SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to BCS Connects podcast. Today, with me in studio, I have Nikki Meiberg who looks after our HR and payroll solution. We are going to discuss today the different HR and payroll solutions that we have available from a pay-based perspective. My name is Herman Kessen. I look after solutions for HR and payroll. So Nikki, thank you for being with us today. One of the questions we always get asked is why businesses hesitate in this move to the HR and payroll and what does it cost them in doing so?

Why Business Hesitate to Migrate HR & Payroll Software

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Thanks, thanks Haman. I think for us it comes down to the fear of disruption. People obviously get very scared when they know or they find out they've got a change, and anybody is always scared of change. So HRM peril, I believe, touches many people's lives and each one of our employees that we have. So as leaders, you always worry about downtime, migration headaches, compliance risks, and staff pushback. You always have that change aspect that comes into play. The reality is that they're often more afraid of the move than of the cost of standing still.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Thank you for that insight, Nikki. And I tell you, many businesses they know the HRNP role, right? They know that it's outdated, that making the switch can feel daunting. But why do companies hesitate even when they know it's the right move for them?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

So, like I said previously, it obviously is something new, a change that they need to make, and everybody is initially scared of change, and not necessarily scared, but there's a change that comes along and people worry about what it's what it's going to be like. How does it change? How does it impact their lives? So for I think for companies, um, HRM payroll is a very important part of each of the employees' lives. Um, as soon as you touch an employee's salary, you are almost um being impacted by that employee. So you want to make sure that the employees get paid accurately and and and on time in order not to affect any of that. And I think one of the big things for you know leaders within a company is obviously the downtime that they have and that they don't want to have, they want to avoid that at all costs. And then there's always the concern around migrations, and I think one of the big things is the compliance and the risks around that. Um, so in reality, you know, everybody's often afraid of that, but moreover, I think people also worry about the costs. And if a project doesn't go according to plan, um are there you know changes to deadlines on the project? Does the project move? When do we go live? And I think those kinds of things always fear a change for an HRM payroll change of product or implementation.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

And and thank you for that. I think you've you've reached quite a few good points there. I mean, some of it comes down to the downtime you mentioned, right? And there's always this risk factor associated with it.

The Risk Factors

SPEAKER_01 3:26

And in reality, what what is the risk factor around that that companies should uh look at or consider to move past that?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

So for companies to have as little downtime as possible or no downtime, because in reality today you can do a migration or an implementation of a new payroll and HR system without having any downtime because the process is so slick and so efficient that you don't require downtime. I think if you take the right approach and you follow a proper project methodology, you should not have any downtime. It should be either not there or minimal. The irony is that the older the systems are, um you're probably prone to a few outages or minimal downtime. But the way that we do an implementation, you shouldn't have any of that. So it wouldn't be a risk or a concern. As long as you follow the correct project methodologies, you should be um you should be safe to say that there won't be any downtime on a project or a migration of a of a payroll system.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Thank you for that, Nikki. Um, some of the things that we also find with customers, right? There's the migration itself. You know, customer seat has been a painful move, especially you mentioned around older systems. So is it a justified uh response?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

I would say somewhat. Um, it could be, depending on the type of implementation that you do. And like I say again, it comes down to the methodology, and the it also comes down to the the way that you do the migration. So if you follow the proper methodologies and you've got your data correct and you've cleaned up your data, the migration of the data should be a non-event. It should be an easy upload into the new system, and you should have no downtime. Um, but today with the you know, with dedicated migration teams and the proper methodologies that you put in place, um, it should be easy. And and once you've got your data migrated, your checking processes and your parallel runs after that then are much easier, and they are done in a in a in a quicker way because of the data being clean and the data being accurate, your checking processes are then easy, and your sign-offs of your parallel runs and your checkings are a lot seamless. Um, so the processes and the structures that you put in place for an implementation are key in order to make sure that you have successful migration of data.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Thank you for

The Compliance Requirement

SPEAKER_01 6:28

that. I think what our listeners also are asking around is compliance. You know, compliance around the sensitivity of the area. You're now talking about employee information, you're talking about payroll, data that's that. What worries businesses the most around us?

SPEAKER_00 6:45

In today's, I think the way that we operate today, there's a big focus on data and employees' data being confidential and leaking of employee data. So I think it's very important that we secure our employees' data, and like we say, it is sensitive, so we ensure that that is kept very secure. Um, we also ensure that when we are doing um when we are processing payrolls or we when we are ensuring that the legislation is updated on the system, we um have that updated automatically so you don't have to do any of that. There's no there's no missing data because the system will pick it up automatically if there is any missing data. So we ensure that that's done. Um we also um comply with Poppy and with GDPR from a global perspective that all the data is housed in a secure way, and um we are very focused on ensuring that none of the employees' data is mishandled in in any way. Um, in South Africa and with SARS, you know, all the changes around from a SARS in a legislation perspective, um, that's kept up to date at all times, and it's automatically put into our cloud um payroll and HR solution. So there's no need to upload any data manually, it's all done automatically within the within the system. So I think those are the key aspects of having a cloud solution in that it gets done automatically. No employer or employee has to worry about making sure that the legislation updates are done because it happens automatically. So, from that perspective, there is no risk as we believe that those updates do happen automatically, and there's no risk around securing the employee data.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

The next part that I come through to is um, you know, we're talking about the system, we're talking about processes, this

Employee Disruption

SPEAKER_01 9:03

migration, the Pope I Act. What about the employees? You know, how do we avoid the disruption for employees and how they're going to access the system for this new information?

