Over this very challenging past year, working remotely was one of the biggest shifts for employers and employees alike. What we’re seeing is that this temporary adjustment proved beneficial in many cases so remote work is only going to increase from here. This opens up new opportunities to hire the best talent regardless of location, but it also adds a whole new level of complexity and stress for payroll and HR teams. There has never been a more important time to ensure that your payroll solution and provider can support payroll requirements for a remote workforce, including tax filings and ACA compliance.
Take the Complexity out of Telecommuting
Managing remote workers means knowing and following multiple sets of payroll regulations. And that can get complicated fast. Depending on where your employees live and work, there are differences in minimum wage, workers comp, and tax withholding. It’s important not only to have accurate payroll processing but also to avoid any fines or penalties. You need a system that can manage all current regulations and keep up with future changes so you don’t have to.
This is where a flexible cloud-based payroll solution like Payroll NOW for Dynamics 365 Business Central is a huge advantage. At a basic level, your payroll system needs to allow easy additions of states and employee address changes. For example, here at Integrity Data we added employees in 7 additional states during the pandemic alone. We were able to add these states and their corresponding regulations with the click of a button. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
The Benefits of Self-Service HR
Secure self-service tools help your employees make changes and get answers on their own—day or night from any location or device. Given that there are more workers in diverse locations and different time zones, it becomes even more important for employees to be able to do things at their own convenience.
Here’s why this is much more than a “nice to have” feature:
- Remote workers typically don’t have as much access to staff in the office.
- Self-service tools make it quicker for employees to view paystubs, submit expenses, print W2s, request PTO, add benefits—all kinds of things—without having to ask and burden the payroll or HR staff.
- Payroll team productivity increases as they are freed up from time-consuming and mundane tasks.
- Employee satisfaction increases due to better access and flexibility.
HR Can Focus More on Employees, Less on the Computer
One of the big benefits of remote work is the potential for a more flexible work-life balance. But that can come at a price. Many remote workers report feeling isolated from their colleagues. Your HR team wants to spend their days helping people and building your company’s culture, not entering data or running reports.
Freeing up HR from mundane tasks provides extra time to be relational. By proactively doing outreach, even if by video conferencing, HR can help combat isolation by doing check-ins and being available to address concerns.
Don’t Forget Flexibility for Your Payroll and HR Teams
When considering your remote workforce, your payroll and HR staff should not be overlooked. They need to be able to work remotely, too. You never want to be in a position where your payroll cannot be processed. Sure, the pandemic was a very serious scenario we hope to never see again. The reality is anyone tasked with processing payroll can have emergencies or need to be out of the office. By using a cloud-based solution like Payroll NOW, payroll can be processed from anywhere with an internet connection. No more worrying about glitchy VPNs or having to run to the office.
Is it time to upgrade your payroll capabilities?
Integrity Data is a 25-year Microsoft partner known for innovative Dynamics payroll, HR, and ACA solutions and services. Get in touch with our experts to learn how Payroll NOW can help your payroll administrators save time and simplify support for your remote workforce.
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