How payroll leaders are maximizing their investments in people and data

Payroll has traditionally been viewed as a behind-the-scenes administrative function. But forward-looking payroll leaders know this is no longer the case. Today, payroll can—and should—be viewed as a strategic business partner capable of driving employee engagement and organizational success.  

This shift was the focus of a recent Workday Rising session led by OneSource Virtual (OSV) chief operating officer Michael Roseman, who was joined by panelists Patty McDermott of WideOpenWest and Rebecca Franco of The Trade Desk. Together, they discussed how the combination of Workday plus OSV has empowered this shift within their organizations.  

"[Workday Payroll] gives me a seat at the table.”

Rebecca Franco, Director of Global Payroll, The Trade Desk 

Empowering employees through flexibility 

One way payroll leaders are becoming more strategic is by focusing on “empowered pay” solutions like earned wage access (EWA).  

EWA gives employees access to a percentage of their pay before their next paycheck, empowering them with more flexibility and control over their wages. And increasingly, this extra flexibility and control is what employees want from prospective employers.  

Because of this, offering EWA allows payroll to contribute more to a company’s ability to attract, engage, and retain talent.  

“Our employees love [myFlexPay], and in turn, our executives love payroll because we’ve done something for the employees that cost us nothing.”

Patty McDermott, Director of Payroll Operations, WideOpenWest 

Crucially, flexibility doesn’t have to be complex when you have the right solution. In the session, McDermott describes her company’s deployment of myFlexPay—OSV's earned wage solution—as “the easiest implementation I’ve ever experienced.” Moreover, with an adoption of 20%, they quickly exceeded their original adoption goal of 10%.  

The importance of data integrity 

Data integrity is critical in payroll because of the cascading impact of any errors or inaccuracies, from compliance issues and rework to financial losses and employee dissatisfaction. 

Unfortunately, many Workday service providers put the integrity of your data at risk because they use third-party integrations to move your data from Workday onto their platforms. In the session, McDermott calls these “plug and play” solutions and says that you just can’t trust that one plug was plugged in correctly to another. 

OSV has a different service delivery approach that protects your data's integrity. We work inside your applications rather than using third-party integrations so your data can stay where it belongs—inside Workday.  

As a result, you retain control and visibility of your data, and Workday remains your single source of truth. And for many organizations, that’s a primary reason for moving to Workday in the first place.  

“For me, that data integrity lies within that in-tenant service.”

Rebecca Franco, Director of Global Payroll, The Trade Desk 

The value of strategic partnerships 

Both panelists agreed today’s payroll leaders need partners that understand the importance of data integrity and have the right combination of Workday and payroll expertise. As Michael Roseman concluded from the conversation, “There’s a difference between a vendor and a partner.” 

With a platform like Workday and a partner like OneSource Virtual, payroll can evolve beyond a classic transactional model to empower organizations to actively compete and thrive. 

Click here to view the entire Workday Rising session on demand.