The ID cards are probably gathering dust, as the coffee vending machines back in our offices have gone cold.
Businesses across geographies are attempting their best to combat the unexpected COVID-19 situation, which has resulted in an unprecedented shutdown of offices throughout the world. If not already, several major economies are now heading towards a recession, which is influencing jobs across the globe. Sectors such as travel, tourism, retail, and e-commerce, are already beginning to notice the impact as billions of people stay confined to their homes. Companies that rely heavily on public commute and consumption are currently preparing themselves for the tough road ahead.
Organizations today are scaling down their operations, downsizing the workforce, and taking other measures due to two important factors:
- Heavy losses in terms of revenue
- Nature of work requiring less amount of work-from-home employees as opposed to on-field ones
Most companies are thus choosing to operate in a minimal capacity. Small and medium enterprises have been forced to resort to a deferral of payments and some are even at the brink of bankruptcy; whereas industry bigwigs are considering a reduction of their employees/teams. Associates belonging to all levels, ranging from CEOs to Managing Heads have agreed to take pay cuts in response to the financial challenges posed by the pandemic.
Uncertainties and challenges
On the other hand, such a situation also has a domino effect on the payroll software providers themselves. With a changing scenario in business and several legislations of government impacting wages and incentives, the payroll service provider must constantly monitor several aspects of payroll.
Because of COVID-19, governments across the globe are announcing various stimulus packages, tax exemptions, moratoriums, and other such measures. The stimulus package, which often consists of tax concessions and incentives, is used to stimulate the economy and secure the economy from a financial crisis. These can range from government incentives, donations and special funding, to industry-specific payment guidelines and a plethora of other fiscal regulations.
With statutory compliance being the lifeline of payroll software, the system is expected to run not just with clockwork precision and effectiveness, but also deliver on time to ensure employee satisfaction. The various stimulus packages and statutory requirements need to be well-integrated into the payroll software to sustain the needs of customers worldwide. Therefore, region-specific government incentives and statutory requirements are to be incorporated into the payroll product. The above points factored in, the need of the hour is for payroll software providers and payroll service providers to prove their software capability, especially by rapidly adapting and responding to the situation.
Efficient payroll solution
With its international customer base, Ramco Global Payroll covers 45+ countries on a single platform and offers a highly efficient and well-designed product. Ramco’s statutory, backed by Big Four Consultancies, is equipped to handle the current pandemic situation through a well-defined system of monitoring, tracking and delivering statutory amendments. Even as various statutory requirements by several governments are in the proposal stage, we diligently track the same and ready our product to cover it all.
The pandemic continues to bring ambiguity in business, and pose a fresh set of challenges to the payroll processing scenario. But payroll processing can be the least of your worries. Ramco has implemented several initiatives to ensure a hassle-free pandemic payroll processing for their customers. With round-the-clock support and a dedicated team of experts, the emphasis is on ensuring a smooth payroll process.
If there can be an analogy to this, I would say Ramco's Payroll Software is like a mask against any payroll hassle you might face during this pandemic.
