The world changes subtly day to day. We adapt to the pace or different slants of conducting our days, and navigate the changes intuitively. We often don’t even spare a thought to the fact that there had been a tiny change or two. The past two years, however, we have seen remarkable change in how we live as a species. The global Pandemic has changed us on a cellular level – literally!
Remote work, the way we meet colleagues, clients, how we inhabit office spaces, common spaces – these changed overnight. These are not light changes. They affect cultures of organisations. Cultural shifts are rarely this rapid, but we had to adapt, or else. Therefore, now that the dust is settling a little, we have an opportunity to assess whether our practices are still relevant or obsolete.
Think about it: is the way you run your payroll still applicable to the way your business has evolved over the past one-and-a-half year? Does it suit your budget, workforce, the time you have on hand, whether you have an HR manager or an entire department – or perhaps had to do away with both because you had to downsize? Perhaps you are lucky and have grown during these unusual times, but it is too early to have a large HR or Accounts department, or you don’t have time to find the right people, fast.
Have a chilled sparkling water, put your feet up, and stay CALM. OPS can assist, and here is how.
The benefits of outsourcing payroll
It does not really matter on an objective level where you are in your business evolution. Outsourcing payroll has clear benefits. Arguably, so does keeping it inhouse. But in this particular post, I aim to answer questions about the viability of outsourcing this crucial function in your business.
1. Cost
You can save money. Lots of it. Consider where you are in your inhouse administration of payroll. How efficient is the process? Perhaps you are a start-up or a small or medium growing business, and must decide whether to invest internally in payroll or go to a third party.
The immediate savings could be greater for a start-up if the company has not yet invested in payroll software or trained and recruited staff with appropriate skills. However, longer term ongoing costs if you run payroll inhouse can add up and make outsourcing a more viable option. For example, consider the ongoing cost of maintaining good payroll software, security of your system, time spent on payroll processing, managing paperwork and regulatory requirements.
Outsourcing cuts down on variable costs pertaining to staff recruitment and training, and software maintenance.
2. Time and resources
Time and resources go together with cost. By outsourcing payroll, a business frees up time and resources to focus on – well, the business. Imagine your accountant has an additional six to 10 hours a month to focus on financing the company’s growth.
3. Compliance and accuracy
Human error is a fact of life. That’s how we learn as a species, but in business it costs money. Payroll errors are quite common, even with the most competent staff – if you can get them. A business must apply even more resources to correct mistakes.
Additionally, how do you ensure your inhouse staff, between all their other core responsibilities, remain current with changes in compliance and tax regulations? These changes happen almost as frequent as a teenager’s mood shifts.
A third-party payroll services provider will have this in hand without you losing a single night’s sleep. OPS have top industry experts working on clients’ accounts, ensuring errors are minimised, and that payroll remains 100% compliant, always.
4. Flexible and productive
Whether an employee is on leave or not, OPS ensure a company’s payroll happens on time, accurately, every time. This is a great comfort for smaller companies where an inhouse payroll function might have been limited to only one person. Having said that, even large companies with a dedicated HR team can use the time spent on payroll and rather invest in creating company programs to assist staff with rapid company culture changes.
5. Add-on value
OPS can tailor payroll reports to suit specific internal processes.
Enhance in-house payroll
Our clients have access to experienced payroll professionals with vast experience in the field. We are specialists on UAE payroll, which means OPS can also assist in-house payroll teams with compliance health checks, the optimal usage of inhouse payroll software, training in-house payroll staff in payroll legislation, and providing emergency payroll cover in case of inhouse absences or disruptions.
In OPS we assign dedicated teams to each client account, creating a personal, connected client experience.
Speak to OPS to see how we can help cut down your payroll admin today and see for yourself!