In the realm of human resources, efficiency and precision are paramount. For businesses operating in the fast-paced environment of Thailand, juggling HR admin and payroll tasks can be a cumbersome process that detracts from strategic goals. This is where HR admin outsourcing and payroll outsourcing services in Thailand offer a transformative solution.
The landscape of HR management has significantly shifted towards outsourcing. Companies are increasingly recognizing the value of external expertise in handling complex HR tasks. HR admin outsourcing is not just about delegating responsibilities; it’s about enhancing HR functions with professional acumen and technological prowess. By opting for a specialized HR administration service, organizations can ensure their HR operations are managed with utmost proficiency.
Payroll Outsourcing Service: A Game Changer
Payroll management is a critical component that demands accuracy and timely execution. The consequences of payroll errors can be significant, affecting everything from employee morale to legal compliance. A robust payroll outsourcing service becomes a game-changer for businesses, ensuring that employees are paid correctly and on time, while also managing tax filings and other statutory requirements.
Leveraging Payroll Software for Optimal Performance
In the digital age, payroll software stands as a cornerstone of efficient payroll management. Advanced payroll software systems offer a myriad of features that automate and streamline payroll processes. From tax calculations to leave management, these systems are designed to handle the intricacies of payroll with ease, reducing the likelihood of human error and saving valuable time.
Strategic Advantage Through HR Outsourcing
The strategic impetus for outsourcing HR tasks is clear. It allows businesses to focus on their core competencies while experts handle the complexities of HR administration. This reallocation of focus and resources can lead to greater innovation and competitiveness in the market. With executive coaching and HR consulting services, companies can not only manage their HR tasks but also refine their overall HR strategy.
The Role of Insurance in HR Services
An often overlooked aspect of HR services is the provision and management of employee insurance. Comprehensive insurance services play a pivotal role in attracting and retaining top talent, as well as in safeguarding the well-being of employees. Outsourcing this component can ensure that businesses offer competitive packages while also staying compliant with legal requirements.
Technology: The Backbone of Modern Payroll
Technological integration is not limited to software. It encompasses a range of tools designed to optimize HR and payroll functions. From e-leave systems that automate leave tracking to e-time software for accurate timekeeping, technology is the backbone that supports efficient and error-free payroll operations.
The Human Element in HR Tech
Even as we embrace technology, the human element remains irreplaceable. Tools like online assessment tools, aptitude assessments, and personality assessments help in understanding the workforce better, ensuring that the human aspect of HR is not lost amidst digital transformation.
Enhancing the Employment Lifecycle
From the moment a candidate is considered for a position to their eventual exit or retirement, HR plays a crucial role. By integrating services like recruitment and executive search, businesses can streamline the acquisition and retention of top talent. A comprehensive employment service that includes onboarding, development, and exit management can significantly enhance the employee experience.
Payroll Services and Employee Benefits
Payroll services extend beyond salary disbursement. They include the administration of various employee benefits, which are a critical factor in job satisfaction and loyalty. Outsourcing this facet means businesses can provide a competitive benefits package without the administrative burden that comes with it.
Synthesizing HR and Payroll Outsourcing for Business Success
Outsourcing HR administration and payroll services can lead to a transformation in how businesses operate. By partnering with the right service providers, companies can achieve a high level of efficiency, compliance, and employee satisfaction. Moreover, integrating advanced payroll software can further enhance these processes, leading to seamless payroll operations.
Final Thoughts on Strategic Implementation
For businesses in Thailand, the strategic implementation of these services means choosing partners that understand the local business landscape, regulations, and cultural nuances. It’s not only about finding a vendor but establishing a partnership that aligns with the business’s strategic vision and growth trajectory.
Contacting CloudForce HR for Your Outsourcing Needs
For those interested in exploring these services further, CloudForce HR provides comprehensive solutions tailored to your business needs. Whether it’s for HR admin outsourcing, payroll services, or cutting-edge payroll software, they offer the expertise and technology to elevate your HR functions. Feel free to reach out and contact CloudForce HR for a consultation on how they can assist your business.
We are almost reaching mid-way to 2022 and by now organizations across the world have identified some new challenges that this year has brought with it. If you as an organization too have faced certain challenges let our HR Consulting Service help you identify some problem areas and how to overcome them.
The Need for Speed
Businesses have been fluctuating off-late; especially with the pandemic and the new work routines. Work flow has been stipulated, employees have been feeling drained, and the back to work routine is taking some time to get used to. During such trying times, companies are looking for productivity to compensate for the time lost and this means fast work and fast results. In case you find yourself confused and out of guidance, let our HR Consulting Service in Thailand help you get a clearer picture.
