Human resource management is one of the most crucial aspects of running a business and, in an increasingly competitive labor market, the right HR payroll software may be the edge your business needs to find and keep valuable employees.
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Unfortunately, most businesses are only now beginning to understand the importance of HR and payroll management in deciding the success of a business. Human resources departments have often found themselves on the backburner when it comes to pivotal decision making. HR payroll software is a great way to put human capital management at the heart of your business.

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Why Payroll HR Software? 

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Understandably, you may ask why you need an integrated HR payroll software solution when your business already has functional HR and payroll systems. Those software solutions may have served adequately in the past but will almost certainly leave your business struggling to keep up with more tech-savvy competitors.

In this piece, we will explore what HR payroll software is, how you can choose the best solution for your business, and ten reasons your business needs HR payroll software.

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10 Reasons your business needs HR Payroll software.

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What is HR payroll software?

HR payroll software is a solution that maximizes efficiency and minimizes costs by merging both HR and payroll activities into one centrally managed platform.

Prior to the advent of integrated HR payroll software, most businesses used separate applications to manage their payroll and HR. This created the unnecessary pain of having to manually transfer data from one system to the other to make required payroll and HR computations.

However, with the introduction of HR payroll software, the need to communicate changes across HR and payroll systems has been erased. 

What type of business needs HR payroll software?

When it comes to HR and payroll management, any business with more than one employee should acquire at least a basic payroll system to automate the employee payment process.

The need for HR payroll software is almost directly proportional to the increase in company size. If your business is taking on more employees, the amount of paperwork, data collection and storage your HR and finance teams will generate will quickly grow to unmanageable levels.

Purchasing HR payroll software ensures that the HR and payroll processes of small, mid-sized, and large businesses alike are not only made more efficient but also more cost-effective and less error-prone.

How should I choose an HR Payroll software solution?

Most of the HR payroll software solutions available on the market are mature and offer similar functions and features. Because of this, your choice of HR payroll software depends less on what features any one solution might have, and more on the specific needs of your business.

Below is a simple framework you can follow to help you decide which HR payroll software solution is the best fit for your organization:
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• Create a strategy for assessing organizational needs. The ideal HR payroll software should be suited to more than just the needs of the HR and finance departments. Develop a comprehensive strategy for assessing which HR payroll software features would be considered absolutely necessary versus those which would be just wants.
• Identify potential service providers. This should be done with the help of rigorous research, from market reports to suggestions from other companies to ensure you are picking a high-performing reliable service provider.
• Assess the cost implications the HR payroll software would have for your business. Is a free trial available? Is the price per employee subject to changes in company size? Does the service provider charge on a pay-per-use basis or per user?
• Set up an evaluation committee. By this point, you should have settled on the final five or so contenders. The evaluation committee will be tasked with comparing the features of each HR payroll software solution with the company’s needs in order to select the best option. They will also provide a comprehensive request for proposal (RFP) seeking bids from the HR payroll service providers.
• View demos and select the final option. After receiving the RFP responses from the service providers, the committee will invite them onsite to make demos of their respective products. This will then guide the committee’s final decision on which HR payroll software solution to go with.

Why does my business need HR payroll software?

The most obvious benefit that makes HR payroll software so attractive to businesses is its elimination of the need for separate HR and payroll systems. This comes with great cost and time benefits that are sure to improve company functioning and profits.

However, the benefits of having HR payroll software go far beyond a simple amalgamation of two crucial human capital management processes. Here are ten reasons your business needs HR payroll software.

1 - Increased Payroll and HR efficiency.

HR payroll software allows you to automate the tedious repetitive tasks that do not need regular human intervention while also automatically delegating those that do to team members. The system can send automated emails to managers reminding them to approve employee time-off requests, streamlining communication. 

With less paperwork and fewer administrative tasks to attend to, more time is freed up for your HR and finance teams to focus on other tasks and add value to the business. 

Additionally, you will be reducing the incidence of errors because software programs are typically less error-prone than people. Errors can easily be traced to the source and rectified with a few clicks, in the unlikely event that they occur.

2 - Seamless consolidated reporting.

Payroll reporting can be a time-consuming and difficult process. In the traditional setting of separate HR and payroll systems, employee data required for making consolidated reports originates from different sources in different formats, with different fields and definitions.
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The manual process of extracting the necessary information from the respective systems is extremely tedious and prone to errors.
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With an integrated HR and payroll system, HR and payroll data come together easily on a central platform. Payroll management employees do not have to calculate taxes and deductions manually, since the system does it automatically. Changes to employee data in either field are automatically updated in both places. The end result is more accurate comprehensive payroll reports that are not time-consuming to compile.

3 -Highly customizable software.

