Every employee who works hard expects appreciation and recognition at the workplace. You must have also come across instances, where you worked really hard on a project to make it a success. In return, you must have expected a pat on the back or applause from your manager. And when you receive acknowledgement and recognition for your hard work it gives rise to a feeling of satisfaction in you. However, appreciation and recognition efforts should remain consistent throughout the organization.

Why is Gratitude Necessary?

Leading with gratitude is an essential leadership skill and it has acquired all the more importance in this period of pandemic.  This unprecedented outbreak of Covid-19 has brought with it unnecessary work stress; the need to maintain work-life balance, job insecurity accompanied with fear and chaos. The adverse impact of this pandemic is highly evident and the employer should resort to acknowledgement and appreciation to ensure the well-being of his employees.

What are the benefits of Gratitude?

In simple words, gratitude implies saying ‘thank you’ or acknowledging a deed done. So, when you as a manager acknowledge the hard work of your team member, you show gratitude to him. This act of gratitude has far-reaching effects. A crisp list of the benefits of gratitude has been prepared below:

Benefits of Gratitude at the Workplace

• It helps to enhance the morale and motivates the employee to work better.

• It helps to improve the quality of empathy and reduces negativity.

• It aids in employee performance thereby improving productivity.

• It leads to improved relationships among the internal and external stakeholders of the company.

• It leads to employee retention.

Benefits of Gratitude at an Individual Level

• It helps to improve relationships.

• It improves the mental well-being.

• It leads to feeling of joy and satisfaction.

• It helps to develop the feeling of compassion and empathy.

Let us go through some of the simple steps which will help you to embrace gratitude at the workplace especially, during this period of pandemic.

1. Shower praise on your team through personal engagement: During the outbreak of Covid-19, most of the employees have been working remotely from home. As a result, they feel isolated, low on morale and less dedicated to work. All this can be handled well by you, when you as the manager, keep in touch with every member of your team. You can do this via Microsoft Teams or videoconferencing and let them know that the company values them and recognises their work, especially during this period of the pandemic. You can even send an email to your team member and pick up the phone and compliment him when you get to hear about his good work. This will make your team members feel elated and will further enhance their productivity even when working from home. 

2. Encourage your team members to say ‘Thank You’: As a manager, leading with gratitude is a vital leadership skill and it can certainly be inculcated in your team members as well. A manager, who credits his team for the success of the targets achieved, is a true leader with gratitude. You need to encourage your team members to thank those around them (either physically at office or remotely in contact through online technology) such as their seniors, colleagues, peers even for small tasks or endeavours.

3. Recognise those you exhibit gratitude in their daily practice: You must have come across employees at your workplace who generally appreciate or say thank you to others in their daily routine at work. This indeed is a good practice and you can contribute to it further by appreciating those colleagues or seniors.

4. Try and provide practical gifts as tokens of gratitude: In 2020, the unprecedented outbreak of Covid-19 forced most of us to work from home. As a result, you must have been juggling hard between office and home commitments. Your employer also recognises this significant change that has taken place this year. Henceforth, it becomes all the more necessary, to recognise and appreciate your work in these hard times. As a token of thanks giving, your company should try and provide gifts which can be utilised by the employees. For instance, giving coupons or games (which can be enjoyed indoors with the family) as a gesture of recognition and appreciation will go a long way in keeping you happy, especially in this fearful scenario. Remember, it is not the gift (whether big or small) but the gesture which gets appreciated after all!

Significance of Gratitude in the Years to Come

According to Professor Robert A. Emmons, gratitude is defined as the “ultimate performance-enhancing substance.” You must have by now recognised the importance of inculcating the culture of gratitude at your workplace. The vital aspect to be noted is that gratitude needs to be authentic and should be consistent throughout your organization. However, the leaders need to build this culture by setting their own example. This quality of showing gratitude will acquire all the more prominence in the present uncertain scenario where employees are working from home and experiencing negative feelings and chaos.

Conclusion

Therefore, to conclude, it is certainly essential to develop a culture of gratitude among the employees of your company. However, you might argue that developing the feeling of gratitude might be difficult at present due to the presence of negativity around us. But, gradually, over time, with sincerity, you can develop this feeling of gratitude and spread joy and happiness at your workplace.  

The working scenario in the post Covid-19 world is going to get tougher and more competitive. So whether your employees are working remotely or from office, the employer needs to ensure that they do not suffer from negativity at the workplace. It is to be noted that negativity at the workplace can hamper the company’s growth, decrease the productivity and performance of the employees as well. 

