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Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2017
Continuous improvement:
Investing in payroll process overviews key
BY GLADYS MCCOY
WITHIN AN organization, pay-
roll plays a crucial role. Not
only must payroll professionals
pay employees correctly and on
time, they must also ensure that
their organization remains in
compliance both federally and
provincially, often including the
intricacies of union and organi-
zational policies.
The environment in which
businesses operate is rapidly
changing. Economic and demo-
graphic pressures, as well as oth-
er internal and external forces,
have organizations examining
how best to maintain their stra-
tegic focus.
One way payroll can contrib-
ute to broader organizational
goals is through a payroll process
overview. It provides an oppor-
tunity to ensure tools, technolo-
gy, and processes are as efficient
and effective as possible.
In a department like payroll,
this is important. Often, once
the fundamentals of paying em-
ployees correctly and on time
are in place, the payroll budget
includes little more than enough
for annual fees and licences.
As time passes, though, things
can change. For example, an
organization may implement a
new policy that allows employ-
ees to bank their overtime and
take it off later. As this was not
part of the original setup, payroll
team members may find it easier
to work around the system by
tracking the banked time manu-
ally or in Excel.
This can be time consuming.
Not only does payroll have to
collect and maintain the infor-
mation, it also has to reconcile
it and report it to the employees
and their managers. In addition,
having to re-key the data intro-
duces a higher risk of errors. An-
nually reviewing payroll work-
flows provides an opportunity to
identify and correct inefficien-
cies like this.
A payroll process overview
maps out current processes,
both electronic and manual, as
well as internal and external, to
identify workflow streams and
create detailed process maps.
This will help payroll depart-
ments determine if they need to
redesign any of their processes.
Team members can start by
documenting and mapping in
detail the current processes and
flows internally within the team
and then expand the review to
include external touch points
within the organization and to
technology partners.
Tracking the information flow
from "point to point and person
to person" provides multiple op-
portunities for process improve-
ments, as author Dave Foxall
points out in an article on payroll
process reviews on PayrollLab.
com. It can pinpoint bottlenecks,
duplication, redundancy, and
even payroll processes prone to
error.
When conducting a payroll
process overview, it is important
to take the time to understand
workflow streams. Ask where
and how the flow of informa-
tion from point to point can be
simplified, automated or if it is
even required anymore. Just be-
cause a process has always been
done a certain way is not a good
News CPR
|
May 2017
see EVERY page 8
