The payroll function across Southeast Asia, and the world, is drowning in low-level administration tasks, according to a new report from workforce management software provider, Automatic Data Processing (ADP).
It found that more than 22% of global payroll teams are spending over 30 hours per week reconciling data between payroll and HR systems. According to the survey of 1,468 payroll leaders, data collection remained the most frequent low-level task taking up experts’ time, with 38% of the respondents indicating this impacted their roles.
A further 26% said data entry took up the most staff time.
Even though data collection is an administration task, it is a crucial first step for payroll process and must be done right. ADP cites the “1:10:100” rule that suggests incorrect information can cost companies SGD 1 at the point of collection, but escalates to SGD 10 for data correction, and then as much as SGD 100 if the incorrect data point ends up failing, or impacting the wider system.
ADP says it is therefore clear that low-level admin tasks should be streamlined, and it advises that one way to do this is by integrating payroll and time systems, to ensure that information is consistent across all systems. When information is updated automatically, it will reduce the need for employees to input repetitive data across multiple systems.
The role of artificial intelligence
With artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning now firmly in the spotlight, there arises the question if there is opportunity for AI to undertake routine HR tasks like payroll reconciliation, freeing HR managers to focus on other important aspects of human capital management. Srinivas Konidena, Vice President of Product Development, Asia-Pacific with ADP says this is just one of AI’s many potential uses in the HR space. Others include delivering personalised experiences for employees, and gaining actionable insights from HR data.
“As an industry leader, ADP has been consistently integrating AI and machine learning into its HR software,” he said. “As such, ADP can also speak on the potential of AI for routine HR tasks, as well as ADP’s integration of AI and machine learning into its software.”
