Current Trends and the Future of Payroll

There have been big changes in the way payroll is managed in the last few years and not just in the retail world. Businesses of all sizes and sectors have been embracing new – often digital – approaches to their respective payroll setups that can both help improve them and give benefits to their employees. However, many of these new methodologies have yet to be adopted on a widespread basis, and as such, firms are missing out on the potential advantages they can bring.

So here we’ve taken a closer look at these payroll trends and technologies, and have considered how they can indeed benefit businesses that use them – and how this could influence the future of payroll itself.

Payroll automation

One of the biggest trends has been with businesses switching from manual payroll processes to automated ones, often via payroll software like PayCaptain, for instance. As you can work out, these software’s will handle everything from data input, to reporting, handling invoices, managing payments and much more – all in one place and in a much faster timeframe.

Payroll analytics

With the above, some software and payroll technologies can also offer analysis of a company’s data and finances. These insights can be invaluable for helping with decision-making, tracking costs, forecasting growth and more, which can help future-proof them.

Payroll flexibility

Employees can also get the added benefit of getting paid at the right time and being able to get a clear picture of their current financial situation. This is because some payroll software’s have apps that are specifically designed to give staff more flexibility with their money. This in turn can help boost their wellbeing and even incentivise them to save and improve their own respective finances.

Payroll Cybersecurity

At a time where businesses face cyberthreats more than ever, a growing trend is to of course boost cybersecurity – and payroll is no exception with its incredibly sensitive data. Again, some payroll software’s can offer added levels of security here and offer peace-of-mind to companies and employees alike that this information is safe.

The Possible Future

Much like many processes in the business world, we may see this digital means of managing payroll becoming the standard across industries. It’s hard to deny the benefits that can be found, whether it’s efficiency, time-saving, cost-saving and supporting employee wellbeing.

The caveat to this is that there may also be a need for training and development of any legacy and more manually focussed payroll teams who want to switch to new technologies. However, any software provider worth its salt will be able to offer this or at least have information available to help businesses use their tech.

Lastly, you may have noticed an overlap with payroll with areas like HR, staffing and IT in the above trends, so another development we might see is that these teams become more homogenised and perhaps even a single entity. Only time will tell, but it will certainly be interesting to see what effects will be seen.