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HRTorQue Reporter
September 2019 |
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| Table of Contents |
| Should you require any further detail on any of these topics, please feel free to contact us. |
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1. Dave Beattie - Looking back at 20 years in the industry
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| Author: Dave Beattie |
After six years' experience at SARS, a tax degree and a healthy respect for compliance I entered the payroll / Human Resources outsourcing environment with HRTorQue Outsourcing in 1999. I was blissfully unaware at the time how much legislation covered the payroll / HR environment and how challenging its interpretation would be.
Over a period of 20 years, what is abundantly clear is that whilst South Africa may have legislation that is deemed to be 'world-class' a lot of this legislation severely complicates the interpretation of any issue, as in most cases the various definitions in such Acts have not been aligned. An extremely good example is the definition of 'employee'. This definition varies wildly between the Acts and this complicates the interpretation of matters pertaining to the inclusion of individuals in specific taxes / levies. This poses risk as companies are required to apply their minds to situations and may end up making interpretations that may not agree to how issues are applied by the legislative entities. These situations not only waste a lot of unnecessary time and effort, but also potentially expose the client to liability.
Another area where we have seen massive changes is the policing of legislation. Not only has policing increased, but the techniques used have become more innovative and 'aggressive'. Systems have been implemented to link UIF and Workman's Compensation and the existing systems linking UIF and SARS improved. 10 years ago, you could guarantee that SARS would not communicate with the Department of Labour on compliance issues. Nowadays, if you need a UIF Certificate of Compliance don't be surprised if when it's rejected that you are referred to SARS to get your UIF affairs in order. It's also important to start preparing yourself for Workman's Compensation queries if payroll, UIF and COID records do not match.
Whilst progress is inevitable, on the coalface we see how difficult it is for employers to get employees with the requisite skills to ensure compliance in this fast-paced industry. This challenge even led me to undertake a dissertation on the benefits of Human Resource outsourcing as part of my studies towards an MBA. The results clearly pointed to the fact that the employee pool in South Africa lacks the skills and experience to tackle the onerous payroll and HR needs for the average South African company. The cost of employing an individual with the necessary skills is beyond the budget of most of these companies and companies have had to therefore look at other options to ensure compliance and meet industry best practice. It has been exciting to be part of the solution to this problem. Identifying solutions to meet specific company's needs, whilst challenging, is rewarding as these custom solutions utilise the skills across the range of experienced employees in the HRTorQue stable.
The changing payroll / HR environment means that we can never rest on our laurels. With no day ever being the same, there is no time to stagnate and that means continuously growing as a person and consultant. Not many people can say that their job offers them that. If you can marry the challenges of dealing with difficult (and sometimes disgruntled) people with this potential for personal and intellectual growth, I would suggest investing in a career involving payroll and HR legislative compliance. |
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| 2. Payroll Fraud Audit - new service |
| Author: Jonathan Aitken |
As financial conditions get tougher, we have heard of an increased level of financial fraud in South Africa. With the level of cash flowing through payroll there is a high likelihood of fraud in this area.
HRTorQue has launched a new service to perform either a review or audit of payroll depending on client preferences.
This service is aimed at identifying the risk of fraud within the payroll process and includes a number of checks to identify whether actual fraud might exist.
We specifically look at the following areas:
• Timesheet Fraud (hours not actually worked)
• Manipulation of payroll calculations
• Ghost employees
• Commission / bonus fraud (overstated performance)
• Reimbursable expenses (over-claiming)
• Payroll controls and approval
For more information please contact [email protected]. |
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| 3. Salary benchmarking |
| Author: Nicky Hardwick |
Organisations often struggle to determine how to remunerate their employees fairly. In a market where quality, skilled employees are hard to find it is important to ensure that you are competitive in terms of setting remuneration levels to attract and retain high calibre staff.
Questions like:
• Do we have internal pay parity amongst employees?
• Are staff paid fairly against the market?
• What do we use for benchmarking?
• How do we do the benchmarking?
are commonplace and are sometimes difficult to answer without the correct tools and skills.
HRTorQue has the capability to conduct an internal benchmark for all your staff and compare your internal remuneration structures against comparative external market data. This benchmarking is becoming increasingly relevant based on legislative requirements around 'equal pay for equal work'.
eTorque as a system can be very helpful in providing easy access to remuneration data for benchmarking purposes.
For more information on the Benchmarking Intervention or on how to use e-TorQue in this regard, please contact [email protected]. |
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| 4. Faking qualifications - now a criminal offence |
| Author: Jonathan Aitken |
President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed the National Qualifications Amendment Bill into law. This means that South Africans who are found guilty of misrepresenting their qualifications could face a harsh fine, up to five years in prison, or both.
This is not limited to the submission of a CV, but could also include making the claim on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter.
Anyone, not just employers, can report people making false claims to the South African Qualifications Authority, which will publish a national name and shame list of fraudulent credentials.