Let us go through some of the essential tips which help in minimizing workplace negativity.

1. Create a positive work environment: The first and foremost tip is to create a positive work culture which certainly helps to reduce negativity at the workplace. This enhances the employees’ morale and they feel happy at work. A positive work environment can be created in several ways. For instance, you can recognize the outstanding work of your employees, regularly communicate with your team members or perhaps go for an outing in a month. 

2. Encourage communication: Another essential tip which can help to reduce workplace negativity is by encouraging two-way communication. You, need to listen to the views, opinion and feedback of your employees rather than simply ignoring them. This will make the employees feel valued and they will also feel like getting noticed in their company. In other words, one-way communication is bound to lead to workplace negativity.

3. Exhibit trust in your employees: Exhibiting faith in your employees is another significant way of reducing workplace negativity. As a manager, you need to assign a project based on the team member’s potential and trust him to complete the task without any monitoring of work. This will increase the motivation of the employee and the company will get to recognize his calibre as well in accomplishing tasks and deadlines single-handedly.

4. Encourage transparency at the workplace: Creating a transparent work environment is another vital tip to reduce workplace negativity. The HR of your company should communicate about the major happenings and activities decided upon by the company heads. This will ensure that the employees are kept well-informed about the company prospects, financials and other details. In addition, there could be instances where the employees might come up with innovative ideas to solve a problem faced by the company. In simple words, make your employees feel valued to reduce negativity at the workplace.

5. Understand the needs of your employees: It is of paramount importance to understand the problems, issues and needs of your employees. Especially, during the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, employees have been facing several issues, such as work-life balance. So, as a responsible employer, the HR should lend a passionate hearing to the issues and woes of the employees. This will reinforce the trust and faith of the employees in your company and will instill in them the feeling of working harder for your company as well.

6. Be unbias at the workplace: It is extremely vital to treat all employees equally at the workplace. The HR of your company should ensure that there is no favouritism at the workplace. There are several practices which help to create unbiaseness at the workplace. For instance, the HR should communicate with the employees at regular intervals, the method of evaluation should besimilar for all employees and so forth. Another method could be creating a mechanism of reporting any kind of prejudice at the workplace.

Conclusion

Therefore, to conclude, workplace negativity can be a major issue being faced by a company. It is vital for the HR of the company to work towards restricting any kind of negativity at the workplace as this can lead to financial loss. In addition, it can also decrease employee morale and hamper their productivity as well. So, do try and implement the above mentioned tips and make your company a better place to work.  

The role of a manager or team leader is immensely challenging especially, in this uncertain scenario of Covid-19. It is easy to work on your own but difficult to get work done from your team members. A team leader not just delegates work and responsibility but also ensures the accomplishment and productivity of his team members and the organization in the long-run.

Moreover, in the present unpredictable scenario, the role of the team leader is constantly changing and evolving. A team leader has to ensure the smooth functioning of a team consisting of individuals of different temperament, calibre and skill sets. It is indeed a difficult task but you can learn the techniques of managing your team effectively. After all, management skills can be learned and improved with the passage of time along with the application of modern tools of technology. 

These are few tips that will help you in managing your team effectively in the organization:

1. Effective communication: The first essential criterion for managing your team effectively is the need to develop a productive and cooperative relationship with your team members. This can be achieved through the medium of effective communication. A two-way communication is vital for a team to function effectively.

As a team leader, you need to keep your team informed about the deadlines to be met in the present quarter and the upcoming projects for the remaining part of the year. You have to outline a strategy in coordination with your team members. Your team members should be in a position to come up with any query that they have in mind with regard to the goals of the organization or say, job security.

In the present scenario when remote working has become the new norm, you as a team leader, can effectively communication using the technology tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and others. 

Thus, ensure to maintain a two-way communication and this will help you to manage your team effectively.

2. Assign tasks based on the strength of your team members: As a team leader, it is essential for you to know the strengths and weaknesses of every member of your team. This will help you in assigning projects or deadlines to be achieved based on the skills of the individual team member. It has been observed that an employee works harder and is more involved in the work in which he enjoys applying his skills. In this manner, you will be able to accomplish the project smoothly and manage your team as well effectively.

