Yahoo Finance One in five Brits has quit a job over a poor payroll experience
A fifth of Brits have changed jobs after being paid late or inaccurately by their employer, research suggests.
In a survey of 2,000 Brits by Zellis, one in five said they changed jobs after being paid late or inaccurately by their employer – equivalent on a national scale to nearly 7 million employees.
About 60% of employees are identifying mistakes on their payslips.
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Additionally, two in five (39%) Brits have been paid late on at least one occasion, causing nearly half (47%) to suffer undue levels of stress and worry, while two in five faced financial risk.
Because of this, half (48%) of these Brits believe their employer doesn’t care about their well-being.
With Britain currently in the midst of a productivity crisis, this is bad news not just for staff but businesses, with a quarter of Brits who have been paid late saying they were less engaged at work as a result.
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Brits emphasised the acute impact of late payment on financial wellbeing, with nearly two in five (37%) saying they have missed payments on direct debits (37%).
Just under a third (31%) said they have gone into their overdraft, while a quarter have incurred bank charges (26%) or suffered damage to their credit rating (24%).
With an increasing trend towards employee self-service, the question of who is responsible for payroll accuracy “lacks a firm answer”, Brits said.
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Only slightly more – 47% – believe it is the shared responsibility of the employer and the employee, than believe it is the sole responsibility of the employer – 44%.
But only a quarter (24%) said they check their payslip every month, and therefore may not always be aware of the mistakes that are made.
Helen Hargreaves, associate director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP), believes the responsibility is shared.
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“Employees play a significant role in providing the payroll department with accurate and timely information. Without it, the payroll department can’t fulfil its core objectives,” she explained.
She added: “But payroll processing is becoming increasingly complex, with additional duties introduced every year. It’s crucial that payroll practitioners keep themselves up to date with all the changes to legislation.
“The increased chance of breaching employment legislation and, consequently, of facing severe penalties and reputation damage, is another significant risk of running an inefficient payroll system.”
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Data from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) shows UK employers last year paid nearly £30m in penalties and arrears due to non-compliance with national minimum wage requirements.
