The concept of workplace silos isn’t a particularly new phenomenon- the term has been bandied about by organisations over the past few decades. Traditionally speaking, when we talk about silos within an organisation, we refer to departmental silos- incidences where either due to policy or engrained behaviour, teams find themselves working isolated from their peers and reluctant to share information.
Silos of this nature are obviously extremely disruptive and represent a significant barrier to productivity, which is why it’s understandable that organisations will focus their efforts on breaking down barriers between their various functions.
But what about silos of different natures? What’s less commonly considered is the contributing factor technology can play in throwing up barriers to productivity and building silos. This is a particularly acute phenomenon when looking at your people management function- particularly in relation to HR and payroll.
Effective payroll and HR solutions are vital in ensuring accurate and healthy pay cycles, not to mention giving organisations the ability to more effectively engage with their people and create a stronger foundation for their people management strategies. When businesses go to market for a respective solution, it’s all too common to focus on individual functionality- finding a system which may be effective at dealing with a specific task, but which exists entirely separately from other solutions.
But functionality of individual solutions can only go so far: HR and payroll are inexorably linked, and a healthy pay cycle demands interplay and effective communication between various solutions, not siloed processes and people management data. When too great an emphasis is placed on finding a system to achieve a specific task, organisations can find that they have actually contributed towards creating entirely unexpected silos that have knock-on consequences.
It’s for this reason that we believe that integrated HR and payroll systems are the most effective way for organisations to knock down these barriers and embrace their people management processes as the organic and interlinked function they need to be. In this blog we will be exploring the danger of silos within HR and payroll and how integrated solutions can help your business overcome these challenges.
Consequences of silos in people management.
It goes without saying that people management covers the entire breadth of your organisation and is dependent on an uninterrupted flow of accurate and up to date information in under to ensure operational excellence.
One of the major issues with silos in people management is that they effectively act as a blocker preventing that flow of information. Data which you should be able to pull through effortlessly suddenly finds itself hidden behind nebulous processes or restricted in access to only a few individuals.
Here are just some of the challenges presented by working in silos within your people management function.
- Time wasted- Ask any HR or payroll professional and they’re likely to tell you that data-based admin represents one of the greatest time sinks across their working week. When your HR and payroll processes become fragmented across multiple systems, this necessitates the duplication of data input- something which further eats into the precious time of key personnel and makes leveraging their skillsets and knowledge in more transformative ways all but impossible.
- Greater scope for human error- It’s no secret that the more reliant you are on manual processes, the greater the potential for errors cropping up, no matter how diligent your team is. When your payroll and HR solutions don’t effectively communicate with each other, the necessity of duplicating processes and manually inputting data across multiple platforms, increases the risk of error exponentially.
- Erosion of trust- Non-integrated HR and payroll unfortunately means that errors become an inevitability. When mistakes happen and processes are split across various functions, these silos can suddenly become territorial, with errors leading to an erosion of trust between colleagues and a tendency to apportion blame when things go wrong.
- Lack of data integrity- HR and payroll are functions that both deal with huge amounts of sensitive, people-led data. For this reason, security and data integrity come as a top priority when organisations source a solution. However, when HR and payroll processes aren’t integrated effectively, organisations open themselves up to the threat of potential security breaches and data leakage, particularly when duplicating information across multiple platforms.
- Risk of non-compliance- HR and payroll are both at the behest of numerous rules and regulations which must be adhered to. Any one breach of compliance could carry hefty legal and financial penalties for organisations, not to mention the long-term impact it can have on an organisation’s reputation.
How integrated HR and Payroll can help.
There are a myriad of issues presented through organisations working in silos, with any single problem carrying with it the potential for wider legal and financial repercussions- not to mention, damage to an organisation’s reputation.
As mentioned previously, one of the most insidious impacts of working in silos comes from the subtle shifts they instil into an organisation’s culture. Teams which find themselves working essentially on an island- isolated form their colleagues, can often form working practices which are based on hoarding information and protecting their immediate team at the expense of the wider workforce.
This means that when errors do occur in your people management function, the tendency for siloed teams will be to close ranks and to apportion blame elsewhere, rather than focus on identifying and solving issues. Not only is this an unhealthy working practice which actively erodes trust between colleagues, it means that any minor issues with input or replication of people data, carry the potential to spiral into far more serious issues.
