What is different about this big bang is that it involves sharing HR services between not just those two councils, but with a third for part of it, neighbouring Kingston upon Thames borough council, which will include the payroll chunk.
It is the culmination of two years of work on a masterplan for HR shared services across Sutton and Merton, which Shoesmith reckons will save each borough £250,000 every year. A governing board comprised of Shoesmith, finance representatives from all three councils and representatives from HR, payroll, appraisal and recruitment, have together drawn up their shared vision, agreed on a payroll provider - which also has a seat on the governing board - and bashed out who is responsible for what.
From 1 April, payroll will be run from one platform across the three councils, governed by both HR and finance across the trio. Could this shared solution provide a way out of the perennial confusion as to who owns payroll, and a path through the myriad accountability, reporting and legal burdens payroll presents?
The oncoming auto-enrolment legislation is a microcosm of the challenge contained in this collaborative approach. A survey of 103 payroll, HR and accounting professionals, conducted this February by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP), found 27% of employers would be asking payroll, HR and finance to collaborate on overseeing changes to payroll necessary to comply with auto-enrolment, which goes live this October. A little over 23% of companies said they would put auto-enrolment solely at the feet of its HRD and just 9% would hand it entirely over to finance. Bluefin, the employee benefits advisor, has suggested departments as far away from HR as IT, or even legal, should play a part in rolling out the new pensions responsibilities.
Payroll is a financial function, but pertains to employee salaries and links to employee benefits. Politically and practically, how can HR and finance be organised to share payroll?
Finance directors, for their part, like the idea of sharing payroll. It sings to their interest in streamlining and making cost savings, but it can be a battle for hearts and minds. Narin Ganesh, group FD at relocations company Crown Worldwide since November 2009, says that while his predecessor outsourced payroll, he recently tried - and failed - to make a case to his board for bringing it back in-house, as part of a project to re-define the relationship between finance, payroll and HR. "We do retain a payroll administrator function in the business, which sits as part of the finance function now, but was part of HR before. HR didn't want it, so it ended up with me," Ganesh says.
"The in-house payroll administrator is intended as the interface between company and outsourced provider - but in practice, we actually have pockets of payroll work going on in HR anyway."
Despite having identified that the outsourcing arrangement was dysfunctional, because it lacked clear objectives from the outset, the company decided not to have in-house collaboration between HR and finance. It instead chose to draw clearer lines between HR and finance, keeping payroll off the HR mandate. "The outsourcing provider was not being held up to the right level of scrutiny and work ended up being done in-house to cover for its deficiencies," Ganesh says. "I set about re-defining the relationship with the outsourcer - even having to withhold payment in one case - but its performance improved dramatically and we now draw on more services. At the same time, we are re-defining the scope of work that needs to be done in-house and removing payroll from HR as far as possible; the latter is over-burdened with stuff that isn't adding value."
He admits demarcation between HR and finance is "blurred" and that he spends a lot of time working out the issues between them. "The functions should collaborate - payroll straddles both teams, so collaboration in my view is pure commonsense."
The lack of a shared payroll strategy raises the risk of compliance issues. Payroll ends up delivering compliance with employment law by virtue of its role - and as payroll is still, more often than not, reporting into finance, compliance risk lies with staff who are not trained in those laws. Auto-enrolment is an opportunity for companies to address that compliance risk on a more systematic basis, and to take a shared HR-finance approach.
"HRDs and FDs can be ambivalent about payroll, because it is often seen as not adding any real value to an organisation. Many see it as just a function that needs to be undertaken," says Paul Rains, director of Transact HR, a performance measurement company. "Though traditionally payroll reports into finance more than HR, some savvy HRDs with control over payroll have harnessed the analytical skills of payroll professionals to provide them with management information about the workforce, which assists in strategic planning and the resolution of operational issues. A uniform approach to auto- enrolment makes good commercial sense and needs to be planned jointly by HR and finance to be effective."
