10 HR Leaders Share How They Will Improve Payroll In 2023

 

From leveraging artificial intelligence to implementing more cloud-based software, here are 10 answers to the questions, "How will you tackle payroll in 2023, and what will you do differently to improve from the previous year?"
 

• Leverage Artificial Intelligence
• Promote Payment Flexibility and On-Demand Pay
• Develop Better Position and Salary Policies
• Offer a Self-Service Approach to Payroll
• Encourage Interaction to Create a Positive Environment
• Fully Automate Our System
• Conduct Audits to Ensure Tax Withholdings Are Accurate
• Lean into Outsourcing
• Create an Open, Technology-based Payroll System
• Implement More Cloud-based Software

 Leverage Artificial Intelligence

In 2023, we are expecting to use artificial intelligence to transform how payroll is processed. AI will take our payroll from a purely transactional process to one with a significant analytical and decision-support focus.  The insights we glean from AI will inform our labor management decisions in many areas, such as scheduling, time approval, and compliance. Additionally, machine learning algorithms will automate routine payroll tasks, freeing up our payroll team to work on more strategic projects.  Many organizations are already using AI in limited areas, such as process automation, but we set the stage for AI to revolutionize payroll.

David Aylor, CEO & Lawyer, David Aylor Law Offices

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 Promote Payment Flexibility and On-Demand Pay

As inflation makes it harder for consumers to manage a budget, we want to relieve some financial pressure on our employees by giving them more convenient payment options. While we will still offer employees direct deposit and standard checks, we are looking into systems that allow employees to fully manage their own payments.  If they prefer to receive crypto, we want to make space for that. And on-demand payment systems can help reduce the financial burdens on employees waiting 2 weeks for their next paycheck that need the money now.  Employees should have access to the money they earned with fewer delays, so we are working towards that.

Ruben Gamez, Founder & CEO, SignWell

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Develop Better Position and Salary Policies

To calculate the payroll more quickly, companies need to define internal rules and standards that will guide the management of their employees. The job and salary structure is the set of internal controls that guide the management of people within a company. It determines the position of each professional in the workforce.  These rules will ensure that we make the payment of salaries according to positions, benefits, and other variables that make up the employee's final remuneration. Through this control, you will know how many employees are in each position. This facilitates the calculation of expenses because it is possible to group similar profiles.

Ricardo von Groll, Manager, Talentify

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 Offer a Self-Service Approach to Payroll

We are moving our payroll management to the cloud for mobile access to help our team record and manage hours worked from anywhere.  These self-service options also allow employees to submit timekeeping corrections for management review, trade shifts, and view performance history. Wherever we can automate the process to put more data in the hands of our employees, we are working toward it.  We want to make as much of their information accessible to them as possible, so we can offer the transparency they demand without burdening our payroll team with these time-consuming tasks.

Brian Dechesare, CEO, Breaking Into Wall Street

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 Encourage Interaction to Create a Positive Environment

In 2023, I am excited to see what new things can be done to improve our payroll process. As an HR leader, I will continue to look for ways to make sure every employee knows that their time is valued and appreciated. By focusing on being friendly and positive about the work we do, I believe we can create a more positive working environment for employees. A great way to do this is by encouraging interaction between departments and employees at all levels of the company. This will help us build relationships with each other and create a better understanding of what challenges face each department. I have seen many improvements in the past year from our previous system; however, there are still some areas that need improvement. I plan on implementing additional training programs throughout the year that will focus on these areas so that we can continue making improvements.

Andrew Griffith, Owner, Garden Furniture

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 Fully Automate Our System

As embarrassing as it is to admit, I have dragged my feet on some recent technological leaps. As a small business owner, it is easy to feel like taking any time to reevaluate a working system is a waste.  But the truth is, a few hours of adaptation can fix an inefficient system. So in 2023, I am finally going to fully automate my payroll process. Right now, it is a hodgepodge of unintegrated systems, some manual, some automated, and there are a few glaring blind spots.  For instance, when workers need to update their banking information, we are still using a handwritten form! A simple command in QuickBooks will allow workers to change their own personal information. Minor tasks like that add up to a lot of time wasted, and that is a priority to fix in 2023.

Linn Atiyeh, CEO, Bemana

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 Conduct Audits to Ensure Tax Withholdings Are Accurate

Over the past couple of years, as remote work has become more prevalent, several of our employees have moved out of state. While this may seem trivial, from an HR perspective, it is not.  Ultimately, it is the employer's responsibility to keep accurate records and properly calculate taxes as they vary from state to state. Unfortunately, as some of our employees have moved, our HR team did not update our system in a timely fashion, which has created a nightmare to reconcile payroll taxes.  As such, in 2023, our team is implementing quarterly audits of our employee database to ensure we are accurate and compliant with all federal and state deadlines, wages, and tax withholdings.

Alaina Ross, Co-Founder & HR Director, Sleep Family

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 Lean into Outsourcing

As our team continues to grow, we are relying on our payroll system to deliver more than ever before. We need it to support tax filing in multiple states, pay different employee classes on different cycles, and we need it to increase employee self-service.  This has become a full-time job for some of our management team, and we have decided that in 2023, it will be a better use of resources to outsource payroll processing either via a PEO or by hiring a bookkeeper or HR-managed services firm.

Brett Ungashick, CEO & CHRO, OutSail

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 Create an Open, Technology-based Payroll System

2022 was a year of awakening for many industries. We have, as a world of industries, made a dramatic shift in workplace standards. Remote and hybrid work allows companies to take a more technological approach in the company, and we intend to do the same. While our company is an online database, we want to improve our efforts behind the scenes. This includes restructuring our payroll system. Instead of employees being allowed to only view their pay stubs or W-2, we want to implement a system where employees can create a profile and become more involved with their benefits and compensation. We have yet to choose a specific payroll system, but we are leaning toward an interactive one that provides us database that aligns with our goals of providing our employees with customizable profiles, communication with human resources, benefit outlines, and IT management capabilities for those on my technology team.

Ana Codallo, CTO, Key Opinion Leaders

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 Implement More Cloud-based Software

Cloud-based software is quickly becoming the norm for payroll. Companies are transitioning from traditional on-premise systems (which are more costly and require a lot of manual effort to manage) to cloud-based solutions, which offer 24/7 access, improved scalability, and cost savings.  The benefits of cloud-based payroll systems extend beyond just cost considerations. Cloud-based systems can provide real-time data about employee hours worked, wage rates, overtime payments, vacation entitlements, and other payment schedules. We can also easily integrate them with existing HR systems, allowing for customizable reporting capabilities.  As we move into 2023, we will invest further in cloud-based payroll systems, enabling us to streamline processes, improve accuracy and efficiency, reduce operational costs, and remain compliant with labor laws.

Karl Robinson, CEO, Logicata

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Author Bio

Brett Farmiloe is the Founder/CEO and currently, the CHRO of Terkel.io. Brett is an SHRM Influencer and has also been a keynote speaker at several state SHRM conferences around the topic of employee engagement.