Summer staff moving on? How to keep your business (and your payroll) ticking over
Payroll tips to make staff changes simpler when seasonal workers move on from your business, brought to you by Bright's team.
·4 min read
Ah, summer… The season of sun, sand, and (at the end of it all) staff turnovers. After what was a warm, sunny (albeit wet) and productive summer, will soon be replaced with orange leaves, crisp cool air, and students heading back to their studies. So, how can you ensure a smooth transition during the summer staff exodus?
1. Create a transition plan
Have a good transition plan in place before your summer staff begin to hand in their notices. Ideally, this transition plan will help you anticipate changes in your workflow and work out how to tackle them. Take a look back at previous years and see how your business coped – one of the best ways of doing this is by talking to your full time, permanent staff. Did they have to take on extra responsibilities over those transitioning weeks? What would they suggest that could improve the situation this time round? Identify any gaps you need to fill now, and make sure your team has a clear understanding of staff schedules and availability. One way you could start filling the gaps now is to start writing up job descriptions you’ll need to fill, so they’re set up and ready to go for when employees begin to leave.
2. Cross-train staff
While you don’t want to inundate your staff with extra tasks, cross-training and upskilling can really help spread the workload during a transition period. The goal isn’t to cut down on staff and ramp up the pressure, it’s just to ensure multiple people can carry out specific tasks, whether someone leaves for good or even just goes on holidays. Not only does this make your workflow more resilient, but it also shows your employees that you’re invested in their growth and their contribution to the company. So, start training early and provide staff with the resources they need to take on whatever tasks they need to.
If you’d prefer to hold onto those existing summer workers, then an alternative could be to offer more permanent part-time roles, so the shift in tasks isn’t as harsh and abrupt for the rest of the team.
3. Cut down on the time it takes to do payroll
Don’t just focus on balancing your team’s workload – focus on cutting down on the time you spend on processes behind the scenes too, like payroll. People need to get paid, no matter what state your staffing’s in, so by setting up a more streamlined payroll system, you can rest assured employees are always paid correctly and on time, even with fewer people on the floor. So, by adding a dash of innovative technology, you can keep your payroll workflow ticking away, no matter what season it is.
For example, Bright’s payroll software, BrightPay, is fully integrated with HMRC and compliant with all the latest payroll legislation. It’s integrated with 12 leading accounting software solutions. This means whether you’re using FreeAgent, QuickBooks, or Xero, you can ping over your payroll journals to the ledger in your accounting software in just a couple of clicks. Same goes for our pension provider integrations. Rather than submitting pension files to the pension provider’s online portal, you can send then through BrightPay in minutes, without having to leave the software. For the icing on the cake, we also have direct integration with payment platform Modulr, which means you can make payments to employees and have their wages land in their bank accounts in as little as 90 seconds.
With BrightPay Cloud, you can accept or reject annual leave requests from any device through a secure portal on an internet browser, you can view upcoming HMRC payments, payroll reports, employees’ payroll information, and much more. Your employees can view and download their payslips, submit annual leave requests, and update their personal details through our secure and user-friendly employee app (available on both Android and iOS devices).
Improve as you go
When creating a strategy for the next summer season, take some time to reflect on the lessons you’ve learned this year and adjust accordingly. This way, every year, you’re continually improving how you run your business.
Although saying farewell to valued staff is never easy, know that with the right systems in place, your business can navigate the summer staff exodus easy-breezy. Here at Bright, we create software for tax, compliance, bookkeeping, accounts production, and payroll. We’re on a mission to make a happy and efficient working life a reality for businesses through reliable software and amazing support. Interested in learning more about BrightPay and BrightPay Connect? Book a demo of the software below.
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This content may have been developed with the assistance of AI tools. Content is reviewed by a member of the Bright team before publication. Guidance on legislation can be obtained from your industry body.
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