The Shift Towards Payroll Outsourcing

What’s behind the rising trend in Payroll Outsourcing

The global coronavirus pandemic has prompted many organisations worldwide to examine their processes and move towards a more flexible working model.  The outsourcing of the payroll function is not exempt from this shift, with payroll outsourcing providers like Paycheck Plus experiencing increased demand since the pandemic began.

This growth is not unexpected and follows a general shift towards outsourced payroll over the last decade.  In 2008 an annual report by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) found that just 10% of respondents partially outsourced their payroll processes, a figure which remained relatively constant until 2018 when it increased to 22%.  By 2019, this had grown to 35%, and with COVID-19 fuelling the shift to more flexible business processes, there is every expectation that this figure will continue to increase in 2020.

So why are organisations moving away from in-house payroll processing and towards an outsourced payroll provider.

Reduced Operating Costs

One of the key reasons that organisations are making the shift from an in-house to an outsourced payroll function is to reduce operating costs.  While minimising cost has always been a priority for businesses, with a COVID-19 global recession now looking inevitable, it has become more important than ever to streamline operations and cut costs in order to keep trading.

With ever-changing payroll legislation, the implementation of GDPR, auto-enrolment, minimum wage regulations, pay-on-demand, IR35 and most recently the introduction of COVID-19 related payroll activities such as furloughing and redundancy payments, the complexity of payroll processing increase significantly. As a result, the skills, training, systems, and knowledge base required to operate an in-house payroll function effectively can be very costly.

By appointing a payroll outsourcing company to run your payroll function, you are effectively receiving the benefits of employing a team of highly trained payroll experts, but without the related high salaries and ongoing training costs. Instead with an outsourced payroll service, organisations benefit from routine and predictable payroll cost and while receiving year-round support from payroll experts. Employers also do not need to consider the paid annual leave, employers’ national insurance or pension payments that an inhouse payroll service necessitates.

Increased Compliance

Payroll management is a fast-evolving speciality, with regular legislative changes bringing new and often complex tasks to perform.  In recent years, these changes have related predominantly to the electronic submission of data, and increasingly strict regulations regarding pension contributions, leave entitlement, time tracking, and labour classifications.  The next twelve months are likely to bring even more change, not least the introduction of the Off-Payroll Working Regulations (IR35) which are due to be extended to all of the private sector in April 2021.

These general legislative changes combined with the 2018 introduction of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), has significantly increased the opportunity for potentially costly compliance breaches.  With maximum penalties for data breach at £17.5million or 4% of global turnover (whichever is greater), the cost of non-compliance is significant.

This is especially true for businesses that employ an international workforce.  Payroll legislation differs from country to country depending on local regulations.  As such, it is these local rules that need to be applied to ensure compliance.  In the 2017 Global Payroll Complexity Index (GPCI), 65% of the UK payroll experts and professionals surveyed said that managing legislative, HR, and payroll updates presented their biggest challenge. Each country has its own economic conditions, currencies, culture, and statutes regarding payroll processing, making local knowledge essential to avoiding non-compliance fines. As a result, any multinational organisation which has centralised its in-house payroll service is likely to face an increased risk of compliance errors and financial penalty.

The advantage of an outsourced payroll service provider is that they are specialists in what they do and will have experts with local knowledge who can ensure that legislative, HR, and payroll processing updates are implemented correctly.  By appointing a specialist payroll company like Paycheck Plus to process your payroll, you are mitigating the risk of both compliance errors and any resulting financial penalties.

Data Security & Confidentiality

In terms of data security and confidentiality, payroll departments hold possibly the most sensitive information within a business, certainly from a data protection viewpoint. Not only do HR and payroll records contain personally-identifiable information which fall under the remit of GDPR, but should personal details fall into the wrong hands, internally and commercially sensitive data such as employee salaries, bonuses, and employment benefits could become widely known, leading to unhappy staff, a loss of competitive advantage, and potentially large financial penalties. This potential hazard has led to increased demand for executive payroll services.

When organisations conduct payroll processing in-house, the risk of a confidentiality breach is significant. Regardless of whether the in-house payroll processor is diligent and trustworthy, there are many opportunities for accidental data breaches. For example, an employee may see something on a computer screen whilst walking past, sensitive documents may need to be printed on a shared printer, or an IT technician may have access to servers, private or shared drives that hold sensitive payroll data.

At the current time, with many businesses considering salary freezes, pay cuts, reduced hours, or redundancies to keep trading through the coronavirus pandemic, the risk is higher than ever.  An employee who considers that they have been poorly treated may misuse the information gained in their role, or the access permissions granted to them, to create disharmony.  This is particularly true in the case of executive payroll data, where the confidentiality of payroll processing information is critical.

By outsourcing your payroll to a professional payroll service provider such as Paycheck Plus you eliminate these risks altogether, as well as ensuring GDPR compliance.

At Paycheck Plus we know how important it is to safeguard salary information, and in particular, those relating to senior management and key executives within a business. Our Executive Payroll Service allows the key financial and personal data of your executive team to be maintained privately and confidentially, separately from the rest of the company payroll. You control which personnel are processed through this payroll, and grant access internally only to those who require it.

Integration and the Streamlining of Operations with Improved Analytics

Timely and accurate payroll data is absolutely fundamental to the decision-making process, with organisations worldwide building their strategies for growth on the basis of the analytics provided.  To achieve this level of analysis, thorough payroll reporting is required.  Without this information, decisions may be taken blindly, leading to suboptimal outcomes.

Many inhouse payroll departments simply do not have the time, resource, or software available to produce detailed reports that an outsourced payroll service can provide. As a result, their analyses may be without sufficient detail, making meaningful observation difficult.

Outsourced payroll providers such as Paycheck Plus invest heavily in market-leading reporting software to ensure the production of detailed, accurate and insightful payroll analytics.  This allows management to make better, more informed decisions, which in turn can help to streamline and improve operations, as well as guide investment decisions.  In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, this ability to make evidence-based decisions to drive business growth may prove critical to ensuring an organisation’s survival and longevity.

Increased Flexibility for a More Fluid Workforce

While company contraction and growth are not unusual, the coronavirus pandemic has taken this to a new level, with many businesses making staff redundant, reducing employee levels, cutting working hours, and minimising the number of zero hour or flexible personnel.  Legislative changes relating to improved SSP provision and the introduction of the furlough scheme have also been widely implemented, leading to unprecedented challenges in inhouse payroll processing.

For those organisations using an outsourced payroll provider like Paycheck Plus, these rapid and unplanned changes were manageable, as there was no requirement to train payroll personel.  By using a payroll outsourcing company, your business immediately becomes more responsive to market opportunities, and unexpected changes. If your business, employee numbers and payroll requirements grow or become more complex, you can avoid the worry and expense of employing additional payroll staff or providing additional payroll training to keep pace with change.

While we all hope that the coronavirus pandemic is a once-in-a-generation event, there is little doubt that most countries are now moving towards a more fluid workforce model (accelerated by the changes enforced by COVID-19), making flexibility in payroll a necessity for future business growth and development.

Paycheck Plus, Secure International Payroll Outsourcing

Our Payroll Company provides comprehensive, ISO accredited payroll services to organisations of all sizes. Working from our Irish Payroll Bureau , our award-winning team of payroll experts can provide national and International payroll solutions as well as HR Services that are tailored to your requirements. We specialise in local and international payroll management providing payroll processing,  consultancy, auditing, and training to some of the world’s leading employers.

To ensure payroll accuracy or for more information on our outsourced payroll service simply request a callback now or call us on +353 (0) 1 905 9400.