Payroll for Remote Workers: 8 Things to consider [+HRMS Benefit] (2024)

With the changing trend in work preference of employees, the duties of the HRs have also transformed over time. Managing different employees, working in different modes is hectic and complex especially when it comes to essential tasks like payroll.

An organization consists of various employees working in different locations. Some are working from the office; some are working remotely from their homes or any other location than the office premises. For maintaining regular communication and managing the employees working remotely, the HR department has revamped the way they manage certain functions especially- attendance, payroll and engagement.

In this blog, we share how HRMS is helping manage payroll for remote workers. Read on.

Table of content

Remote workers and payroll issues: A long story

Since remote workers used to lack regular and continuous communication with their employers, it was hard for the employer to maintain a strong connection with them. Employee engagement, performance management and visibility, training and learning, are some problems faced by HR with remote workers.

Besides, essential tasks like payroll management lead to inaccuracy in data, tax compliance, increasing security concerns, it gets arduous for employers and employees equally ruining employee morale.

The issue with payroll management not only increases the workload for HR, but they also spend their valuable time in fixing the issues rather than taking up strategic and people tasks that need them more.
Let’s understand more about the issue with an example. Your company is in Delhi, and you have hired an employee living in Japan. Now, since the hired candidate lives in a different country, the HR will be compelled to understand the tax structure of the country, the deductions and the withholdings.

“If a business is growing and looking at having even more employees working remotely in the future, there are HR and payroll technologies that are more national or regional in nature to account for multistate payroll,” LaRocque says. “Those companies might consider investing in or switching to platforms that can bring more functionality as well as more benefits partners.”

-as reported by SHRM.

Key considerations for managing payroll for remote workforce

Here are some key points that you should consider while computing the payroll for your remote workforce.

Time-zone differences: Different locations create differences in the time zone thus resulting in different punches in time for various employees. Discrepancies can be created while computing the payroll. For this purpose, always consider the time difference while managing the payroll. Do not generalize.
HRMS Benefit: Real-time monitoring, customisations and mobile app to mark attendance for different time zones
Compliance with tax rules: Taxation and deduction is the most significant part of payroll management. Tax compliance is necessary in accordance with state and local tax laws. Always understand study about the tax structure and jot down the inclusions. HROne provides an automated aid for this purpose. It gives you all the options to select from and in accordance with the state law you can choose the way you want.
HRMS Benefit: Tax reporting and automated tax calculations can be done using HRMS.
Wage disparity: For the remote workforce, there can be a wage difference for the employees living in different parts of the world. This can arise due to variation in the minimum wage and cost of living. You need to ensure that your policy complies with the labor laws of the country or state the employee is living in.
HRMS Benefit: Multiple Location compliance is available in payroll software so that you don’t have to worry much.
Data accuracy and security: The data used for computing the payroll of an employee should be accurate. Maintaining a proper payroll calculation system and keeping track of the process to avoid any nuisance. Along with this, the major concern for remote workers is the security of their information. Authorization should be done as to who all can have access to the payroll information.
HRMS Benefit: Audit trails and 3D check to spot possible errors is done by an HRMS write before processing payroll. It highlights the discrepancies to you so that you don’t have to waste your time finding them.

Tips and tricks to manage payroll for remote workers.

HR software is the best way to manage, control and monitor the payroll of the employees. Here we have listed the best practices for remote worker payroll management:

Enhance communication: Good communication builds trust. Have clear and concise communication with employees regarding the payroll policies and tax compliance to elevate transparency with your employees. Conduct frequent calls or arrange a weekly QNA session for the employees to understand their issues. Always stay active on communication platforms to answer and resolve the query of the employees as soon as you can.
Alternatively, you can also use HROne’s Helpdesk Module to resolve their queries in time.
Provide regular training: Using HRMS, you can provide proper training to the remote workers in HR team and educate employees on how they can see their pay slip and/ or file taxes. You can also create a set of questions to check the understanding of the employee.
Ensure timely payments: Timely payments build trust and motivate employees to perform better. What you give is what you get. When the employees are paid on time, they feel encouraged to deliver the work on time. This builds a sense of trust between both. Always ensure that your payroll processing is working properly to avoid any last-minute hassles.
Provide support and security: Provide adequate support to the employees whenever they need. In case of any issue, try and resolve it at the earliest to continue the smooth workflow. Provide a convincing argument to the employees about the security of their information. Invest in secure technology to keep the employee data safe. For example- HROne encrypts the pay slip which can only be accessed by the employee with a special code.

HRs are strong pillars of the organizations. They have tons of duties and each of them is crucial. But the right HR technology partner can make the world of difference in helping you accomplish your complex tasks. Good Luck!