3. Assist your team members in improving their skills: For your team to function effectively, it is extremely vital to keep upgrading and enhancing the skills of your team members. This improvisation is all the more needed in the present uncertain Covid-19 scenario. As a team leader, you need to identify the areas of improvement and organize training sessions for your team members. This will help you and your team members to take on challenges and accomplish the goals of the organizations in a seamless manner.

4. Acknowledge and reward good work of your team members: As a team leader, it is vital for you to acknowledge the extraordinary work of your team members. Every team member likes and appreciates the fact that his/her hard work has been noticed and acknowledged. This will encourage and motivate your team member to work harder with greater engagement in the new project assigned to him.

Not just acknowledgement but even rewarding your team members can boost their morale as well. Say, you can take your entire team out for lunch after completing a tight schedule at hand. These are some of the simple ways in which as a team leader you can ensure to manage your team effectively.

5. Encourage collaboration among your team members: One of the methods to manage your team effectively is to ensure cohesion and collaboration among your team. A divisive team cannot yield positive results, so as a team leader, you need to ensure that your team members spend time together and coordinate as well. Collaboration ensures that the diverse skill sets of your team members get utilized in achieving the targets effectively.

6. Manage conflict: This is one criterion which if ignored can lead to division of your team. You, as a team leader, have to comprehend the behaviour, skills and aptitude of your team members and accordingly manage your team. There is bound to be difference of opinion or conflict among your team due to diversity. However, you have to ensure that in case of a conflict, you make both the sides understand the diverse viewpoints in an easy manner. Hence, make sure to address any conflict that arises instead of ignoring it.

7. Provide valuable feedback: As a team leader, when you provide feedback, it helps your team member, to understand his/her shortcomings and overcome them. It is vital that feedback is taken in a positive manner by your team member. Moreover, constructive feedback is vital for you as well as a team leader, given by your team members to the senior management or business head. It can be said that feedback enhances your overall functioning in the organization.

Conclusion

Therefore, to conclude, walking the tight rope of managing a team is not easy but not impossible. It is vital for you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your team members. Further, you need to interact with every team member and try and prevent employee burnout. All these steps taken together will ensure the smooth management of your team in the near future as well.  

Employee retention strategies are gaining momentum especially in the post-Covid-19 world. Employers like never before are focussing on retaining their best talented employees to ensure the long-term success of their company. Employees also wish to stay longer in a company which promises them good career prospects and satisfactory compensation package. Let us go through some of the vital employee retention strategies which will be implemented in the present scenario.

1. Hire the right candidates: The HR of your company needs to prepare the job description clear and explicit mentioning the requisite skills of the candidates. Moreover, the HR should conduct a thorough interview and examine both the soft and hard skills of the candidate to understand his candidature for the post. Most of the times, wrong selection of candidates often leads to the employee leaving the company very soon.

2. Offer Benefits: It is not just the package but also other benefits associated with the pay package which often lures the employee to change his job. Hence, the HR should ensure to provide a satisfactory compensation package at par with the industry and other benefits such as medical insurance, holiday benefits, flexible working hours, performance bonus, retirement funds and so forth. So, the employers need to provide benefits to its employees in order to retain them in their company.

3. Training and Development: The post-Covid corporate sector is looking for talented employees capable of handling multiple tasks along being tech-savy as well. No employee wants to handle the same profile throughout his lifetime in the same company. The company should make arrangements to enhance the skills of its employees by organizing training programmes either through face-to-face meetings or online conferences. This will motivate the employees to work hard with greater enthusiasm and will break the monotony of the work as well. Moreover, the company by investing in the training and development of its employees will be securing its future as well.

4. Great working environment: Employees tend to stay longer in a company which offers them an amiable work culture and sufficient growth prospects and promise of learning and advancement in life. In addition, managers need to appreciate their team members either through monetary means or through public recognition. Remember, if the employee feels worth less and unnoticed in the working culture, he is bound to look for a job change!

5. Employee engagement: One of the vital employee retention strategies in the present scenario is to listen to your employees. As an employer, you need to listen to the suggestions and problems of your employees which they might encounter at the workplace or in their personal lives. In the Covid working scenario, maintaining work-life balance has not been easy for most of the employees. Yet, employers have supported, listened to the woes and suggested solutions to the problems of their employees. Likewise, even at the workplace, employees feel valued when their suggestions are heard and appreciated.