The need to ensure accuracy across all levels of people management is one of the reasons we believe integrated HR and payroll should be a top priority for organisations, particularly when it comes to procuring solutions.
It’s probably fair to assume that most organisations are aware of the individual importance of HR and payroll as their own functions. Both are elements of a business that deal with sensitive, people-based data and the consequences of getting either wrong can carry serious legal and financial penalties for businesses.
When we talk about simplifying and unifying HR and Payroll, we’re not just talking about individual functionality of solutions. Any one system can be as robust and comprehensive as you’d like but if it lacks the ability to integrate with other core aspects of your people function, that individual functionality suddenly looks less impressive.
When sourcing solutions, organisations need to look at HR and payroll as an organic part of the same processes and prioritise effective integration and communication between systems.
Simplifying your people management processes in essence, is the process of acknowledging the sheer amount of admin and dependence on data which your HR and payroll functions demand. When dealing with such an enormous wealth of information, when organisations suddenly find themselves having to duplicate processes and input data between isolated, uncommunicative systems, the potential for error is exponentially increased.
So, what are the benefits of unifying and simplifying your HR and payroll?
- Automation- With integrated software, you can finally say goodbye to tedious manual input and the need to replicate data manually across several platforms. When your systems talk properly with one another, you have the ability to pull through data effortlessly, with automatic syncing overriding the need for dual entry.
- Security- The elimination of duplicated processes and the need to split your focus between multiple platforms will afford you a greater peace of mind to understand that potential breaches presented through fragmented systems are no longer a factor.
- Data accuracy- With your HR and payroll functions operating on a unified platform, the elimination of multiple manual inputs and duplicated processes which are traditionally the bane of data accuracy and integrity, suddenly become a thing of the past. Ultimately, this means freeing your HR and payroll teams to focus their efforts on more strategically influential tasks, all while being safe in the knowledge that the people data they are working with is accurate and correct.
- Easy to adopt- When organisations find themselves operating across multiple platforms for their HR and payroll functions, the complexities thrown up by fragmented processes can often mean that only a small handful of individuals within the business are able to reconcile all the idiosyncrasies and workarounds required. This rather archaic and patchwork way of operating can be extremely daunting, particularly when introducing new employees to the function. Integrated payroll and HR by its very nature is easy to adopt, helping your teams get core HR tasks done without the need to navigate labyrinthine and complex processes.
Why Advanced?
Regardless of the sector they operate in, all organisations will want to focus on striving for greater heights of productivity and profitability. Unfortunately, there’s no getting away from the fact that an embedded culture of workplace silos can act as a severe blocker to any transformational goals.
Silos lead to an overcomplication of daily people management practices, with manual input and duplication of data an everyday occurrence which could lead into spiralling issues.
When we talk about simplifying and unifying core HR, it means we want to free HR and payroll teams from the burden of complexity and enable them to do their best work. Working in silos, alongside an overreliance on manual inputs and duplication of processes, are all too common blockers to productivity and growth- hurdles that we want to help you overcome.
Our HR management software, Advanced HR, is designed to help people teams get the basics in HR done right. Our easy-to-use solution ensures HR teams have access to reliable people data, automated processes and simple self-serve capabilities to drive success.
Advanced Payroll has been designed specifically to help tackle challenges facing payroll professionals day in and day out. We’ve taken on board the experiences of people working in the field in order to craft a solution that can free payroll teams from the burden of admin heavy tasks and allow them to leverage their skills in more meaningful ways.
Advanced HR and Advanced Payroll offers you the unified HR experience needed to make core HR simple. Instead of wasting your time splitting processes between disparate software, why not discover software which actively works towards making your working day easier: eliminating the need for manual input and the duplication of tasks across multiple platforms, whilst automating key actions and workflows, giving you back the time you need to achieve more.
Advanced HR is designed to empower HR teams, managers and employees to get things done. And to say goodbye to the admin roadblocks which act as barriers to transformative change.
If you’d like to discover more about how Advanced HR can help knock down silos within your organisation, get in touch today
