What are the predicted trends for payroll outsourcing?

what are the predicted trends for payroll outsourcing
By Anthony Wolny | 3rd March 2020 | 15 min read

Payroll outsourcing solutions are increasingly becoming the norm for large organisations who are looking to save time and resources.

Outsourced services enable professionals to:

• Operate more cost-effectively
• Refocus their time
• Improve accuracy and security
• Enhance reporting
• Boost employee morale and retention.

We predict that the increased popularity of outsourced payroll will result in more features, more innovation and more investment.

IRIS has been supporting leading organisations with their payroll for the last 40 years.

Using this experience, we’ve analysed and highlighted a few upcoming trends that we believe will dominate the outsourcing market in the coming years.

Trend 1: Greater focus on cybersecurity

“85% of organisations reported experiencing phishing and social engineering attacks.” – Accenture

Statistics such as this emphasise the need for organisations to prioritise security and this is even more prominent for outsourced solutions that manage external data.

Any organisation outsourcing their payroll must demand that their employees’ personal information is stored in an encrypted system.

The need for better security will undoubtedly dominate the wish list for most organisations looking to outsource their payroll.

Our IRIS Managed Payroll service offers bank-level security and encryption to ensure your data is protected to the highest level, for more information, click here.

Trend 2: Payroll automation

Automation has been trending in a variety of industries, with payroll outsourcing being no different.

Outsourced service providers are placing added importance on reusable services that allow them to streamline calculations and deductions.

By implementing automated payroll processes, outsourced solutions can significantly increase their sustainability and scalability while simultaneously offering an improved service.

Trend 3: Cost-reduction

Due to the increased popularity of outsourcing, service providers are continually innovating in a bid to further reduce costs and increase productivity, significantly benefiting customers.

A study from PwC found that those that conduct payroll in-house as opposed to outsourcing spend on average 18% more.

By outsourcing, organisations can eliminate high-cost tasks such as buying/printing payslips, software updates and continuous training.

With this in mind, it’s no surprise that outsourcing purely based on cost is increasingly becoming the main reason for UK businesses to begin researching how to outsource their payroll.

Trend 4: Payroll reporting

Payroll data is becoming increasingly important to organisations looking to optimise processes.

PwC surveyed 1,000 senior executives, finding that data-driven organisations are three times more likely to report significant improvements in decision-making compared to those who utilise data less.

Often a concern among organisations is if they outsource the benefits of being able to utilise payroll data will disappear.

As a result, the ability to provide payroll analytics is now incredibly desired from payroll outsourcing solutions.

Our Managed Payroll service provides bespoke reporting functionality to ensure you have the data required to enhance your organisation.

Trend 5: Compliance

Payroll legislation such as Holiday Pay and IR35 is set to alter rapidly over the coming years, shaking up the business landscape.

Ensuring compliance with the everchanging legislation has become an enormous responsibility for outsourced solutions.

It’s now more vital than ever that businesses can trust their outsourced solution to ensure they’re compliant and correct.

Our outsourced solution utilises highly experienced CIPP-Accredited payroll managers, guaranteeing compliance with past and upcoming legislation.

IRIS’ outsourced payroll solution

Utilising our 40 years of experience in running payroll, we transformed our extensive knowledge into our BACS-Approved Managed Payroll Service.

By outsourcing your payroll to IRIS, you entrust the responsibility of managing your reporting and compliance responsibilities to our team of highly experienced CIPP-Accredited payroll managers who boast a 99.9% accuracy rate.

Our service takes on your Automatic Enrolment, RTI and Year End reporting responsibilities, not to mention ensuring your employees receive their payslips month in, and month out.

For more information on how our solution meets all the previously mentioned trends and how outsourcing your payroll to IRIS can benefit your organisation, click here.

Also, for UK businesses who wish to maintain and manage their own payroll, we also have a wide range of solutions to transform and optimise your processes.