Employees may forgive a lot – but they'd never settle for incorrect pay
This article was produced in partnership with Rippling.
Payroll isn’t just another arm of HR, it’s a strategic retention tool when leveraged in the right way. Research from global payroll advisor Ian Giles found that 35% of employees would quit over a payroll mistake, with errors throwing up questions around transparency and trust.
For employers, having a reliable, efficient and accessibly payroll platform is no longer a ‘nice to have’ benefit, it’s a strategic necessity to recruitment and retention.
“It all comes down to user experience,” added Alex Goncalves, Managing Director at Rippling Canada. “The ease of updating information, accuracy, and pay transparency. Is it easy for employees to see deductions and payouts? Do you offer same day pay - something that’s usually seen in the gig economy or in contract work?”
Streamlined and simplified
And while there’s a few ways of leveraging payroll strategies to attract and retain top talent, for Goncalves the greatest are transparency and trust. He told HRD that employees want to see how their benefit choices affect their pay - they want to be able to access all of this information at click of their fingers. And, if an issue does arise, having integrated HR systems and payroll teams that can resolve discrepancies quickly is really powerful.
“Because when businesses build their brand around being able to resolve things quickly, that’s always good from an employee engagement perspective,” added Goncalves.
It’s also essential to have a streamlined, simplified payroll process in place. All too often, employers make the mistake of thinking over complicated, over-thought systems means greater engagement. In reality, it’s the simple platforms that offer the best user experience.
“Employees like dealing with one portal,” Goncalves told HRD. “Instead of juggling separate platforms, payroll benefits, time off, requests all in different systems, because that’s just not a great employee experience. This also adds into being able to attract and retain people, as well as really improving the onboarding experience. Because if an employee has a bumpy start with a lumpy process, they’re more likely to be unengaged early on in their tenure.”
Employer-employee trust
And with disengagement, it’s often difficult or even impossible to turn it around. Again, for Goncalves it comes back to the transparency angle. Using benchmarks and Canadian market data here helps build that all-important employee trust, as does having flexible pay options.
“Whether that's early wage access or semi-monthly options, whatever it happens to be, all helps build on that as well,” added Goncalves. “Automating processes to ensure accuracy also helps in that regard. [It’s about] using a reliable Canadian payroll software such as Rippling to eliminate payroll errors, which can lead to dissatisfaction and lost trust.”
Because at the end of the day, employees may forgive employers some mistakes - they’ll never forgive a payroll error.
“The most basic contract between an employer and an employee, is that they do a job, you give them monetary compensation,” added Goncalves. “And if you don't get that right, the likelihood of an employee leaving you is very, very high.”
