By Rob Bell of Pay Magazine

E-payslips, despite the hype, still play second fiddle to pay on paper.

Maximising simplicity, efficiency and security while minimising cost, is the ultimate goal of any payroll department. And providing employees with their pay information on time and without compromising their privacy is essential to smooth operation and maintaining staff goodwill.

The way payslips are generated, printed, presented and distributed has evolved over time, and companies can choose from a bewildering array of options and offerings. Be it th much talked about (but less implemented) e-payslip to a range of outsourcing options offered by companies that range in size and specialism from the largest operations, such as Capita, to tiny bureaux offering monthly runs from as low as €30 for one employee, through to retaining all payroll service completely in-house, the choices seem endless. So, which path is best?

Paper Power

A year ago the sector was awash with talk that the payslip in its traditional form was on its way out altogether and that the day was coming when employees would receive their wage data electronically, either by email or within a secure intranet.

However, Paul Francis, product manager for pay media at Prolog Print Media, says “I’m not sure whether e-payslips is any closer than it ever has been.”

The reasons are simple, and due in the main to the fact that the technology which makes the idea possible moving faster than both people and their organisations. Barry cox, of Econo-Mailer explains: “People have been talking about phasing out paper pay forms and moving to an electronic slip, but it’s not really happening. What about if your organisation has manual labourers working for you? When will they be able to access a computer terminal?”

Added to that is the potential need to invest in data security measures in order to protect payroll information sufficiently and the fact that people by their very nature like to have a payslip in their hand. It says “today’s payday” or as one frazzled office worker says “it’s nice getting something tangible at the end of the month, and it’s satisfying to sit back and pull off the perforated edges”. Paper slips have more uses than simply satisfying the need to tear the edges of things too. Anyone applying for a mortgage or renting a house will find that banks, landlords and letting agents generally want to see three recent payslips in order to ascertain financial solvency.

Technology

So despite the predictions, payslips are likely to be with us for a little while longer. And handily, the technology to produce them is both simpler and much cheaper than ever before. Recent years have seen printing and sealing technology improve with the move from impact to laser printers and the advent of the affordable pressure seal machine.

Coz says: “The big trend in the market is towards pressure seal. Payslips are printed on a laser printer on paper coated around the edges with glue that responds to pressure. We sell a machine that then folds and seals the slips so they’re ready for distribution.

“This helps reduce security issues and by getting rid of impact printers and moving to laser there is a benefit in the recipient getting hats effectively the original printout rather than a carbon copy.”

Kinight’s solution is a hybrid outsourcing scheme which alllos companies to maintain control of their payroll data security while taking the fiddly bits out of their hands – and with the added bonus of providing an e-payslip if it is required. “We offer outsourced print processing of payslips alongside a secure online option,” he says. “While some bureaux offer an online service, this means contracting the company to manage the whole process. But with our offering a company can retain in-house control of payroll – initiating the process, extracting the data and sending it to us. We then either print the slips or send them to the company, or we can make them available securely over the internet.”

Print Service Suppliers

Prolog Print Media has a similar offering, which Francis says is particularly attractive to companies with multiple sites, a diverse workforce or high staff turnover, for example retail businesses.

“Companies that retain payroll in-house tend to do so because they perceive that retaining control of every aspect of the process makes it simpler. However, where staff turnover is high, producing P45s in conjunction with final salary payments is very time-intensive, and for many companies just distributing payslips can be very complex.

“So one of our big growth areas has been our outsourced printing service, and as a lot of our turnaround times are inside a day, it’s not as if outsourcing is going to slow the process.”

Prolog can also solve the problem of an e-payslip’s lack of physical form, the loss of slips in distribution or disabled electronic access. Copies can be provided either by email or in PDF form on a CD in the past, ready to be printed off if necessary.

Knight’s final shot in his battle to convince that outsourcing in the future is the fact that print providers stay on top of changes in the requirements of HMRC and the Royal Mail, and strive to ensure their customers stay fully informed.

This trend towards print service suppliers taking charge of the physical side of payroll information without taking on the full administration of the payroll system as is the modus operandi of the payroll bureau is relatively new – Knight says his company will begin a marketing push imminently – but is one that has been driven by customer demand.

While companies continue to make the decision to outsource their payroll requirements, others are bringing operations back in-house in order to maintain tighter control over costs and financial data. “It’s a case of swings and roundabouts,” says knight.

The hybrid choice offered by such suppliers may well turn out to offer companies exactly what they need: control of payroll data without the complications of the printing, sealing and distribution process.

Research by The Sunday Times and Best Companies to Work for clearly shows that those companies who set out to get the best from their employees and ensure that HR staff and line management are managing rather than working on administration perform better.