The Need for Employee Management
Happy employees make a happy organization. Employee contentment is crucial to drive productivity and that brings us to employee management. Now when we say management, we are not just talking on-time salaries and health insurances. We are talking about employee management on a macro level which includes attrition, employee welfare benefits, work environment, safety and security, engagement and more. If you want a progressive work environment with productive employees, our HR Consulting Services have some really good insights we can’t wait to share with you.
The Need for Efficiency
I’m sure we all believe in an efficiently effective work model where the investments incurred would be lesser than the ROIs. Now for that to happen, organizations need to keep their work module updated to the latest market standards so that they can create a footprint without hollowing out their pockets. One of the most efficient way to do so is to update your technology backbone and your employee expertise. If you want more insights on how to upgrade your personnel, we can help you with that too.
Human Resources is a vast umbrella that houses the skeleton of an organization. An additional source of expert guidance from HR Consulting professionals can help your organization go a long way.
We know payroll processing is no cakewalk. There are a lot of planning, execution and implementation of statutory guidelines that go into processing an organization’s payroll. And no matter what they say; even budding or mid-sized companies these days are facing the struggle! This brings us to one simple question- how can we make the entire ballgame we call payroll more efficient yet effortless?
To begin with, we recommend outsourcing payroll services that can eliminate some of the most common payroll processing mistakes that organizations today make! Want to know what they are? Here goes-
Discussing Groundwork
Planning and creating a blueprint for your payroll process accounts for up to 50% of the entire process, something that companies spend limited resource and time on. Even when companies do plan their payroll it often lacks the depth and precision needed to get a crystal clear picture. On the other hand, our Payroll Outsourcing service in Bangkok takes out the time to create an in-depth insight alongside a detailed checklist of all the parameters so that you can have everything laid in front of you during the actual hours.
Implementing The Plan
Without a sound plan in place, an organization may often find itself grappling to meet deadlines or adhere to laws and changes. The key our outsourcing team follows is to religiously follow the plan. Starting out with the basics ensures your payroll process is covering all bases without spending additional resources, time, and manpower.
Accelerating The Audit
Why stick to paper people errors and time-consuming audit methods when you can work smart and get more benefits from your payroll processing. Imagine your internal team doing the checking and then an external team with a completely different mind frame verifying your accuracy, adherence to law, employee management records, etc. This shift alone increases your chances of audit errors. On the other hand, payroll outsourcing services in Thailand like ours work with our very own team of auditors and experts to make sure you and we are on the same page.
Keeping these mistakes in mind, now tally internal payroll processing with outsourcing your payroll. From advanced technology to manpower, trained specifically to handle your payroll- a payroll outsourcing service can be your answer to efficient and effortless payroll processing.
It is a worthwhile question to ask and one that comes with a wide variety of responses. When meeting with senior business management it is one of the questions I am most interested in hearing the answer to because, invariably, that answer provides the context for all subsequent discussion. It is my firm belief that the point of having an HR department is to ensure that the business can attract, develop and retain high performing, high potential staff.
If an HR department’s activities and resources are not primarily focused on attracting, developing and retaining high performing people, senior management should be asking themselves and their HR director “why?”
Now, attracting, developing and retaining high performing people is easier said then done. To take “attract high performing people” as an example, what are the elements that need to be in place? Attract in this day and age of a severe skills shortage, increasing demands
for competent people and increasing expectations of job seekers, a good salary and benefits package simply isn’t enough.
In order to be able to attract the right kind of people, businesses need to have the reputation as a good employer, to be an “employer of choice”. The attractiveness of a company is determined by, amongst other things:
Pay
Benefits
Location
Facilities
Job Content
Career Prospects
Company Reputation
Last month I met with the VP of Recruitment for one of Thailand’s largest conglomerates. It is a highly successful, highly visible, business and we were discussing ways to resolve a real business problem. The VP said to me “Even though we are offering competitive compensation & benefits packages, I am having to phone people and beg them to come and work for us – and even then a significant number of the people refuse.
The problem is our reputation as an employer.” The solution to that problem requires the attention of senior management and a coordinated HR response. It is not a problem that can be solved by an expensive advertising campaign and above average salary offers.
Develop
In business, the primary asset of the firm has traditionally been recognized as money. There is, however, a growing – if sometime grudging – acceptance of the notion that people are critical assets and, unlike plant and equipment that depreciate over time, managed and developed properly, the value of employees and their contributions to the business appreciate in value.
Developing people involves far more than simply recording how many training hours are spent per employee per year. The objective of development is to ensure that management and employees have the right skills, knowledge and competencies to successfully and confidently identify and address business issues and opportunities.
