final pran analysis of increase in volume of payroll queries and streamlining the payroll...

7/28/2019 Final PrAn Analysis of Increase in Volume of Payroll Queries and Streamlining the Payroll Processoject Doc

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An Analysis of Increase in Volumeof Payroll Queries and Streamlining

the Payroll ProcessINTERNSHIP REPORT

Compiled by: Dennis Joseph Koshy (50)


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost we offer our sincere gratitude to our project manager, Suresh SR,

(Associate Vice President & Lead HR Operations (Global Payroll)) who gave us the

opportunity to work with his team on this project. He supported us throughout our

project with his patience and knowledge whilst giving us the liberty to work in our own

way.

We are grateful to Saraswathy MS (Senior Manager - Global Payroll and International

Transfers), for her constant encouragement, guidance and support throughout our

project. We would also like to acknowledge the valuable inputs that she provided which

helped us to develop a better understanding of the entire payroll process.

We wish to express our deep sense of gratitude to Fanny Florence (Senior Officer - HR

Global Payroll), for her timely guidance and useful suggestions, which helped us in

carrying out the project work.

Sincere thanks to Shalom Thomas (HR Business PartnerCorporate Support) and

Julie John (Assistant Manager-PMO) for their timely guidance and valuable assistance

in the conduct of our project work.

I would like to thank Prof. J. Philip, President, XIME for instituting the Summer

Internship Programme (SIP) which has helped us prepare better for corporate life. I also

thank Prof. Reji Mathew, Dean, XIME for his support. I extend my warm gratitude to

Prof. Binu Modoor, Associate Dean, XIME and my Project guide for his time,

encouragement and able guidance.

Finally, yet importantly, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our beloved

parents, friends and the entire payroll team for their help and wishes for the successful

completion of this project.


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Contents

List of Tables.3

List of Figures..4

Abbreviations5

Executive Summary6

Introduction to the Industry....7

Introduction to the Company....10

Introduction to Payroll & Project........................................14

Research Methodology...19

Findings & Analysis.25

Limitations of the Study.38

Recommendations..39

Conclusion43

Bibliography.45

Annexure............................................................................46


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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Category of Queries 27

Table 2.1 Types of SalaryQueries

32

Table 3.1Volume of queries

from each businesstower

35

Table 4.1 Volume of queriesfrom each level

36

Table 5.1 Volume of queriesfrom each location 38


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List of Figures

Figure 1.1 IPM StakeholdersInputs

17

Figure 2.1 Data Flow in PayrollSystem

18

Figure 3.1 L1 & L2 Queries v/sMonth

25

Figure 4.1 Types of Queries v/sMonth

26

Figure 5.1 Clarifications v/sMonth

29

Figure 6.1 Updates v/s Month 30

Figure 7.1 Errors v/s Month 31

Figure 8.1 Salary Issues fordifferent months

32

Figure 9.1 Category v/s Month 33

Figure 10.1 Business Tower v/sMonth

35

Figure 11.1 Level v/s Month 36

Figure 12.1 Location v/s Month 37


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Abbreviations

AWOI Absent Without Information

C & B Compensation & Benefits

ESI Employee State Insurance ETW- Employee tagged Wrongly

FFS - Full & Final Settlement

FLM Front line Manager

HRA House Rent Advance

HRHD Human Resource Help Desk

HRMS Human Resource Management System

IPM Integrated Pay Master LAAS Leave and Attendance Automation System

LOP Loss of Pay

MDS Master Data System

MTP Medically terminated pregnancy

ML Maternity Leave

MSI Merit Salary Increment

OMS Offer Management System PIP - Performance Incentive Plan

PS PeopleSoft

RMG Resource Management Group

R & R Rewards & Recognition

SABL Sabbatical Leave

SAL Shift Allowance

TAT Turn Around Time

VPF Voluntary Provident Fund

VP/VD Variable pay/ Variable deduction


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Executive Summary

The HR-Payroll and HR-Helpdesk teams handle any kind of salary discrepancies or

queries that are brought forward by the employees regarding their payroll variables and

components. This project attempts to identify the reasons for the large number of payroll

queries and aims at finding ways and means to reduce them.

In order to conduct the study we extracted the data i.e. the payroll queries from

November, 2011 to April, 2012 from PeopleSoft (PS) which constituted the primary

data. Apart from analyzing queries I also spoke to a few members of the payroll team

and the HR Helpdesk.

The study gave fresh insights about the functioning of HR-Payroll and HR-Helpdesk inanswering payroll queries. I observed that the steps taken to raise a query on

PeopleSoft were a cumbersome process and some of the queries raised did not require

the need for a team member to address it. I became aware of the facts that some

managers overlooked uploading important details on IPM, employees failed to

regularize their attendance, and the level of employees awareness on critical issues

like company policies, how to navigate through PeopleSoft, etc.

To overcome these problems we came up with a few suggestions. Some of the majorones were:

Customized tabs on PeopleSoft to raise queries effectively and efficiently.

