Communicating Changes & Notifications - Time Consuming Payroll Task #2

December 15, 2014 Marlo Hertling

Technology should enable your people management team to focus on important tasks without being distracted by administrative follow-ups.

Time is really the only human capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can't afford to lose. - Thomas Edison

If your desk is still covered in post-it notes with reminders for everything from employee address changes to notifying a manager about employees who have exceeded the maximum banked time allowed you need to embrace technology!

Automating Communications and Notifications Help Payroll Professionals Save Time

Automating communications and notifications not only saves your team significant time but also helps your business run smoothly. Here are some examples of how these tools help:

1. Automated Alerts

Automating alerts in your HCM solution helps with:

  • Compliance by notifying employees and managers when a course or job requirement is about to expire or needs to be completed by;
  • Notifying managers when tasks like performance reviews are due;
  • Communicating to employees when they reach a new wage-step; and,
  • Notifying your employee management team when an employee is about to return from a leave.

2. HCM Workflows

Workflows you can use to increase productivity include:

  • Automatically delivering reports to your managers on a schedule. As an example, at the end of every pay period managers could receive a report outlining the overtime worked in their department along with employee absences;
  • Keeping your people management team in touch with what’s happening out in the field. Managers can easily trigger events like terminations and job requisition requirements so that HR and Payroll are aware as soon as these events occur and have time to complete tasks related to these events;
  • Triggering new employee on-boarding tasks so that additional contact information, TD1 forms and banking information can be collected immediately – even if the employee is at a remote location; and,
  • Gathering electronic signatures on forms and annual policy documents.

3. Self-Service Applications

Embracing Self-Service for your employees and managers:

  • Grants managers and employees access to the information they need when they need it. They can look-up things like vacation balances and company policies on demand;
  • Maintains accurate and up-to-date employee information because data is being completed at source;
  • Provides a simple way to improve time collection and approvals. Employees can see schedules or enter time and managers can quickly review the time and approve it for Payroll; and,
  • Communicates total compensation statements to your employees.

All of these tools should be configurable to meet your business requirements. This ensures that the alerts, workflows and Self-Service fit your company's culture and processes, and keeps the lines of communication open.

After all, great communication is the foundation of most successful businesses.

Keep On Reading

Check out our free guide on how to reduce your 6 most time consuming Payroll tasks.

About the Author

Marlo Hertling

Marlo Hertling has worked with leading HCM organizations and has been helping Canadian companies implement HCM solutions for more than 15 years. She is the Vice President of People & Culture at Avanti Software Inc and serves as Avanti's HCM subject matter expert.

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