Are emailed payslips really free?

Our case study example says otherwise!

Are you considering making the transition from printed to emailed electronic payslips? Then you are probably expecting to save the money, time and resources that printed payslips are costing your organisation.

Password-protected, electronic payslips sent via email may seem easier to manage and distribute to your workforce, (and cheaper than an online portal) however this method comes with a few challenges of its own.

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Let’s explore a typical Payroll Manager scenario

Gemma is the senior payroll manager at a large care company that employs 2000 people across the UK. The company recently transitioned from printed to emailed payslips with a view to cutting costs and saving time for their overstretched, time-poor HR department. This initiative seemed like a logical and cost-effective transition for the entire organisation.

However....Payroll immediately encountered issues with their emailed payslips. Here’s what happened:

Their Data Protection Officer had pointed out that it would not be secure to email the password to the same email address that the payslip would be sent to, as if there was a typo in the email address then the wrong recipient would receive both the password and the payslip. So, before the changeover, Gemma spent three days preparing and sending printed letters to employees containing information about their new payslip system and giving them their unique passwords.

During the first payslip run, 120 employees encountered password issues and couldn’t access their electronic payslips. Each one of these employees contacted Gemma, and at 2 minutes per password request this cost Gemma a total of 4 hours to resolve.

For the sake of argument, if Gemma is earning £38k (the average salary of a Payroll Manager), then the time it took to assist the 120 staff members with their passwords cost the company £77.95 in Gemma’s time!

But it didn’t end there. The next month as well as a similar number of requests for reminders of their passwords, Gemma also started receiving requests from employees who either accidentally deleted their previous payslip email, or from those who changed email addresses in the last month and did not notify HR prior to payday, and now hadn’t received their payslip at all.

Gemma has now lost count of how many extra requests this adds up to each month, and she’s really concerned about how much extra work this is going to cause when they move the temporary staff who are paid weekly to receiving emailed payslips as well.

Going paperless?

For organisations wanting to go paperless, these issues can be understandably frustrating. Electronic payslips are meant to save you time and money – they’re not meant to be time-consuming and burdensome!

Read our real-life client case study

What is the true cost of emailing 'free' payslips to your business?

PayDashboard has identified 5 key areas of concern that organisations should consider when using email to deliver their employees’ payslips, specifically:

1. Emailed payslips are inconvenient for employees
2. There are security risks associated with emailing payslips
3. Emailed payslips are inefficient, particularly when passwords get lost
4. It's difficult to provide an audit trail for emailed payslips
5. There are time and cost implications, and an associated impact on your payroll staff

Password resets

From our experience, 6% of employees reset their password on PayDashboard each month via an automated self-service process. Fortunately, our users don’t require the support from HR/Payroll teams to access their payslips. Electronic payslip recipients are more likely to look to their HR departments for assistance. This can ultimately become an unnecessary time and resource drain on your organisation.

The solution

We have put together a brief report outlining these areas in more detail and provided more information on PayDashboard’s immersive and interactive SmartSlip^TM solution. If you’re aiming to go paperless and would like to know more about our specialist payslip portal, download our free report below or contact us for a demo.

Download my free short guide on making the move from emailed payslips

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