Change is scary, and yet, change is inevitable. It’s one of those immutable facts of life. Sometimes, change comes as no surprise to us. Other times, however, change can feel unexpected and stressful. It’s no different when it comes to running a business. Businesses are also built on change: When you open a business, you want to create change in the market that you’re in, whether that be offering products that other businesses may not offer, offering a service, or even a level of service, that people can’t find anywhere else. Change is constantly occurring within a business as well. Promotions, new technologies, new partnerships—these are all forms of change that, ultimately, will serve to help a business reach new, larger audiences. Of course, this doesn’t make these changes any less stressful or even scary. Periods of transition can be difficult to navigate, and it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
At Payday HCM, we understand the fear and uncertainty that can accompany periods of change and transition. As a business ourselves, we’re always undergoing various changes, especially when it comes to finding ways to better serve our clients than we did before. In addition to this, we’ve received several questions from clients over the years regarding whether a certain change or changes are best for their business. Even before businesses decide whether to work with us as a client, there are several questions to be asked about whether partnering with an HCM service bureau is the right kind of change for their business. This can be especially true in situations where a business has an internal payroll specialist, as making the transition to partnering with an HCM platform can make their future feel uncertain. In reality, though, the right partnership between business and HCM service provider can help in-house payroll specialists flourish and evolve in new and exciting ways.
That’s why, in this article, we’ll be looking at how working with an HCM platform can help to empower and enhance in-house payroll specialists, not stifle or even replace them. We’ll start by going over how an HCM platform can transform the manual processes performed by payroll specialists and provide them with a platform to focus less on the processes themselves and more on evolution and process enhancement. We’ll then cover how the transition between working with solely an internal payroll specialist and both an HCM platform and an internal specialist helps to reposition them, not replace them. Finally, we’ll cover how this partnership can produce real-world results.
In this article, you will learn:
- Payroll Specialists and an HCM Platform: Streamlining Processes
- How an HCM Platform Helps Payroll Specialists Do More
- How A Successful HCM Provider and Payroll Specialist Partnership Can Transform Your Business
Payroll Specialists and an HCM Platform: Streamlining Processes
First, we’ll dive into the typical workload of a payroll specialist and how an HCM platform can help streamline this workload.
The Downsides of Manual Processes
Businesses that rely on more traditional methods for running payroll will often need to retain a payroll specialist in order to complete these more manual processes. Spreadsheets, handwritten timecards, disconnected systems—these are all things that the payroll specialist typically spends an overwhelming amount of time working on.
Things like tracking down missing time sheets or approvals, manually entering data across systems, calculating wages, overtime, and deductions by hand, correcting preventable errors, and managing physical paperwork and filing are all manual processes that, with the right partner, can be automated and save your specialist a lot of time.
Where an HCM Platform Comes In
When looking for ways to speed up these manual processes, you’ll not only find a large number of possible solutions, but also a lot of solutions that rely heavily on technology to do most of the heavy lifting. Large HCM platforms can be great for businesses looking to scale, but they do present a danger in the form of too much automation.
When looking for an HCM platform, it’s best to find a partner that can strike the right balance between technology and people, helping to take some of the load off of your specialist’s shoulders while still providing them with a comfortable platform to continue their evolved work. Often, this means finding an HCM service bureau that puts a human presence before a digital one.
How an HCM Platform Helps Payroll Specialists Do More
Partnering with an HCM service provider doesn’t make your current payroll specialist obsolete. In fact, this partnership can help shift their focus away from the more tedious processes of payroll to larger HR considerations.
The Role Evolution: From Task-Doer to Value-Driver
Modern HCM platforms help to automate the more repetitive, manual aspects of payroll and HR administration. While it may seem like this reduces your payroll specialist’s workload, it actually helps them to focus on other, less tedious tasks like:
- Data analysis and reporting – identifying trends in attendance, labor costs, or benefits usage
- Compliance monitoring – staying up to date with ACA, labor laws, and regulatory changes
- Employee support – enhancing onboarding, benefits education, and retention efforts
- Process improvement – helping refine internal systems and boost departmental efficiency
Your payroll specialist evolves from just processing payroll to shaping your organization’s people strategy and approach to HR.
How Payroll Specialists and HCM Platforms Work In Tandem
In nearly every client case we’ve supported, once the payroll specialist is trained on the new system, they quickly realize how much more efficiently they can work—and how much more they can contribute. Using HCM technology in the right way, and partnering with an HCM provider who knows how to employ this technology, can help to take over the more mundane tasks for the specialist instead of overtaking them.
When partnered with an HCM service bureau, we’ve seen payroll specialists step into expanded HR roles, become internal system experts, or take on compliance and reporting responsibilities that were previously underserved. The HCM system doesn’t make them obsolete—it makes them even more indispensable.
How A Successful HCM Provider and Payroll Specialist Partnership Can Transform Your Business
Now that we understand more about how a payroll specialist’s role can expand and evolve when coupled with an HCM service provider, we can dive deeper into the results your business can expect.
Real-World Results
One client reduced their payroll processing time from three days to half a day after implementing their HCM platform. The payroll specialist now leads employee onboarding and serves as the internal compliance resource.
Another client promoted their payroll specialist to HR Generalist after she began using analytics and dashboards to assist leadership in workforce planning and retention strategy. In both situations, working with an HCM service provider helped both the organization and the payroll specialist unlock their full potential.
A Smart Investment in People and Productivity
Modern HCM platforms are not about replacing people—they’re about empowering them. By streamlining the more repetitive tasks, you unlock the full potential of your payroll specialist and enable them to contribute in more ways than one. This not only helps your business thrive as a whole but also provides your specialist with the opportunity to expand on their current skillset.
So, when you're considering a move from manual payroll to a comprehensive HCM solution, know this: your payroll specialist isn’t being phased out—they’re being elevated. The right HCM service provider will understand the importance and necessity of your payroll specialist and work to ensure their current value is not only maintained, but amplified.
Keeping Payroll Specialists Special With an HCM Platform
Change can oftentimes feel like a leap of faith—diving headfirst into uncharted territory with only your wits to help guide you through the storm. As such, committing fully to anything that involves change not only requires a lot of research and deliberation but also comes with a fair amount of stress and anxiety. For businesses looking to work with an HCM platform, that uncertainty can stem from the fear of the possibility of replacing key personnel within your business. In actuality, however, the right HCM service provider won’t just come in and take over your business—they’ll understand your needs and how they can serve those needs while ensuring your current employees feel supported and important.
While there are a large number of options available when it comes to outsourcing payroll, HR, and benefits services, there’s only one that can offer you a personalized solution that puts the people in your organization first. At Payday HCM, we want to see your business unlock its full potential, and that means taking care of your employees by helping them perform the more repetitive tasks. Learn more about how Payday’s comprehensive HCM platform can help you and everyone within your organization.
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