The Benefits of Payroll Automation with RPA & IA
We’ve already touched on some of the benefits of automated payroll, but let’s look at them in more detail.
Cost Reductions
Perhaps the most obvious benefit of an automated payroll solution is cost. And the financial benefits of automation are well established at this point. Some 59% of respondents to Deloitte’s Global RPA Survey cited a benefit of cost reductions since deploying automation software to their payroll systems.
This could be from improved efficiency; RPA will simply complete the process much faster. Or perhaps it’s from cutting down on the expensive and disruptive errors that tend to be a natural part of the payroll process. RPA can even help deliver value in other areas of HR, as payroll professionals are freed up to work on alternative projects and achieve their full potential.
Improved Productivity
Humans are inherently bad at repetitive, process-driven work over sustained periods. It’s not our fault: even the most laser-focused among us get tired, bored, or interrupted from time to time. Our brains crave constant stimulus and problem-solving, something rarely offered by new-starter admin or salary processing tasks.
This situation inevitably leads to ennui--a loss of focus, mistakes, and hardly a winning co*cktail for productivity. RPA suffers from none of these problems. Provided it’s been calibrated correctly and is following a sound process, it will diligently work through the task it’s been set until it’s complete. This is far quicker than its human counterpart.
It isn’t just the tasks assigned to an RPA bot benefiting from greater productivity. By freeing your payroll professionals from repetitive, manual tasks, you also give them time to work on the more complex and rewarding aspects of the role, particularly those requiring problem-solving or human interaction. Your bottom line will benefit from staff working on higher-value tasks, while your people will derive greater satisfaction and enjoyment from their work--itself a productivity booster.
Return on Investment (ROI)
RPA delivers almost unrivaled ROI. Research from both EY and Deloitte found that the average timescale for ROI was less than a year. It also benefits from comparably low operating expense (OPEX) costs. RPA can easily be integrated with your existing payroll processes and systems, with no need for an expensive or time-consuming overhaul.
Greater Efficiency
Much like the earlier point on productivity, an RPA bot will complete payroll tasks much faster using fewer resources than the equivalent manual processes. For single tasks, such as salary processing, this can be invaluable. But when RPA is rolled out across several payroll software processes, it can deliver dramatic efficiency improvements for your business.
Compliance And Accuracy
The first is compliance. RPA is proven to boost regulatory compliance within businesses. According to Deloitte’s Global RPA Survey, 92% of respondents saw an improvement in compliance after implementing RPA. This is particularly useful to payroll departments, where compliance with statutory tax reporting is not only essential but is often time and resource-intensive.
Closely tied to this, RPA can also enhance the quality and accuracy of your HR functions. Again, responses to Deloitte’s Global RPA survey bear this out. 90% of businesses surveyed cited accuracy as a noticeable benefit of adopting RPA.
In both cases, it’s not difficult to see why. From a compliance perspective, an RPA bot will rigidly follow the process without deviation, unless there’s an error in the logic of the rules it’s been set. It also provides a constantly updated audit trail--an essential element of compliance. Accuracy is much the same; an RPA bot following carefully defined rules and processes is simply unlikely to make mistakes or oversights.
Reliability
The simplest benefit is RPA’s reliability in automating payroll software solutions. Due to its relatively simple nature, RPA is unlikely to suffer extended outages, particularly if hosted by a cloud provider with guaranteed uptime. Unlike manual processes, RPA will continue churning away, even if the office is closed or other areas of the business are suffering disruptions.
Employee Satisfaction
An automated payroll solution improves employee satisfaction by reducing the amount of time on repetitive and manual processes. Payroll teams are then free to focus on more value-added tasks, helping to reduce workload and stress for employees. Additionally, as it is more accurate with administrative tasks and reduces payroll errors, employees spend less time fixing issues with functions such as wages or tax rules.
Which Payroll Processes Can It Be Applied To?
We’ve covered some of the benefits of RPA, but now let’s look at which payroll functions it’s best suited to.
Employee Onboarding And Transfers
Onboarding employees across all systems is a laborious process. It often requires repetitive data input and the crosschecking of information on several systems storing payroll records. And as we’ve already discussed, mistakes usually follow where dull, repetitive entry is found. With RPA, digital workers continually update employee data management systems, inform stakeholders using automated payroll system notifications and ensure staff is paid the correct amount on time.
Salary Processing
Salary processing is a necessary task, but it’s few people’s favorite job. It can take hours and any error with payroll calculations will be met with disgruntled employees. RPA makes the process virtually pain-free. With its ability to manage multi-system employee payment processes automatically, the process of ensuring your staff is paid on time becomes faster, more cost-effective, and more accurate.
Salary Reviews
Like salary processing, reviewing what your people are paid can be time-consuming. This is especially true when regular salary changes are the norm, in sales or other commission-based environments. A digital worker will calculate these changes for you, managing salary budgets and updating records, taking the time and effort out of the review cycle.
Tax Reporting
Managing statutory tax reporting is resource-intensive for payroll managers--more so if your business spans multiple jurisdictions. RPA removes much of this burden. Digital workers automate payroll data transfers and synchronize reporting across multiple systems, keeping you compliant no matter how complex your business structure is.
Benefits Administration
Offering your people corporate benefits is a vital part of remaining competitive and attracting the best talent to your business. However, it can also be labor-intensive for your payroll staff. Tracking who’s set up for healthcare programs, salary sacrifice schemes or extra pension contributions takes time and resources. By automating subscriptions, updates, enrollments, and delivery, RPA allows you to offer first-class benefits without the drain on resources.
Automation in Payroll: How Do You Do It?
Payroll is one of the functions most suitable for HR automation. So how do you get from RPA being a ‘nice to have’ to a vital part of the day-to-day running of your payroll department?
The first thing to note is that RPA can be molded to fit your business and people. Some organizations will start only automating certain software for employee payroll systems, like salary processing and tax reporting. This is known as ‘tandem’ RPA; so-called because, rather obviously, it involves regular employees working alongside an RPA. This approach is often best if you’re looking to build a use case for RPA.
On the other hand, some businesses dive straight into automating the entire payroll process at once. This is known as unattended RPA.
Once you’ve decided which route to take, it’s simply a case of carefully mapping out each process you want to automate. You can do this much as you would for a new starter--a simple step-by-step guide to each element of the process, including any necessary yes/no decisions. This can then be fed into the RPA software and put quickly to work.
Automation is changing the world of work, and there are few tasks riper for RPA than payroll. In accounting and HR departments, the world over payroll administration is draining resources and valuable skills that could be put to better use on more fruitful tasks. But with a more efficient, cost-effective alternative readily available, it’s time employees’ payroll purgatory becomes a thing of the past.
