Fifty-four percent of workers have experienced a payroll problem, from a late payment to incorrect total earnings. In today’s tight labor market, doing payroll right is more important than ever to keeping up morale. Fortunately, national payroll software companies are always adding features to improve payroll accuracy, timeliness, and engagement. What are the trends in payroll solutions you might want to consider to optimize your processes?
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To help you understand the newest offerings you may want to consider, here we’ll discuss:
After reading this, you’ll be able to decide if it’s time to embrace one of these trends to improve your payroll – and employee satisfaction. For more guidance about understanding the scope of payroll services—and how they align with your organization’s needs, consider downloading our complete guide to payroll solutions.
If you’re thinking about updating your legacy payroll tools with modern approaches, here are five trends to consider.
Whether employees are on site or remote, faster, more convenient access to their wages is essential. While paperless methods like direct deposit and paycards have become increasingly common to meet employees’ needs, there are two emerging methods that are taking paperless pay to a new level.
Standalone payroll systems are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Instead, one of the biggest payroll solutions trends is the move to comprehensive HRIS workforce management systems that can be used throughout the entire employee life cycle. With this approach, you’ll have a single employee record that feeds payroll, HR, time and attendance, and benefits. For example, your time tracking and scheduling will synchronize with your payroll module automatically.
This single database of record makes managing your team simpler, accurate, and more efficient. Specifically, you’ll realize benefits like:
Plus, employees can log into a single portal for self-service tasks like updating their personal information, accessing their paystubs and W-2s, recording punch data, viewing and creating schedules, and requesting time off for increased engagement.
With high-profile individuals like politicians and professional athletes accepting their pay in Bitcoin, it’s not surprising that cryptocurrency is making a move to the mainstream – especially among young workers. In fact, 36% of millennials and 51 % of Gen Z say they’re willing to get half their salary in cryptocurrency.
Depending on your employee’s interest, you can either pay them wages in US dollars then convert the funds to the digital asset of their choice, or you could pay in the cryptocurrency itself. If you pay in cryptocurrency, just remember you need to withhold and report payroll taxes, which will require you to determine the fair market value.
In addition, depending on your state’s rules, you may need to have employees agree in writing to receive part or all of their wages in a form other than US dollars. Be sure to check local laws and, even if permissible, make any program optional and have employees consent in writing. Consent is also key because cryptocurrencies have been volatile, with steep drops in value in mere hours, and employees may have potential capital gains taxes so you’ll want them to acknowledge the risks.
With the rise of remote workers during – and beyond – the pandemic, employees are working from anywhere. But old systems may not be capable of meeting the needs of off-site staff effectively and efficiently. That’s where mobile and web-based access come in.
Depending on what software you choose or your payroll provider’s offerings, you may be able to allow employees to take several actions from their phone or computer, including:
In addition to the added convenience for employees, these capabilities also benefit owners and/or administrators by enabling them to review, edit, and run payroll from anywhere.
Companies are increasingly employing AI for everything from HR tasks to payroll. For example, some uses of AI in workforce management include:
The key is to find the issues your payroll team faces and which AI capabilities could provide solutions to eliminate human error, decrease the burden on your staff, and boost employee efficiency.
As the payroll industry continues to evolve, it’s important to keep pace. And knowing the latest features offered by different payroll solutions is the first step to helping you improve the payroll experience for you–– and especially your employees. That’s because employee retention is essential in today’s labor market, and just two payroll errors can cause 49% of employees to start job hunting. To recognize these and other dynamics of a candidate’s market, learn more about today's hiring environment.