Auto triggered emails for certain queries to route queries to concerned teams.

Constant communication regarding company polices to all employees.

Action against managers who fail to upload essential details on IPM.

Reminders to employees to ensure that they regularize their attendance.

Mandatory training hours on PeopleSoft (PS).

My main intention was to assist HRHD and the payroll team to function effectively and

efficiently, keeping in mind the need for payroll team to concentrate on core payroll

issues and HRHDs long term goal of going off calls in the future.


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Introduction to the Industry

The Information Technology industry in India has gained a brand identity as a

knowledge economy due to its IT and ITES sector. The ITITES industry has two major

components: IT Services and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). The growth in the

service sectorin India has been led by the ITITES sector, contributing substantially to

increase in GDP, employment, and exports. The sector has increased its contribution to

India's GDP from 1.2% in FY1998 to 7.1% in FY2011.

According to NASSCOM, the ITBPO sector in India aggregated revenues of US$88.1

billion in FY2011, where export and domestic revenue stood at US$59 billion and

US$29 billion respectively. The major cities that account for about nearly 90% of thissectors exports are Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and

Coimbatore. Export dominate the ITITES industry, and constitute about 77% of the

total industry revenue. Though the ITITES sector is export driven, the domestic market

is also significant with a robust revenue growth. The industrys share of total Indian

exports (merchandise plus services) increased from less than 4% in FY1998 to about

25% in FY2012. According to Gartner, the "Top Five Indian IT Services Providers" are

Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro and HCL Technologies

This sector has also led to employment generation. Direct employment in the IT

services and BPO/ITES segment was 2.3 million in 2009-10 indirect employment of

over 8.3 million job opportunities is also expected to be generated due to the growth of

this sector in 2010-11. Generally considered a dominant player in the global outsourcing

sector, however, the sector continues to face challenges of competitiveness in the

globalized world, particularly from countries like China and Philippines.

India's growing stature in the Information Age enabled it to form close ties with both the

United States of America and the European Union. However, the recent global financial

crisis has deeply impacted the Indian IT companies as well as global companies. As a

result, hiring has dropped sharply, and employees are looking at different sectors like

the financial service, telecommunications, and manufacturing industries, which have
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_identityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_economyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_outsourcinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_sectorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDPhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASSCOMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad,_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkatahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coimbatorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartnerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Consultancy_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infosyshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognizanthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiprohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HCL_Technologieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippineshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Agehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Unionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932010http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932010http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932010http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932010http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Unionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Americahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Agehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippineshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HCL_Technologieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiprohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognizanthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infosyshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Consultancy_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gartnerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coimbatorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkatahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyderabad,_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delhihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASSCOMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDPhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_sectorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_outsourcinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IT_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_economyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_identityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_technology


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been growing phenomenally over the last few years. India's IT Services industry was

born in Mumbai in 1967 with the establishment of Tata Group in partnership with

Burroughs. The first software export zone SEEPZ was set up in Mumbai way back in

1973, the old avatar of the modern day IT Park. More than 80 percent of the country's

software exports happened out ofSEEPZ, Mumbai in the 80s.

The economic effect of the technologically inclined services sector in Indiaaccounting

for 40% of the country's GDP and 30% of export earnings as of 2006, while employing

only 25% of its workforce

Today, Bangalore is known as the Silicon Valley of India and contributes 33% of Indian

IT Exports. Two of Indias largest IT companies, Infosys and Wipro are head-quartered

in Bangalore, as are many of the global SEI-CMM Level 5 Companies.

Mumbai too has its share of IT companies that are India's first and largest, like TCS and

well established companies like Reliance, Patni, LnT Infotech, i-Flex, WNS, Shine,

Naukri, Jobspert etc. And these IT and dot com companies are ruling the roost of

Mumbai's relatively high octane industry ofInformation Technology.

Such is the growth in Information Technology; it was revealed that Cap Gemini will soon

have more staff in India than it does in its home market of France with 21,000

personnel+ in India.

A joint EU-India group of scholars was formed on 23 November 2001 to further

promote joint research and development. On 25 June 2002 India and the European

Union agreed to bilateral cooperation in the field of science and technology. India holds

observer status at CERN while a joint India-EU Software Education and Development

Center is due at Bangalore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEEPZhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEEPZhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Consultancy_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patni_Computer_Systemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larsen_%26_Toubro_Infotechhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Financial_Services_Softwarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNS_Global_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Technologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Unionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Unionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERNhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERNhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Unionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Unionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Technologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNS_Global_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Financial_Services_Softwarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larsen_%26_Toubro_Infotechhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patni_Computer_Systemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliancehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Consultancy_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEEPZhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEEPZhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumbai


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India's IT industry (in USD bn)

Particulars

FY

2004

FY

2005

FY

2006

FY

2007

FY

2008

IT Services 10.4 13.5 17.8 23.5 31.0

- Exports 7.3 10.0 13.13 18.0 23.1

- Domestic 3.1 3.5 4.5 5.5 7.9

ITES-BPO 3.4 5.2 7.2 9.5 12.5

- Exports 3.1 4.6 6.3 8.4 10.9

- Domestic 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.1 1.6

Engineering services, R&D and Software

products2.9 3.9 5.3 6.5 8.6

- Exports 2.5 3.1 4.0 4.9 6.4

- Domestic 0.4 0.7 1.3 1.6 2.4

Hardware 5.0 5.9 7.0 8.5 12.0

- Exports 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.5

- Domestic 4.4 5.1 6.5 8.0 11.5

Total IT industry (including hardware) 21.6 28.4 37.4 48.0 64.


