One of the most significant messages of our Global Payroll Efficiency Index (PEI) report released this year was that, while technology is an important part of modern payroll, it isn’t absolutely everything. As the report states: “Even with the help of technology in modern payroll, the importance of people can’t be forgotten. From CloudPay experts to local payroll teams, people are the driving force behind making improvements, generating more value and reducing the risk of errors.”

All too often, technology is seen as the catch-all solution to every problem, especially with so many different options out there. Here, we’ll explore why balancing the best of human and technological endeavors is vital for the best possible results, especially in payroll.

Where technology does it best in payroll

Firstly, let’s establish the areas where technology really makes the biggest difference in payroll. From our experience, three areas stand out:

• Saving time and errors: robotics can pinpoint anomalies in payment patterns, and make once time-consuming payroll operations faster, easier and automated by validating payment issues at scale with minimal staff involvement. Standardization and automation can also reduce errors caused by manual data entry
  
  
• Maximizing value: technology can expand the volume of payrolls that a team with a fixed level of human resource can deal with, which generates cost reductions in hiring; this also frees up budget to further train existing staff and expand their potential. Integrations also ensure that organizations get the most from other tech investments like HR systems (HCMs)
  
  
• Tracking performance: technology is essential for detailed and accurate tracking of payroll data and KPIs, such as the detailed indicators we use as part of our annual PEI report. This complements human experts (in our case, our payroll consultants) who can leverage the KPI data to suggest and apply improvements in payroll processes
  
  

The common theme that unites all three of these tech game-changers is that they streamline processes and allow the payroll function to do more with less. This demonstrates that tech is best used to enhance human capabilities, rather than using humans to enhance the capabilities of the technology.

The pitfalls of technology over-dependence

If payroll technology is viewed as a silver bullet and relied on too heavily, it can ultimately do more harm than good for a range of reasons:

• Overworked staff: existing staff will find themselves with too much to do, and will be so overburdened with the current payroll cycle that they will be unable to think long-term and work towards value-adding improvements. This includes perfecting the technology to further improve payroll processes.
  
  
• Lack of expertise: when technology breaks or a sudden crisis emerges, it’s people who need to be on hand to solve the problem. That becomes harder and slower if the payroll team no longer has the bandwidth, or depth of skills and expertise it once had.
  
  
• Time pressure: the deadlines and timeframes around processing payroll are so strict that payroll teams can easily feel the burden of trying to get everything done with limited human resource – there’s nothing more important to payroll people than paying employees accurately and on time.
  
  

The impact of these pain points can’t be overstated. If they result in employees getting paid late or inaccurately, the employee experience can suffer, which can lead to talent retention issues. It also wastes the time of employees, HR, and payroll staff alike in resolving matters, while payroll costs increase due to the supplemental runs needed to resolve any issues.

The importance of pairing payroll expertise together with technology

The common perception of payroll as a purely operational function means it’s easy to overlook the fact that payroll professionals have years of experience, skills and training to offer an organization, and are often familiar with a wide range of technologies. They also have a good sense of what works and what doesn’t, and so can be an invaluable barometer of whether technology is driving the resource and cost efficiencies it’s supposed to achieve in certain areas.

So perfecting that balance between payroll teams and payroll technology can be transformative to payroll management in so many ways, such as:

1. Invaluable insights: technology can automate manual processes, but a human is still needed to validate and perfect everything. That’s why extensive payroll training is vital, so that payroll teams have the insights to utilize payroll solutions properly
   
   
2. Experience and understanding: only a well-rounded payroll expert has the know-how to spot gaps that their knowledge can perfect, and others where technology can further ensure timely and accurate payroll
   
   
3. Maintaining focus: payroll technology only delivers meaningful value when it’s understood, integrated and configured in the right ways. It’s the payroll team that has their ‘eyes on the prize’, and the knowledge and emotional investment in their work to make that happen
   
   
4. Ensuring the tech works: when technology goes down, disruption to payroll processes – and by extension the wider workforce – can spread like wildfire. It’s down to payroll staff to identify problems, help resolve them as quickly as possible (in conjunction with the IT team), and put temporary and/or permanent resolutions in place to keep payroll running smoothly
   
   
5. Enabling communication: bringing departments together to work more effectively, engaging employees to find ways to improve experiences, and communicating between stakeholders to resolve issues can’t be done by tech – it takes payroll experts to do that
   
   
   

In summary: where people and technology meet

The best payroll software is designed to get the best out of the payroll team, not to supersede or replace it. CloudPay’s approach to global payroll and our high-performance payroll people reflects this: our expert team helps people drive better process performance and identify where improvements can be made, therefore unlocking all the business advantages of automation and technology.

After all, the single, unified payroll system we deliver to organizations all over the world wouldn’t be what it is without the experts who create it, the consultants who help integrate it, and the payroll teams who use it every day.