The democratisation of pay: HR’s new priority

Employees today don’t experience HR, learning and payroll as separate functions. They expect smooth end-to-end support across all their internal interactions — from onboarding and performance reviews to remuneration and career growth.

At a time when they can book flights, transfer money, order groceries or manage utility bills in seconds from their smartphones, the payroll experience often feels stuck in an earlier decade. Unlike modern consumer platforms that offer real-time updates and 24×7 self-service, payroll remains a black box for many — slow, opaque and reactive.

This disconnect not only creates frustration but also undermines trust, especially when timely and accurate pay is one of the most basic expectations of any working individual.

In response, companies have begun making fundamental changes to their payroll capabilities, talent and processes. The organisations making the first move are elevating their pay experience to give employees unprecedented levels of transparency and control over their pay.

We call this the democratisation of pay and soon it will be an expectation from workers.

Leaders also know that investing in transformative new payroll technologies will create new business value by simplifying processes and increasing compliance, flexibility, accuracy and scalability.

However, it’s complicated.

Payroll systems and processes have largely remained unchanged in many organisations for the last fifteen plus years, while legislation and business requirements have hugely escalated in complexity.

And there’s a disconnect between management expectations and payroll reality.

From a management perspective, payroll is often seen as a cost centre — essential and mission-critical, but ultimately something to streamline and rein in. Leaders also expect payroll to be flawlessly executed, deliver 100% accuracy, achieve full compliance with evolving legislation and, increasingly, support strategic goals through data-driven insights and reporting.

And when people costs are typically a company’s largest expense, the instinct is often to reduce investment in payroll rather than enhance it — even as expectations for value-add services grow.

However, the reality is a different story. Payroll teams are navigating unprecedented levels of complexity, from shifting compliance requirements and evolving tax laws to the operational challenges of variable work patterns and the gig economy.

Workloads are uneven and the stakes for getting it wrong — from regulatory fines to reputational damage — are higher than ever. Many organisations still underinvest in payroll systems and resources, creating a widening gap between what’s expected and what’s realistically achievable.

So, what steps can you take to ensure that your payroll serves both the business and employees?

Here’s a two-pronged strategy that will close the gap:

1. Deliver a unified employee experience

Disjointed and siloed systems mean multiple entries, compliance risks and payroll errors — one of the fastest ways to lose employee trust.

By automating systems and unifying your pay and employee data you can streamline how you pay people and deliver the personalised experiences they now expect.

Take advantage of self-service dashboards and mobile apps to empower employees with real-time visibility into their pay and instant access to key tasks, accessible anytime and anywhere.

You’ll want interactive payslips to provide users with real-time, detailed insights into earnings, deductions and allowances. This reduces payroll enquiries, increases compliance with tax and labour laws and saves time for your team.

And some clients are taking advantage of Affinity’s pay-on-demand capability that gives selected employees access to earned wages anytime during the pay period. By helping them to avoid financial stress and pay day loans, it offers significant benefits for employee wellbeing and reduces turnover — a win-win for your business and your people.

2. Unlock the value in your payroll data

Delivering a single source of truth will do more than elevate the employee experience. It will also turn your payroll from a cost centre into valuable insights for informed financial decisions and optimising resources.

Organisations that implement modern payroll significantly simplify access to information for fast decision-making and reduce manual workloads to free up their HR and payroll teams for more high-value tasks.

You’ll want a payroll platform that works in real-time, is driven by events, makes automated decisions and calculations and is supported by AI. It should deliver 100% system availability, with one-step processing to calculate, validate and finalise payroll in a single, automated workflow without manual steps or interventions. And it will need to handle every single interaction, creating workflows to escalate the right events at the right time to the right people.

With advanced reporting and data analytics, you’ll be able to access real-time insights and automate tedious tasks, helping you to manage payroll with greater accuracy, confidence and compliance.

APIs and integrations will let you assemble a tech ecosystem for your particular payroll and HR needs.

And make sure your provider is actively investing in AI to automate repetitive tasks, reduce errors, surface insights and improve compliance. You don’t want to be tied to a point player without a strategic roadmap and investment committed for new capabilities.