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Introduction to the Company

MphasiS a unit of Hewlett-Packard Co., is an Information Technology services

company based in Bangalore, India. MphasiS is certified with ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC

27001:2005 and is assessed at CMMI v 1.2 Level 5. MphasiS is ranked #7 in India IT

companies and overall #165 by Fortune India 500 in 2011 with more than 38,000

employees as of 2011. The company has 29 offices in 14 countries with delivery centers

in India, Sri Lanka, China, North America and Europe.

History

MphasiS (then, MphasiS BFL Limited) was formed in June 2000 after the merger of the

US-based IT consulting company MphasiS Corporation (founded in 1998) and the

Indian IT services company BFL Software Limited (founded in 1992). MphasiS

Corporation was founded in 1998 in Santa Monica, California by Jerry Rao and Jeroen

Tas.

In June 2006 Electronic Data Systems (EDS) purchased a controlling stake in the

company (52%) for $380 million and operated as an independent EDS unit. On May 13,

2008, Hewlett-Packard confirmed that it had reached a deal with Electronic Data

Systems to acquire the company for $13.9 billion. The deal was completed on August

26, 2008.

In September 2009 MphasiS changed its brand identity by dropping EDS association to

become "MphasiS, an HP Company" after HP retired EDS Brand to become "HP

Enterprise Services". MphasiS operates as an independent HP subsidiary with its own

board and continues to be listed on Indian markets as "MphasiS Limited". Currently HP

owns close to 62% in MphasiS.

MphasiS marked $1 billion in revenues and registered a consolidated revenue of Rs

5,037 crore ($1,099.3 million) for the year ended October 31, 2010 becoming the sixth

Indian IT company to do that. MphasiS headquarters at Bagmane Tech Park,

Bangalore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hewlett-Packard_Co.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_India_500http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Monicahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Raohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Systemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hewlett-Packardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Enterprise_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Enterprise_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagmane_Tech_Parkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagmane_Tech_Parkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Enterprise_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Enterprise_Serviceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hewlett-Packardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Systemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Raohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Monicahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_India_500http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hewlett-Packard_Co.


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Services

MphasiS is engaged in providing information technology services to its customers

around the world. MphasiS provides integrated solutions that include business process

outsourcing, infrastructure technology, and application services. The application

services offered by the company include application development as well as

applications maintenance and support services. The markets served by the company

are financial services & insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, government,

transportation, communications, and consumer & retail industries.

MphasiS- BPO

Fortune 500 companies globally are served through voice and contact center by the

MphasiS BPO. Personalizing near shore, offshore and onshore solutions are part of the

field of expertise of the company. Value added and efficient customer service care is

provided by the business process outsourcing unit. The various processes include

finance and accounting, tax and compliance, research and content management and

customer relationship management

The company has BPO operating in Mangalore, Pune, Noida, Mumbai, Bangalore,

Pondicherry and Ahmadabad. All these centers offers English language customer care

services. The Latin American clients are routed normally to the Tijuana and Mexico

units.

The support service in various sectors as provided by MphasiS business process

outsourcing includes comprehensible solutions. For instance in research and content

management processes the customer service helps you to clean, and manage through

integrated and aggregative mediums. This enhances access to information and data.

Similarly in financial processes effective management and awareness is provided byconforming to company rules and policies. Customer relationship management helps in

enhancing interactivity with customers. This includes leveraging in a seamless way

through phone, web and effective communicating devices. Human resource outsourcing

includes effective utilization of Human Resource policies and practices.


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The MphasiS BPO operates through an efficient management system. This

management is dedicated to allotting processes and structuring them. A team of

management information systems, quality assurance and business analysts handles the

operations of each individual processes. Customer service improvement is handled by

the Six Sigma team. The business process outsourcing unit works on a three step

process principle: Transition, stabilization and finally optimization.

Offices

With more than 38,000 employees, MphasiS has presence across India with centers in

Bangalore, Raipur, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Noida-NCR, Indore, Pondicherry,

Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswarand Mangalore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raipurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmedabadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhubaneswarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhubaneswarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhubaneswarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmedabadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennaihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raipurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India


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HR Organization Chart

Chief Human

Resource Officer

SVP & Head -

Global HR

Operations

SVP & Business HR

Head BPO

Domestic

SVP & Head -

Global Staffing &

Learning

SVP & Head -

Technical Learning

SVP & Head -

Global

Compensation &

Benefits

SVP & Apps Bus HR

Head-Matured

Mkts Benefits.

