No matter your industry, payroll has to be done right, and it has to be done on time—not sometimes, but every time. A single misstep can have severe consequences, affecting employee satisfaction and exposing your organization to compliance risks and reputational damage.
But while the primary function of payroll hasn’t changed, the expectations for payroll employees are different from ten or even five years ago.
Today's leaders understand that payroll can provide a wealth of data to help with strategic planning, from identifying skill gaps and making decisions about staffing levels to developing a competitive compensation strategy.
On the one hand, this is a welcome change from the past. Finally, payroll has a seat at the table.
Unfortunately, not every payroll team has the time, resources, or technology to meet these expectations.
“Accuracy and scalability are a must for our payroll team.” – Jazz Pharmaceuticals
Access to innovative payroll tools can make or break your operations
To be a strategic partner, your payroll employees must have the capacity to work strategically.
Too often, though, payroll teams are weighed down by dated processes or complex outsourcing relationships that amplify their problems rather than solve them.
Even companies using Workday can find themselves swimming in circles if they have a legacy outsourcing provider.
Imagine investing in a solution meant to give you a single source of truth, only to find you're still juggling multiple systems of record because of your outsourcing partner's integrations.
Payroll needs access to innovative solutions before becoming the strategic partner you want it to be. Without them, your company is stuck in the past.
Legacy outsourcing models are not your friend
According to the IRS, 33% of employers make payroll mistakes each year, resulting in penalties for 1 in 3 of these businesses.
Mistakes like these are more likely when you’re stuck doing manual work or have a service provider who isn’t committed to proactive service.
But that’s not the only problem you can face.
To deliver their services, legacy outsourcing providers must move your data from your system of record to theirs. This isn't just inconvenient; it’s also a security threat, increasing the likelihood of a data breach.
On top of this, manual, repetitive work is unsatisfying and hurts your ability to retain employees.
Taken all together, manual work and legacy solutions can:
- Hurt your bottom line
- Put your data at risk
- Lead to burnout and boreout
Let’s examine each of these consequences one at a time.
“With our previous payroll tax provider, we could not work directly with our data. We needed a partner that would give us full access and also be compatible with Workday.” – Equifax
Manual payroll processes can hurt your bottom line
The more your company relies on legacy service providers or manual work, the more likely you are to experience errors.
We’ve already established that 33% of employers make payroll mistakes. But how much does it cost to fix those mistakes?
According to Ernst & Young, fixing a single payroll mistake costs about $291. One mistake doesn't add up to much, but over time, it can, even for a company earning millions or billions every year.
But that’s not the only way payroll mistakes hurt your bottom line. Given the real-world consequences of late or incorrect paychecks, employees aren’t going to stick around long if they experience recurring problems. That leaves you with the added expense of filling all those empty positions. And even if employees stick around, the productivity impact of low morale can be enough to make a dent in your profits.
Legacy solutions put your data at risk
We’ve already mentioned how legacy solutions endanger your data. But that’s not the only way that old outsourcing models put your data at risk.
With poor visibility and multiple systems of record, data hygiene is another significant concern. Can you rely on the data to be available when you need it? Can you trust that it still holds true and hasn’t gone stale? Unless your partner is proactive about helping you catch errors—and most traditional BPOs aren’t—then your data is in danger on two fronts.
Either way, your risk for compliance headaches only goes up.
The dangers of burnout and boreout
We hate to bring up the Great Resignation, but it's hard not to when you're talking about burnout.
According to Cengage, 89% of Americans who left their job in 2021 or planned to leave soon said they felt burned out or unsupported.
Even now, approximately 57% of employees say they’re experiencing at least moderate levels of burnout, according to Aflac.
But what about boreout? It’s a term you may not be familiar with but have likely felt yourself.
Here’s the difference between them according to one definition: “Burnout is when you are overstimulated, and boreout is when you are understimulated. Both leave you exhausted, feeling empty, and unable to cope with the demands of work and life.”
A Udemy study found that bored workers are twice as likely to jump ship for another opportunity. Moreover, a recent survey by SHRM found that almost half of employees—about 46%—experience boredom at work at least three days a week. If your payroll team is stuck in the monotony of administrative and manual tasks without the opportunity to explore new technologies and think strategically, you may be setting them up for boreout.
Both burnout and boreout make recruiting and retaining skilled workers harder, once again hitting your bottom line as you must spend more to hire and onboard new employees.
BPaaS is a better way
While outsourcing is one way to help your employees work more strategically, not all outsourcing is the same.
Before the cloud, outsourcing was all-or-nothing. You either outsourced the entire process or kept it in-house. However, the arrival of the cloud made it possible for outsourcing to change.
Enter Business Process as a Service (BPaaS).
BPaaS innovates and improves on traditional outsourcing by using the cloud to break apart the old all-or-nothing model, empowering companies to outsource just the processes they want to. It’s a balanced approach that gives your in-house employees the bandwidth they need to fulfill those expectations we mentioned earlier.
Check out this infographic for a deeper dive into the difference between BPaaS and traditional BPO.
The OSV payroll difference
OneSource Virtual is the quiet giant of Workday Payroll services. We have a patented process for working collaboratively inside your applications, protecting your data, and promoting transparency and collaboration.
Moreover, we’re constantly refining and improving our services with machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), and AI to streamline our operations and proactively help you catch mistakes before they snowball into serious compliance problems.
Through our approach, we can:
- Preserve your visibility and control over your data
- Empower you with access to expertise and innovative technology
- Free your team to focus on more strategic and engaging work
With reimagined operating models, our dedicated cross-functional teams meet before each payroll ensure no issues exist. Afterward, we leverage our relationships with multiple banks to ensure payroll is run securely and on time every time.
On top of all this, our services are scalable, allowing you to add to your services anytime during your contract if your needs change.
“I always felt like OSV was part of my team...I think it was the collaboration and how we were able to grow relationships with the team. It didn’t feel like it was a third-party provider to me… It was really, ‘OSV is part of my team. And that’s the way we operated. We became friends.” – Advisor Group
Do you want to be more confident about payroll?
Getting payroll right in today’s complex business landscape is crucial regardless of your industry.
OSV offers valuable solutions to help Workday customers mitigate risks and improve their payroll processes. With our collaborative, proactive services, you retain visibility and control of your data while freeing your in-house team for more strategic work.
Partner with OSV this year to elevate your processes and move towards a more streamlined and effective payroll experience.
