Month: August 2022

A strong company culture is a vital element for every organization small, big, large or mid-sized. The culture of the organization provides the backbone for the successful running of the organization. The organizational culture takes into account the beliefs, values of the organization, the functioning of the management body, the behaviour of the employees and the manner in which the customers are dealt with. All these aspects when together taken into consideration come to define a strong company culture. The organizational culture is defined and created by the senior management personnel and put into practice by the HR department through the means of the Employee Handbook which encompasses the code of ethics. Companies such as Google, LinkedIn, HubSpot, Microsoft, Facebook and others are credited to creating a strong and vibrant company culture.

Now, you must be wondering about the significance of a strong company culture. Have you ever wondered why you enjoy going to office every day? It is a proven fact that employees enjoy working at the office which offers a good working environment.

An amicable company culture is often liked by employees who enjoy working in such an environment. In return, the organization tends to gain employees who tend to stay longer; thus, avoiding attrition. This aspect also helps in building strong working relationship among the co-workers as well.

Another significant advantage of having a strong company culture is that your organization comes to acquire a good name in the market. Your customers tend to acknowledge the reputation of your organization associated with the products/services that you offer. Moreover, the presence of a strong company culture promotes healthy relationship between its customers and the company.

You must have now comprehended the paramount importance of a strong company culture. Yet most mid-sized organizations are still not capable of creating a good company culture. They face several difficulties in this process. So, let us understand how a mid-sized organization can create a strong and vibrant company culture.

1. Clarity about the Company’s Goals: It is essential for a mid-sized organization to be clear about its goals and vision. For instance, if you are the owner of the organization producing footwear then you need to have clarity about the sources of procurement of raw materials, the line of products to be manufactured and the process of marketing and selling. Likewise, your employees should also reflect the goals and vision of the company. The employees should be committed to pursue the company’s goals in the long-term. This can simply be achieved by establishing a strong company culture revolving around the achievement of the company’s goals.

2. Recognition and Reward: The second significant factor which helps in creating a strong company culture is by recognizing and rewarding the employees of your company. The employees of your company make things happen at the workplace and so they indeed play a vital role in the functioning of the company. The company should ensure to recognize the extra efforts taken by an employee in fulfilling his duties and responsibilities towards the company. Moreover, the company can also go ahead and reward the employee for his efforts. This will not only boost the morale of the employee but also will help in employee motivation and employee retention for the company. Hence, by creating such a positive company culture—the company as well as the employees tend to develop a mutually beneficial relationship which is bound to go ahead in the future as well.

3. Provide flexibility: One of the significant aspects which goes into the creation of a strong company culture is the feature of looking after the requirements of the employees. In these uncertain and unprecedented times, it is vital for organizations to relinquish mundane functioning practices and embrace the new ones. This includes the provision of flexible work timings and work from home option. The MNCs and other big companies are today offering both these options to their employees.In other words, the creation of a flexible work environment is bound to keep the employees happy and thus, motivated. Motivated employees facilitate in improving the productivity of the company.

4. Establishing collaboration among team members: A vibrant company culture can be created by ensuring that the members of a team collaborate with each other while working on the projects. This kind of healthy work relationship helps in quick completion of tasks/ targets and also enhances the revenue of the company. In addition, the manager should also engage in team building activities among the members of the team.

Therefore, to conclude, the creation of a strong and vibrant company culture has helped large companies in boosting their employee productivity and in enhancing revenue. So, the mid-sized companies should not lag behind and leverage this feature to expand and enhance their business.    

The outbreak of Covid-19 in the year 2020 has brought about several unanticipated changes in the global business scenario. Even payroll management has been affected by this pandemic.

Payroll management has undergone tremendous change in the past few years especially with the advancement in technology and the changing business environment. The emergence of new technologies has made it easier to handle the tasks associated with payroll management. In other words, the function of payroll has been able to keep pace with the changes taking place in the global economy. Not only this, technology has brought ease and convenience in the functioning of the Human Resource Department.

Let us go through some of the latest trends that have emerged in the year 2020 in the field of payroll management for employers to adopt.

Automation of payroll management: This is the foremost trend which has emerged in 2020 and is increasingly being adopted by big and small business houses. With the advancement in technology – cloud computing and so forth, automation of payroll function has become quick and cost-effective. Moreover, the outbreak of the pandemic Covid-19 has made it imperative on the part of the businesses to adopt the process of automation for their payroll function.

Automation is cost-effective, reduces paperwork and the chances of errors. Thus, accuracy and speed are the essential benefits of automating the payroll function.

