PayrollOrg and Ernst & Young (EY) partnered to share the results of the Global Payroll Pulse Survey, an extensive and thorough review of technology's growing role in payroll.
This comprehensive and collaborative series of surveys conducted in four segments between July 2022 and January 2023, presented payroll, finance, and human resource (HR) professionals with 10 thought-provoking questions to gauge how they felt their organizations were adapting to the increasing role of technology and examined emerging trends.
Nathan North, PayrollOrg’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, and Eric Hachmer, America’s Global Payroll Operate Leader for EY, discussed the survey methodology and results during episode 43 of PayrollOrg’s "PayTalk" podcast.
While many of the results from the survey were eye opening, the importance of maintaining the accuracy of payroll processes to ensure compliance was expected.
“I was not surprised,” Hachmer said. “We joke that once you’re in payroll, you never leave because it’s a fascinating and exciting environment. It all comes down to paying our employees on time, accurately, and in a compliant way. Those are the table stakes.”
According to the survey, 75% of the respondents rated accuracy and compliance as their top priority over the next three years, followed by talent and organizational resiliency; data quality and insights; improved systems and service capabilities; and improving the employee and end-user experience.
Of course, data is king in this age of payroll transformation. As a result, many view the increasing use of technology as a viable tool that can reduce manual practices prone to human error and free up payroll professionals for more strategic, higher-level work.
Technology enhancements, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and robotic process automation (RPA) are becoming necessary tools for the payroll function.
In fact, these and other technological processes are a significant part of payroll’s dramatic transformation in recent years.
“The respondents in the survey—regarding machine learning, AI, and even robotic process automation—ranked the mobile employee experience as their top priority, seconded by the digital worker enabled contact center, so that’s more of your 24/7 virtual agent chatbot-type of solution, and then third, the biometric field looking at time and attendance,” North said.
One of the most exciting things from the survey, North said, was hearing about the practices payroll professionals rely on to update copious quantities of data.
“It’s great to see that we are still seeing spreadsheets automatically updated via SQL or similar solutions, but what came in second was using third-party tools that receive the data and create the dashboards, whether it’s Power BI, Tablo, or using RPA technology, and for once, number three was a manual process, which I thought was exciting in our space,” North said.
Learn more about the survey results at PayrollOrg’s global resources or in the "PayTalk" podcast.