Payroll Plays Outsized Role in Employee Experience

Payroll teams have a significant impact on the employee work experience and should proactively improve their systems and processes with that in mind, a human resources expert said May 13.

Employees expect their pay to be on time and accurate, and companies depend on their payroll teams to meet these expectations because employee pay shapes work culture, said Julie Develin, senior partner for human insights at UKG. According to a UKG study, 49% of employees would “look for other employment” after finding two errors in their paycheck, she said.

“Employees don’t experience the systems you put in place. They don’t care about how you get there. What they care about is the outcome,” she said. “Because when pay is uncertain, everything else is affected.”

Pay uncertainty has several causes, such as an employee’s lack of understanding about their paystub or a company changing its pay frequency, she added. Roughly 80% of workers “worry about their finances at work,” and uncertainty about their exacerbates that financial distress, she said.

Develin spoke at PayrollOrg’s 44th Payroll Congress in Nashville, Tennessee.

Payroll teams can reduce pay uncertainty and improve the employee work experience by designing their systems with “people in mind,” specifically focusing on clarity, confidence, and access, she said. Clarity helps employees understand their pay calculations, confidence establishes trust with employees through payroll accuracy, and access offers a way for employees to get help when needed, she explained.

Practical updates to consider include simplifying pay statements whenever possible, informing employees of payroll-related changes in advance, and offering self-service tools or chatbots for employees, she said.

If a payroll team is constantly dealing with the same issue or fielding the same questions from employees, find the root cause and address it, Develin said. Better yet, payroll professionals might be able to use their data to spot potential issues before they arise, she added. Postponing solutions for a later date does not help payroll teams or the employees they serve, she said.

Payroll teams should also incorporate artificial intelligence into their processes while recognizing that it is just a tool, she added. It cannot replace a payroll professional, she said.

“An AI system is not you. It will never be you, which is why there always has to be a human in the loop,” she said. “Everything on a paycheck might look correct, but there may be some things that are wrong that an AI bot catches, and that’s great. But explaining things to people? AI is not going to do that.”

Artificial intelligence constitutes just one form of modern technology that can assist payroll teams, she said. Payroll professionals should work with their finance and human resources teams to decide on the best technology to incorporate into their systems, she added. Newer technologies can make payroll more efficient while also improving the employee experience, she said.

“If you don’t have a say in the decisions when it comes to important things like which payroll technology you should be using, ask to be part of those conversations,” she said. “The longer we sit back, the harder it will be for us to catch up.”