SVP and Business

HR Head ITO

core &Talent

Management

SVP and Head HR

BPO International,

Service desk &

Corporate Support

Executive Assistant

to CHRO


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Introduction to Payroll and the Project

In a company, payroll is the sum of all financial records of salaries, wages, bonuses,

allowances, incentives and deductionsfor an employee. In accounting, payroll refers to

the amount paid to employees for services they provided during a certain period of time.In the case of most Indian companies that being on a monthly basis. Payroll plays a

major role in a company for several reasons. From an accounting perspective, payroll is

crucial because payroll and payroll taxes considerably affect the net income of most

companies and they are subject to laws and regulations. From an ethics in business

viewpoint payroll is a critical department as employees are responsive to payroll errors

and irregularities: good employee morale requires payroll to be paid timely and

accurately. The primary mission of the payroll department is to ensure that all

employees are paid accurately and timely with the correct withholdings and deductions,

and to ensure the withholdings and deductions are remitted in a timely manner. This

includes salary payments, tax withholdings, and deductions from a paycheck.

It consists of details regarding the employee ID, employee name, date of joining, daily

attendance record, basic salary, allowances, overtime pay, different types of bonuses,

commissions, incentives, pay for holidays, vacations and sickness, and accommodation

etc. Various deductions such as PF, taxes, loan installments or salary advances taken

by employee are deducted before releasing the salary to the employee.

Calculation of gross salaries and deductible amounts is a tedious task which involves

risk. Some of the organizations use the traditional manual method of payroll processing

and some go for the advanced payroll processing software.

In todays computerized environment, payroll system has developed into automated

software that performs every action needed by the payroll process. It helps in

calculating the payable amounts and deductions very easily. It also helps in generating

the pay slips in lesser time. MphasiS however, belongs to the first category, and still use

the traditional manual method.
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Automated calculations minimize errors. Data is validated automatically by the software.

It needs professionals to make use of the software for its efficient working.

IPM InputsIntegrated Pay Master (IPM) is an internal tool developed with the help of Chief

Information Office (CIO) team for collating all the payroll inputs. The various payroll

inputs for all India & Overseas employees or their respective managers are provided

through IPM. All the inputs given by the stakeholders on this tool are considered as

approved. All the inputs have to be provided before 15th of every month after which the

data uploaded on IPM, will be processed by the payroll team.

Features of IPM

Ensures data security and confidentiality

Removes person & email dependency (multiple handovers)

Audit Trail

Reduction in effort & time taken by the payroll team

IPM Stakeholders

IPM gets the inputs from various stakeholders for the Payroll Processing. The majorstakeholders are:

Recruitment

Offer Management System (OMS)

Delivery

Compensation & Benefits (C & B)

Finance

Human Resource (HR)- Talent Management Group

Resource Management Group (RMG)

Admin


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Figure 1: IPM Stakeholders Inputs


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Validation of Payroll System

Payroll system proves to be an integral part of any companys efficient and successful

running. At MphasiS, the payroll system comprises of 4 elements:

IPM

PS

MDS

Delphi

IPM Integrated Pay Master is an internal tool developed with the help of CIO team for

collating all the payroll inputs

PS - PeopleSoft is being used by MphasiS as the Human Resource Management

System (HRMS).

MDS - Master Data System is where all these details get accumulated and is sent to

other downstream applications. It is currently used only for VP/VD inputs.

Delphi It is the system used by the Finance team to integrate the payout details of

each employee.

Figure 2: Data Flow in Payroll System

IPM PS MDS DELPHI


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Validation Process

In order to reduce the number of payroll related queries coming to the payroll team, a

study was conducted to identify the major issues or errors in the existing process.

Sample: A sample of 7989 payroll queries was pulled out from PeopleSoft, for doing the

study. The dump was from 1st November 2011 to 30th April 2012.

Validation: Each query was manually looked up on PeopleSoft and then categorized.

Validation was done in Excel with the help of vlookup formula to extract essential

details.


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Research Methodology

Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. Once can also define research

as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic. The Advanced

Learners Dictionary of Current English lays down the meaning of research as a careful

investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge.

According to Clifford Woody research comprises defining and redefining problems,

formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organizing and evaluating

data; making deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing the

conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis. Research is, thus,

an original contribution to the existing stock of knowledge making for its advancement. It

is the pursuit of truth with the help of study, observation, comparison and experiment. In

short, the search for knowledge through objective and systematic method of finding

solution to a problem is research.

The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions through the application of

scientific procedures. The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is hidden

and which has not been discovered as yet. Though each research study has its own

specific purpose, we may think of research objectives as falling into a number of

following broad groupings:

To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it (studies

with this object in view are termed as exploratoryorformulate research studies)

To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a

group (studies with this object in view are known as descriptive research

studies); To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is

associated with something else (studies with this object in view are known as

diagnosticresearch studies);

To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables (such studies are

known as hypothesis-testingresearch studies).