The market is saturated with a breadth of HR payroll software options. Many of them are available as off the shelf, one-size-fits-all packages that provide basic HR and payroll functions. Although these options may appear cheaper and quicker to implement, they may not be the best fit for your organization’s unique needs.
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Luckily, there are plenty of HR payroll software solutions that are highly flexible, allowing you to mold them to suit the exact needs of your business. Be it weekly or monthly payroll, remuneration structures for different employee roles, scheduling, or time tracking, you can customize your HR payroll software to adapt to your unique organizational needs.
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The right HR payroll software will allow you to customize earnings, reimbursements, benefits, bonuses, deductions, and allowances according to your business’s policy.

4 -Enhanced employee experience.

According to research by Qualtrix, only 53% of employees globally report feeling engaged at work, and yet businesses where employees are more highly engaged have almost three times more revenues. This means that, for a business leader with their company’s best interests at heart, the employee experience cannot be ignored.
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HR payroll software plays a crucial role in improving the employee experience. The right solution will provide customizable onboarding programs to help new hires integrate more easily in the company while also optimizing career development opportunities for existing employees by tracking their performance and engagement with intuitive tools.
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In addition, because HR payroll software eliminates human errors and provides smooth and streamlined HR and payroll processes, employee morale is directly impacted positively.

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5 -Improved compliance.

Compliance breaches are a major concern for most businesses. They come with hefty fines and negative public relations that can be damaging to your company’s reputation. Therefore, it is imperative that your finance and HR departments remain up to date with current laws and regulations and ensure all necessary documentation is in order.
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HR payroll software helps ameliorate compliance risks like tax penalties and employee rights violation by automating HR and payroll processes and sending notifications and alerts to remind managers about necessary documentation. With built-in metrics that highlight emerging issues, you can quickly correct them before they become legal problems.
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A company that remains compliant at all times is more likely to garner consumer trust and enjoy boosted brand recognition.

6 - Remote connectivity.

With more organizations adapting to fulltime remote work for many of their employees, it is crucial for your business to have systems that allow remote access to employees working in different locations. Cloud-based HR payroll software offers remote connectivity to employees.
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Employees can call up the software on any device with internet access using logins, allowing them to work from anywhere and at any time. This is especially beneficial for mobile workforces and SMEs as it allows employees to collaborate on projects without needing to be in the same location. Realtime communication and feedback means decisions can be made promptly, saving several hours.

7 - Employee self-service portals.

Employee self-service (ESS) portals are cloud-based tools that allow employees to access information through a central gateway. Most HR payroll software solutions offer these tools as part of the overall package. Through the ESS portals, employees can view their own payroll, schedules, and benefits records from anywhere, at any time. They can also make updates to their own details.
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ESS portals can boost employee morale because they encourage a culture of transparency where employees are privy to key information related to their work lives. They also allow employees quick access to HR-related transactions that would otherwise require direct input from HR personnel, saving time and increasing efficiency.

8 - Real-time feedback.

Traditionally, organizations offer biannual or annual appraisals of their employees to review their performance and progress. The process is often time-consuming and not always an adequate method of assessing employee performance. To rectify this, businesses are adopting real-time feedback, which helps to keep employees in a consistent loop of performance assessment, progress monitoring, and feedback in small portions.
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HR payroll software offers various tools that help HR managers to provide their employees with continuous real-time feedback. Through easy communication portals, managers are able to connect with their employers at the click of a button, enabling them to review any work done immediately.

9 -Controlled flow of information.

With an in-house HR payroll system, you can control the flow of company information without being concerned about external data leaks. Because your HR payroll system contains a lot of extremely sensitive information about your company and employees, it is vital to keep this information secure.  
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Your HR payroll software will come with a non-disclosure feature that limits access to sensitive data to authorized users only while also preventing transfer of information between users and non-users. Parts of the data can also be encrypted, with the encryption key made available for your managers to access information as needed and make any necessary changes securely.

10- Future-proofing the business.

Growth and change are a natural part of any organization’s journey. This usually comes with amazing opportunities, but they are often accompanied by challenges with new HR procedures, increased staff numbers, and new payroll requirements and regulations.
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The current HR payroll software options on the market offer reliable future-proofing for your business through a range of features and functionalities. Because they offer a customizable employee-first experience across the entire employee life cycle, they adapt to employee needs as they change instead of remaining stagnated with outdated features. You can add and remove features as the organization grows to best suit the needs of your employees and those of the business. 

Conclusion

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations are going through a rebuilding process that centers on technology. Companies that have not changed their approach to human capital management over the past two decades are struggling to keep up with the rapidly changing pace of digital transformation. To stay ahead of the curve, it is imperative that businesses adopt tools like HR payroll software to create a more holistic, strategic, and future-proof human capital management strategy.

If you want to learn more about HR payroll, and how to choose, set up, and run payroll for your business - download the guide below!