Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • 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
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • 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
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Pay & benefitsSupplier NewsPayroll

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. 

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.”

Avatar
Personnel Today

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

You may also like

Inflation: A return to the 1970s or a...

6 Jul 2022

NI threshold increase ‘not likely to benefit workers’

6 Jul 2022

The ultimate guide to payroll for small businesses

5 Jul 2022

Government childcare plans aim to reduce cost of...

4 Jul 2022

BT workers vote for strike action over pay

1 Jul 2022

Gender pay gap ‘won’t close until 2151’

27 Jun 2022

PwC to award inflation-busting pay increase

27 Jun 2022

Graduate salaries rise sharply as search for talent...

27 Jun 2022

‘Ministers must increase employee mileage rates’ as costs...

23 Jun 2022

Six findings from the national living wage review

22 Jun 2022
  • The ultimate guide to payroll for small businesses PROMOTED | You’ve started a business that has expanded to the point of requiring more staff to meet demand. Congratulations!...Read more
  • NSPCC revamps its learning strategy with child wellbeing at its heart PROMOTED | The NSPCC’s mission is to prevent abuse and neglect...Read more
  • Diversity versus inclusion: Why the difference matters PROMOTED | It’s possible for an environment to be diverse, but not inclusive...Read more
  • Five steps for organisations across the globe to become more skills-driven PROMOTED | The shift in the world of work has been felt across the globe...Read more
  • The future of workforce development PROMOTED | Northumbria University and partners share insight...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 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • 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
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+