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Statement of the Problem: The large amount of payroll queries that was coming to the

payroll team was considered more than what it should be getting each month. Some of

the issues caused by this were;

Increasing number of payroll queries lead to: low employee satisfaction and

increased man-hours.

Apart from that, this caused the payroll team to divert their focus from hard core

payroll issues.

Increasing the workload of the HR Helpdesk

Assumptions: Few assumptions regarding the study were that;

Since BPO employees were not used to the corporate setup, the initial

assumption was that maximum queries would come from the BPO Tower.

The main location from where the queries were coming in was considered to be

Bangalore and Pune, since they had the highest number of employees.

The assumption was that the new employees would be asking more queries than

the older employees.

Hypothesis: Since the study conducted was descriptive in nature, I did not have a

hypothesis for the same.

Sample: A sample of 7989 payroll queries was pulled out from PeopleSoft, for doing the

study. The dump was from 1st November 2011 to 30th April 2012.

Universe: All queries that were coming to the HR Helpdesk, from 1st November 2011 to

30th April 2012 would be the universe for the study.


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Limitations of the Study: This study had its share of limitations. Some of the major

ones were:

Data was not accurate that was pulled out from PS - The L1 queries that were

pulled out for the November, December and January were all Salary queries,

unlike for the other months, which was purely data from payroll category.

Difficult to categorize since they were very similar- Some of the queries were

so similar in nature that it was difficult to put it into a category sometimes. The

categorization was done on the basis of our understanding of the query or

solution provided.

No proper Summary - Some of the L1 queries did not have a proper summary.

Because of this, there was no clarity on the issue. Therefore we were not able

categorize them.

Time Limitation Since the report has to be submitted before the results of the

implemented recommendations are still unknown, estimations cant be based it.

Due to the time limit, this study cant be compared to any other organizations that

have implemented similar recommendations.

The target population for the purpose of our analysis were all the permanent, contractbasis, pre-separated and separated employees of MphasiS Ltd, both onsite and

offshore employees, who have raised payroll related queries on PeopleSoft via calls

and e-mails, from November, 2011 to April; 2012.The duration of study was from May

7th June 29th, 2012.

The data was collected by, extracting reports from PeopleSoft by using the following

steps:

Main MenuReporting Tools Helpdesk Reporting Tools 9.1 Helpdesk Query

Manager 9.1

The command for each category being:


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RC_CASE_SUMMARY L1 Queries

RC_CASE_SUMMARY_1_PAYROLL L2 Queries

The entire payroll dump was analyzed by using their respective case IDs on PeopleSoft

(PS). Based on our observation we were able to classify them on the following basis:

updates, clarification and errors.

Those queries which were grouped underclarifications were raised because:

The employees were seeking general information

Employees needed clarity on certain issues

Those queries marked as updates were done for the following reasons:

Employees faced difficulties in updating their bank account and PAN card details

so they required the assistance of the payroll team for the same.

Employees made requests with respect to application of leaves, salary advance

and VPF requests.

The Errors were classified taking into consideration the following:

Technical errors

Human errors

After going through the queries, on the basis of our understanding we were able to

classify them into the following categories:

Advances:Queries were based on employees requests to apply for salary advances

for medical reasons, house rent etc. as they required the payroll team to apply for it ontheir behalf and forward the same to the finance team.

Allowances: Queries based on shift/on-call special, deputation, onsite, leave travel

allowances.


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Bank Accounts & Pan Card Issues: Requests to update the bank account numbers or

deletion of the previous accounts and updating the employee PAN details on People

Soft.

Bonus Issues: Issues relating to joining, longevity, referral, skill and retention bonus

were placed under this category.

Deductions: This consisted of issues involving deductions with respect to taxes

(Professional & Income), transport and insurance premium deductions.

Employee tagged wrongly: These were queries regarding incorrect Band, Level,

Designation and location of employees on their pay slips or on PS.

Gratuity and Superannuation: Employees want to know the status and breakup of the

gratuity amount for the tenure of the employees. The status of the gratuity cheque sent

is also clarified at times.

Incentives: Employees raise their concerns of the amounts due to them with respect torewards and recognition (R&R) amounts, PIP, and training incentives.

Leave Related:Requests relating to employees extending their LOP for the following

months, LOP reversal issues, leave balance and leave encashment for the year.

PF issues: Employees raise the cases for reasons of discontinuing the VPF or

information regarding PF transfer, withdrawal, contribution, balance enquiry etc.

Reimbursements: Joining /discontinuing transport and Car and fuel reimbursements

policies.


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Salary Issues: Discrepancies in the Salary credited for the month and clarifications as

to why the salary hasnt been released. These queries were sub categories on the

solutions provided to the queries stated below:

HRMS Stoppay

LAAS Stoppay

Bank Stoppay

Released Through Cheque

Interim Payout

Raise case on PS

Salary deductions

Others

Miscellaneous Issues: Employees raised cases requesting for information purposes

on various issues like car enrollment policy, Change of LAN ID, payment of summit

award etc.