Emphasis on data security: The year 2020 has highlighted the need to focus on protecting the data of the employees since automation has become the new norm for payroll management. Cybercrimes are increasing and hence, it has become imperative for the third party service provider to absolutely focus on protecting the data of the employees.

It is to be noted that automation ensures that data is password protected and so cannot be easily accessed. Moreover, there is no paperwork that can go missing and create further hassles for both the employer and the employee.

Flexible payroll: You might have heard about this term for the first time! One of the most talked about changes that is happening in 2020 is that of flexible payroll. You must have heard about monthly payment of salary; however, companies are devising new ways of providing flexible pay-outs to the employees based on the project work and business scenario.

When the company decides to fulfill the needs of the employee in a flexible manner, it nurtures a fruitful relationship between the two in the long run.

Pay transparency: This trend is something which is the topic of heated discussion in 2020. In the wake of the pandemic, freelance and contractual jobs are on the rise. Companies are publicly sharing information about the pay package of its employees whether on payroll, contract or freelance. In the light of this scenario, payroll management has to be handled in an efficient manner.

Therefore, to conclude, you must have realized by now that the arena of payroll management has undergone drastic change in recent years. As a result, several new trends have emerged in 2020 facilitated by automation and advanced technology.     

Payroll is defined as the disbursal of salary by the employer to the employees for work completed by them. Every employer or business organization needs to have an effective payroll management system established. The payroll management system refers to the use of a software programme to perform the various tasks related to payment to employees and filing of taxes.

What are the payroll functions performed by the HR?

The HR under payroll management performs the following functions:

• It formulates and implements the organization’s pay policy which includes leave encashment, bonus, incentives and other financial aspects.
• It defines the significant components of the salary such as Leave Travel Allowance (LTA), House Rent Allowance (HRA), and the basic and flexible components of the salary.
• It calculates the gross salary of the employees of the organization to arrive at the net pay.
• It is responsible for depositing the deductions done under TDS, EPF to the appropriate authorities within the stipulated period to avoid levy of penalties and fines.
• Finally, release of salary to the employees of the organization.

Why is Digitization of payroll management required?

It is to be noted that when the HR performs its payroll functions manually, it is bound to consume time. Indeed, you can say that this manual method is cost-effective; but the HR personnel need to keep themselves updated with the constantly changing labour laws and tax related rules and regulations.

Flaws and errors can be minimized if the company decides to digitize its payroll management process. Digitization implies that the company decides to use a payroll software. The use of this payroll software will ensure a number of benefits to the organization. Primarily, it will become easy for the HR personnel to collect data coming from various sources in a seamless manner. It will provide complete automation of the payroll system by directly providing payslips to the employees. In addition, the software will also facilitate easy management of the attendance (leaves and balances) of the employees of the organization. Most significantly, the software will reduce the time consumed and the chances of making errors in the calculation and disbursal of the salaries of the employees of the organization.

As a result, the Human Resource Management System (HRMS), or Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is increasingly being adopted by both large businesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Let us now assess the contribution made by digitization in the field of payroll management.

Ensures easy observance of the laws of the land: It is vital to comprehend that manually doing entry of the deductions, gross pay, bonus, incentives and other financial details of the employees can be time consuming and erroneous. Moreover, as per the Union Budget, which comes out every year in India, the tax deduction rules are susceptible to change. All these hassles can be easily handled by utilizing the services of a payroll software. Such softwares are also capable of sending reminders to employees to enter the details as per the given deadlines and generate reports.

Ensures adaptability: Another significant contribution of digitization of the payroll management is that it adapts itself well at the time of expansion of the organization. The payroll software should be capable of handling vast employee data in terms of leave balance, attendance, income tax computation and other vital financial information.

Gives the option of self-service to employees: The payroll software should provide the option to employee to enter their essential details in the payroll management software itself. This will ensure accurate data entry. It will also reduce the hassle of contacting the HR personnel in the case of making a correction which can now otherwise be done automatically.

Ensures timely pay-out to the employees: Digitization of the payroll management system ensures timely disbursal of salary to the employees. This helps in boosting the morale of the employees and gives them assurance of job security.

Provides automatic alerts with reference to discrepancies: Digitization of payroll management will help in sending alerts at the time of incorrect data entry or tax deduction. In this manner, errors can be easily spotted and rectified.

Therefore, to conclude, the transition from manual to digital payroll system helps to save a lot of time. It also facilitates quick processing of salary, helps to maintain records effortlessly, eliminates errors, and reduces stress on the part of the employers.