Overcoming the Administrative Challenges of Union Payroll

Inaccurate payments stemming from incorrect

payroll decisions. Delayed salaries. Leaked data. The administrative challenges that construction companies face are many. The existence of multiple construction trade unions and contractors for construction projects and complex working arrangements doesn’t make things any easier. The situation gets further complicated by outdated payroll systems.

Relying on legacy payroll systems or manual processes for calculating and processing multi-tiered rates is not only tedious and confusing but also extremely error-prone. Read on to learn how you can manage complex union needs using automated union payroll processing software.

Understanding the administrative challenges of union payroll

When it comes to union payroll processing, administrative challenges can be particularly detrimental for construction and EPC companies. Different reporting requirements, leave entitlements, employee benefits, tax systems, and more make even day-to-day payroll management a harrowing task for HR teams.

Every company must adhere to specific requirements for the type of information that must be reported. This is why keeping up-to-date figures and reporting information to external authorities becomes critical. At the same time, employee entitlements and benefits vary by country and region, and so do tax regimes and pay variances.

With the number of members of trade unions growing, addressing collective bargaining agreements, defining appropriate legislative standards, calculating minimum wages, overtime, and leave entitlements, and ensuring compliance also gets increasingly difficult.

Overcoming them with an automated union payroll processing software

The inherent lack of uniformity in payrolls complicates the payroll process, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. Even for the most seasoned accounting and payroll professionals, union payroll processing can be a daunting challenge.

Since it is unlikely that this process will become any less daunting, there is a need to think of ways that make calculations for payroll easier. This is essential to ensure timely salaries and take specific tax rates and rules into consideration.

An automated union payroll processing software offers the ideal capabilities to overcome this growing list of challenges, including:

• Anytime, anywhere access: As construction companies look to streamline union payroll processing, cloud capabilities offered by an automated payroll solution boost the accuracy of decision-making. Anywhere, anytime access on any device allows HR teams to get real-time data on the go and make instant decisions on issues impacting the payroll: from onboarding new employees to managing amendments and controlling payroll anomalies. At the same time, unions can view payslips online and get better insight into their payroll – thus improving self-service and reducing to-and-fro communication between staff and payroll personnel.
• Automated calculations: Modern union payroll solutions offer a plethora of automation capabilities, bringing manual intervention down to zero. Whether companies want to calculate fringe benefits, mass earnings, compensation, overtime, union deduction, wages, or multiple labor classifications, automated payroll processing accelerates time-to-decision while also eliminating manual calculation errors – which eventually leads to more accurate payrolls and more satisfied unions.
• Tailored attributes: Custom setup features offered by today’s union payroll solutions make it easy for construction and EPC companies to meet the unique payroll needs of their business. They can choose from a range of custom attributes to accommodate different pay rates, deductions, tax codes, payroll types, etc., and consider essential payroll functions that are customized as per current payroll policies and requirements.
• Real-time data: An automated union payroll processing software integrates seamlessly with other accounting and HR solutions in the business. The ability to integrate into different solutions and projects allows payroll personnel to have real-time labor union data at their fingertips for greater accuracy. HR teams can have a consolidated view of payroll across the enterprise and get a clearer picture of people-related costs to assess current business modeling and influence future planning.
• Compliance safeguards: Adhering to ever-evolving federal, state, and local regulations governing employee pay is difficult. Since any violation can lead to severe penalties, negatively affect the bottom line, or even put construction companies out of business, having the right compliance safeguards is vital. Modern union payroll processing platforms have built-in compliance and security controls that enable stress-free and compliant union payroll processing.
• Data security: One of the most crucial roles of any HR department is ensuring payroll security. Since unions constantly need to feel confident that their data is protected, EPC companies must ensure all confidential data from social security numbers and bank accounts to payslips and home addresses are safeguarded against hackers and bad actors. Modern union payroll processing systems help establish the right security policies and controls, guaranteeing high levels of security while preventing unauthorized users from reviewing or changing union payroll information.

As construction companies experience growth, they need to hire more workers to meet the demand for talent. Bringing union members on board is an accepted way to fill the skill gap. But everything comes at a cost; the challenges of union payroll processing can start to pile up. If you want to stay on top of costs, ensure union members are paid accurately and on time, and make sure you comply with all required regulations, you need an automated payroll processing software specifically designed to address union payroll to maintain control across the process.

An automated solution can bring several benefits to the table: it can eliminate mundane tasks, enable anytime, anywhere access, ensure data security, enable real-time data processing, and ensure compliance, confidentiality, and security.

Learn how CEM’s union payroll processing software can help you transform payroll for construction, overcome evolving payroll challenges and allow you to stay on top of the union payroll game with the right strategy, resources, and technology.