with similar companies in paying employees, they can still hire fantastic talent, being competitive in the workforce market by offering flexible payroll options to employees.
Flexible payroll data can include offering better access to payroll information, access for early payouts, early payments against future earnings, and more. Additionally, access to payroll information through text messages, mobile devices, and other on-the-go technology allows employees to understand how much they can expect and when they can expect it.
Payroll Strategies
Small businesses are developing new payroll strategies to help them reduce risk, stay compliant, and create a strong business model. Finely tuned and laid out payroll strategies help businesses remain more organized in their payroll systems and help them know where the company is and where it will be going in terms of payroll.
HR Integration
With the many shifts in payroll trends and complete transparency with the third-party provider, there is now more transparency between the HR department and the payroll department. Additionally, to help reduce complexity and errors and optimize costs, companies are integrating the HR departments with finance departments.
This unified system helps streamline the payroll process when an employee is hired and helps prepare more accurate reports and forecasting models.
Outsourcing Payroll
More and more businesses are turning to third-party providers to conduct their payroll management. Outsourcing payroll services provide business owners and their team more time to run the business and helps them save money. Hiring an outside accountant professional also helps ensure fewer payroll errors and allows companies to stay on top of all tax law and regulation changes.
Alternative Payment Methods
With new banks, including online banking institutions and apps, there has been a recent change in how employees want and need to get paid.
Though about 95 percent of all businesses offer direct deposit for their employees, there are several other methods to send payroll. Additionally, the use of digital wallets is on the rise and forecasted to continue rising globally as a solution to speed up how fast the money gets into the employee’s hands.
Cloud-Based Solutions
Instead of storing boxes upon boxes of paperwork or needing an extensive computer system with lots of memory, more business owners are turning to cloud-based solutions for storing payroll data and employee records.
Employers who use payroll software programs have access to the programs/company’s digital storage space. Plus, most outsourcing payroll companies store documents in a cloud-based system.
As new payroll trends start being implemented by more and more businesses, what is new will eventually become the new normal. Business owners worldwide have utilized the above-listed trends to help improve their payroll process and increase employee satisfaction.