Conclusion

Therefore, to conclude, a company is bound to prosper which focuses on its employees. Companies need to come up with plausible strategies to retain their best employees. A company which makes its employees feel happy, satisfied and motivated is bound to garner profits and secure its efficient functioning even in times of crisis. It indeed requires hard work on the part of the company to retain its employees but it pays in the long-run. 

PEO services are definitely a boon in today’s business world considering the backdrop of the pandemic outbreak. Big, small and medium enterprises—all are bound to benefit from the one-stop solution provider—PEO. When you enter into a contract with the PEO, it takes care of all your responsibilities pertaining to HR and payroll, risk management, compliance, employment compensation management and other vital issues. In other words, you get ample time to focus on your business goals and expand your horizons.

Pros of PEO services

1. Easy Way of Foreign Expansion: When you wish to expand your business overseas without setting up an office, you can hire the services of a PEO. A PEO enjoys legal entity in the foreign country and can easily handle all the important business functions such as HR, employee benefits, risk mitigation and compliance related matters of your overseas business. In simple words, the PEO becomes the employer of your employees in the foreign country.

2. Provides Global Recruitment: In the process of global expansion of your business, the PEO offers recruitment of employees at the global level. It makes arrangement for their work permits, travel visas and prepares their employment contract in adherence with the laws of the country. Hence, without setting up your own entity, you can try tapping the new markets within limited time span.

3. Handles all Compliant Matters: One of the biggest pros of hiring a PEO is that it shoulders all HR related activities in a compliant manner. A PEO keeps it itself updated with the changing labour laws in the country. It prepares the Letter of Intent or termination letter as per the provisions of the existing laws of the country. By working in this manner, the PEO also mitigates risk to a large extent for your business. In addition, the PEO comes to your rescue in case of any disagreement or dispute between you and your employee. The PEO offers a way out in an efficient and compliant manner.

4. Payroll Management: The computation of salary, disbursal of salary, tax deductions and filling of tax—all these activities are handled in an efficient manner by the experienced staff of the PEO. Indeed, the PEO handles all the painstaking tasks and saves your time and money too!

5. Employee Benefits: Another significant benefit of hiring a PEO is that it offers cost-effective health benefits to your employees. Small businesses do not have the resources to offer healthcare coverage to their employees. This obstacle can be easily overcome through a PEO.

6. Provides Ample Scope for Focussing on Growth: A PEO by handling all the vital business functions in a cost-effective manner leaves ample time and money for you to focus on your business growth. You can easily concentrate on not just achieving your business goals but also on global expansion.

Cons of PEO services

1. Lack of Human Touch: One of the most significant cons of PEO services is the lack of human touch felt by the employees of your business. In case of any query or problem, the employee has to contact an outside person and this might result in feeling loss of human touch.

2. No Internal Team to Handle HR: As a business owner, you will be left with no in-house HR personnel to keep a check on the activities of the PEO. This is essential to ensure that the PEO is working in consonance with the guidelines set by your business.

3. Rigid Pricing Structure: Significantly, several PEO service providers are available in the market today. You must be sure of the services you require, your budget, business expansion plans, employee count and other vital factors to be able to select the right PEO vendor. You must select the vendor that offers flexibility along with cost-effectiveness.

Conclusion

Therefore, to conclude, the pros of PEO services certainly outweigh the cons to be highly desired for the growth and success of your business in this competitive business environment. 

Have you come across the term an Employer of Record (EoR)? An Employer of Record is an organization or a company that is responsible for handling all the compliance related issues, HR and payroll related matters of employees. Regardless of the type of your business, hiring an (EoR) brings several benefits with it. Hiring an (EoR) is especially beneficial when you wish to expand your business across countries or you already have a business with offices in several states of India. In either case, an (EoR) offers numerous benefits reducing all kinds of complications for your business.

Why to hire an Employer of Record?

The essential question which comes up is: Why should you hire an Employer of Record (EoR)? Companies generally hire an (EoR) to reduce all the complications and changes which happen across geographical boundaries with reference to hiring of employees, welcoming employees on-board, providing health benefits and insurance cover to employees, keeping updated about the labour laws of the country and the various states, deducting payroll taxes, salary processing and distribution to employees, and ensuring statutory compliance by employees.

So, when you hire an EoR, it becomes the employer of your employees. An (EoR) ensures that your business in various states of India remains in compliance of the various laws, rules and regulations. At the same time, an EoR is of immense help if you wish to expand your business across countries of the world. It is to be noted that in several countries of the world such as the USA, labour laws vary across states and are complex as well. In such a scenario, an EoR will help you to expand your reach across new markets, manage all employment related matters and even make arrangement for work permits of your employees.