The range of development methods and means is vast and includes:
Objective performance appraisal/assessment
Cross-functional/business unit assignments
Coaching
Targeted needs based training
Mentoring
Secondments
Projects
Individual Development Plans
Organizational Succession Plan process
Attract
In this day and age of a severe skills shortage, increasing demands for competent people and increasing expectations of job seekers, a good salary and benefits package simply isn’t enough. In order to be able to attract the right kind of people, businesses need to have the reputation as a good employer, to be an “employer of choice”
The purpose of developing people is, simply stated, to ensure the business has high performing people equipped with the clarity, competence and confidence to manage their responsibilities and the changes to those responsibilities over time.
Retain
The current unemployment rate in Thailand is 1.4% On the face of it that is an encouraging figure. Yet it obscures more than it reveals. Many companies in Thailand are experiencing employee turnover rates (or “churn” rates) in excess of 20%. There is, in other words, a lot of ‘jobhopping’ going on. Having attracted and developed high performing, high potential people, the last thing a business needs is for a significant number of those people to leave. It is absolutely essential that HR departments work with their business colleagues to ensure that the business remains an attractive place for its people to work and develop.
The good news is that many of the elements necessary to be an attractive employer, an employer of choice, are the same elements that contribute to high employee retention rates. So, in addition to remaining competitive in the compensation & benefits market, businesses that wish to reduce labour turnover need to focus on ensuring that employees:
Feel engaged in their work
Feel recognized as an individual
Value and enjoy the relationships with leaders and peers at work
Continue to see opportunities to develop
This last point, “continue to see opportunities to develop”, does not relate to developing a career as a so-called high-flyer. Many employees do not seek such career paths. They want to have a job they can do well, have a supportive and friendly work environment and have the chance to continue to contribute.
If a business has the right balance of high performing and high potential staff, (and the ratios will vary by business and circumstance) and has the appropriate reward, recognition and development processes and practices in place. The issues of attracting and retaining staff will look after themselves.
Does Outsourcing Make Sense?
Now I haven’t forgotten that the lead-in to this article declares that I will be asking – and perhaps assumes that I will be answering – the question, does outsourcing HR administrative tasks make business sense? To get to the answer, we first have to cross somewhat rocky terrain
The Winds of Change…
After 20 years or so of saying “People are our greatest asset”, companies are beginning to realize that it is true, and are beginning to grapple with the implications of what that means for the way they manage their people and the way they organize their HR departments.
This change in perception has occurred largely as a result of recognizing the serious negative business implications of continuing with inappropriate and ineffective HR practices.
Nowadays it is the CEO’s, Managing Director’s, Financial Controllers, Regional Presidents and Vice-Presidents who are extremely engaged by the subject; in a practical, pressing, commercial sense. When it comes to discussing the challenges and opportunities facing their operations, they almost all will start raising concerns they have about business performance and the critical influence their people and people management practices have in meeting business objectives.
Human resource management practices are no longer being seen by senior management as ’warm and fuzzy’ welfare activities to keep employees reasonably content but potentially the key differentiator for the business. So as a General Managers along with Finance and other senior management are now seeing the “mission critical” importance of how they manage and organize their human resources, where does that leave the HR department?
What does HR do?
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the past 20 years or so have also seen an explosion of research, debate and discussion about the role of HR as a function. In that time a number of key concepts have been developed, tested and refined most notably by Dave Ulrich, whom published the seminal “Human Resource Champions” (Harvard Business School Press) in 1997.
Ulrich offered a fresh insight into what HR departments usually do, should do and could do to contribute to business success. He stated that “to create value and deliver results, HR professionals must begin not by focusing on the activities or work of HR but by defining the deliverable of that work.” Ulrich offers a model that suggests four main spheres of responsibility for HR and Table 1. illustrates that these responsibilities typically vary from being process oriented to people oriented and from day-to-day, operational to long-term, strategic in focus.
Strategic Partner
This role focuses on aligning HR strategies and practices with business strategy. The deliverable from the management of strategic human resources is strategy execution.
Administrative Expert
This role demands that HR act as caretaker of the corporate infrastructure; ensuring that organizational processes are designed and delivered efficiently. In many companies that caretaker role has led to the creation of shared service centers and the outsourcing of processes such as payroll.
Employee Champion
This role focuses on managing the contribution of employees; listening and responding to employees and “providing resources to employees. The deliverables from management of employee contribution are employee commitment and competence.
Change Agent
The fourth key role through which HR can add value is to manage transformation and change. Change refers to the ability of organizations to improve the design and implementation of initiatives and to reduce cycle times in all activities. The deliverable from management of change and transformation is the organizations’ renewed capacity for change.