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Findings & Analysis

The total amount of queries analyzed over a period of 6 months from November, 2011

to April, 2012 was 7989. Out of which 4502 (56.4%) were L1 Queries and 3487 (43.6%)

were L2 queries, handled by the HR- Helpdesk and HR- Payroll team respectively.

Figure 3.1

As shown in figure 3.1 the month of November 2011 had a sum total of 1536 queries.

This was because for the month of November, December and January the data

received was not purely Payroll data, but queries were extracted from the salary

category as well.


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Figure 4.1

7989 queries were then classified into 6393 Clarifications (80%), 1283 (16.1%) request

for system updates and 313 (3.9%) technical or human errors.

As shown in figure 4.1 the queries that have hit payroll every month have been relativelyof the same type over the last six months. The clarifications seem to have reduced over

the months, but the updates have seen an upward trend till the month of March. The

errors have been relatively low on a month on month basis.


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Gratuity and superannuation constituted around 2.3% of total queries where

employees inquired about their gratuity status.

PF issues were 2.2% of the total queries where employees raised queries about

their PF calculations, statement, and information on transfer or withdrawal of PF.

Queries were also raised with respect to alterations in VPF contribution.

Issues relating to incorrect information shown in PS or on Pay-slip of employees

with regard to Band, Designation, Level and Location represented 2% of total

queries.

Advances and Miscellaneous issues were 1.3% of total queries.

Reimbursements amounted to 0.9% of total queries.


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Figure 5.1

As seen in figure 5.1 Clarifications were primarily because of salary issues 57%,

deductions 8%, leave related 7% and bank account and pan card issues 4.5% of total

clarifications. The rise in allowances and deductions were mainly because of the

change in shift allowance policy and transport policy for the month of April and March

respectively.


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Figure 6.1

As seen in the above figure 6.1, Updates were largely because of requests for bank

account and pan card updates (61.6%) and leave related issues (21.2%) as a

percentage of total updates.

The reason for the increasing trend in bank account updates from the month of

February was because the data received for the month of November- January wasnt

purely Payroll data, majority of the queries were extracted from the salary category.

The leave related issues were considerably high for November and December because

of LOP reversals as employees would have gone on leave and on resuming work they

would have been on LOP.


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Figure 7.1

As depicted in figure 7.1, Errors were mainly because of salary issues (30%).

Employees raised queries on salary deductions as they would have been on LOP after

resuming from December vacations.

Allowances were 28% of total errors, due to managers carelessness as they failed to

upload the shift allowance and incentive inputs on IPM. 15% were leave related LOP

reversal cases, which has been stopped as of June, 2012.


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Figure 8.1

As seen in the above figure 8.1, Majority of the queries raised were because of salary

issues, 47.4 % of total queries. The number of queries raised for the months of

November to January is relatively higher because the data received for those months

wasnt purely Payroll data, majority of the queries were extracted from the salary

category.

Salary Issues cases raised were largely due to LAAS Stoppay that constituted 26% of

total salary issues and 12% of the total queries. Whereas for the months of February till

April the queries related to salary issues have been relatively stable.

Table 2.1

1005

638710

465 508 457

Nov Dec Jan Feb March April

Salary Issues

Salary Issues

Queries Cases Grand

Total

Percentage

HRMS Stoppay 159 7989 2.0

Bank Stoppay 314 7989 3.9LAAS Stoppay 993 7989 12.4

Interim Payout 411 7989 5.1

Raise Case 143 7989 1.8

LOP 222 7989 2.8


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Figure 11.1

As seen in figure 11.1, a majority of the queries were raised by levels 4, 3 and 2.

But when compared as a proportion of the total number of employees active in the

system as on May 2012, vast majority of the queries were raised by employees fromlevels 4 (30.5%), 5 (29.6%) and 6 (25.9%).

Table 4.1

Levels No. of Cases No. of Employees Percentage

1 1343 6731 20.0

2 1418 9116 15.6

3 1477 7412 19.9

4 1534 5024 30.5

5 1086 3673 29.6

6 628 2422 25.9

7 288 1361 21.2


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Figure 12.1

As observed in figure 12.1 a vast majority of the queries were raised by employees from

locations like Bangalore, Pune and Indore in descending order.

But when compared as a proportion of the total number of employees active in the

system as on May 2012, the location which had the most queries in proportion to the

number of employees was Indore (39.8%), Mumbai (26.1%) and Vadodara (25.9%).

Table 5.1

Location No. of Cases No. of Employees Percentage

Bangalore 2236 10872 20.6

Chennai 1008 5082 19.8

Indore 1378 3458 39.8Mangalore 295 1510 19.5

Mumbai 372 1428 26.1

Pune 1664 8435 19.7

Vadodara 417 1612 25.9


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Limitations of the Study

This study had its share of limitations. Some of the major ones were:

Data was not accurate that was pulled out from PS - The L1 queries that were

pulled out for the November, December and January were all Salary queries,

unlike for the other months, which was purely data from payroll category.

