Managing HR payroll compliance in the public sector can be difficult. An integrated HRIS can help you manage employee wages, payroll processing, and more.
Article Highlights
There are a lot of moving parts within a government agency, whether it's federal agencies, state agencies, or even city and county governments. Different departments have their own rules, and some employees are covered by unions and collective bargaining agreements, even as other government employees are not.
Some employees are hourly workers who are eligible for overtime, and other workers are "exempt" from overtime pay and instead draw a regular salary. Exempt workers are usually those in executive, professional, and administrative roles. For hourly workers, the Fair Labor Standards Act applies, requiring agencies to follow the different minimum wage, overtime laws, and payroll tax laws, and offering many of the same protections that private sector workers get. HR payroll compliance feels like a moving target on the best of days.
Many government HR departments use several different legacy software applications that don't talk to each other. Changing an employee’s information in one system means updating that same information in all the other applications. It's a lot of repetitive, manual work.
NEOGOV's integrated HRIS (human resources information system) combines all the core HR payroll compliance functions – time and attendance, payroll, and benefits, and several other functions – which lets staff work from one central source of information and share that data through several different modules.
Local and state government HR manages various departments – parks & recreation, water, street maintenance, police, fire, EMT, administration, etc. – that follow different regulations, pay grades, pay rates, overtime rules, timesheets, and benefits.
In some cases, you’re not only juggling different HR software solutions, but you may need separate applications to handle the payroll and benefits for each department.
There are also many different rules that affect how timesheets and payroll processing works – it's hard to keep track of it all. Some may be governed by union rules, others may just follow state and federal laws. That creates a compliance risk that can put the agency in danger of being fined or audited.
Additionally, employees want to access information about their time off, pay, benefits, taxes, and other important data. Typically, they have to ask their HR representative for this information, which can be time-consuming in and of itself.
That means HR reps are managing and finding information for dozens, if not hundreds, of people all operating under different payroll and time rules, using several applications that can't even share the same data. It's a wonder they can get anything done.
The compliance processes needed to keep the government agencies running are time-consuming without an automated and integrated HRIS system to help keep everything straight and running smoothly.
Our HRIS system helps with HR payroll compliance, ensuring government agencies can manage their complex payroll capabilities and stay fully compliant with the latest tax legislation down to the local level.
That means being able to run retroactive calculations on payroll while also considering FLSA rules and regulations. The system incorporates future dating, which means prorating compensation when necessary, such as changes to time-off eligibility, benefits enrollment, or a person's employment.
It can also calculate overtime based on the FMLA work rule and time rules setup. The Payroll software module will automatically complete an FLSA assessment to ensure that the proper amount of premium hours have been paid and at the correct blended rate.
You can run employee wage and hour time-sheet computations, and feed them into the payroll system automatically.
The system also supports the 834 file feed that shares benefits statements to different insurance carriers. You can add, remove, or update an employee's enrollment information and submit new or updated information to the appropriate carriers. This helps you automatically make adjustments to a person's current enrollment, reinstate them, or unenroll them after they leave the agency.
Best of all, the employee self-service software lets employees provide accurate and up-to-date information so you can ensure compliance with accurate records across salary information, schedules, payroll, etc.
Your agency and HR department can benefit from the increased efficiency and effectiveness of NEOGOV's Integrated HRIS.
First of all, you can ensure compliance with benefits and changing payroll laws. As new payroll laws and benefits plans change, NEOGOV updates the system to match those new requirements and rules. You'll be able to follow along with the updates without having to re-enter new information or make major programmatic changes to your payroll compliance software.
With HRIS, it's easy to adhere to complex pay and time in the public sector. Once again, all the programming and rule compliance happens on the NEOGOV side. When rules change, we'll make the appropriate changes in our payroll compliance software. As our system updates, your payroll information remains intact. You'll still be able to meet all the requirements each department and pay grade have to follow.
Employees will also be happier thanks to accurate and consistent payroll. They don't have to come back to you after every paycheck to report discrepancies and have errors corrected. And the self-service function will increase their satisfaction as they’re able to find the answers to their own questions and update their own information.
Plus you can follow all wage and hour compliance laws with our payroll tax compliance software module. Don't worry that you’ve missed something or accidentally coded an entire department with the wrong payroll code. Everything is easier to manage and follow without the stress and headache of dealing with several disparate software systems.
Government sector HR departments have a big, complex job just managing payroll, benefits, and payroll tax compliance for everyone in their entire agency or local government. It's even more difficult when trying to use different systems to complete the task.
NEOGOV's integrated HRIS incorporates core HR functions into one software application, combining all the steps and facets into a single interface. You can manage those functions, let employees access and update their own data, and run a series of custom reports and visual dashboards to track everything.
Learn how an integrated HRIS can streamline your workload and simplify your core HR functions by signing up for a friendly, no-obligation demo today.