Embracing work flexibility 

Businesses are embracing flexibility through agile operating models, 24-hour service provision and various trends in flexible working arrangements to attract and retain key talent.

The CBI Employment Trends survey found that 99% of all businesses surveyed believe that a flexible workforce is vital or important to competitiveness and the prospects for business investment and job creation.

In a challenging recruitment market, there is increased expectation from employees to offer an exceptional customer experience, so employers are adopting an ‘employee as a consumer’ mindset where great products, resources and service are expected instantly to maintain engagement.

So why are a number of payroll teams continuing to work from an office base, offering services Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm?  To embrace work flexibility while still offering a great service, consider the three ’T’s:

Technology 

Embracing modern technology can enable payroll teams to go from transactional to transformational.  By designing technology that meets customers’ requirements, provides self-service functionality and pre-empts their needs, will reduce both the day to day enquiries and manual processing activities.  Employees who have access to their information at any time, from anywhere are empowered to update personal data, view online payslips, or find answers to basic questions.

For back-office processes, utilitise automation, standardisation, and controls to manage complex tax calculations, highlight risks, reduce manual errors or to simplify manual processes so that payroll teams can spend more time on qualitative activities and excellent employee experiences. 

Embracing technology provides payroll teams with an opportunity to add more strategic value through leveraging data and insights about the workforce, predictive payroll trends and enabling evidence-based decisions. 

Talent 

The current tight labour market conditions mean companies are struggling to recruit payroll professionals at all levels. Only five percent of businesses say that none of their payroll professionals have left the company since the pandemic, while 32 percent say they’ve lost between six and 10 percent of their payroll team**.  

The ‘always on’ nature and traditional working patterns in payroll teams may be deterring key talent with flexible working requirements from payroll roles, leaving the sector at risk of falling attrition. With different social generations in the workplace, high intensity work environment and competition for diverse talent, it is imperative that flexibility is at the heart of attracting new generations into the payroll sector. 

Simply offering flexibility in hours and ways of working could support not only the wellbeing of payroll professionals, but also encourage more people into this valuable sector, whilst offering the business a broader service which is more in keeping with a modern, agile business model. 

Trust

In this modern, digital world, employees can effectively work from anywhere.  Remote and hybrid work arrangements have proven to deliver increased employee productivity, reduced attrition and access to wider talent pools. Which raises the question whether trust is the reason why some teams are being asked to work in an office, rather than more flexible working models.  

Managers and leaders therefore need to be upskilled to effectively manage teams remotely, manage performance and build team morale without the need for regular presence in an office.  

Utilising data and insight from the increased digital functionality, alongside clear objectives; teams can work flexibly and autonomously in a outputs driven model.  In turn, payroll colleagues are trusted and empowered to work flexibly whilst still offering a great service to the employees and organisations.

So, in summary, payroll functions need to embrace flexibility within their own operations to ensure that we continue to champion flexibility, a focus on wellbeing and developing the technologies that will continue to see the function add business value and impact.