The COVID-19 pandemic has made a huge impact on businesses. And, especially the small ones. It has made many business trends accelerate, which were running at a steady pace before the pandemic started. This has made business owners embrace certain transformations in their internal functions in order to cut costs and work efficiently amidst this global pandemic.
Impact on The Payroll Process of Businesses
This global scenario has cast light on the efficiency of payroll processing companies and made it clear that they can be of massive help to businesses that are facing a tough time managing their payroll processing services.
Here are some key findings that bring payroll processing issues to light:
1. More Robust Business Continuity Planning Is the Need of the Moment
Today, standing amidst this epidemic of COVID-19, many businesses have realized that they to put some more emphasis on their business continuity planning.
This is because they had overlooked the pressure that their payroll processing teams go through. And, now working in these changed circumstances this pressure has increased almost by 10 times. Their internal payroll processing teams have surrendered as it has become almost impossible to handle this pressure. Thus, these companies now have to look for different alternatives to take care of their payroll.
Of course, there are a lot many other things that fall under business continuity planning that have also faced such tough times but, the primary one is undoubted, payroll. This is because no organization can run without having to pay their employees.
2. Time to Shift to Payroll Automation
The first and foremost thing that businesses need to realize in order to run smoothly amidst this extreme pandemic is nothing, they now need to reduce their dependency on human work.
Although there are businesses that had already embraced automation in order to meet their complex payroll requirements, now it is the need of the minute. This pandemic has definitely increased the rate of acceptance of payroll automation.
Today the biggest challenge is meeting diverse payroll requirements with limited team sizes. Maximum organizations now have payroll processing teams of less than 10 people or even smaller. There are such organizations also which have just a single employee working day and night in order to handle the payroll process all by himself.
There are employees who have a misconception that payroll automation would take their jobs away, but the truth is that payroll processing automation will support payroll-handling employees like none other.
3. Outsourcing Payroll Processing Services
There are only a few organizations that have taken the pressure of payroll processing seriously and have decided to outsource their payroll job. But, standing amidst this COVID-19 pandemic, it has become a mandatory thing that companies now need to outsource their payroll in order to meet their requirements on time. And, this can be the solution both short term and long term.
In the short-term, organizations that are facing a tough time handling their payroll process can get some additional support by hiring payroll management companies to take up the responsibility. These payroll processing companies are highly specialized in their job and have the capability to lay out the best payroll processing services, meeting complex payroll requirements on short notice.
On the other hand, on a long-term basis, businesses can really save a lot of money by hiring these payroll management companies and be at their peace of mind without having to worry about payroll processing at all.
4. Businesses Embrace Remote Working Culture
With the second phase of lockdown starting throughout countries worldwide, businesses have now realized that remote working has become the new norm.
Remote work culture should be taken very seriously and especially for those companies which rely on their on-premises IT infrastructure.
Compliance is now not just to avoid unwanted penalties, but to ensure employee well-being as well. In simpler words, compliance is necessary in order to make sure that employees get their wages under the right circumstances.
Final Thoughts
This situational crisis has also cast light on several important measures. These measures encourage making changes to sick pay and introducing furlough schemes for employees. Such changes are more to come, and businesses need to make sure that they will be able to embrace these changes without hampering their regular operations. Most importantly, businesses now need to depend on payroll processing companies for complete payroll processing as that would bring down the burden of payroll from their shoulders entirely.
