The use of traditional, inconvenient in-house payroll systems are on the decline, and for good reason – they’re repetitive, complicated and prone to human error. Switching to a payroll solution can reduce costs, minimize mistakes and free you up to focus on growing your business. But the decision to outsource payroll for most businesses is not a small commitment. It’s one of the most intimate tasks where the wrong choice can let down your employees and waste a significant investment of time and money. Payroll service providers have different technology, support and expertise that make some a better fit than others. Sure you will do your research before bringing one on board. To help you out, here are 5 essential questions to ask that will give you better perspective when choosing the right payroll partner for your organization!
1. What support can you provide?
Now before hiring a payroll service provider, you got to decide what services you want from them specifically. Some low cost outsourced payroll services only help to calculate the remuneration, superannuation and tax. While others may help you in calculating wages, taxes, applying pay rule conditions, then distribute all payments to the employees, relevant agencies, authorities and others. They can also help you to handle new employee reporting, deduct benefits, including health and insurance benefits, handle various earnings and deductions, like bonuses, reimbursements, commission, etc. You have to foremost identify your specific payroll requirements and search for a vendor that delivers everything you need. Ensure you ask exactly where your payroll provider’s services start and stop.
2. What add-on services do you offer?
A reputed payroll service provider can integrate a broad range of in-house employment management services including recruitment, employment law, workplace health and safety support, recruitment, time and attendance and HR. If you look around you might even find a single platform that provides a full HR, safety, performance and payroll solution. Make sure you ask for such add-on services. That way you can save a lot of money and improve efficiency.
3. What are advanced payroll platform you using?
Now using software developed ages back can make things difficult to customize, costly to implement and limit its ability to integrate with other platforms. So make sure you ask what technology they generally use when it was developed and what it can offer. Do your homework in advance. Also, take time to evaluate their technology. Can they demonstrate functionality? Is it a stand-alone system or scalable? Does it have functionality that enables you to use it in your internal payroll system? Make sure to get answers to each of these questions before considering their services.
4. Can we meet your dedicated payroll professional?
The way you regularly meet your employees working for you; it’s important to meet the professionals who would provide critical services for your company. This is perhaps the most important and often overlooked question. Spend time to meet the payroll professional who will be your payroll officer to assess how knowledgeable they are. It’s important that the person or organization knows and understands your industry or sector so he can handle the challenges that may arise. Generally, the reputed providers don’t offer you direct access to a payroll specialist. Instead, your account is managed by a system specialist (almost like a middle-man) who helps you with technical & operational issues.
5. How secure is your service?
It’s important to know how a potential payroll provider protects its data center – which will hold your sensitive financial information away from the hands of hackers, break-ins, and other disasters. You’ll want to verify that vendors keep data safe using the highest encryption standards available. They should also have multiple layers of security, including biometric scanning for controlled access, as well as key card, PIN number restrictions, etc. Also, it’s best to look out for security camera provision that can monitor all of the provider’s locations around-the-clock, along with onsite staff to protect against unauthorized entry.
For more information related to payroll management services for business or to speak to our payroll management Consultants, write to us on helpdesk@edkmonline.com or speak to our representatives on +91 11 42597777