Archaic payroll technology causing stress and burnout

32% of 259 UK-based payroll managers polled said they spend over seven days a month on the pay process. 77% said this caused them to feel stressed and burnt out and 78% said it prevented from performing more strategic tasks.

Organisations that employ 500-999 people, deemed medium sized, are most significantly impacted by their business’s outdated payroll processes. According to the survey 90% of these payroll managers are forced to manually input data into spreadsheets to pay their employees.

Despite 71% being aware that the challenges caused primarily by the inefficient payroll technology, 78% are holding back for fear of a lengthy process to change it.

As a result, 24% of UK businesses used external providers for their payroll which costs an average of £3.69 per employee per month, which for 2,000 employees works out at a hefty, nearly £90,000 a year.

Ted Eltringham, business growth lead, EMEA, Rippling, emphasised the critical function for every organisation of paying employees and that this research indicated the significant level of this administrative burden is placed on the teams responsible for it.

He added, “With HR and finance teams caught up with such laborious repeat tasks, they aren’t afforded the time or headspace to perform more strategically valuable work – limiting their own personal and organisational growth.

“Against today’s uncertain economic backdrop, it is critical businesses can get the best out of their people and aren’t held back by legacy technology. By deploying technology that connects applications, systems and databases – taking the onus of repeat administrative tasks away from people – HR teams are freed up to add more value within their organisations, making it easier to run a business.”