Payroll the new way: Outsourcing payroll in Malaysia

Payroll management tends to be a tedious process. When not done accurately, it can lead to a multitude of problems. Thankfully, companies now have the option to outsource payroll. 

Managing payroll can be a complicated and time-consuming process. There are many statutory compliance requirements, which makes it risky if not managed well. Which is why, many business owners prefer to outsource payroll to experts in the field to ensure that it’s done accurately, and give them more time to focus on other matters. Outsourcing payroll can also open you up to other opportunities including the benefits of seamless payroll management, better employee engagement via technology and ensures that each employee gets paid the right amount at the right time.

Freeing up your time to focus on higher value work

As HR professionals, you may frequently find yourself spending far too much time processing pay runs at the expense of dedicating time to strategy and higher-value tasks. The key advantage of outsourcing payroll is being able to focus on what's important to your company: growing your company and building a strong workplace culture. Outsourcing payroll essentially allows you to concentrate on your core business and frees up your time to work more on strategic tasks that can impact your company's bottom line.

Building trust with your workforce 

One of the strategic tasks that businesses should prioritise is the employer-employee relationship, which is held together by one key factor - trust. Employers are entrusted to manage and compensate their employees fairly, accurately, and on time. This is something no business would want to be seen running afoul of, especially with labour and workforce issues under scrutiny in recent years. 

Payroll is a challenging process especially in a complex and evolving statutory environment. Inaccuracies and lack of knowledge can lead to compliance issues. These compliance issues can expose your company to the risk of substantial financial penalties, reputation damage, and most importantly, the loss of employee trust and increased remediation work.

Companies can consider tapping on other resources if they don't have capabilities in-house. This includes employing technology or working with a payroll outsourcing provider that can add value to enhance your employee engagement. This can be done through a combination of technology and knowledge sharing in their management of HR and payroll services for companies.

Data to improve user experience and key decision-making

As important as compliance is in the discussion of payroll management, it may also be timely to consider how outsourcing can be an opportunity to look beyond reviewing payroll data and preparations of conventional reporting. 

Employers should consider enhancing the user experience of payroll delivery touch points with their employees by providing real-time and accessible information such as mobile payslips, on-the-go leave and a fleshed out timeline for completing payroll. Payroll and employee-related  information are also ideal for analysis and review to support key management decision-making. Investing in a robust and powerful analytical tool to support this as part of payroll management will enable you to move ahead with your digital agenda to support the workforce.

What to look out for in your payroll vendor?

As we’ve shared above, payroll is not only time consuming, but you would also need to assure compliance with tax and other legislative requirements, which may lead to compliance issues if not managed appropriately.

Not sure how to pick out a payroll solutions vendor? Here are some important attributes to look out for. 

The payroll vendor should be equipped with a team of knowledgeable specialists in the areas of statutory compliance and practical execution. This would enable the vendor to contribute by integrating a practical and compliant approach to manage payroll efficiently. 

Payroll outsourcing vendors should focus on key features such as:

• Focusing on the vendor’s core strength,
  
• Lowering overhead costs,
• Streamlining work processes, and
• Adding more value to the company. 

To sum up, you could assess your company’s objectives and strategy to determine the right vendor and maximise the benefits from payroll outsourcing. Knowing the objectives and putting in place a firm structure to govern the process management with the vendor will help to further enhance user experience.

We will be happy to walk with you on your payroll journey. Speak to us today. 

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