6 Ways Global Payroll Can Meet the Challenges of the Great Resignation

Over the past few weeks, we have heard a lot about the Great Resignation, the mass exodus of talent as the global workforce seek to reprioritize or want new experiences in our ever-changing world. For example, many employees now want the ability to work remotely.

The consequences of these trends highlight that businesses everywhere are scrambling to deal with the recruitment, hiring, and onboarding of record numbers of new employees. Combined with this is the continued war on talent, the high demand for specific skills, and a reopening of sorts furthering driving up the market for new talent. This makes it imperative that organizations offer employees an optimum new hire experience if they want to attract and keep them. This is where the right global payroll provider can help.

Download the Immedis Employee Experience e-Book here.

Payroll’s critical role in simplifying the onboarding process

As companies deal with global expansion and increasing number or remote employees, one department, in particular, has a pivotal role to play to ensure that new hires and top talent are happy and stay. We know that just two payroll errors are sufficient for an employee to start looking for another job. It is therefore vital that payroll teams are in the best position to accommodate dramatic increases in payroll numbers and that regardless of these changes, employees can trust that they will receive their correct pay and on time.

6 ways global payroll can improve the onboarding process

1. Eliminate manual data entry

One of the biggest drains on a payroll teams’ time is inputting data. Part of the hiring process involves collating the personal data of new employees to ensure that you can process payroll. However, most of this data already exists in your HCM. Global payroll providers that seamlessly integrate with HCMs facilitates the easy flow of data between departments. This means that payroll teams do not have to re-enter or manually upload this key information. It also indirectly reduces the likelihood of local payroll errors, further improving the chance of a positive employee experience.

2. Validate employee data

One of the biggest blockers to an error-free pay run is the issue of missing or incorrect data. This is why as a global payroll provider, we introduced Perpetual Validation, an industry-first innovation that is changing the international payroll landscape.

Perpetual Validation is a module that continuously checks and subsequently validates the quality and completeness of data contained within the Immedis Platform. As a result, users can quickly identify gaps in their global payroll data for multiple countries in real-time. This data driven approach means that payroll teams can identify issues that may negatively impact the payroll cycle’s completion. They can then work to solve them before the payroll is run.

3. Implement defined process

It’s key at this time to review your onboarding process to ensure that you have established an efficient system. Check to see that there are reports in place and a documented sign-off process for reviewing new hires in payroll, with the appropriate approval levels and audit trails.

This is also an excellent opportunity to remind you of your SOX and audit controls requirements. Have you documented processes and checks in place?

4. Automate to enable later cut off dates

Relying heavily on manual processing results in very early cut-off dates. It is not always possible to complete the paperwork under such tight time constraints when hiring. This can lead to either reruns, which are costly or pushing off hiring until the following month, which may negatively impact the business.

In How a Single Integrated Global Payroll Solution Cuts Payroll Times, my colleague David Harrison explains how introducing automation across a significant percentage of the payroll inputs, validating this data as it is entered pre-processing, and then automating the downstream aspect. This gives you the ability to implement later payroll cut off dates. It also gives HR more time to process the necessary paperwork while also ensuring that your company can operate at the preferred headcount.

5. Promote employee self-service capabilities

In the current climate, people want to own their personal information. At the very minimum, employees should have access to their payslips via the HCM. However, if you can offer this facility through payroll, not only does it grant greater freedoms, but it also can improve payroll accuracy if you can allow employees to update and check for the accuracy of their data. And this point must not be underestimated. It is critical for employers that they can pay workers accurately and on-time.

6. Guarantee compliance

As payroll professionals know, every country has local labor laws and specific rules around employment and tax. It is essential that you can assure employees- both new and existing- that you are adhering to the local legislation regardless of where you are based. Failure to file new employee forms can impact their social security benefits. Failure to allocate tax credits can result in under or over-declaring tax. Plus, there is the issue of complying with holiday pay and leave entitlements. This is where global payroll solutions such as Immedis help businesses overcome these challenges.

You can view our full list of global payroll services here.