Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Pay & benefitsPayroll

Research reveals widespread dissatisfaction with payroll outsourcing

by Personnel Today 6 Apr 2009
by Personnel Today 6 Apr 2009

Research released today by Orion Partners confirms the extent of UK companies’ dissatisfaction with their existing payroll outsourcing solutions.

“The study highlights the key drivers of satisfaction and dissatisfaction among companies that outsource their UK payroll operations”, says Ian Hunter, a partner at Orion Partners, who led the research team.

“We discovered that dissatisfaction outweighed satisfaction in many vital areas, demonstrating for the first time the extent to which outsourcing providers in the UK market are getting things wrong. The underlying cause of customers’ dissatisfaction with payroll outsourcing centres on service delivery issues, poor account management and ineffective payroll processes,” explains Orion’s Hunter.


1. Poor account management



  • Respondents complain their account managers are not easily accessible and high performing account managers paraded at the bid stage are quickly replaced by less competent ones

  • 89% of respondents report a good service during the implementation stage, but quickly dropping to just 30% soon afterwards

  • Vendors need to deploy account managers with relevant, business specific skills, experience and knowledge so not tolimit their ability to add value to customers’ organisations.

2. Failure to manage change requests



  • 100% of respondents noted a down turn in the quality of services received since going live

  • 36% find their vendors were unable to meet their needs for ongoing change; important when customers expect change requests to happen in a timely way and at no (or reasonable) cost

  • Vendors need to have well-defined and robust change control procedures that are cost effective, sufficiently resourced and backed by clear key performance indicators to respond appropriately to customers’ changing needs.

3. No continuous improvement



  • 33% of respondents are highly dissatisfied with the proactivity of their payroll vendor. Many were particularly critical about vendors’ ability to pre-empt and address their evolving needs

  • Vendors need to give much more attention to their ongoing service and value improvements and must be visibly proactive in alerting clients to new opportunities and new technology, for example. 

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Ian Hunter continues, “Payroll technology isn’t causing the underlying dissatisfaction for outsourcing customers, it’s the payroll reporting and account management – or lack of – that is causing frustration. This presents a clear imperative for vendors to reinvent the way payroll information is presented as part of a modern outsourced solution.”
 
“Alongside their outsourcing disappointment, the companies we talked to were agreed on a series of specific service improvements open to vendors that will enable them to put their payroll outsourcing back on track. The study creates an effective blueprint for payroll outsourcing service delivery in the next decade and beyond,”, adds Dr Yonca Crew of Orion who managed the research study .

Alan Brennan, UK Managing Director of HR Access Solution, sponsors of the study comments, “There is considerable dissatisfaction with the current UK payroll outsourcing market; the study confirms that low levels of service and high costs are all too common among providers. These frustrations challenge providers to significantly up their game and certainly leave the market open to a providers that give clients clear and consistent service standards combined with an open and competitive cost model.”

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Insider reveals falling standards at HMRC
next post
UK workforce still lacking basic skills, says survey

You may also like

Next to improve wage-setting transparency after shareholder pressure

16 May 2025

Ofgem workers ballot for strike action

2 May 2025

What will reward look like in 2035?

28 Apr 2025

NI increase has not caused ‘knee-jerk reaction’ in...

23 Apr 2025

Post-pandemic starters seek more pay for on-site working

10 Apr 2025

Maisie Adam to host Employee Benefits Awards 2025

3 Apr 2025

Most businesses will need to adjust wages in...

28 Mar 2025

‘British people too polite to talk about salary?...

28 Mar 2025

Senior HR pay rising faster than junior roles

28 Mar 2025

Employee Benefits Awards 2025 shortlist revealed

24 Mar 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+