Challenges of payroll

Receiving an accurate, timely paycheck is expected by employees of any organization. Tracking time, attendance, pay rates, garnishments, and anything else that contributes to putting the correct amount into the hands (or accounts) of employees is one of HR/Payroll departments’ biggest and most time consuming tasks. Problems with payroll can erode trust and morale. According to a Forbes article,¹ payroll and benefits questions are among the top 10 issues employees bring to HR.

Reading pay stubs

The example used in that article is a question about understanding deductions listed on the pay stub. Especially today, when many people opt to have their earnings deposited directly into a bank account, some employees never look at their paystubs. Others do. Everyone does if they think there’s a problem.

How well do your employees understand their pay stubs? Can they look at them and find answers to their questions without coming to HR? As a result of COVID-19, pay stubs may present additional challenges. Some employees will see decreased hours and earnings. Those might affect their tax brackets and certain entitlements.

7 tips

In Amy Hindsman’s article² on the Sage Advice Blog, Simon Gibbs, director of Life Consulting, provides 7 tips to help your employees better understand their paychecks. I have paraphrased them here:

1. Provide clarity on how your payroll team calculates pay
2. Provide clarity on employer-paid benefits
3. Customize your pay stubs to make them easier to understand
4. Digitize your pay stubs
5. Provide employee self-service
6. Plan ahead for voluntary attrition
7. Include information in understanding your pay stubs in your onboarding process

You may be doing some or all of these already. But take a look at your organization’s pay stubs with the eye of someone without your expertise and see how easy or difficult they are to understand. A few tweaks may make a big difference. Clarity in your pay stubs will mean fewer questions and problems brought to HR and Payroll staff.

Sage HRMS Payroll choices

If you use Sage HRMS Payroll, you have choices when choosing check forms. You can use either the standard payroll check form or a custom payroll check form. Sage offers a variety of 100% Sage-compatible computer checks.

The standard check form is offered in both a standard and a high security version, depending on your need or preference. You are also able to add a signature to the standard check for a small fee. The pay stubs are easy to read and include the information employees need (for example, pay period, hours worked, rate, current earnings, taxes, and deductions, year-to-date earnings and year-to date net pay). Sage HRSM Payroll also supports customized check forms.

We’d love to help

In addition to choosing the check forms that are right for your business, you have lots of other options with Sage HRMS Payroll. Plugins like Sage HRSM Time and Labor Import, Sage HRMS Garnishment Manger, Sage HRSM HR Actions I-9, and  Sage HRMS HR Actions W-4 are a sampling of solutions that enhance Sage HRMS Payroll performance.  If you’d like more information, call us at 1.888.421.2004 or fill out the CONCTACT PRODUCT SALES form on our website and someone will get right back to you.

Sources

1. The Top Ten Things Employees Complain To HR About by Liz Ryan
2. Understanding payslips: 7 tips to help your employees by Ashley Hindsman