“Organisations have woken up to the effectiveness of working remotely. And with proximity to the office no longer a consideration when it comes to staffing decisions and new skills that are needed, organisations are looking for ways to build teams more rapidly and effectively” , says Edmund Pohl, Head of Outsourcing at PaySpace, a leader in payroll and HR software.
Outsourcing puts top talent at the fingertips of organisations, on demand, he explains. “Using outsourcing professionals can deliver the skills the company needs more rapidly, and less expensively.”
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns, companies across the board have been forced to adapt to remote working structures, explains Pohl. “The ever-changing world we live in has seen a slew of changes in the past year, and this will continue into the future. We will never revert to the way things were.”
Prominent changes include human behaviour, the global economy left in tatters, technological advancements, and many more. “Outsourcing has become a matter of continuity. During lockdown, companies ended up in scenarios where they ran into a plethora of problems with vital services such as payroll.
Staff could not physically go into the office, some were off sick, legacy products that required a server were still being used, and many didn’t have access to laptops to do their jobs remotely.” And the path ahead is still fairly uncertain, which highlights the obvious opportunity that organisations should explore. “Cloud solutions emerged that enabled employees to maintain operations they enjoyed in physical environments, and helped companies realise that it is no longer necessary to maintain in-house teams across every department. And payroll emerged as one key area where moving operations to a professional outsourcer proved a dramatic and much-needed efficiency,” he adds.
Outsourcing payroll enables organisations to access the skilled professionals their operations need, without being forced to compromise on quality. This kind of flexibility allows companies to become more agile in filling the internal skills gaps that plague every organisation. Outsourcing can be an opportunity for companies to tap into new, flexible talent and build valuable relationships with industry experts.
Pohl says outsourcing has experienced a boom that is definitely pandemic-related, in terms of how the world is changing. “Companies are trying to find new, cost effective ways of doing things. It is more cost effective to outsource your payroll, and have it all handled remotely and looked after by experts.”
The principles of what is needed haven’t changed, and the advantages of outsourcing have always been there. “It has just become increasingly critical to be aware of those advantages in these uncertain times,” says Pohl.
Bear in mind that the environment as such, has reached a new level of complexity, due to compliance and adherence, as well as governments ensuring all revenue due to them is paid in full during this turbulent time. “It is ever more difficult to keep up with all of this, which is why having a group of experts at your disposal helps companies navigate this new world and its complexities. And this isn’t just payroll experts; we are talking legislative and compliance experts too, which is particularly useful when dealing with multi-national entities. Africa, for example, with multiple regions, each with its own legislation, is highly complex, and especially difficult to manage for an in-house payroll department.”
Pohl says no individual charged with handling the payroll can hope to keep up new best practice and legislation in such challenging and complex environments. “However, an outsourcer who has a dedicated compliance team gives companies the peace of mind that their payroll is up to date.”
The pandemic undoubtedly disrupted the outsourcing market, and for the better. “Organisations began looking at new ways of doing things because they had to. Covid-19 forced the world several years into the future, and outsourcing has all the answers to meet these challenges,” Pohl ends.
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