UK could save 994 tonnes of carbon emissions per year by switching to electronic payslips
Written by PayPerShop.com - Filed under: Press Releases on September 10th, 2008
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*MidlandHR urges businesses to switch to e-payslips to cut CO2 emissions and save money*
Nottingham, 10th September 2008 – HR management software provider, MidlandHR advises that UK businesses could collectively save 994tonnes of CO2 emissions per year simply by switching from paper payslips to electronic payslips. That’s the equivalent one person circumnavigating the globe 84 times. Switching to e-payslips is a commercially viable measure for employers, not only to help their business and employees go greener, but to help build and maintain a positive company image and reputation.
Richard Thomas, director of product strategy at MidlandHR explains, “Until recently, payroll offices the world over have functioned using paper. Fire hazard aside, technology such as MidlandHR’s iTrent gets rid of all this paper and the need to store mountains of copies, resulting in tangible cost savings. Making a simple change like switching to electronic payslips is one of the best ways to actively engage the green agenda and sustainability issues.”
Housing charity, Shelter, introduced e-payslips in 2006 and hope to stop using paper payslips as soon as possible. Payroll manager, Doug Bird, comments: “Considering that we have 860 staff at Shelter, we could save at least 10,320 printed payslips per year, which would equate to approximatly 29kgCO2e per year. Then there is also the financial cost of printing, energy and postage that is saved too.
“Staff at the charity are able to view their payslips online, instead of having them sent to their homes. This will not only save Shelter a considerable amount of money and administration time, it also allays employees’ security concerns over stolen or missing mail.” Doug adds: “Because employees can view payslips online three days prior to getting paid, any discrepancies can be resolved before payday.”
Thomas continues, “Research showed that some 75-80% of MidlandHR’s customers were interested in electronic payslips, which is what we now provide. Volumes of payslips for companies can really add up, especially for larger ones who are aiming to be more efficient in considering the financial cost and carbon emissions produced as a result of sourcing, processing, printing, transporting and finally posting.
“Green is nothing now compared to what it will be in a few years time and when looking to purchase new technology, whether it be the hardware or software, buying decisions will be based not only on performance ratings but efficiency ratings too.”
*ONS reports 29,587 000 people employed in the UK between March and May 2008.
*Each printed payslip amounts to 2.8gCO2 e.
*One person circumnavigating the globe produces 11.8 tonnes CO2 emissions
About MidlandHR
MidlandHR is a leading supplier of HR management software and services to ‘blue chip’ companies, government, health and other public sector organisations worldwide. Formed in 1984, MidlandHR provides its customers with tailored solutions to meet all their payroll and personnel requirements. Customers include Friends Provident, Severn Trent Water, Cambridge University, Zavvi, TK Max, Edinburgh City Council, Law Offices Department, Laing O’Rourke. For more information, visit MidlandHR at http://www.midlandhr.com
Written by PayPerShop.com - or reproduced on behalf of the company supplying the above information.
Filed under: Press Releases on September 10th, 2008
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This sounds like a great idea on face value, and there is certainly merit in companies going down the “paperless” route for their payroll needs.
I personally think that there has to be an element of caution given with moving an employee’s salary information to a purely electronic format, for a few basic reasons. Firstly, not every person, in every employment sector, has access to a computer to retrieve the information provided. Yes, they may be able to view it on a colleague’s computer, or even a friend’s computer outside of the working day, but then the whole ugly issue of Data Protection rears its head, and that is a whole different can of worms I won’t open here!
From my experience, employees are very protective over their information and salary, and with people’s confidence in data being stored electronically at an all time low (recent HMRC “data loss” issues for example), the amount of employees actually willing to make the move permanently to e-payslips would, I think, be less than those expressing an interest.
The second reason I think that this is a good idea in principle but maybe not in reality is a simple one. People are creatures of habit, they like the comfort of having information in their hands, locked away in safes or however they store their payslips. There is therefore an extremely high probability that those people would simply print the payslip off themselves, “for their records”, and the argument regarding saving CO2 becomes null and void. Indeed, it then actually becomes simply a cost saving exercise for the company, with that cost and any resultant energy emissions being passed onto the employee!
In addition to this, having recently applied for a mortgage, it seems that many companies are not happy with copies of payslips and want to see the original. With an e-payslip, the ability to “photoshop” the payslip and amend the income details would be a temptation that a handful of people would be unable to resist and would add a certain amount of paranoia to that industry.
I am not against the idea of improving the green credentials of all companies, and something certainly needs to be done about the amount of paperwork that is generated by the Finance sector, but I think that these initiatives will only ever take off at a very local level.
Keith Baker
Manager
Payeday Payroll Solutions Ltd