Payroll outsourcing is common, but there are many employers that want to control the process and are looking to in-house shared services for that. Defence multinational Thales implemented a shared finance and HR service platform in 2009, incorporating an in-house payroll shared service, for its entire UK business. Management and governance of the process is the responsibility of HR, but the over-arching strategy is set collaboratively by finance and HR for their respective teams.
The driver was governance controls across the group; HR 'owns' payroll production and reconciliation, finance runs the general ledger, budget control and does costing projections. A payroll service delivery manager curates the payroll piece with a team of 10 payroll and finance specialists looking after 8,000 paychecks.
The result? "Excellent payroll controls, with effective segregation of duty, minimal payroll error rate, credible 'one version of the truth' HR information," says Joe Ales, director for HR shared services at Thales UK.
How did the company deliver that? Sort out the politics first, draw the battle lines, agree terms, and draw up the plan with all parties involved.
"Strategically, it was decided payroll would be directed by its main functional customer, HR. But the business recognises payroll is a critical operation within finance as well, so we invested time in defining clear 'lines of sight', as well as the segregation of duty and where responsibilities for activity actually sit," Ales explains. "While the governance and direction of payroll is managed through HR, finance is a key stakeholder in the process; there are clear 'hands-offs' in the payroll production, payment and reconciliation between both functions."
Sutton and Merton's Shoesmith concurs. He appointed Sutton the 'lead' borough of the trio for HR shared services, with its director of resources heading the governance board. The roadmap for delivery was written by HR at Sutton and Merton (which under his leadership had already merged into one team). A shared HR and payroll platform is in place.
The governance board appointed an outsource payroll bureau for the shared service, but a shared payroll client team has been formed out of Sutton as the lead borough.
This was particularly prescient, given the introduction of auto-enrolment this October. Jes Turner, programme manager at payroll provider ADP, doesn't see how payroll can do auto-enrolment at present, and says that company HR departments should be responsible - though HR sees auto- enrolment as a payroll job. "HR passes the information, but payroll determines the contributions. This argument is falling between the cracks for some employers," says Turner.
As always, the devil is in the detail. Sutton was running a small in-house payroll client and outsourced payroll processing out of finance; Merton had an in-house payroll team sitting in HR. Each team had different suppliers, contracts and cultures.
With contracts too expensive to terminate, Shoesmith was pragmatic. "To embed a shared service approach on a single platform with one way of running payroll, we had to align contracts we were tied into with some mini contract extensions that run until we can switch to a new provider," says Shoesmith.
"We have had to agree on key protocols between HR and finance and each borough, so we know the outsourced provider can run our plan in a simple way, and we have agreed we will do things the way of the system - rather than what often happens, which is that people invest in a system, then later try to tailor it to the way they work."
A common chorus comes out of FDs and HRDs that have enacted payroll shared services: it's a partnership with particularly acute need for clearly defined leadership. "I would recommend anyone thinking of doing this to manage design and implementation using effective project-management and change-management disciplines, to clearly define the business case, scope and who owns what aspects of the payroll process," says Ales.
But it is Shoesmith who sums up the risk and the reward: "You need a common language between finance and HR. Thus far, we have ironed out most problems," he says. "But the proof of the pudding is in the eating and it boils down to personalities - the ability to problem-solve, compromise and find solutions." That should be something with which HRDs can assist their financial opposite numbers.
Facts and figures
- 20% of employee salaries are processed by outsourced payroll services
- 30% of total HR costs come from payroll and personnel costs
- 'Visible, measurable' payroll costs around €200 per employee
- Switzerland has the lowest uptake of payroll outsourcing (1% of businesses), while Denmark and Belgium have the highest uptake at over 80% of businesses in both countries
Auto-enrolment in a minute
From 1 October 2012, legislation will start to roll out, meaning that, depending on the size of the organisation, by 2017 every employee aged between 22 and state pensionable age, earning above the income tax personal allowance threshold, must be automatically enrolled by the employer into a qualifying pension scheme, to which both employer and employee contribute (the employee can later opt out if they wish).
Employers are required to either make a 3% contribution towards a defined contribution scheme, the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST), or to offer membership of a defined-benefit scheme that meets certain criteria.
