How modular, managed payroll can support high-performance HR

How modular, managed payroll can support high-performance HR in summary:

• Modular payroll integrated with HRIS boosts HR effectiveness by reducing digital issues and simplifying data insights.
• It offers flexibility, self-service, and integration across HR functions, ensuring compliance and streamlining processes like tax deductions and reporting.
• Managed payroll services free up HR resources by automating time-consuming tasks, allowing HR to focus on strategic initiatives.

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The first and foremost consideration when choosing a payroll service has got to be: will it allow my organisation to get pay runs right and on time?

Of course, any payroll provider must also support compliance, adhere to regulations and offer world-class data security but in light of recent payroll fiascos — and the media and employee wellbeing fiasco that results in — accuracy and timeliness must be front and centre. However, whilst ensuring workers get paid as expected is the primary goal of good payroll, world-class payroll provision can do so much more.

Take a modular, managed service for example: when payroll provision is part of an HRIS, it becomes a tool which boosts employees’ digital experience of work and gives administrators HR technology which is focused on driving performance and giving insights. What’s more, services such as Cezanne’s smart managed payroll solution, deliver this in a personalised, flexible package that suits your exact people and business needs.

All in all, this is the type of payroll provision that can drive higher-performing HR. So, to find out more about how modular, managed payroll can deliver for employees, HR and the business, read on…

1. Modular payroll means more HR effectiveness and fewer digital issues.

Most in HR and payroll know that with more parts in the HR tech stack comes the likelihood of a cap on how effective their function can be.

That’s because more systems can cause confusion and friction, making employees less likely to adopt and use technology, all resulting in a worse digital work experience. Furthermore, purchasing more and more systems can create deployment speed lag, increases the risk of data mapping issues, corruption and inconsistencies, and also means constant individual updates.

For the all-important HR and payroll systems administrators, if payroll provision is via a separate platform it can also be a headache: forcing them to use costly workarounds to deliver business utility e.g. such as pulling together data on performance, pay, and succession planning to give the business the insights it sorely needs.

However, when payroll is just another HRIS module — sitting alongside other modules including recruitment, onboarding, time tracking and performance management, as Cezanne provides — delivering multi-vertical HR insights becomes much simpler. With data on pay, personnel, and recruitment all in one place, it means HR can focus less on time-consuming data translation or extraction tasks and more on delivering insights.

In addition, with world-class encryption, ISO27001 certification, and GDPR compliance, all behind a secure single sign-on, HR can rest safe in the knowledge that all this insight-giving data is kept safe. Crucially important in today’s increasingly digital world of work.

2. HRIS-integrated payroll means proven service and proven benefits

It goes without saying, accuracy and timeliness are of course number one when it comes to payroll. Any decent provider should also offer security, compliance and resourcing-saving utilities too. For example, at with Cezanne HR’s modular, managed payroll service we automatically do the legwork for mandatory deductions and create all statutory reports (from P11s to P60s).

Yet, payroll should also drive flexibility, efficiency, personalisation, self-service and integrate seamlessly with other processes in your organisation – all benefits enjoyed by customers of Cezanne. That’s because from set-up — where we tailor implementation timelines, training, managerial access, data uploads and API-supported integration to your needs — to ongoing payroll management, we focus on ensuring payroll meets your needs and seamlessly becomes part of your HR system and processes.

In addition, our Payroll solution offers access to proactive support teams when required, can deliver multiple pay runs across different schedules and entities, and can create necessary payment files for your business’ bank — or even allow you to check data on other parts of HR’s remit all in the same system.

Yet, having payroll this flexible, as one part of your HRIS, shouldn’t mean you have to pay for lots of different tech elements you don’t need or agree to an eye-watering price point. With Cezanne, you can add payroll to your core people management system without having to agree to extras, such as recruitment, time tracking or absence management. All safe in the knowledge that you can change your mind later down the line if the business needs evolve.

3. Managed payroll means you free up HR resource

Payroll processing can be a resource-intensive and risk-fraught administrative burden. Sometimes the responsibility sits with finance teams, sometimes it’s HR’s responsibility. Very occasionally there’s a dedicated payroll staffer.

Yet, all these options require taking internal resources away from solving big-ticket issues on the seemingly ever-growing people and business agenda: whether that’s helping staff with spiralling living costs or futureproofing the talent strategy. However, managed payroll, like Cezanne’s smart managed payroll solution, can be the service that frees HR thinkers to solve pressing problems.

As Cezanne’s payroll solution is modular, there’s no double entry of data from other systems — we’ll even do initial data uploads for you — and our single sign-on system means no time lost entering and leaving different platforms.

In addition, we do all processing — including automatic HRMC data provision updates, RTI returns, needed reports, pension enrolments and year-end submissions — which saves even more time. Yet, outsourcing the processing doesn’t come at a loss to peace of mind: with our smart managed payroll you can check pay run progression at any point in the cycle.

4. Delivering for people at its core

We’ve already highlighted how great managed payroll can create flexibility in people delivery — such as adding separate runs for bonus payments during the cost of living crisis — and free up time for HR to focus on solving talent conundrums.

But let’s get into the nitty-gritty of what else Cezanne’s modular, managed service can do for your people. Firstly, there is access to online payslips, which gives your employees control over their financial data. In addition, with our secure Amazon Web Services hosting, and an uptime better than 99.9%, they’ll know this information will be available secretly whenever they need to check it.

Because this is all accessible via Cezanne, access to pay information is in the same place as performance reviews, clocking in and out, and other important documents. With it all behind a single sign-on, your people can enjoy a frictionless, intuitive digital experience. But that’s not all…

Cezanne — which our modular payroll sits within — comes with comprehensive API and webhooks that let you connect to other systems. Meaning all crucial technology can literally be accessed at the click of a button — for your people, for your HR teams, and for system admins. Exactly what’s needed in the 21st century!