What are the benefits of using an Employer of Record?

• Hiring an (EoR) primarily helps your business in saving time and using it effectively in other vital areas of your business. You get to witness significant changes in terms of overall handling of areas such as the human resource function, employee benefits, compliance of state and central laws and employee compensation.

• The second major benefit of hiring an EoR is in terms of saving cost while hiring and handling legal and employee compliance related matters. This leads to marginal cost cutting and the money saved can be redirected and utilized in other arenas of your business. Moreover, this fund can be utilized in achieving the goals of your business in a quick manner. 

Before the onset of the era of globalization, liberalization and privatization (LPG), the Human Resources Department (HRD) used to function in a customary and traditional manner. The role of the HR was simply restricted to job postings, screening of candidates, sending them letter of intent and finally, the recruitment of the candidates. However, after the 1990s, the world witnessed the surge of entry of private companies and MNCs in the Indian market, and consequently, the role of HR also underwent a drastic change with the changing environment.

The arrival of foreign companies in the market brought in new technologies which required specialised manpower possessing specific skills for specific roles. This is what led to the diversification of the role of the HR. The HR now had to search and recruit candidates with specialised skills and proficient in the knowledge of new technologies such as MS Office, Excel and so forth.

Gradually, the role of the HR has diversified to include more essential aspects of the organization such as employee engagement and employee retention along with talent management and recruitment. The onset of the 21^st century has brought with it new changes in terms of the ever evolving technology that has impacted the organizational culture as well. Not only this, the concept of working couples has enhanced the number of working ladies which has led the HR to devise work from home policy especially for ladies. In addition, the HR in some organizations has also devised flexible working hours policy which is extremely beneficial for the working ladies.

Moreover, the onset of the global recession near 2009 and the years following that have compelled the HR of the organization to become an active decision-maker in the decisions of the organization. The HR now frames policies and procedures after engaging and taking the opinion of the employees before implementing and framing the policies. Surveys are conducted within the organization and after taking the poll, the HR decides on a particular policy or procedure to be implemented with the consent of the senior management.

Moreover, these days, the HR is conducting numerous workshops and training sessions to upgrade the skills of the employees as per the changing times. The HR nowadays, not just promotes cultural activities in the organization but also recognises the employee of the month – as a kind of employee recognition and employee motivation strategy.

Let us take the case of the present scenario—Covid-19. When suddenly lockdown was imposed in India in the month of March and the offices had to be shut down unexpectly due to outbreak of the Corona pandemic. It was the HR which played an extremely pivotal role in coordinating with the various departments of the organization. The HR prepared the list of the company’s personnel who would be working from home and the proper procedure of initiating the work from home concept. In addition, the HR has been conducting meetings, recruitment and other essential aspects online via videoconferencing. Indeed, the HR has come a long way from simply playing a conservative role in the company to being a decisive player in the introduction and implementation of policies in the company.

Therefore, to conclude, one can say that the HR has become extremely flexible, dynamic and instrumental in the current scenario. It has been tackling several challenges in the present scenario and as a result, it has come to assume an even powerful role than ever before.  

In this highly uncertain and unpredictable environment, organizations are finding it extremely difficult to keep their employees motivated and that too remotely. Employees differ by nature and also in their ability to perform a specific task. This ‘will’ do so is defined as motivation. The stronger is the will of an employee to perform; the better will be the motivation.

Motivation involves these three main tenets:

Primarily, it is the effort that is input by an employee to a specific task which determines his ability towards his work.

Secondly, how consistently the employee is performing that task with zeal is indeed important for the organization.

Thirdly, the employee needs to keep working in the right direction which gives the maximum output with minimal usage of resources.

During the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the entire work culture and the working life of employees have witnessed a U-turn. While some offices have completely given the work from home option to their employees, at the same time, some companies are asking their employees to report to office 5-7 days in a month and complete the remaining work from home.

It has been extremely difficult in these uncertain times for the organizations to keep their employees motivated. Employees all over the world have now entered an arena of virtual workplace where they are juggling to understand how to maintain work-life balance at the time of working from home and simultaneously keeping their spirits high to achieve their targets and deadlines. Face-to-face conversation has been replaced with phone calls and videoconferencing. In other words, the visibility factor has reduced which has become a major challenge for the organizations at present to handle.

