Helping HR and payroll teams in crisis

People and payroll teams are facing exceptional demands at the moment. COVID-19 hit at year end, already one of the busiest periods in the payroll calendar, bringing with it waves of new legislation and, for many, the significant challenge of furloughing employees. Alongside frustrations associated with home working, many teams are also suffering sudden skill and resource gaps as a result of absence or redeployment.

Everyone at Civica is committed to doing all we can to assist this effort. We have made available emergency payroll and BACS services with rapid set-up to ensure critical payroll processes are maintained and employees paid on time. We have waived the insurance fees payable on our services and also assisted over 100 organisations with the furlough process.

We have augmented our payroll software in response to the significant issues faced by all organisations to implement and administer new schemes quickly in line with legislation, providing new functionality and reports with quick access to management information. This has included enhancements to support Job Retention Scheme returns, furloughing employees, paying Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from day 1 and the temporary suspension of Direct Earnings Attachments (DEAs).

One of the organisations receving support has been Templefields Multi-academy Trust. “I must say I've been really impressed with the fact that it appears to be service as usual. I can log into the Civica portal from home so have been able to enter all payroll and also download reports for approval and reconciliation. I would highly recommend Civica Payroll to anyone” said Bev Ingram their School Business Manager.

We have also been able to extend assistance to new customers. We are currently helping a supplier of critical care and infection control equipment to the NHS that needs to rapidly scale-up operations in response to increased demand caused by the pandemic. Civica is supporting with a rapid roll-out of its HR and payroll platform, including recruitment software to support unprecedented workforce expansion and aim to have the solution live in 4 weeks. 

Kirsty Fowler, MD for Civica HR & Payroll comments:

“We are acutely aware of all of the challenges our HR and payroll customers are having to deal with, made even worse with this coinciding with year-end processing. Our main aim is to be available to provide support, advice and guidance alongside a variety of services and solutions to, where possible, minimise disruption to their business operations allowing them to focus on the other priorities within their organisations.”

Civica HR & Payroll supports over 350 organisations in the UK across the public, not for profit, education and commerical sectors.