How You Can Support Your Payroll Staff With Better Training

A recent study conducted by the Australian Payroll Association found that two-thirds of payroll managers want more training to keep on top of legislation. With big changes in legislation recently introduced, such as Single Touch Payroll, supporting your staff with appropriate training is more important than ever. The desire for more training was most prevalent within small businesses, with 86% of payroll managers within these businesses feeling as though they lack the necessary skills. However, this number dropped to 64% of managers in medium-sized businesses, as well as 57% in large organisations.

Providing training to your staff is an investment and should be one of your highest priorities. Go-Gulf research indicates that 40% of employees with poor training leave their jobs within the first year, so regular and robust training can go a long way towards increasing your staff retention. Furthermore, companies that invest in employee training were found to have, on average, a 24% higher profit margin as compared to companies that don’t.

Here’s what can be done to improve your training processes!

It’s crucial to learn what your staff want from training. For example, many payroll staff may struggle with the complexities of their legislation, but do they want to know what the legislation is, the impact to the business, or what they need to individually change about the way they currently do things?

Cross-training refers to training in more than one role or area. The benefit is your staff develop a new set of skills, become more invested in the business as a whole, and better understand the roles of the people they are paying. It also means you can put contingency plans in place and be proactive if staff move or leave your business.

It’s also important for your staff to understand the future of payroll, so that they can be more agile when it comes to changing processes. Technology is constantly evolving, and so too should your staff. They should be equipped to adapt to the times, rather than trying to retroactively fit processes around change. End of financial year processes is another example of an event that might come along regularly, but still requires preparation outside the norm. The more information your staff have, the more productive and confident they’ll be, and the better off your business is.

FastTrack provides regular updates and training for payroll staff, such as checklists, webinars, information and more, to make sure your payroll staff don’t feel overwhelmed, but rather, empowered. Click here to register for a demo, and find out more about how FastTrack360’s platform can help take your business to the next level.