Alsbridge advisor Rachel Anderson offers an interesting analysis of payroll outsourcing in, “Payroll Outsourcing: Why Can’t the Big Players get it Right?”
According to Ms. Anderson, payroll is actually an incredibly complex process that entails a number of exceptions. (She cites a guideline that I haven’t heard before: “Outsourcing advisors typically recommend that any process that can be 80% or more rules-based can be outsourced…” Apparently, payroll operations don’t meet this criteria.) Payroll is also highly sensitive and drives people and official agencies up the wall when it’s done wrong.
The article includes several areas to watch when you’re outsourcing this function, among them, making sure the service provider who gets your business doesn’t put its new hires on the job since it requires experience and judgment.