Let us go through some of the ways and methods which organizations can adopt to keep their employees motivated remotely.

1. Use the option of videoconferencing instead of simple making a phone call: Technology, in these unpredictable times has become a boon. WhatsApp, Goggle Duo, Goggle Hangouts, Zoom, Microsoft Team and Skype to name a few are some of the applications which when installed in a smart phone facilitate in making a phone call and conducting videoconference.  Today, your manager sitting in say, United Kingdom can interact with you in India and with other employees as well. Making a video call instead of a phone call is simply better because the body language of the employee is visible to the employer.

The manager while interacting with his subordinate will get to understand from his body language whether he is motivated to work from home or else he is perturbed due to some issue. In this manner, the manager can discuss with his subordinate about the work status and simultaneously, he will get to know about any problem afflicting the subordinate, if there is any. In this way, the employee will also feel happy that the organization is concerned about him.

2. Recognition and Appreciation: The second foremost technique of keeping the employees motivated while working remotely is through recognition and appreciation. For instance, the organization can provide a certificate of appreciation to an employee who has completed a challenging task. Not only this, the company can even publicise this information on their social media page or on their LinkedIn page. This gives immense amount of recognition to the employee and the individual feels motivated to enhance his performance.

Another method of appreciating the employee is by giving him an incentive or a voucher as a token of appreciation. These small gestures on the part of the organization make the employee feel special and motivated.

3. On-time disbursal of salary: An employee feels happy the most when he receives the salary in his bank account and that too on time. In the times of Coronavirus, when most of the offices have been shut down and some of the employees have lost their jobs; it indeed gives peace of mind to receive your salary in your account. The fact that your salary is coming on time on a specific date also gives the notion that the company is functioning as usual as it was before the outbreak of the pandemic.

4. Promotion of skills of your employees: This technique can be another motivation booster for the employees. For instance, if your employee likes writing and has been posting his poems or short stories on the social media platform, it would indeed be a matter of pride and privilege for the organization to promote the skills of the employee. This will also go a long way in motivating the employee.

Therefore, to conclude, organizations undoubtedly, are finding it hard to ensure smooth functioning of the work flow by adopting the work from home option. Nonetheless, the organizations can ensure to keep their employees motivated by adopting various novice techniques which are proving to be successful in these challenging times.  

Introduction
You might be aware of cyber crimes and how different types of malicious software can place some or all of your company’s precious pieces of information at stake. A dramatic increase in the cyberattacks targeting the payroll departments and payroll services of companies have been witnessed since 2017. A forewarning by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Centre(IC3) was also issued in September 2018, which signalled a threat to the various industries including the education, healthcare and commercial airway

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transportation sectors regarding their online payroll accounts. The IC3 cautioned against the use of phishing emails by the hackers to steal employee’s login credentials and siphon money off their depository accounts.
For a long time now, news stories featuring cyber-attacks on enterprises has been on the go. Reports show that 82 % of the Indian companies  have  experienced  ransomware attacks in the last 12 months and claimed to have paid more than a fortune of 8 crores on an average to fix the issues.
How do you shield your payroll against such attacks?
Ransomware is a type of malware which encrypt’s the victim’s files and then holds it as hostage unless their demands for ransom are met. Lucky that every Indian company who paid the ransom recovered their data back, while this might not be the case always.
Therefore, not quick fixes but adopting proper safety measures to  fight  such payroll-related cyber attacks is the key. Listing down some of the preventive measures below:
Click wisely: Ransomware most commonly is delivered in the form of phishing spam. These are attachments that come with emails masqueraded as a file from a trusted source, but once you open or download these, cybercriminals can trick you to allow them administrative access and in some other cases they might aggressively take control over your computer and encrypt your valuable files.
Keep your IT systems and software up-to-date: An expired security software leaves you vulnerable to such malware attacks. Therefore, it is advisable to instantly update such security versions as soon as they are made available to you.