Difficult to categorize since they were very similar- Some of the queries were

so similar in nature that it was difficult to put it into a category sometimes. The

categorization was done on the basis of our understanding of the query or

solution provided.

No proper Summary - Some of the L1 queries did not have a proper summary.

Because of this, there was no clarity on the issue. Therefore we were not able

categorize them.

Time Limitation Since the report has to be submitted before the results of the

implemented recommendations are still unknown, estimations cant be based it.

Due to the time limit, this study cant be compared to any other organizations that

have implemented similar recommendations.


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Recommendations

Sr.

No

Problem Impact Solution

1. Responses to queries

are wavered and lack

clarity at times.

Employees are notcommunicatedefficiently.

Increased no. ofre-opened cases.

Standardization of

responses to certain

issues.

2. Employees are not

regularizing their

attendance in time.

Increased LAASstoppay cases

Alerts of LAAS systems

and Computer Systems

(wallpapers).

3. Lack of awareness -

Bank Account and Pan

card details.

Increased Bankand Pan cardRelated Queries.

On-boarding SPOCs

must ensure that

employees are well

informed.

4. Employees are

unaware of how to

navigate through PS.

Increased Updates for

Payroll.

Refresher /training

courses on PS.

5. Managers fail to:

Upload the

details on IPM.

Regularize

attendance

Inform policychanges

Employees are :

Unable to claim

their allowances

and incentives.

LAAS Stoppay

More cases raised

Managers should

without fail

Upload details

Regularize

attendance

Inform policychanges

(Action taken if found

lacking)

6. L2 Queries specific to

payroll are not being

routed to payroll.

Increased TAT HD has to make sure

that they clearly assign

queries to the respective

departments.

7. Employees have too

many options in

categories.

Wrong category chosen

thus increasing workload.

One category for payroll.

8.. Employees do not read

email alerts for policy

change.

Unaware of the change in

policy.

Change in structure of

email alerts conveying

policy changes.


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9. Employees are

unaware how to check

their salary status.

Increase in salary status

queries.

Running scrolls on E-

payroll requesting

employees to check their

status

10. Employees sending tax

related queries to

payroll, instead of

raising a ticket on e-

payroll.

Unwanted increased

number of L1 payroll

queries.

Auto triggered mails to

ensure employees raise

a ticket on e-payroll.

11. Employees are

confused about when

they will receive their

bonus amounts.

Increase in L2 payroll

queries with reference to

bonus.

Clearly state the exact

date the employee can

expect to receive their

bonus amounts.

Recommendations in detail:

1. Reminders for regularization of attendance

Reminders should be sent in the form ofwallpapers on monitor screens

for those employees who have access to computers just before payroll

dates.

For those who do not have accessibility to computer systems, reminders

will be showcased on the LAAS system in the form of running scrolls.

2. Handbooks

On-boarding Handbook- A handbook containing details like: Bank/ PAN Card Updates on PS

Medi-claim ( w.r.t. now or never )

Allowances


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Exit Handout at the start of the notice period - A handout containing

information on :

PF withdrawal/ PF Transfer(especially sharing of personal E-mail

ID)

Gratuity/ Superannuation

Pre-separation process

Full & Final settlement procedure

3. There should be only Single Category for employees to raise their queries

regarding payroll. ( Check Annexure II for further categories)

4. Auto-triggered mails for:

Queries specific to Transport,

Tax ( e-payroll)


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Suggestions that have been initiated:

1. Running Scrolls on e-Payroll

Though the salary is being processed for the current month, please do login to

Self Service Po rtal (SSP)to know exactly what is yourSalary payout status

for the current month. Use this link, which navigates you to SSP:

URL:

https://appgate.mphasis.com/uniquesig6b474584fc2fa80679cd75f32eedf6b6253

cb4311c336d04850c4093eec403e1/uniquesig1/pfcab/aspx/PayStatusDetails.as

px?ParentId=1&Id=58&Type=1

Expectations

Strengthen HDs processes in order to go off calls in the near future.

Help employees who are unable to elucidate their queries.

Increase the speed and efficiency of the HRHD Team

Clearly stated problems, avoids confusion among HD team members.

Number of re-opened cases will reduce as HD team will have a clearer

understanding of Employees queries.

