Canadian Payroll Reporter - sample

8 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 News April 2018 | CPR Implementation a challenge, could take full year "Understand your technology requirements, mobile, data ana- lytics, and reporting." Parallel runs, data conversion A duplicate run is important "to confirm that everything is work- ing properly," according to Lyle Scammell, president of Canpay Software in Winnipeg. "We al- ways run a parallel run, but usu- ally never two parallel runs be- cause it is too hard on the payroll person." "The parallel just confirms that we are on the right track and everything is working at it should be; any differences are because they weren't being done right on the other system." For bigger jobs, the parallel run may last longer, according to MacLellan. "You still have to run the existing payroll, so you are often managing parallel pay- roll processes and systems for a number of months." Typically, a small payroll implementation (about 25 em- ployees) can takes two days to complete, while a large, multi- national, complex process can take nine months, and depend- ing on the risk profile of the cli- ents, it may take 12 months, said Elliott. Employers shouldn't hesitate to do things in small phases, said MacLellan, "so that, at the end of every phase, you can do anoth- er environmental check to see where you are and what needs to change for the next phase." Making sure the data gets rep- licated correctly from the old system to the new one is prob- ably the most critical element, said Elliott. "It's all about getting data in- tegrity; it's really about convert- ing your data onto the new sys- tem, so you really want to pay attention to all the details around managing your data accuracy." Companies should not rush data conversion, according to Grewal. "Take the time to analyze and cleanse the data before convert- ing it over into your new system. This exacerbates an existing problem and makes more work in the long-run." Adequate resources Employers should also ensure they have enough resources to handle the project, said Elliott. "When you have a team, you know they have day jobs, so you have to really take into account who is going to do the work from an internal perspective, and ac- tually establish what you are go- ing to do with your third-party vendor." "You've got to get the prop- er stakeholders and get them aligned from a time perspec- tive," he said. "You better get way ahead of the curve and get them engaged and involved in the project early on — you don't want to surprise anybody." Building the right set of work- ers is another important consid- eration, said Grewal. "By having all the stakehold- ers (HR, finance, IT, the vendor) at the table together, each group will identify different needs, challenges, considerations and solutions to ensure a smoother execution," he said. "This is espe- cially helpful from a compliance perspective to ensure you know the correct rules and regulations and tax implications at both the federal and provincial level." Change management As with many big projects, time- ly messaging helps move things smoothly along. "Communicate, commu- nicate, communicate with all stakeholders throughout, but you also need to listen," said Ma- cLellan. "You need to make this a two-way street; if the stake- holders are saying to you they are struggling, or they don't un- derstand or they have some con- cerns, stop and listen because you may have an opportunity to be flexible and make some tacti- cal adjustments to the project plan, and then retest to make sure the organization is ready." If you are changing people's pay, whether it's how they get paid, a stub, anytime you collect time, there's a critical element of change management, said Elliott. Many companies invest the time and resources to imple- ment a great new payroll system, said Grewal, "with all the bells and whistles in the back-end to deliver a great employee expe- rience, but they fail to invest in a change management plan to communicate it. Put equal in- vestment on the change side as you do the payroll side to make sure employees understand the value and are excited." Role of human resources With HR becoming more in- tegrated with most modern payroll systems through HCM (human capital management) systems, it's easier to become in- volved, said MacLellan. "HR is the advocate; HR should be there in terms of al- ways communicating the prog- ress of the implementation proj- ect, reminding the staff about some of the benefits to the busi- ness and help with the celebra- tion," she said. A company's reputation is on the line, said MacLellan, so get- ting it right matters with em- ployee retention. "People's paycheques are very personal to them. You don't want to see employees leaving the or- ganization because they can't trust what comes into their pay- roll." Satisfied employees are key, said Elliott. "As an employer, you have a fiduciary obligation to pay your people properly. It's a legal obli- gation but it's a moral obligation as well." And when payroll doesn't work, that's when employees get worried, said Scammell. "It causes grief all over the place… staff will be talking about 'Maybe we are going into receiv- ership' and that type of thing," he said. "Payroll has to be very accu- rate and on time; everything else in the accounting world can be slow. If your GL (general ledger) is a day late, who cares, but if you payroll is a day late, you will hear from the president for sure." from PHOENIX on page 3 Credit: Chris Wattie (Reuters) Public servants take part in a protest calling on the federal government to fix its Phoenix payroll system outside Langevin Block in Ottawa, on Oct. 31, 2016.

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