UK large organisations in the private sector have either paid its employees incorrectly or late in the past 12 months, with more than three quarters admitting to do so.
A survey conducted by Censuswide on behalf of MHR, a HR and payroll provider has found that 76 per cent of companies have admitted to doing this one or more times in the past year. Over a quarter (27 per cent) have said they have done this one to three times during the past year.
Worryingly, 12 per cent of companies have paid its employees incorrectly or late seven to nine times with 8 per cent saying they have done this over 12 times.
The majority (52 per cent) of HR and payroll teams say that the problem is worsened by the fact the company they work for still use spreadsheets and 34 per cent still rely on paper timesheets.
When asked why their company still use such outdated methods for their payment services, more than half for both spreadsheets (62 per cent) and paper (58 per cent) said it was because it has always been done this way.
David Crewe, head of service operation for outsourcing payroll at MHR said:
Our research shows that bigger isn’t always better, with a widespread failure of some of the UK’s largest and most successful organisations to modernise their payroll process.
This can have a profound impact on people, not only impacting their ability to pay the bills on time but affecting their overall wellbeing, morale and productivity, which over time can force them to leave their jobs.
The responses to the survey highlight that organisations are either blind to the problems their HR and payroll teams face, reluctant to change their way of working or simply don’t have the time to undertake a digital transformation project to fix the problem.
The survey asked 251 HR and payroll managers in companies with 1,000 employees or more in the private sector.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
