Tips for Evaluating Payroll Providers

Maintaining an efficient human resources department and payroll procedures is one of the keys to a healthy business. With so many different systems and software programs being used by different employees, the best payroll providers find a way to house them all under one roof.

If you’re looking to take better control of these departments and limit the costly mistakes made in the process, you need to know what is a payroll provider and how you can find the best payroll providers for small businesses.

Before you start your search, we have a variety of tips we believe will help you find the right payroll provider for your business. Let’s take a look!

1.   Determine Your Goals

In order to find the payroll providers best suited to meet your needs, it’s essential you first understand what it is you want to achieve. Take into account your current and future goals for your business and how those goals can be met with the addition of an integrated payroll system.

One of the best practices when determining your goals is sitting down with the executives, senior leadership, management, and consultants within your company to discuss shared goals. It helps get everyone on the same page before looking at different payroll providers.

2.   Determine Your Needs

Every business is unique and has different requirements they need to meet when managing payroll. Once you determine your present and future goals, it’s imperative you consider your actual needs.

This includes the various features and integrations you need across all software programs, different regulations you need to follow in different cities, states, or countries, and different types of employees you need to manage. 

3.   Focus on Privacy & Security

Anytime you’re dealing with human resources and payroll, you’re managing important, confidential, and sensitive information that belongs to your employees. As a business owner, your duty is to implement the right strategies and solutions to keep this information safe.

To do this, ensure you understand how and where your business’ information is being stored, how you can back that information up at any time, and what your payroll providers are prepared to do when fraud or issues arise.

4.   Implementation vs. Adoption

When finding the best payroll providers for small businesses, it’s important to look at their track record to get a glimpse of how they’ve helped similar businesses in the past. Two of the major areas you’ll want to observe are the payroll provider’s implementation technique and adoption methods.

These two stages in the process are essential to getting your new payroll provider off to a smooth start -- especially when dealing with a large number of employees. Without constant communication and management throughout these stages, mayhem can strike at any moment.

On the other hand, payroll providers that take these stages seriously are able to get the new systems working efficiently in no time at all. Your employees will understand what they need to do and you’ll have a business full of employees on the same page.

5.   Don’t Forget About the Big Picture

Getting past the implementation and adoption stages of the process are huge steps for your business, but it’s not the only thing that matters when looking at different payroll providers. You need a provider that extends their support well beyond these two stages.

Your business is bound to grow, especially if you’re constantly making smart decisions like the one you’re in the midst of making right now. Payroll providers need to be able to scale with your business and they should provide the support needed for any mishaps along the way.

You should always be thinking big picture when it comes to your business and your payroll provider is no different.

6.   Cater to Data & Analytics

If you want to make smarter decisions when navigating your payroll and human resources procedures, you can use data and analytics to help power those decisions. They provide valuable insight into your current procedures and help you innovate others for future success.

Your payroll provider and integrated systems should support these needs and make them extremely easy to view. The more accessible they are, the more useful they are to you and your staff.

7.   Understand the Payroll Providers in Front of You

Understanding a payroll provider’s features and offerings is essential to finding the right one for your company, but you shouldn’t stop there. You should commit your team to learn everything there is to know about the payroll providers in front of you.

Study their history, look at feedback or reviews from previous clients, and most importantly look into their dedication to the future. As your business finds new ways to innovate your industry, you should be teaming up with a payroll provider with common views.

8.   Evolving Your Business Over Time

When automating and integrating certain areas of your business, it’s important to make sure it doesn’t take away from the human element of the business. These tools and resources are supposed to make your team more efficient, but they aren’t supposed to drive your team away from each other.

If you’re ready to start evolving your business and sparking the growth you’ve always imagined you’d see, it’s time to start taking better control of your payroll procedures. Now that you’ve learned what is a payroll provider, don’t be afraid to ask questions when interacting with payroll providers during the evaluation process.

To learn more about how Consultants In-A-Box can help you with your payroll and human resources needs, contact us today!

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