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Application of software patches for security holes and staying upgraded  to  the latest software packages is a must.
Conducting awareness programs: Employees need to be well-educated regarding the possible threats of cybercrime and the innovative ways used by such fraudsters to trap its target. They need to be trained on how they can act as monitors and flag such suspicious behaviours to the management at the earliest.
Use tough passwords: People often tend to use easy passwords for their own convenience but they often overlook the downside of doing so. By using easily crackable codes you are growing your chances of being attacked by manifold. Use uncommon passwords and don’t forget to keep changing the same within a short span of time.
Keep a backup strategy handy: If you can keep your payroll information safely stored in a separate drive other than storing it in the system wherein you process your payroll, you can be carefree from the fear of losing your crucial data. Why? Because once a hacker knows the IP address from which you are processing your payroll, it gets easier for the person to hack your system and steal your confidential data. This is where your backup data comes into play.
Strong security controls should be installed: It is  imperative for you to have a robust anti-malware and full system scan software installed. This will help in detecting possible threats beforehand and destroy them in the first place, hence leaving no room for intruders to invade.

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Choose a reliable third-party vendor: Before opting for any vendor, it is very important for you to do a comprehensive study on the one you have shortlisted among the others. Check their previous track records of service to its customers, their terms and conditions and once you are sure of its trustworthiness, agreements regarding security concerns can be made between both of you. Also, regular audits must be carried out at your end to ensure authority doesn’t go misused.
Avoid overdose of authority: When working in  a particular department, let’s say the payroll disbursement section, a person who is responsible for doing the transaction must seek approval from an authorised person in the higher level of the hierarchy. A single person must not be entrusted with both responsibilities. This will ensure that no anomalies go unnoticed.
Framing proper policies: Policies relating to the handling of critical business data and payroll must be weaved with utmost dexterity. Any violations must be immediately escalated and strict actions must be taken.   

It is a known fact that Covid-19 has brought several unprecedented disruptions and changes in dynamics in every sphere of life including work. To cope with the numerous challenges, several companies and enterprises introduced interim changes in the year 2021 which have continued to stay little longer than expected.

Several small and big enterprises adopted payroll outsourcing in 2021 to stay ahead in the competitive world. Unprecedented growth has been witnessed in the field of payroll outsourcing during the outbreak of the pandemic. In fact, according to industry statistics and trends, payroll outsourcing will facilitate business growth in 2022.

Payroll outsourcing will help your business immensely in adapting to the new workplace dynamics such as remote working, hiring and managing freelancers and contractual workers, adopting latest technology and so forth.

Let us understand how payroll outsourcing will help your business in 2022.

1. Saving time: Time saved is equivalent to money. Hence, by hiring a payroll outsourcing provider, you save time otherwise spent on doing payroll calculation, tax deduction, salary disbursal, leave and attendance management and others. In this manner, you and your HR team will have ample time at their disposal to focus on core functions of business such as business development, or customer retention.
   
   
2. Reducing costs: It is vital to understand that hiring an efficient payroll outsourcing provider will help your business to keep pace with the rapidly changing work dynamics. The amount of expertise and specialization which you will gain from the payroll outsourcing provider will certainly outweigh the efforts put in by an in-house HR team. Moreover, with the plethora of outsourcing options available, you can negotiate and settle for one of the best payroll outsourcing providers and that too at a low cost. So, be assured, that your cost will not increase but your gains will!
   
   
3. Application of latest technology: By outsourcing payroll, your business can leverage the usage of latest technologies such as cloud-computing system. By adopting cloud infrastructure, payroll outsourcing provider ensures flexibility, efficiency, transparency, speed and accessibility. Another latest technology which will find wide usage in 2022 is the application of Robotic Process Automation (RPA). This is an emerging technology and is being increasingly used by payroll outsourcing providers for timely processing and delivering high quality and accuracy in the entire process.
   
   
4. Better security of company data: By outsourcing payroll, you will be able to protect your company’s sensitive data from any kind of theft or instances such as hacking of company’s server. Also, mishandling of large amount of employee data can be easily avoided. Payroll outsourcing providers use high-tech software and technologies which provide security and safety to your business database.
   
   
5. Compliance: It is extremely difficult for your in-house HR team to be aware and updated of the latest tax regulations and labour laws all the time. Also, handling payroll function accurately and efficiently is a complex task when handled manually. This can lead to levy of fines and penalties accentuating delay in salary disbursal further disappointing the employees. Hence, by outsourcing payroll, you will get access to experts and professionals equipped with the latest knowledge of tax laws and proficient of handling payroll with full compliance to state and central laws of the country.
   
   

Conclusion

Therefore, to conclude, payroll outsourcing is definitely going to help your business in 2022. By hiring a professional payroll outsourcing provider, you can avail several benefits and spend your time and money on increasing business productivity and growth.