SPEAKER_00 9:14

So I think for an employee, it's key that there is a good experience for an employee when implementing a new HRN payroll solution. Because at the end of the day, you want your employees to have a good experience. But by doing that, you need to ensure that they are trained, that the proper change management takes place in order for them to understand the way that the new system works. Employees at the end of the day just want a pay slip and they want to know that their pay slip is accurate and they are getting paid correctly. So for us to do that, change management is important, and it's important that we keep communicating with employees in terms of what the expectation is, what they will see on their payslip, and what are the benefits that they will get from a new system. So there will be no employee disruption. It's basically just a change in the way that they used to receive the information and give them more rich functionality around their own information and how they can access that information.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

This brings uh quite a good model, right? In what in what's coming through for employees and how the HR department retail can meet specific objectives, KPIs, employee experience. But uh, you know, if we flip this around, how um what do businesses risk if they don't upgrade, you know, from the system they are on to this new age technology that we're speaking about?

SPEAKER_00 10:56

If clients or companies do not move and do not take their company and their employees on this digital journey, they are going to be left behind from a technology perspective, from an improvement of an employee perspective and giving them more in terms of what they they require and what they're looking for. So I think it is important that they understand that you know their legacy systems are outdated, that they don't provide them what they do require, particularly from a legislation perspective and a compliance perspective, and around ensuring that employees' data is secure and the compliance in general. Um the penalties that we have, um, and and there's no downtime, um, payroll errors are reduced to absolutely zero, and HR teams are now more available to employees and to their business partners because they're not buried in admin and having to make sure that the legacy system is still running, you know, um from an old technology perspective. And I think that for them becomes risky if they don't move over to a more updated digital

Implications if Legacy systems are maintained

SPEAKER_00 12:34

HR and payroll solution.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

So I think Nikki, you've given us a very good view around legacy systems, also the process to follow, the migration steps, what benefit it will come through to the customer. But I think one of the burning issues that comes up is around payroll adders. So in particular, these things can have big consequences for customers. And what is this impact and how do we go about it?

SPEAKER_00 13:02

So the impact could be huge if there is an incorrect pay slip, but the way that the system and the cloud solution is set up, we do not have payroll errors, we shouldn't have payroll errors because there are so many checking mechanisms in place in order to avoid that. And should we have an incorrect pay slip, we can instantly change it. However, if we do have one, we obviously do have the employees' trust at risk, and we've got to mitigate that trust and mitigate the risk around having an incorrect pay slip. So for businesses, it can trigger fines, it can trigger back pay, it can be a reputational damage if a pay slip is incorrect. So we try our best to not have any incorrect payslips.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Perfect. So now let's talk about solutions.

Value Proposition

SPEAKER_01 14:05

I think we've covered what the solution can do. We've been through the risk associated, the benefits, but how can BCX help deed us this transition for customers?

SPEAKER_00 14:21

We basically take the pressure off of our clients, we minimize their risk, we ensure that they then focus on their core business and we take care of the HR Imperial solutions. They don't need to worry about that. Um, and and I think that's where the problem comes in, where you have old systems and you've got dedicated people running those legacy systems. Whereas if you have a solution, you know, um with us, um we will do everything for you and we'll take that headache away from you. So we'll ensure that we do it on your behalf and we train your people, provide the change management, and ensure that you have a seamless implementation and integration.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

I love that. I think that employee experience for the customer, the clients, the employee, it makes a big difference. So finally, why is a hundred percent cloud-based system the way forward?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

It is definitely the way forward for all companies out there. Um, first of all, it's it's a secure environment and platform that a company will have. They'll have scalability, so you can have any size company on our solution and our platform, and it always runs real-time. Um, it integrates into various other systems, including financial systems and other human capital management systems. It's multi-country um compliant, it gives leaders real-time data, it's future-proof, and it frees HR to focus on people instead of admin and paperwork.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

So while there are fears around moving to the different HR imperial solutions, which are absolutely understandable, I think the risks, from what I understand, doing nothing is far greater. The good news is that with the right partner, businesses can make the switch smoothly and unlock real business benefits and value. Thank you, Nikki, for joining us today. Thank you for listening. If you'd like to learn more about this effortless HR Imperial solutions, please visit us at bcx.co.da.