When it comes to payroll outsourcing dissatisfaction outweighs satisfaction in many vital areas. This is revealed in new research by HR Access that, for the first time, demonstrates the extent to which existing UK providers are getting things badly wrong. Although many of the businesses interviewed were satisfied with the impact and value of payroll outsourcing, the devil is in the detail. For instance, only 25% agree outsourcing had increased employee engagement and there was 100% consensus that current arrangements could be significantly more cost efficient.

Organisations reported five key areas of disappointment and if current vendors wish to improve their customer relationships, they really need to take this feedback on board. These five areas are failure to properly scope services, weak account management, inadequate handling of change requests, the absence of continuous improvement initiatives and poor communications.

Whether taken individually or collectively, these shortcomings have the potential to derail an outsourcing relationship. Without rapid reversal of this worrying trend, dissatisfaction will continue to grow and fester. The genuine threat is that clients will vote with their feet and select an alternative vendor; one with the philosophy, capability and vision to deliver the promised benefits of outsourcing. Surely this threat alone is sufficient for vendors to up their game?

Whilst the solutions to these five key issues aren’t complex, they do require careful planning and a change of mindset by vendors, plus a level of urgency and energy that isn’t particularly evident in the research. Such a change of mindset is arguably the sternest test for vendors that are somewhat set in their ways.

Of course, in an ideal world these issues would have been eliminated at the contracting stage and this is the key learning point for any organisation currently considering their first payroll outsourcing arrangement. Yet for existing clients there is a real change management programme to force onto the next review agenda.

Vendors need to buy into and adopt a few simple, yet vital principles. Thoroughly scoping prospective clients’ service requirements from the outset is an obvious change. And once clients’ payroll has been outsourced, vendors must maintain focus on responding promptly to change requests and driving through a proactive, continuous improvement programme. Furthermore they need to invest quickly in better and more effective account management, and in continuous, high quality, two-way communications.

These changes, if deployed well and with the right client-centric mindset, will enable vendors to begin building a reputation for delivering exactly what they bid for when it comes to cost, quality, change management and overall strategic value to the customer.

To download a free copy of the research visit http://www.hraccess-uk.com/payroll-solutions.html