Expert: Shirley McAllister, CPP, PHR - 7/15/2011

Question
We have multiple business units processing payroll under many different cycles under many different pay groups.

Over time, we are working towards moving the business units to
Bi-Weekly, week in arrears for both exempt and non-exempt unless union contract or state law does not allow.

I hate to reinvent the wheel and I am an information holic, the more data the better and happier I am.
I know this is a common thing
I am looking for a process document, check list, project out line, questions to ask, best practices, what ever someone wants to call it to make my life easier.
Thanks

Answer
I do not have a checklist or project sheet. I actually changed from semi-monthly to bi-weekly several years ago.

I researched information on why the change was necessary and listed the pros and cons. Than I wrote a proposal and took it to my supervisor. She agreed with me and we than took it to management for approval.

Once it was approved we gathered together our information services department, Human Resources, Payroll, Accounting and had a meeting discussing what we were going to do and asked for their imput and help.

We than decided when the best time to switch was and decided on January 1 of the new year.

We gave the employees 90 days written notice and we allowed them to cash in any accrued PTO or vacation pay they had to cover the held back week. If they had no time accrued and it would pose a hardship on them we paid them the week as a draw and deducted it from the next years pay in an equal amount each payday. So if they made 800.00 in a week we paid the 800.00 and than divided it by 26 payperiods and deducted 30.77 from each paycheck for the entire year. We did not do this for anyone except those without accrued time and only those that it would pose a huge financial hardship (single parents, etc.)We did the draws on a case by case basis and it was looked at by management (HR, President, Vice President, CFO). Most people had accrued time.

If the employee had accrued time it had to be used and a draw would not be issued. We also allowed them to take the week without pay. Some two earner households opted to do this rather than use PTO time.

We made it as easy as possible for the employees but it was a change and it was administered as planned.

We had to change our filing status with our taxing agencies. We also changed pay date information in our handbook. We posted on the 4 breakrooms that starting January 1 a new paydate would go into effect if any questions call HR and the phone #.

We also had to set up new direct deposit dates with our bank for the new pay dates.  I had to change any saved ads or forms I used such as job ads to a new saved ad with the new payroll date information on them.

We calculated our benefits (medical, dental, vision, FSA on 26 pay periods. That means less was held out each pay period. So if medical was 150.00 a month x 12 months or 1800.00 a year instead of holding out 1800 divided by 24 or 75.00 a paycheck we held out 1800 divided by 26 which was 69.23 a paycheck. A lot of employees liked that.

We had a meeting with the managers and immediate supervisors and explained the process. We let them know when timecards would be due under the new system.

(probably does not apply to you) We made a new policy on timecards that missing timecards or timecards with missing spots would be paid at regular hours x minimum wage for the missing card or the missing punch. The balance would be paid the next payday when the correct timecard was received. In a couple of months we had zero missing timecards and our missing punches were way way down. The law simply says we have to pay minimum wage.

When we sent out the first batch of checks under the new payday we put a flyer in the checks and told the employees this is the first run under the new pay date change. Look over your check or stub and if you have any questions please call Payroll at (number) or HR at (number).

A few were unhappy but now that it is in place they all love knowing that time goes in one Friday and they get their check the next Friday. It only took a month or two and they liked the biweekly much better.

Shirley