You’re probably thinking there’s nothing rock and roll about payroll, right? Rock and Roll is for bands, who play live shows, record albums and release music videos to keep their fans happy. Devoted fans, in return, give unconditional loyalty, merch/record sales and collectively sing less tuneful, passionate renditions of their songs back to them at gigs.
So how does payroll fit in?
Just as bands are influencers to their fans, your payroll team has a huge influence on your company’s morale. Efficient payroll keeps your clients stress free, your contractors cared for and your employees happy. Put it this way, a band might have the looks, but if they can’t play their instruments the fans obviously won’t listen. Similarly, no matter how great your recruitment business is, how much your employees enjoy the culture, or your contractors take on more roles, no one works for free.
So, don’t let your recruitment business slip down the charts with our tips for managing your payroll that we’ve learnt from experience:
Stay in time
There’s nothing worse than when the drummer’s out of time. The rest of the band has put in the extra hours to sharpen their set, then the drummer misses that crucial hi-hat. Make sure everyone else’s overtime pays off!
Legally you’re obligated to pay workers minimum wage, plus one and a half their regular rate for any hours worked above 40 in a week. These figures will change as employment law amends, and it depends on each employer and contractor. It’s a challenge for your payroll staff to ensure that they’re monitoring the correct rates of pay.
Just like a metronome for a drummer, recruitment payroll software will help you automate this and take some of the headache away. Just make sure you have the correct figures inputted at the beginning.
Sign up to the right label(s)
Not record labels, we’re more interested in employee classifications. It’s imperative that you’re identifying your employees correctly. Not everyone who works for your business is a full-time employee - they could be independent contractors, temporary employees or freelancers.
Misclassifying an employee will lead to nasty fines and a big headache you don’t need. When you start working with someone, make sure you understand the capacity of their employment fully. HMRC have helpful guidelines on determining who exactly classifies.
Enter the recording studio
Errors tend to creep in when it comes to recording hours worked. You’re asking a huge number of contractors to keep effective and correct records and, naturally, human error creeps in. The top bands use recording studios to record their songs, so why not use a recruitment software system that helps you automate your entire payroll process?
Make life easier for yourself with online timesheets for your contractors to fill in on the go, that will also notify and remind them, while also reminding the client and yourself to pay salaries correctly.
Off on tour?
We’ve known many a payroll tragedy to occur because of public holidays that weren’t taken into account. Bands have to ensure their fans know their tour dates – if they didn’t, they’d just be playing to their own technicians.
Ensure you keep everyone informed of when the bank holidays are and their impact on payroll timings as well as the cut off dates for payment runs. These will flux and change throughout the year and missing financial deadlines and having to wait four days for banks to reopen isn’t realistic for your workers or staff and the quickest way to disengage them.
Payroll can certainly be A Hard Day’s Night, and there never seems to be a quick solve. It’s an arduous part of the week or month that no one loves, but, being aware of the issues and keeping the conversation flowing with your band of back office teams is the best way to success.