Unfortunately, the reality for the majority of businesses is that their HR departments spend 80% or more of their time attending to administrative chores and the rest of their time ‘fire-fighting’ on employee relations issues.
Far from “Administrative Expertise” being just one element of the HR contribution, the department occasionally is more accurately described as an “Administrative Dinosaur”with not much else being done.
Little to no time or thought is given to the issues of linking HR processes with business results or in addressing the real challenges of attracting, developing an retaining high performing people.
Outsourcing Issues and Opportunities
The trend toward outsourcing payroll and HR administrative processes is partly explained by the need to focus HR’s attention and the department’s resources on the business’ priorities and problems that require HR solutions.
Anthony Petraco, President & CEO of USA based company Valiant states, “When assessing the need for outsourced workforce management solutions, cost and ROI are always primary concerns. While it can be difficult to quantify the true value your organization gains by improving business efficiency, if your company upgrades from a manual in-house payroll system to a fully hosted and web-based system built on a centralized employee database, you’ll dramatically improve your business processes, reduce payroll errors and save significant money over time.”
This point reinforces that made by many commentators concerning some HR leaders tendency to talk a lot about being business partners and strategic thinkers, while failing to deliver on the talk. A prominent writer in the field, Nicholas Burkholder has observed that “No matter how illustrious the strategic thinking is, unless the basic needs of the organization are satisfied HR professionals will not be viewed as competent members of the organizational team.”
In other words; HR needs to get the administrative ‘burden’ under control and focus on those activities that can build the business.
A well thought out, professionally managed and client focused outsourcing strategy can dramatically improve HR departmental performance and create real value for line management and employees alike.
These benefits include:
Real-time access to actionable employee related information
On-line transactions for management & employees
Enhanced management of information
Elimination of ‘time theft’ and payroll fraud
Accurate job costing and budgeting
Consistent application of quality standards across business units and groups of Businesses
Maximized administrative efficiency
Integrated linking of HR information spanning, recruitment, development, training and succession planning as well as compensation and benefits administration.
Outsourcing Trends in Thailand
More and more companies within Thailand, including SME’s and Conglomerates as well as Thai and Multinational owned enterprises, are opting for outsourcing of payroll and the provision of web-based HRIS services.
They are doing so because they appreciate the business benefits that accrue from having clarity, competence and professionalism in the outsourced administration of HR services. This allows them to channel their HR departments’ resources toward developing their capabilities in attracting, developing and retaining high performing people.
The trend in HR Outsourcing is upward?
Is Outsourcing Right For Your Business? It has been argued that while many of the early HR outsourcing agreements were based solely on the projected cost savings for the client, today’s outsourcing contracts should be based on the strategic value of the outsourcing relationship.
For some companies outsourcing might not fit with strategic goals. There are two main steps in evaluating the operational and strategic fit of the outsourcing option with your business needs.
Businesses should evaluate the current state of HR in their organization.
Where is HR allocating its resources in terms of people, processesand technology
There should be an examination of the HR department’s business objectives and a decision made on the best way to fulfill those objectives.
Either by outsourcing all or some of the HR components, or by not outsourcing anything
Nicholas C. Burkholder, in his excellent recent book “Ultimate Performance – measuring Human Resources atWork” makes this compelling case: He states that outsourcing HR “is not a choice that should be made purely on grounds of short-term costs. To make the right long term decision, management must know what the organization needs from HR, how HRO works and what will happen when these two elements are fused together. Costs matter – but so do service quality, management, and culture”.
What Should HR Do?
Quite honestly, the answer is often at odds with what it is actually doing. HR should be focusing on securing the work climate, ensuring HR practices and development processes are in line with and contributing to the achievement of operational and strategic business goals.
Outsourcing a process such as payroll, while utilizing a web-based HRIS application such as “CloudForce HR” – which has been developed specifically for the Thai market. Enables HR departments to simultaneously:
Improve administrative effectiveness
Provide valuable on-line transactions for management and staff
Enhance management information and cost control
Release HR departmental resources to address important talent management priorities
What is the point of having an HR department?
The point of having an HR department is to ensure that your business has the right people, with the right skills, experience and competence, in the right place, at the right time and at the right cost.
To do so requires a thorough understanding of the issues and opportunities involved in attracting, developing and retaining high performing, high potential staff. That should be HR’s “reason for being”
Outsourcing the weight of administrative task that so often burdens the effectiveness, efficiency and focus of the HR department, is one step in the process of aligning HR activities with the operational needs and strategic goals of your business.
CloudForce HR 