Many companies operating in Africa prefer to directly manage the relationship with their employees (be they permanent staff, project staff or contract & temporary staff) and consequently prefer not to outsource this function to a third party or agency. What they have found however is that managing a payroll, especially with the numerous challenges that the African continent brings, takes a significant amount of energy away from their core business and ironically from their staff.
Therefore it makes business sense to outsource this unique function to a third party who understands the various country labour laws, tax laws and numerous statutory requirements, allowing the client to focus on their core business.
Where we come in
Many solutions are available and will vary depending on the level of intervention that the client requires in terms of the payroll solution.
We can process the payroll, install and manage a time & attendance system, handle all HR and/or IR (disciplinaries etc.), manage the Recruitment Process (checks, inductions, bank account and statutory registrations etc.), run reports and provide statistics.
Depending on which responsibilities the client wishes to retain and which they’d like us to manage, certain requirements need to be met to ensure that the staff are paid correctly and on time.
These include:
- Depending on the size of the workforce a suitably manned and equipped Site Office may need to be set-up to ensure the correct take-on and administration of employees as per the requirements of the PLA and the employers.
- A suitable Time & Attendance system is put into place in order to produce accurate tracking of employees working periods on site.
- Suitable infrastructure is procured to support the processing of this information electronically.
Time & Attendance
Once the worker is on-site it would be necessary to keep a record of the hours worked. Ideally this is done through turnstiles erected on-site with biometric readers that control access. Of course this is often not the case and so we could implement our own biometric T&A within a container.
There are manual solutions available and we can also piggyback on the clients existing T&A. Again this all depends on the requirements, the number of heads, logistics and the budgets. The information captured by the manual or Biometric system is then sent to our Web Enabled Timesheet System which verifies, calculates and processes the payroll.
Web Enabled Timesheet System (WETS)
The hours on the T&A system would be recorded onto the Web Enabled Timesheet System (WETS) and are then authorised by the entities or managers who requested the labour. WETS will furnish a pro forma invoice with the value that is due to process the payroll (including all legislated statutory costs and levies).
This pro-forma costing can be available four days prior to the pay run date. Any changes that are made to the Timesheet through the authorisation process will immediately update the final values.
Once the Timesheet has been authorised and imported into the payroll (with all rules associated with the payroll applied), we can produce the necessary reports such as pay slips, hours / shifts worked, salary summary, EFT / ACB summary, deduction reports, general ledgers, government levy reports (tax, social security, statutory benefits etc.), etc.
Summary of Services
- We can implement a system and accurately complete the payroll engagement process for the employees of all contractors, sub-contractors and service providers
- Ensure that the correct wage rate is applied to the employee grade in terms of the PLA schedules Affect wage rate changes where authorised
- Ensure that the wages for the employees of all contractors, sub-contractors and service providers are calculated and presented in a uniform manner
- Ensure adherence to the nominated pay days as per the Project Calendar in the PLA Collate, maintain and report on all agreed criteria (including hours etc.)
- Maintain an accurate and updated record of all employee leave
- Ensure all employees are registered with relevant statutory bodies (tax, social security etc.) and to effect deduction from the wages for the employee contribution and to ensure the employer contributions are paid or to the relevant authorities
- Ensure the payment of all Municipal taxes
- Generate and issue a same design payslip for all employees to ensure that there is consistency in terms of content description and compliance with the statutory requirements and the PLA
- Ensure that all employees will be paid on time and accurately on the prescribed pay days as per the Project Calendar of the PLA
- Provide all contractors with a standard system of wage input and a unique payslip designed for the PLA requirements
- Ensure that all demobilisation payments are correctly calculated and paid in terms of the PLA
- Provide necessary insurances including occupational health and accident insurance
- Ensure all software used is compatible with the requirements of local country legislation
- Respond timeously and accurately to all individual pay queries • Effect changes to pay rates where applicable
- Generate monthly, quarterly and annual reports to the contractor management
- Generate all reports as directed by internal and external auditors
- Effect union stop order payments in terms of the PLA
- Where necessary, negotiate with the relevant banks / financial institutions to ensure that they have the necessary amount of cash in the correct denominations