This will help streamline all queries to the correct stakeholders and there will be

less room for error.
https://appgate.mphasis.com/uniquesig6b474584fc2fa80679cd75f32eedf6b6253cb4311c336d04850c4093eec403e1/uniquesig1/pfcab/aspx/PayStatusDetails.aspx?ParentId=1&Id=58&Type=1https://appgate.mphasis.com/uniquesig6b474584fc2fa80679cd75f32eedf6b6253cb4311c336d04850c4093eec403e1/uniquesig1/pfcab/aspx/PayStatusDetails.aspx?ParentId=1&Id=58&Type=1https://appgate.mphasis.com/uniquesig6b474584fc2fa80679cd75f32eedf6b6253cb4311c336d04850c4093eec403e1/uniquesig1/pfcab/aspx/PayStatusDetails.aspx?ParentId=1&Id=58&Type=1https://appgate.mphasis.com/uniquesig6b474584fc2fa80679cd75f32eedf6b6253cb4311c336d04850c4093eec403e1/uniquesig1/pfcab/aspx/PayStatusDetails.aspx?ParentId=1&Id=58&Type=1https://appgate.mphasis.com/uniquesig6b474584fc2fa80679cd75f32eedf6b6253cb4311c336d04850c4093eec403e1/uniquesig1/pfcab/aspx/PayStatusDetails.aspx?ParentId=1&Id=58&Type=1https://appgate.mphasis.com/uniquesig6b474584fc2fa80679cd75f32eedf6b6253cb4311c336d04850c4093eec403e1/uniquesig1/pfcab/aspx/PayStatusDetails.aspx?ParentId=1&Id=58&Type=1https://appgate.mphasis.com/uniquesig6b474584fc2fa80679cd75f32eedf6b6253cb4311c336d04850c4093eec403e1/uniquesig1/pfcab/aspx/PayStatusDetails.aspx?ParentId=1&Id=58&Type=1


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Conclusion

Every month the HRHD is hit by more than 10,000 queries, of which approximately

1,500 are payroll related queries. The project was conducted in order to reduce such

queries by finding means to streamline processes and create awareness thereby

utilizing companys resources in the best possible way.

Primarily, the trend analysis conducted lead to the following conclusions:

Majority of the queries were raised by the CS business tower and not APPS and

BPO which was the supposition.

Locations which had the most queries in proportion to the number of employees

were Indore, Mumbai and Vadodara. A good number of the queries were raised by employees from levels 4, 5 and 6.

Queries raised by employees who joined in 2005, 2006 and 2008 were the

highest in proportion to the total number of employees who joined that year.

Essentially, our recommendations for streamlining the entire process and thereby

reducing the number of queries were to:

Clear identification of L1 and L2 queries

Simplify the PS CRM navigations/ drop down list to help employee to select the

right option to raise the issue

Assign queries to the right stakeholder at the first place

Structure of responses can be more clear and understandable to employee

Conclusive closure to queries at first place rather than partial response or

incomplete responses

Identify area of concerns which are of repetitive nature and highlight back to the

stakeholders

Commitments made to employees should be tracked in system itself( PS-CRM)

While the overall communication can be improved by:


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Make it effective to the end customer (employees)

Any policy or process changes which are impacting the employees , should

have multiple mode communication (email, FLM connects , running scrolls,

wallpapers, etc)

Reviewing Manager tool kit and updating it on regular basis

Strengthening the on-boarding effectiveness in terms of mandatory dos &

don'ts

Mandatory training for employees/Front Line Managers (FLMs) on PS system

Our main intention was to assist HRHD and the payroll team to function effectively andefficiently, keeping in mind the need for payroll team to concentrate on core payroll

issues and HRHDs long term goal of going off calls in the future.


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Bibliography

Websites

www.mphasis.com

www.mymphasis.com

www.humanresource.net.in

www.hrdc.in

www.humancapitalonline.com

www.shrmindia.org

www.wikipedia.org
http://www.mphasis.com/http://www.humanresource.net.in/http://www.hrdc.in/http://www.humancapitalonline.com/http://www.shrmindia.org/http://www.shrmindia.org/http://www.humancapitalonline.com/http://www.hrdc.in/http://www.humanresource.net.in/http://www.mphasis.com/


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Annexure

This will have further categories that an employee can select from:o Leave

o Allowances

o Advances

o Bonus

o Salary

o Payslip

o Bank account details

o Pan Card details

o Incentives

o Gratuity and

Superannuation

o Reimbursements

o Deductions

o PF

o Data upload in PS

o Others

Each Category thereafter will have a Specific Summary.

o Leave

LOP

LAAS

SABL / ML/MTP

Leave balance

Others

o Allowances

Dispute in Shift/On- Call allowance

Dispute in OT allowance

Dispute in Deputation allowance

Dispute in Leave travel allowance Special Allowance

Others


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o Deductions

Professional Tax

Income Tax

Transport

ESI

Medi-claim

Others

o Payslip

Attestation

Changes in Details on Payslip

Designation

Others

o Bonus Issues

Joining

Referral

Retention

Longevity

Skill

Others

o Gratuity and Superannuation

Gratuity

Superannuation

o Incentives

Training

PIP

R&R

MSI

Others

o Advances Salary Advance

HRA / HDA

Medical Advance

Others


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o Salary

Salary Not credited

Discrepancies in Salary Amount

Salary Status

Salary Deductions

Cheque not received

Wrong cheque

Others

final pran analysis of increase in volume of payroll queries and streamlining the payroll...

Documents