Subscribe

The payslip of the future

HR practitioners are uniquely positioned to harness technology to speed up recruiting, boost productivity, and increase efficiencies, says Richard Firth, chairman and CEO of MIP.


Johannesburg, 24 Apr 2017

Today's employees are increasingly important in light of the social world. Social media is giving them a stronger voice than ever before, and this can be daunting for the companies they work for. Disgruntled and dissatisfied employees can use social platforms to voice their complaints about their employers and possibly even use the opportunity to air dirty laundry about the organisations that employ them.

However, by the same token, social media can also be used by human resources to strengthen the relationship between themselves and employees, leading to less instances of employee dissatisfaction. Taking advantage of social media platforms and the application ecosystem by the HR department will ultimately lead to the rise of the HR director rather than the HR manager.

HR practitioners are uniquely positioned to harness technology to speed up recruiting, boost productivity, and increase efficiencies, says Richard Firth, Chairman and CEO of MIP. The advent of remote workers and the cloud technologies they are increasingly relying on, as well as gamification and social applications, are changing the HR function. Managing human resources in a similar way to how other resources, such as finance, property, or machines, are managed, is counter-productive, and companies should rather invest in the "people function". Offering employees an intelligent payslip is one of the ways this can be achieved, as it can greatly empower them to better understand and control their finances.

The paper payslip of today is an outdated approach. Through Web services and the connectivity between third parties and the HR function, the payslip can come alive and become interactive, empowering the employee to take charge. This kind of payslip can contain current information as well as forecasts of all of the third party participants in the payroll of any individual - including short- and long-term insurers.

An intelligent payslip can offer integration between pension and medical aid information and employee payroll, giving employees a holistic view of their financial status within the company. For instance, they can keep an eye on what their pension payout will be when they eventually retire, or what the performance of their retirement annuity is, or even how their investments into the stock market are doing. Giving the employee instant access to this information at a glance will greatly empower them to make solid financial decisions.

With the proliferation of data and its increased accessibility, it makes sense to use a super application to manage all payroll and insurance-related data, via a simple-to-use enquiry interface. Having such an intelligent payslip will create a bilateral relationship between employer and employee, and this increased visibility into their finances will instil trust in the employees towards the company. Knowing that the company provides them with visibility into their finances will enable a very honest and open relationship between employees and their employer, and it's more likely for employees to feel part of the "bigger picture".

The less employees are kept in the dark with regards to their financial status, the less likely they will be to complain about the company on social media platforms. It is important for organisations to change as these platforms grow.

Share

Editorial contacts