by WARREN van WYK
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – ONGOING advances in digital technologies are seeing business leaders and decision-makers scramble to keep up with today’s era of accelerated change.
In order to stay competitive, organisations need to constantly pivot and adapt to new circumstances, meaning that planning ahead is easier said than done.
According to Warren van Wyk, director at PaySpace, a leader in HR and payroll software, the global COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on global payroll operations. As a result, payroll leaders around the world found themselves faced with a slew of critical questions which need to be answered, such as which trends are impacting payroll operations in future, which technologies are becoming key, and where is payroll headed in the future?
One great change brought on by the pandemic is a growing move to incorporate more intelligent automation, employee self-service (ESS), cloud-based solutions, and artificial intelligence into the payroll, he adds. “Concurrently, the pandemic saw workers’ expectations shift, with hybrid working becoming the norm, meaning employee experience is becoming more critical than ever.”
However, van Wyk says there is a real opportunity here to embrace these changes to positively impact payroll, as well as relationships with employees, by harnessing these technologies to strengthen the relationship between the organisation and its workforce.
This is where both ESS and the cloud feature heavily. “In essence, ESS is an application that enables staff members to access, as well as make changes to, their HR, payroll, and benefits information. Backed by the cloud, ESS gives employees full control over their personal work affairs. An employee isn’t just a visitor in their own seat. They must have the opportunity to control and monitor their work affairs, which gives them a sense of purpose and inclusion.”
In addition, when a tool such as PaySpace’s WhatsApp ESS is made available, workers can update their personal information, access their payslips, take a look at their leave balances, apply for leave, as well as access a wide range of useful tools and resources. It is also an excellent way to alleviate the burden of mundane, onerous routine administration and enable workers to access their personal HR data.”
And the benefits go beyond convenience to the employee, says van Wyk. “Other benefits include less paperwork, more accuracy and far less admin, all of which result in cost savings. These savings extend into multiple areas of the organisation. A massive chunk of any HR department’s time is taken up processing employee data and answering their questions. ESS lessens the time spent on administration, as it organises the workforces benefits, payroll, leave, and personal information into one central hub.”
Another excellent tool that is reshaping the payroll landscape and helping empower employees, is Power BI. “This is, in essence, a modern, prominent and flexible reporting toolset, which at a time where human resource and payroll departments are continually on the lookout for ways to improve efficiency and accuracy, and manage payroll more effectively, is extremely useful.”
With Power BI, PaySpace is able to consolidate information extracted from staff management, performance, remuneration and other platforms, enabling performance indicators to be monitored, and analysing the data to see the influence workers have on the company, he adds.
In addition, the dashboards allow employee data to be visualised and analysed, including productivity levels, supplementary work, benefits, leave, travel and other expenses, and much more. “In a nutshell, Power BI is a full end-to-end analytics and reporting solution, built on Microsoft Power BI. It helps organisations of every size, from multinationals, to their SME counterparts, uncover useful HR insights that enable more strategic decision making,” he explains.
Also, he says it enables HR professionals to make data-driven decisions that enable them to attract, manage, and retain top talent, which boosts their return on investment. Enabling business heads to make the right decisions to create better work environments and ensure employees are as productive as possible.
“In fact, Power BI can have a major impact on a company’s bottom-line when used effectively,” ends van Wyk.
“When an organisation enables its employees to access and update their own information, it not only saves a fortune in time and money, it benefits the workforce by giving them more accurate, transparent, and timeous information. Staff members don’t want to wait around for basic information requests to be answered, they want to be able to access this at a click of a button. With Power BI and WhatsApp ESS, everything related to their employment is right there, and can be accessed at any time, from anywhere.”
NB: Warren van Wyk is director at PaySpace, a leader in HR and payroll software.
– CAJ News