5 Best Practices for a Successful Payroll System

Most of the companies use the old fashion technique of payroll alone (sage), which is time consuming and not so efficient and has many errors in the entire process. To manage the system of payroll process in most efficient manner, it can be done in following way.

1.     Making system transparent : it is reduces time, classify employees properly, keep records of  underpaid taxes and other policy issue which will produce copy to all employees and they will understand from it.

2.     Avoid manual calculation: buy avoiding human calculation using human or excel spreadsheet increases error, it is better to use software for reducing errors.

3.  Regularly audit your process: paperwork and process data should match properly because even sometime software’s system also produces error, these error are need to be checked and verified so that process work in most efficient way, so once in year the auditing system is necessary.

4.     Prevent time theft : most of the companies use old method of manually entering the “time in” and “time out” time in register book during working hours. This give employee to chance keep mis-record of time, whether employee was present at work or not. It is difficult to track employee by this method during work hours.

To avoid such problems use modern technique of biometric tracking such as fingerprint and card swipe method so that we can track employee during work hours.

5.  Stay up to date: Our government with the change of year the regulations related to companies’ regulations, labor benefits, taxation, HR policies etc. keep on changing. It should be updated by each company so that the can implement properly in payroll system and provide maximum benefits to their employees.

The best practice of payroll for employees will be upgrading traditional methods by new modern techniques, which will make entire process transparent, less time consuming, and properly monitored process leading to increase in efficiency and effectiveness of entire organization.

5 Best Practices for Managing your Payroll System

35% percent of the average HR department’s time is spent on payroll alone (Sage). In order to maximize the efficiency of your payroll system and prevent errors, you need to follow these best practices for managing your payroll system.

1.      Make Your System Transparent

One of the easiest ways to prevent accidental time theft, mis-classification of employees, underpaid taxes, and other common payroll issues is to produce a pay policy and put it in writing. Post it prominently and provide a copy to every employee.

The policy should lay out:

How employees are classified. Wrongly classifying employees as exempt, nonexempt, or contract can put you in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and place you at risk of a lawsuit or audit.

How wages, salaries, promotions, and raises are calculated; how the pay process works; when changes to payroll go into effect; and how the company deals with payroll mistakes.

2.      Avoid Manual Processes

Are you still calculating payroll by hand or in an Excel spreadsheet? The American Payroll Association estimates that error rates from manual payroll processes can cost you 1% – 8% of your total payroll. The more you automate your payroll system with a payroll services provider or payroll software program, the fewer errors you will have to pay for out of pocket.

Simple ledger mistakes are frequent in manual systems due to its reliance on humans to transcribe hours and calculate wages. These systems are also easy for employees to manipulate.

3.      Regularly Audit Your Processes

Whether you utilize a manual timecard system or one that is computerized, you should audit your processes at least once a year. Even automated systems can produce errors. If these are not caught in time, they can wind up costing you. You may overpay an employee due to a math error, incorrectly classify a new employee’s tax status, or fail to increase the pay rate of an employee who was promised a raise.

Double-check all of your paperwork and processes to ensure everything is functioning properly.

If you are using add-ons or plugins to integrate your payroll software with your time and attendance system or accounting program, make sure that all of the connections are transferring data correctly.

4.      Prevent Time Theft

Time theft occurs when employees intentionally mis-record their hours, take overly long breaks, spend work hours on non-work-related activities, or use “buddy punching” to check in when they aren’t present.

Implement a check-in system that automatically records an employee’s hours when they sign in or swipe their card. You can further decrease fraud by utilizing biometric sign-in hardware such as a fingerprint scanner.

5.      Stay Up-to-Date

IRS tax tables and Federal and state labor regulations change from year to year. It is important that your knowledge of these regulations is current. You can download the latest tax tables from the IRS website. If you use payroll software, make sure that it automatically updates each year so as to keep you in compliance.

Pay particular attention to changes in regulations governing: income tax withholding, state unemployment taxes, child support withholding, and fringe benefit calculation and taxation.

The best practices for business payroll center around preventing errors and fraud that are commonly found in manual payroll processes. Transferring your payroll to a specialized software system or third-party administrator can keep your payroll in better shape. Whether or not you choose to go this route with your payroll, make sure that your process is transparent, that you audit it regularly, and that you keep it current with state and federal labor laws.

How to prevent employees from sleeping at work

Employees in their night shift generally found sleeping or taking nap in between work. But with increasing stress, changing environment and many more reasons employees working on day shift also feeling sleepy these days. Organizations find it as an act of unprofessionalism and can terminate him/her from job immediately. This act is stricter in departments like police, civil services and defense services. But in other hand, many companies providing nap rooms for their employees. In any case, to prevent and help employees from sleeping for any reason, two main steps must be adopted by a company. First step is to analyze the reason of problem and previous performances of the employee then second step is to help them to not get sleepy during work, if they are efficient and hard working employees your company needs. Apart from nap rooms, here are some ideas to prevent them from sleeping at work.

1) Giving a verbal warning is a good suggestion. In actual it should be a humble way of knowing the cause instead of being rude before giving any official warning.

2) Consult the employee who is suffering from fatigue or fighting to stay awake. Suggest him/her to make a change in their work shift which is suitable for them.

3) If the employee is punctual at submitting his work, he/she can even work from his/her home.

