by Stacey Lennon, Digital Marketing Executive with Intelligo Sofrware who provide Corporate HR Software and Payroll Software
More often than necessary payroll departments spend a large amount of time answering phones to employees. Dealing with questions about Pay, USC, PAYE, or other related issues. While most of these are routine and simple to answer, they can still be time-consuming. Especially if the company has a large number of employees on their payroll. All in all, these questions can build up into a lot of misused time. Here are a few effective tips to help handle payroll questions, even cut some of them completely. Freeing up more time to spend on other duties.
Contact Points
For a payroll department with multiple team members, assign one person to be the designated go-to person. Depending on the size of the business, and questions received, appoint one or two people to this. Of course, make sure that this person is familiar with both payroll matters and the payroll system of the business. Employees will then know who the direct point of contact for questions is. Saving them from scrambling to find the right person to give them an answer.
Promote Payslips
One of the most common questions payroll departments will receive will be on payslips. Often it is a breakdown of salary or requesting old payslips. Employers are required to give payslips in either electronic format or in hard copy. Legally, it includes information on basic pay, deductions, etc. You are also obliged to keep a record of all payslips issued for six years. Though that does not mean that employees have kept the same records. This is where the power of the payslip is important. As they have a lot of the information employees would look for without contacting payroll.
The problem lies in the ease of access to the payslip for an employee without having to deal with the payroll department. Past payslips are often required for many applications, such as mortgages, so are regularly requested. Promoting a culture of keeping payslips on file or the business investing in a Mobile Payslip App and ESS solves a lot of these problems. Encourage them to check their payslips first and do all you can to make sure they have access to them.
FAQ Lists
Payroll Departments may get the same queries every month and these frequently asked questions often have the same answers. So why not consolidate a list of the most commonly asked questions by employees, covering issues from accessing their payslips, to taxes, etc. After these have been gathered post them in a place all employees have access to, such as a company intranet. So when an employee has a query, they can refer to the FAQs list without having to contact the payroll department or you can direct them to it. This can then leave the payroll with only the more complex questions to answer. Reducing the number of queries they might have to deal with from employees on a day-to-day basis.
Consider Self Service
Working in payroll, you will know that a lot of the questions from employees are simple but require some admin. Often involving changes to bank account details, home addresses etc. Small tasks in the grand scheme of things but time-consuming none the less. Self Service can help many payroll departments save time while increasing efficiency in this matter. It does this by putting the power back in the hands of the employee. Allowing them the ability to edit their information. Giving them control over their own questions and reducing the unnecessary admin for the payroll department. Not only does this drop the chances of error with this information. By allowing employees this access, you are empowering them and saving man-hours in the payroll department.
Undertaking such measures has the potential to streamline the work of a payroll department and make sure that employees have an efficient payroll service. One that handles questions to the best of their abilities without unnecessary stress.