As the calendar years begins to draw to a close, attention turns to budgets – both setting and spending. In today’s blog Chris Kirby argues the case for investing in the payroll function to deliver real-time value to a business.

The current financial climate has created a lot of immediate uncertainty for businesses at a time when it started to feel like things were on the way back to normal. For Payroll functions this often leads to budget restrictions and a lack of appetite to fund change in the back-office.

The role of payroll leaders

There is a danger this will puncture the post-pandemic momentum behind the Payroll industry; businesses who had experienced the pitfalls of having a fragmented payroll landscape, no centralised data, and poor (or no) Time and Attendance solutions and were looking to address these may now be looking where they can save money and slipping back into the age-old status quo of “people are being paid so it’s not priority”.

Payroll leaders have a significant role to play in maintaining the status of payroll in their businesses, in selling the benefits of having market leading solutions or providers, a robust and governed centralised data source, or leading Time and Attendance solution for instance. More importantly it is important businesses realise how important the role payroll can and should play in being the conduit across all of this.

There is also a reality though that where payroll is not in this state there is an often-significant cost to transformation. The reaction to the impacts of not having a robust, efficient, or even complete payroll function during the pandemic has been to finally make these changes in many organisations who are now reaping the benefits of being prepared for most eventualities, but many haven’t and many may have been considering it before current global events again had such an impact on the financial climate. For these organisations there is a much cheaper alternative that sets you up for long-term success.

Seek the answer to the problem, not just a solution

At LACE we pride ourselves on focusing on what is right and that means being clear on the current before deciding the future. Some of the most common mistakes we encounter are where we are approached with a solution rather than a problem.

“Can you execute an RFP for us”

“We need to outsource because our payroll is so inefficient”

The underlying problem is often something that surprises our clients, of course the answer is sometimes to make these changes, however even where that is the case there is always internal optimisation that would support them in their future state. Often though the provider is not the problem, at least not the whole problem. A lack of clarity within internal operating models, roles and responsibilities, and ownership of data can be a significant part of the problem, maybe you have a payroll function structured in a way that doesn’t align to supporting the broader business effectively, or you just have internal ways of working that don’t utilise the full functionality of your payroll provider or service. These are all incredibly common challenges we identify and help to resolve.

The benefit of starting with how you operate today and performing a full end to end assessment across everything from capability to technology can be priceless when deciding where you are heading. It can and does often surprise businesses both in where current challenges lie and what the strategic options are.

Depending on scale and complexity a full end to end assessment can be done in anything from 4 to 6 weeks with dedicated support, but what you gain long-term can be the difference between success and doing it again in three years. Sometimes taking a step back can be the springboard to end up where you need to be when you do make the jump.

Looking for support to drive your business case for investment in your payroll function? We can help you build out the value that investing in your payroll team can bring. Fill in the form below and reach out to us today.