4) Shifting the employee workplace to more ventilated and place where there is natural light so he can feel fresh and active.

5) Make the employee to drink plenty of water, green tea and coffee to stay hydrated and avoid feeling tired.

6) Allow them to listen to some music on headphones so that they get sleepy during work.

7) Instruments like doze alerts is a great idea as it start making noise when the employee’s head droop due to sleeping.

Even after adopting all these ways, if they still sleep at work then an official warning can be issued to him/her.

NEW WAYS TO RECRUITMENT

 Recruitment becoming more challenging day by day because of huge number of graduates releasing each year completing degree. Now the main challenge for recruiters is not only selecting people who are in search of job but also find qualified employees willing to work in other companies. For this, one must get attention of such employees and introduce new creative recruiting methods as with every single day number of companies/organizations increasing. New recruitment methods include online and social recruiting, mobile outreach, and employment branding campaigns, holding job fairs, college recruiting. Online recruiting practice include job boards and social networks, while college recruiting programs may include holding campus recruiting events, developing university relations, and hosting internship programs. Many companies are implementing creative recruiting which includes adding interactive group interviews to the recruiting process to actively looking for talent in unusual places. Here are some of great recruiting ideas that make your company stand out from the crowd.

LOOK FOR TALENTS IN UNUSUAL PLACES: One of the best ways is to go out and look for your ideal hire in places where other companies cannot expect. For examples once a company made some of its employees to interact with workers in some local stores and restaurants and offered interview only those who stood up.

HANDPICKING FROM SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES AND PAST WORK: Many social media provides profiles of people who are in need of a job and have past work experience.

CONSIDER PAST REJECTED CANDIDATES: Past candidates who are rejected can make a potential new talent to hire. They are many candidates who got rejected at very last session of recruitment. Giving a second chance to such will be great profit for your company.

PUBLICITY: yes publicity is another best way to attract your dream hires. It can be from a non-traditional media to publicizing employee’s incentives. Publicity plays a major role, so one should choose innovative way of advertising in this job market.

Other than these one can adopt group interactions rather than group discussions, employee referrals and many more.

STEPS FOR EMPLOYEE RETENTION

Employee retention is an ability of an organization to retain its employees. It is an effort by an organzitaion or a company to maintain a working environment which supports current staff in remaining with the company . An organization is able to achieve this by adopting various employee retention programs. In order to create a successful company, employers should consider as many options as possible, when it comes to retaining employees, while at the same time securing their trust and loyalty (so they have less of a desire to leave in the future).

Employee retention is very useful for a successful business. There are many advantages with this “Employee Retention Program”. The most important benefits are:

1. A lot of investment is needed to train an employee and to make him perfect. If such an employee leaves the organization, they lose the money invested and also an employee who could have contributed significantly to the organization with his experiences.

2. If a person employed in an important role leaves, to replace such an employee huge costs are involved.

3. When an employee leaves a company for a direct competitor, there is always a chance that they will take important business strategies and secrets with them to be exploited by the competitors.

   Employees are not motivated by money (unless they’re in physical labor). In fact, some employees actually perform worse when incentivized with money. An employee retention program involves steps starting from identifying the major contributors in the organization, and designing schemes to involve them with the organization to ensure that they do not leave.

Here, are some useful steps involved in employee retention program.

1. Employees are more motivated when they have control over their day-to-day life at work. Allow them to decide when they work, how they work, who they work with, and what they do. The more freedom and control they have over their own career, the more fulfilled they will feel.

2. Most of the employees want to be good at what they do. They strive to get better every single day. Empower them to be better as often as possible. Build a culture of clear goals and immediate feedback, but allow room for experimentation. This way they feel they are getting enough support from company and constantly learn something new every time.

3. Create charts and hang them around the office. Tie all of the major projects to this vision, and show how , what they are doing is pushing the company closer to its big goals.

4. Your mantra shouldn’t be- “Treat people the way you want to be treated”, the new mantra to be followed is- “Treat people the way they want to be treated”.

5. Leaders cannot motivate employees for a long-term. Leaders must create motivational cultures with an engaged workforce where employees can flourish and motivate each other.

6. Employees want to work for a “winning” organization.  Leaders need to reinforce “line of sight” by telling their employees where they are going, how they are performing, and where they fit in.

7. Although companies place candidates on one’s educational background and skills, people generally succeed or fail because of their behaviour and traits. Remember that soft skills count.

Whistle Blower

Whistle blower is the term that is used for an individual who exposes certain wrongdoings, misconduct, or some illegal activity happening inside an organization to the authorities or to the public so that some action can be taken to put a stop to them.

A whistleblower can be an employee of the organization or someone from outside who comes across something suspicious happening within the organization. It can also be suppliers, customers, clients, contractors etc. Some countries have even passed laws to protect the interests of the whistleblowers.

Wage Drift

Wage drift is the difference between the wages that are offered at the time of employment and the wage that a worker gets after the work period is over. The reasons for the wage drift can be because of the increase in the actual amount due to the overtime earned by the worker or the bonus earned, profit shared or also performance related incentives.

The reason for offering such additional incentives in the earnings of the workers can also be attributed to the shortage of labor in certain reasons, which compel the employers to introduce such drifts in the wages for the employees.