Picture this: You’re a sales rep for one of the top piano manufacturers. A new bonus incentive for the quarter inspired you to play all the right notes for your customers. As a result, your sales reached an all-time high, so your bonus will represent the perfect crescendo.
With your expected payout calculated and scheduled, you book a vacation for your family to visit the Sydney Opera House. Your first day off is payday, and during a layover, you decide to check your bank statement … and immediately hear a piano string snap at the back of your mind: You’ve been paid your base salary, but there’s no evidence of your historic efforts in the form of that bonus.
Quickly, your vacation degrades into a cacophony as you desperately try to get ahold of your HR professional as you board an overseas flight.
Not every payroll discrepancy may be this dramatic, but even the seemingly smallest oversights can damage employees’ trust in their organizations. When employees can’t review their pay until after it hits their account, it’s like withholding sheet music from an orchestra until opening night.
With Beti®, Paycom’s employee-driven payroll tool, employees can review their check in advance and catch possible issues, as if in a well-planned rehearsal. And just like a well-executed performance, the long-term implications of Beti can resonate beyond a successful pay period.
From reactive to proactive
In addition to giving employees peace of mind, Beti also redefines the classic structure of payroll. Since its inception, the process has been limited by a fundamental issue. In his recent analysis for H3 HR Advisors, HR Technology Conference program chair and HR Happy Hour podcast co-host Steve Boese detailed this notion.
“Even the early and definitely the second and third generations of employee self-service applications provided employees with visibility into their prior paychecks and pay advice, but the access was, by its nature, always backward-facing,” he wrote.
Boese further explained that in the traditional payroll process, an employee can “only see and react” to their check after payout. Thus, any adjustments and corrections must be made retroactively. This antiquated process takes responsibility away from employees, even though they are the logical experts of their own data.
Improved pay clarity
By giving employees greater access to their payroll, not to mention full visibility into the process, Beti allows them to better plan for their future, both short- and long-term.
“Having early awareness and insight into net pay allows employees much greater flexibility and assurance in planning for their upcoming expenses: bills, savings and even a fun night out with their families,” Boese said.
Payroll may be one of the most common components of HR, but it is more than just a method to track compensation. As Boese explained, Beti opens the door to financial literacy and overall well-being. This has the potential to limit stress that can impact performance and enable better focus. Beti is, he said, “the next important step in the evolution of employee self-service capabilities.”
Changing the game
Beti takes an industry-leading step toward better understanding and a stronger relationship between employees and employer. An employee’s greater engagement with their payroll can translate to greater engagement with their organization as a whole. At the same time, Beti can help prevent errors and enable HR to focus on addressing more pressing needs.
“With increased active employee participation in the process and the enhanced level of transparency Beti provides, the true value, image and reputation of the HR and payroll function will be augmented,” Boese said.
As an early adopter of Beti, one HR Vice president of a large auto rental company put it, “Beti is the most revolutionary product I’ve ever seen.”
With seamless access to other Paycom tools — such as Employee Self-Service® and Ask Here — employees can easily connect with HR about any questions they have related to payroll in the same app. Their questions can spark conversations that heighten understanding and ultimately spur trust in the employer and growth overall.
If that sounds like music to your ears, learn more about the benefits of employee-driven payroll at Paycom.com/beti.
DISCLAIMER: The information provided herein does not constitute the provision of legal advice, tax advice, accounting services or professional consulting of any kind. The information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional legal, tax, accounting or other professional advisers. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult a professional adviser who has been provided with all pertinent facts relevant to your particular situation and for your particular state(s) of operation.