The Act goes further to also impose potential fines and imprisonment sanctions for educational institutions who make false claims. |
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| 5. Psiber release notes - September 2019 |
| Author: Jonathan Aitken |
| For users of eTorQue, Psiber has made a number of changes to the system to improve functionality. The changes are reflected in their September release note. |
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| 6. HRTorQue HR Training Courses - October 2019 |
| Author: Nicky Hardwick |
Sexual Harassment, Racial Harassment and Workplace Bullying
Date: 16 October 2019
Time: 08h30 - 13h00
Venue: Durban (to be confirmed)
The workshop is designed to assist managers and management in dealing with issues relating to inappropriate behaviours in the workplace such as sexual or racial jokes, comments or innuendos, sexual and/or racial harassment and workplace bullying. The workshop will assist in identifying policies and procedures that need to be implemented as well as possible awareness and/or training measures for the staff in this area.
For more information on in-house workshops and workshops in Cape Town and Johannesburg, contact [email protected].
Understanding Employment Equity and Compliance
Date: 30 October 2019
Time: 08h30 - 13h00
Venue: Durban (to be confirmed)
This workshop is targeted at individuals who are responsible for implementing and ensuring compliance with the Employment Equity Act legislation. At the end of the Workshop individuals will have a deeper understanding of the purpose of the Employment Equity Act; the recent Changes to the Income Differential Statement; Unfair Discrimination; Compliance in terms of Reporting; Communication; Analysis; Plans and Committee Meetings.
For more information on in-house workshops and workshops in Cape Town and Johannesburg, contact [email protected].
Understanding Discipline and Initiating Disciplinary Hearings
Date: 15 November 2019
Time: 08h30 - 16h00
Venue: Durban (to be confirmed)
The workshop has open access to all individuals who are involved in disciplining staff and who need to prepare for and present evidence during a disciplinary hearing. Tools and skills learnt will enable the individual to properly understand how discipline works and the effect of how poor understanding and management of discipline effects a Disciplinary Hearing. Finally this workshop will assist individuals in being more organized and prepared for the initiating of a hearing, and the questioning of witnesses during the hearing.
For more information on in-house workshops and workshops in Cape Town and Johannesburg, contact [email protected]. |
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| 7. Skills Development - how to claim |
| Author: Harusha Naidoo |
If you are an organisation that is liable for and registered to pay a Skills Development Levy to SARS (where an employer expects that the total salaries will be more than R500 000 over the next 12 months, that employer becomes liable to pay SDL), you need to submit your Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR) to your specific SETA by 30th April yearly to qualify for money back in training grants.
These are the percentages that you can recover:
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15% of the levy your company pays when you appoint and register a skills development facilitator |
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10% of the levy when you prepare, submit and get approval for a workplace skills plan for the appropriate SETA |
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20% of the levy when you prepare an annual training report based on your approved workplace skills plan |
You can claim the cost of training, facilitators, training venue costs, course fees and course material. There must be documentation to prove the above.
HRTorQue does offer this service so if you need assistance please contact us on [email protected]. |
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| 8. Sage announces it will discontinue statutory compliance support |
| Author: Jonathan Aitken |
In a recent announcement, Sage confirmed that from the 1 October 2019 they will no longer provide tax and compliance advisory services to customers in South Africa, the rest of the Africa region and Middle East.
This is a massive announcement for the industry as many users of Sage have benefited over the years from their regular tax and statutory updates as well as the comfort they could rely on the software to provide them with outputs consistent with the legislation.
I am sure it could not have been an easy decision for Sage to make and we can only speculate that this reflects the increasingly difficult environment we find ourselves in where maintaining compliance is extremely difficult not only because of the complexity of our legislation, but also because of the differences in interpretation applied by the authorities. This creates significant risk for software developers and we assume must have played a key part of Sage's decision.
The challenge for employers using the Sage products is that while they have committed to trying to make the software compliant they have suggested clients contact tax practitioners (business partners) about compliance issues. The real burden for linking what tax practitioners then say about the legislation and what actually happens in the payroll system will fall on the customer significantly increasing the risk of getting things wrong (and facing the consequences).
The advantage of having a compliance support function within a software developer is the ability to practically think through new legislation before developing solutions and also being the first to hear about issues that arise with clients. This feedback loop is now gone.
I believe this will make it harder for Sage to continue offering a quality product (hopefully I am wrong) and make it harder for internal payroll administrators to do their jobs - they will now be fully responsible for compliance and won't be able to fully rely on the system. |
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| 9. Contact HRTorQue |
Durban
Phone: 031 564 1155 • Email: [email protected] • Website: www.hrtorque.co.za
Address: 163 Umhlanga Rocks Drive, Durban North, KwaZulu-Natal
Johannesburg
Ground Floor, West Wing, 6 Kikuyu Road, Sunninghill, 2191
Cape Town Office
Ground Floor, Liesbeek House, River Park, Gloucester Road, Mowbray, Cape Town, 7700
Bloemfontein Office
62 Kellner Street, Westdene, Bloemfontein
East London
24 Pearce and Tecoma Street, Berea, East London
Port Elizabeth
280 Cape Road, Newton Park, Port Elizabeth
Polokwane
125 Marshall Street, Polokwane
Nelspruit
Promenade Centre, First Floor, Suite 11A, Nelspruit |
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