Preparedness is patchy. In March, a Northgate Arinso study of 100 senior decision-makers responsible for auto-enrolment found seven in 10 worried about the additional workload and new processes required to comply. Nearly half don't understand what the new legislation requires of them. Worse, the cost of amending payroll systems in a business with 7,500 staff is thought to be as much as £300,000.
Forex Income Map Review And Bonus For Piet Swart's New Program Revealed - PRWeb
Forex Income Map by Piet Swart
Houston, TX (PRWEB) May 25, 2012
Piet Swart, a full time Forex trader, is releasing his training program Forex Income Map on May 30th and his training is already receiving raving reviews. After only a months time his Facebook fan page has close to 2,000 raving fans and the comments on his blog are even more after he gave away his PipKey Indicator.
A Forex Income Map review shows that this is one of the few training programs that actually has physical materials that are mailed to your door. Piet Swart's is not a fly by night type of operation. He will mail you 4 training DVDs, a printed manual plus there will be a private membership area on the Internet as well as live webinars and video training. Of course there will be question and answers with full time customer support at one's service if they invest in Piet's program.
One can go here to see if the free tools and trainings are available.
From http://ForexIncomeMap.org , a reviewer states, "Only 5% of Forex traders actually make money but with Piet's simple but proven system, he is on path to help increase those numbers. He normally charges $500 per hour to advise traders, so this program is definitely a big savings! This program should normally sell for $2499 but the Forex Income Map price will be much lower than that. With Piet's easy to learn system and great track record, there is no reason why any serious Forex trader should not get it. He's even offering a money back guarantee."
Even Forex Income Map reviews from Piet's site are postive. An example comment, "This tool is marvelous. Just watching the Piet's webinar two days before, I have won 6 trades of each 0.5 trade size (multiple pairs) without a single loss, worth $736. Yesterday night the two winning trades were unbelievable as without this tool I wouldn't have predicted the swing, " state Don R. from New Zealand.
For those who wish to learn more about the program and to get a complete review should visit: http://forexincomemap.org/forex-income-map-review-piet-swarts-program-work
For those who wish to buy Forex Income Map and get access to the training should go to the official site here.
Someone's making money in Greece: Burglars stealing cash stashed under mattresses after families take it out of banks - Daily Mail
- Andreas and Emilia Karabalis, both 80, had €80,000 taken from island home
- Billions of euros hidden in cupboards and under floorboards across nation
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Warning: Greeks are being urged to keep their money in the nation's banks and not to stash their cash at home (file picture)
Greeks are being urged to keep their money in the nation's banks and not to stash their cash at home - as thieves continue to profit from the country's economic uncertainty.
Police say brazen burglars are making off with hundreds of thousands of euros, on an almost daily basis, as they raid homes where money is hidden in cupboards or under the mattress.
Andreas and Emilia Karabalis, both 80, are just one of the many victims targeted by unscrupulous robbers.
The couple took out €80,000 and hid it in their home, on the island of Lefkada, because they thought their bank would collapse. But days later thieves came in the night.
Emilia said: 'We were sleeping. The two masked burglars came to our bed and tied us up. They hit us. They robbed us - they didn't leave anything, it was torture.'
Husband Andreas added: 'Our life is black now. They took our life's savings. We lost everything.'
No-one knows exactly just how much cash lies stashed in Greek homes, secreted in cupboards, at the back of the ice-box, beneath the floor or under the mattress.
But by any guess it is well in the billions, and burglars are after their share of loot which is both highly portable and virtually impossible to recover.
Greece's debt crisis has plunged it into five straight years of economic contraction, thrown half of its young people out of work and may see it ejected from the eurozone.
Civil disorder: As well as the targeting of homes, there has also been violence on the streets of Greece in recent months
In the past two years, Greeks have withdrawn from banks more than €72billion - or close to €7,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. And much of that has been taken in cash.
