Payroll software plays a vital role in managing a workforce. Research suggests that as many as forty million individuals only in the US will work from home regularly. The number of workers who work remotely will only increase when we look at the world. With the majority of your employees working remotely, it’s essential that your payroll software is up-to-date.
Moving from your office, to work from home could appear simple, but there are many complexities that are overlooked. This could include the tools you use and the surroundings, the guidelines, rules, and the culture, or even how you interact with your team.
Many companies have adopted this as an aspect of their culture after COVID since these types of employees can cut down on the expense for office spaces and other infrastructure. Additionally, it’s more practical to have remote employees who can work from any location as long as they have a computer and an internet connection.
What are the issues?
Remote workers pose challenges for supervisors and payroll managers because they are difficult to monitor. If employees are not in the office or traveling, for example, it can be difficult for managers or supervisors to assess whether they are recording their time correctly. A few companies have tried technological solutions like remote time tracking or online payroll software to address the issues, but alternative strategies can be used in conjunction with these solutions to make sure that employees adjust to the culture swiftly and are comfortable with the use of technology. If you have employees who are remote and working in different time zones, managing their payrolls isn’t easy. Here are some helpful tips to handle payroll for remote employees.
These guidelines can help you manage payroll for remote employees more effectively. Develop a trusting connection between you and remote employees by maintaining frequent discussions regarding company goals and personal issues.
Automatization and scheduling
A global payroll system can be time-consuming and are susceptible to errors by human beings, creating unneeded risk to the data of payroll. Automation technology adds speed, precision, and control into workflow processes and also the concept of technology taking over the heavy lifting, and making sure that employees get compensated on time and with accuracy. When repetitive tasks are automated and payroll professionals are able to concentrate on other areas of their work and help them do their work better. This allows them to meet key global requirements for payroll frequently.
Digital calendars that keep important pay dates for each country can benefit central departments for monitoring and controlling international payroll deliverables. With remote workers scattered across several countries, and many compliance obligations to fulfil, digital calendars for compliance help to monitor important compliance-related states. Automation technology allows organizations to upload large amounts of pay calculations of thousands of employees within just a couple of minutes. More employees at the same company will result in more data that needs to be entered and analysed, and then managed every pay cycle. Automation can save companies time and energy and increase accuracy.
The return to the pre-pandemic workplace is not a distant possibility and companies are already planning for the gradual return of certain employees, with a strong focus on distributed work when it is feasible. The outbreak has served to emphasize the importance of business for global payroll. In this case, there is no way to fail. This is the perfect time to fasten the pace of any digital transformation project that replaces outdated technology and brings the global payroll process into a revolutionary cloud-based system.
Cross-train your payroll staff
If your employees are operating from multiple locations, the best thing to avoid is to depend on one person to finish the essential job. An easier strategy is to train your employees to manage essential payroll tasks independently. It would be best that all team members are proficient in the basics like collecting new hire data as well as understanding employee exit regulations and procedures, confirming tax deductions based on statutory compliance, creating required bank records, and knowing when to stop taking payroll inputs to ensure that payroll is completed in a timely manner. Training employees in cross-training allows employees to perform multiple tasks and switch gears in support of one another when needed.
Authorize the delegated authority multiple times
We emphasized how important it is to train all payroll employees to lessen the dependence. In addition, it is always good to have additional employees who have the appropriate levels of authority to ensure that approvals are given in a timely manner. Make sure that key stakeholders are available including fund approvers, payroll authorizers, accountants as well as statutory compliance teams, and many more at the time of making and approving payroll. If they’re not present, then ensure that someone who has the same authority is. Payroll and banking teams are in sync as well. The bank’s authorities must also be informed of the authority granted to certain employees on the payroll team so they can handle their requests.
Data standardization
Understanding the details associated with the global cost of payroll is difficult during normal times and the absence of transparency over the entire global payroll processes was an ongoing problem even prior to when the COVID-19 disease swept the globe. When stay-at-home orders spread across the globe and remote employment increased, businesses struggled to define the state of payroll processes from the perspective of a global standpoint. This can lead to many thorny issues, including making business decisions that are not from real-time data, and payroll departments not being in an ideal position to address complex reporting requirements due to the insufficient digital tools that they could use.
The standardization of global payroll can be an enormous benefit for multinational businesses and can help not only increase efficiency, but also provide better and more complete data for professionals in payroll which range from human resources managers up to C-suite executives such as chief financial officers and enabling them to perform their duties in a better, more knowledgeable, and reliable manner. This allows instant access and control over all aspects of global payroll operations from beginning to end and costs of labor which are in high demand when COVID-19 disruption is expected to continue into 2021.
The lack of standardization for data also creates a risk for businesses. With the abundance of data available in various formats, it’s not difficult to allow an employee’s pay or compliance deadline to get lost in the shuffle. Essential information — such as the actual cost of payroll, the way in which different countries compare to one another in terms of labour costs, etc. It is possible to hide this information in the global payroll data. Standardization of data technology is necessary to discover this data and then analyse it. Without the technology, global businesses might be operating in the dark, or not recognizing opportunities for expansion and growth.
Wrapping Out
Moving to remote payroll administration can appear daunting but it’s the trend of the day and the present technology allows it. With a little thought, it is possible to manage all of your payroll processing at home.
Related: Reasons Why Your Small Business Need Payroll Processing
