Why not “Make Things Happen”?
Every year, we see the same old process heading into EOFY for the payroll and finance teams. Organisations do the following:
- Upgrade the TEST system
- Test the software
- Upgrade PROD
- Prepare for EOFY
- Run EOFY
- Go live with other systems – HR, Finance, T&A, Workforce Management
It is all rush, rush, rush, stress, stress, stress.
The key here is that there is never enough time between March and July to work on systems improvement.
Every vendor and every organisational payroll and finance team are extremely busy at the same time.
We recommend that you make the best use of the period from July to December, improving your processes, reviewing your setup and completing the house keeping on system performance.
If you do this right, you can achieve significant gains without the pain that comes with time pressure.
Some of things we have seen people achieve during this time include:
Archiving old data:
It is amazing how many organisations have had their system for 10 years or more and never archive any data. The false belief around the world is that storage is cheap, and you can buy a Terabyte of data storage very cheaply at any computer store, so why bother moving data off my system.
The reason you remove data from your PROD system is that the application speed is affected by the number of records within the files and tables. Twice as many records does not slow the speed of a report down by 50%. As the number of records increases, there is an exponential impact of speed. Therefore, double the records can make the system 70 or 80% slower not 50%.
The same is true in reverse: If you halve your record sizes, you may triple your system speed.
System Review:
You often need a consultant to complete a system review. We do many of these for our clients and they are very effective in helping to clarify the deficiencies of processes and setup and integration with other systems. They also help align the needs of multiple stakeholders including Payroll, HR, IT and Finance. Why do this in a hurry near end of year, when you can complete this in the slower months when you have a moment to think. July to December is a wonderful time of year to complete a system review and then to take the time to study the results and get stuck in to the remediation work.
Innovate:
July to December the time to produce innovative thinking and action. It is so hard to develop positive and productive thinking during stressful times like EOFY. When you are most relaxed is the best time to use your creative juices to come up with some clever ideas on how best to improve your world.
To do this, ask yourself some sharp questions such as:
- What is my Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) for the coming year?
- What is the one thing I could change to deliver me and my team a humungous benefit – we are talking 50-100% improvement in efficiency and effectiveness? This may be introducing automation for integration, replacing a task instead of improving it, locating new technology etc.
- Who is the expert that already has the solution I need? Remember, most solutions already exist. An example of this is that all Soccer/Football teams around the world are starting to close the gap on Brazil. The reason for this is because they are simply copying Brazil’s training methods, so they can achieve the same results.
While everyone else is cruising along, wasting their time from July to December, why don’t you take some time to really excel and stand out by being in that select group of high achievers that “Make Things Happen”!