Police say gangs who may have once eyed 'hard targets', - like the banks themselves, or jewellers - are now going after homes of ordinary people, where there is far less risk and often large stashes of cash freshly withdrawn from savings accounts.
'Many people have withdrawn their money from the banks fearing a financial crash, and they either carry it on them, find a hideout at home or in storage rooms,' said national police spokesman Thanassis Kokkalakis.
He said: 'We urge people to trust the banking system, leave their money there, or at least in a safe place, not hide it at home, where they must anyway take the basic security measures.
Little wonder: But with shares in Greek firms plunging, and the nation's banks having to be bailed out, many think keeping their money at home is the sensible option
'Some people don't even lock their doors and windows.' The unexpected bonanza is attracting foreign crime networks, he said, including two from ex-Soviet Georgia which police dismantled in recent months, blaming them for 300 burglaries.
Crime is just one hazard for people storing unusually large hoards of cash, most of which are not insured.
GREEKS HIT BY UNCERTAINTY OF ECONOMY, AND NOW BY THIEVES
Carpenter George Psychogios, 30, withdrew his savings of €8,000 and kept them in his house at Arta, a small town 200 miles from Athens and known principally for its Byzantine stone bridge and a 13th-century church.
He said: 'I hid the money in two different places before leaving for a trip. When I came back it was all gone. They broke into the house through a balcony door and they took it all.
'We used to sleep outside with the doors unlocked. Now we don't feel safe even when we lock up. They break into homes, shops, businesses. There is a surge in robberies here.'
In Iraklion, a working class neighbourhood of Athens, local people say some thieves have become so brazen they often prowl in broad daylight, even when a family is in.
'We were sitting on the front veranda chatting when they jumped from the roof to the back yard and got into the house,' said pensioner Mattheos Michelakakis, 61.
Before he realised what had happened, they had made off with his family's gold.
'Burglars hear that people are scared and withdrawing money and they hit homes randomly hoping they will be lucky,' he said.
'I feel like I've been naive. We always used to leave all the doors open; we had nothing to worry about.'
There are tales of savings going up in smoke in fires or, as in one case, being lost when a pensioner withdrew his life savings - then died suddenly, before telling his family where they were hidden.
Theft, though, seems the biggest risk and the crime wave has spread far beyond the big cities into rural areas where robbery was little known.
According to the central bank, Greeks withdrew €72billion from bank accounts between January 2010 and March 2012, leaving just €165billion behind.
Since then, withdrawals have accelerated further after an inconclusive May 6 election led EU leaders to talk openly of Greek exit from the single currency.
Some of that money was wired abroad and some spent, but much of it was hidden in homes, either in cash or converted to gold. If Greece leaves the common currency area, any money left in Greek banks would probably be turned into drachmas worth a good deal less. Euros stashed in a box at home would still be euros.
'People have already taken their money out of the bank. The rest are doing it now because they are afraid we will be kicked out of the eurozone,' said one police officer.
Among cases he said he had come across in the past week: a man reported €30,000 in cash and gold stolen from a storage room next to his house and an elderly woman had her life savings of €100,000 stolen from her apartment.
That woman's home also happened to be packed full of cartons of long-life milk and boxes of pasta - in case, she explained, the economic crisis led to food shortages.
Stashing cash is as old as Greece. The countryside is dotted with archaeological sites where the ancients squirreled away their silver drachmas to hide them from marauding armies.
Greek museums are rich in treasure whose owners never made it back.
'Hiding valuables - small or larger amounts of coins, golden, silver, even bronze - was very widespread in antiquity, especially in times of war, crisis or difficulty,' said George Riginos of the Association of Greek Archaeologists.
'Sometimes the owner would perish and this is how they reached us, hidden in the ground, in holes in the wall, small vases under the floor or leather bags.'
Future archaeologists may yet stumble on some of the buried treasure of the euro zone crisis of 2012. A senior banker tells the story of a family on the island of Rhodes who recently visited their local branch, trying desperately to figure out how much their late father had withdrawn before he died.
