The benefits of self-service HR tech aren’t limited to higher efficiency. Given recent findings from Ernst & Young have updated the average estimated cost of a single manual entry of HR data to $4.70, having the ability to see the impact of employee usage on your business is crucial. But what may be less measurable is the heightened security your organization can gain from compliance vulnerabilities when your workforce truly owns their data.
Lighten manual workloads
Employee-driven payroll through Beti® empowers your workforce to do just that while enabling HR to focus on higher-level initiatives. And while Beti reduces the involvement HR has with payroll, it by no means removes them from the equation. When employees are able to access, view, manage, troubleshoot and approve their own paychecks, they engage with their compensation unlike ever before, and HR can free themselves from tedious, costly payroll-related tasks and focus on monitoring approvals. And if that doesn’t sound intriguing enough — Beti does more than just streamline the payroll process!
Limit liability
Giving employees power to approve their own paychecks provides a layer of protection that can help leverage your organization’s compliance. In a study from XpertHR, challenges related to payroll ranked third among HR professionals’ top compliance concerns. With the help of Beti, your organization can clear up confusion and process payroll confidently.
When employees approve their own payroll, it effectively adds an additional mechanism for reducing liability. In the American Payroll Association’s (APA) annual report, 40% of U.S. employees suggest that they aren’t sure about the exact withholdings of their check each pay period. When doubt distorts compensation, it not only affects an employee’s ability to plan ahead, but also illuminates a significant compliance vulnerability.
For example, maybe your employee enrolled in extra health care coverage specific to their needs. While they may reasonably assume this coverage was applied and factored into their paycheck, they may not think to verify this until an emergency strikes. If the only opportunity they had to opt into this needed coverage was during open enrollment, they may have little reason to assume it was incorrectly applied from pay period to pay period. In tandem with this, an employee may only complete a Form W-4 once a year, thus giving them few opportunities to confirm their status until they are saddled with the consequences of a possible administrative mistake.
By verifying their paycheck through Beti, an employee is consenting to its accuracy and the withholdings it entails as often as they are paid. Though it is still an employer’s responsibility to pay an employee correctly, this added transparency can help reduce the likelihood of errors.
Gain additional oversight
Employees know better than anyone the benefits they elect, the overtime they worked and the PTO they have used. With Beti, employees confirm these are reflected correctly in their pay before accruals are inadvertently omitted and force an untimely correction. Given the APA recently found that 69% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, the consequences of a payroll error can be staggering.
After receiving a detailed breakdown of their compensation, employees can raise inquiries about anything that may have been overlooked by a payroll administrator. Mitigating such mistakes can help lower compliance exposure without bogging down HR with tedious and constant audits.
Encourage informed questions
Emerging legislation and compliance updates can quickly impact payroll. Shifts in taxes and revised wage requirements have the potential to catch an employee off guard, and with the traditional payroll process, they may not know how such changes affect their paycheck until it hits their account.
Because Beti details an employee’s paycheck well in advance, it spurs them to engage in a dialogue with HR about the regulations that influence their compensation. For instance, if you own a restaurant with a staff largely dependent on tips, a revision to your state’s tipped employees’ minimum wage could impact the bulk of your workforce. Here, Beti serves as a proactive notice of this change, opening a channel between employees and HR that is more conversational and less confrontational.
With this insight into their pay, Beti helps alleviate the confusion that can arise from compliance changes. Learn more about Beti at paycom.com/beti. For more current information on compliance, check out the Paycom blog or follow our monthly Regulatory Roundup series.
DISCLAIMER: The information provided herein does not constitute the provision of legal advice, tax advice, accounting services or professional consulting of any kind. The information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional legal, tax, accounting or other professional advisers. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult a professional adviser who has been provided with all pertinent facts relevant to your particular situation and for your particular state(s) of operation.