It goes without saying that COVID-19 has had a colossal impact on HR and payroll teams. They have not just had to facilitate the logistical shift to remote working, but ensure processes around payroll, recruitment, ill health procedures, staff development and more continue to run smoothly when being operated from home.
Sadly, redundancies have increased as a result of the pandemic, meaning organisations may also be required to support those employees impacted.
All things considered, it’s safe to say HR and payroll teams have a lot more to contend with than they did 12 months ago. This has led to increasing calls for outside help that pinpoints the precise issues teams are facing – whether that’s inaccurate payslips, unexpected redundancies or insufficient change management protocols – and offers tailored solutions to address them.
Reducing the burden on payroll teams
Ensuring employees are paid accurately and on time is crucial for all companies irrespective of the challenges presented by the pandemic. Yet, organisations’ payroll systems are often operated separately from the rest of the business, which can lead to duplicated efforts and potential inaccuracies when employees come to be paid.
As you might expect, a lot of firms struggled during the peaks of the pandemic. Some payroll staff not only had to self-isolate, leaving shortages across the board, but some were not adequately equipped to work from home. When you factor in the administrative burden of accounting for furloughed staff and redundancies, you can see how mistakes, delays and inaccuracies can present a huge challenge for payroll teams.
A further consideration is the fact that many companies expect to implement some kind of remote working policy long term post-pandemic. This means ensuring payroll systems and processes are accessible and secure will continue to be an issue.
That’s why Liberata offers a specialist service that is tailored to individual companies’ problems and systems. Our solutions can be integrated into existing payroll and HR systems for greater accuracy and efficiency, and by empowering self-service functionalities, we offer a cost-effective option that still leaves Liberata staff on-hand to resolve any issues quickly.
To date, we’ve processed over one million payslips for public and private sector organisations, paying in excess of £1 billion to payees annually. And with 99.8% service accuracy across our payrolls, you can be sure our solutions are secure and precise.
Increasing demand for HR and outplacement support
When it comes to people services, it’s not just the nuts and bolts of payroll processes that has become more and more complex. Managing HR services, whether transactional or strategic, now requires the spinning of several plates at once. When accounting for the long-term shift to remote working, there’s a real risk these complexities will increase.
Ensuring HR professionals have everything they need to work from home from a logistical perspective isn’t the only challenge. It will also be critical that sensitive employee data remains confidential remotely – something that some organisations struggled with even before the pandemic – and that HR and payroll systems are integrated and accessible.
Not only this, but with redundancies an unfortunate reality of the current situation, outplacement services that support employees in finding a new role will be critical. Companies that didn’t ever think they’d be relying on outplacement support have now had to do so, relying on everything from career assessments and CV building to job search portals and onboarding support.
To lighten the load for companies, Liberata offers specialist outplacement support services that help your employees after redundancy. These services are responsive, flexible and personalised, without being complex or costly.
We also provide a full breadth of HR services which are system agnostic. This encompasses transactional HR – everything from recruitment to DBS checks, contract preparation, and pensions – as well as more strategic support, including counsel regarding new legislation, trade union negotiation, pay and grading advice, and retirement support.
What’s more, all of our People Services solutions are developed in response to clients’ exact needs – we never take a “one size fits all” approach. With our excellent network of partners, you can be sure that even the most specialist issues can be remedied.
To find out more about our People Services and how we can not only improve efficiency but save you money, click here.