Not trusting the bank, the old man had taken out his life savings. But he hadn't told anyone where he hid it. His children were searching everywhere, tearing down walls in the house trying to find it, but with no luck.
Money Funds Open to a Deal With SEC - Wall Street Journal
By KIRSTEN GRIND And ANDREW ACKERMAN
Major firms are willing to consider a compromise on a key issue delaying a new regulatory plan for the $2.6 trillion money-market mutual-fund industry.
The firms said in a May 8 meeting in Washington that they would consider supporting a watered-down version of a plan floated by the Securities and Exchange Commission to limit how quickly investors can withdraw their money, according to people familiar with the matter.
![[mmfunds1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MI-BP234_mmfund_DV_20120524181226.jpg)
Published Credit: Associated Press Vanguard's F. William McNabb III
The SEC, which called the meeting, was receptive to the idea. If the two sides can come together, it would represent a major turning point in SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro's long-running campaign to beef up regulation of money funds.
Officials from fund giants BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Invesco Ltd. attended the meeting. Another meeting is scheduled in June. The talks still could fall apart.
At issue is Ms. Schapiro's plan to allow investors to redeem only 95% to 97% of their holdings at once, with the rest payable after 30 days. The fund industry has resisted the 30-day rule, saying it would effectively kill their businesses because investors will go elsewhere if they don't have immediate access to their money.
The companies support a weaker measure: Rather than lock up a portion of investors' money for 30 days, the companies would charge investors a fee to withdraw money during a "liquidity event," such as the 2008 financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter. The details, including what would constitute a liquidity event, haven't been settled, according to these people.
European money funds take a similar approach, calling it a "dilution levy."
Money funds pitched the SEC on the idea late last year, but the agency resisted, according to people familiar with the matter.
But Ms. Schapiro has had trouble lining up support among the five-member commission for her plan, and now is more willing to negotiate, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In addition to the 30-day rule, Ms. Schapiro is proposing to require funds to adopt "floating" net asset values rather than stick to the fixed $1-per-share NAV the funds seek to maintain, a move designed to show investors the true value of the funds at any given time. A third idea, designed in tandem with the 30-day rule, would force firms to keep more money on hand to protect against a run on money funds. Fund companies generally remain opposed to those ideas.
Ms. Schapiro's plan will eventually need three votes to pass, but three commission members issued a rare joint statement earlier this month in opposition to a report highlighting the need for additional money-market fund reforms. The statement said that the report issued by the International Organization of Securities Commissions "cannot be considered to represent the views" of the full SEC.
Ms. Schapiro has been trying to increase oversight of the industry since the collapse of the Reserve Primary money fund during the 2008 financial crisis. The fund, which held debt of the collapsed Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc., "broke the buck" by falling under the $1 per share value money funds seek to maintain. Investors fled, forcing the U.S. government and Federal Reserve to backstop the industry.
Reforms pushed through in 2010 restricted the securities money funds could hold. Ms. Schapiro, however, still believes money-market funds are at risk of suffering large outflows if securities they own suddenly deteriorate in value and has sought additional reforms.
The industry has opposed further regulation, and lobbied the SEC and politicians to reject the floating NAV and the withdrawal-holdback plan in particular. Government and industry officials are exploring other ways to bridge their differences, according to people familiar with the matter.
A spokesman for Vanguard declined to comment. A spokesman for Invesco said any further regulation would "have harmful unintended consequences." A spokesman for BlackRock said the company "is committed to maintaining an open dialogue to help find a solution that protects investors, preserves money-market funds, and addresses the concerns of regulators."
A J.P. Morgan executive said the firm was "very supportive" of previous reforms but hopes that "any further reform would be preceded by a thorough analysis of the short-term markets."
Top Fed and Treasury Department officials have urged the SEC not to back down, warning that money funds remain a major risk to the financial system, particularly through exposures to European assets.
Write to Kirsten Grind at kirsten.grind@wsj.com and Andrew Ackerman at andrew.ackerman@dowjones.com
A version of this article appeared May 25, 2012, on page C1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Money Funds Open To a Deal With SEC.
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