Blog
The State of Payroll today - a report by Experian
17th January 2023
At a time of increasing costs, interest rates and inflation, an individual’s payday is ever more important. Getting paid accurately and on time is now not only a legal requirement for employers but crucial in meeting the financial commitments of employees.
Incorrect calculations, bad inputting or late payments can have a substantial impact on benefit payments, paying outstanding bills or paying down credit obligations.
It can also have an overwhelming effect on a person’s mental health and financial wellbeing, to say nothing of the negative effect it can have on a company’s brand reputation, or legal repercussions. It goes without saying that today more than ever, the payday experience is critical for the wellbeing of employees.
Committed to improving the financial wellbeing of consumers in the UK
PayDashboard is now a part of Experian, who are committed to improving the financial wellbeing of UK consumers. Amidst rising living costs and inflation, one of Experian’s aims is to support consumers by enabling easier access to fairer and more affordable finance.
To identify opportunities for employers and employees and to offer guidance on how to make the future of payroll look better for everyone, Experian recently conducted a piece of research into the future of payroll, investigating the challenges and successes of payroll today.
Financial wellbeing begins at payday
Payroll isn’t just about paying wages, it’s a chain of events that enables an employee to receive payment for their employment. So, we asked Payroll and HR professionals to give feedback on their experiences of managing payroll, what works well and where are the opportunities for improvement?
The results were quite surprising. 1 in 4 respondents said they were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with the efficiency of their current payroll system.
Of the unsatisfied respondent’s half (47%) said too much manual inputting, leading to multiple errors, was the primary reason for their dissatisfaction.
As a result, 69% of respondents said they get a payroll query from their employees at least once a month – 40% at least once a week- with the main reason (80%) being a question around pay or tax.
“It is very time consuming with a lot of manual entry, checking and re-checking. Mistakes are often made as a result”. – (survey respondent)
Download Experian’s State of Payroll report
Pay employees accurately, first time, on time, every time – and reap the rewards
Payroll is often an overlooked function, no-one ever contacts payroll when things go right, but they are quick to question and complain when things go wrong.
Unsurprisingly, despite it being a legal requirement, 97% of respondents said their top priority was paying employees on time.
Inaccuracy in pay leads to queries, which puts a strain on the resources of payroll teams. An employee making a query must take time out of their day to make the enquiry. Given the expectation from employees that organisations should ‘just get this right’, getting payroll wrong undermines employee confidence, creates avoidable stress, and can make employees feel undervalued.
Making the payday experience easier and simpler would not only reduce these queries but increase efficiency and empower the employee, to understand their data and feel in control of their finances. The answer? A payroll system that could automatically services this need without any interaction from Payroll or HR. This would not only free up staff resource but allow for data to be shared more securely.
Employees want a fully digital journey
From a separate piece of research undertaken this year by Experian in collaboration with YouGov, it was found that 88% of UK adults confirmed that online is their preferred channel for credit application and 65% would prefer to submit payslip data online rather than printed. In fact, 83% said a credit application exceeded their expectations when they could conduct the whole process online – with 70% saying the application process fell short of expectations because they couldn’t do it digitally.
What is the future of payroll?
Empowering employees to access, review and share their payslip data securely all from one place
In response to this problem, we have added our new Work Report service to PayDashboard’s range of capabilities with the mission to empower employees to understand and access their payroll data at any time, and with their consent – share that payslip data digitally with an organisation of their choice. Created in partnership with Salary Finance, Sage, Zellis and IRIS, it’s an innovative solution that can save payroll and HR functions hours of time and resource, and which could speed up the entire loan process.