When it’s live, it’s not done.
A reflection on the continuous evolution of payroll projects
In the scope of payroll projects, many payroll teams get to the “Go Live” step and mentally tick the project off their work list. This is a crucial mistake.
While the “Go Live” decision is a definite milestone, it is also where high-risk tasks and detailed embedding begins. This stage is more critical than the project itself and possibly the time when things can go wrong.
After it’s live
During the post “Go Live” stage, there needs to be a continuous focus on the checks and balances of your new payroll. It needs to be adequately resourced, given a budget, and form part of a continuous payroll governance strategy.
So what are these checks and balances? It is the operational touch points, integrations, training and resources, the unproven scenarios, the continuous changes, it is month end, it is year end – it is attrition – it is all of these things.
What can go wrong?
Once a payroll project is live, overlooked and anticipated missteps may show their cracks quickly or slowly creep in the background. Make no mistake, there is no such thing as a perfect project so being proactive and having a business continuity plan is advised. This could include a new system independent audit, assessing the process, system and function of the new set up.
Vendor relationships are critical during post “go live” and need to be treated and attended to accordingly. Communication and transparency are paramount with vendors and leaving them in the dark can be costly.
The other things that can go wrong :
As good as User Accepting Testing (UAT) can be, sometimes operational changes or other system changes impact pay results unexpectedly - ensuring extra checks and balances in early ‘go live’ may help.
Automated tasks in the system. Certain tasks may require historical context to be accurate that may have been missed - in your test database after ‘go live’, run additional testing on how retro and future automation may impact pay results.
Human behaviour. When you ‘go live’, you are opening up the system to employees and managers alike. Make sure you are checking in on key users impacts of the system - to ensure change is accepted, but also to limit incorrect behaviours or work-arounds early.. minimising impacts on pay results.
These are just a few examples that demonstrate going live is really just the start of a new phase of BAU, and a high risk one at that.
Evolving with your project
The mantra "when it's live, it's not done" serves as a reminder to payroll professionals that their work is never truly complete.
It encourages a mindset of continuous improvement and a commitment to excellence in payroll management. By embracing the idea that perfection is a journey, not a destination, payroll teams can navigate the complexities of payroll projects with resilience and agility.