HR Payroll Project

BACKGROUND

Worcestershire County Council (WCC) currently runs separate Payroll and HR systems.  The Payroll system, Delphi VME is mainframe based and has been in use for the last 15 years.  The Corporate HR system is Workforce and has been in use in WCC for the past 6 years.  There is also an Education HR system developed in-house using FoxPro which maintains personnel records for employees in the Authority’s schools, producing letters / contracts of employment, pension estimates and redundancy estimates.  There is some integration between these systems, although additional links continue to be developed to meet specific requirements.

A review of the existing payroll system was completed in June of last year.  The most significant points were as follows:

• The current Payroll system Delphi VME provided timely and accurate payments.
• The management reporting provided by the payroll system is weak.
• The mainframe will no longer be supported after December 2006.
• The number of organisations using the Delphi VME software is reducing.  This means that the cost of supporting the software is likely to escalate. 

The Council’s support contract for the existing Payroll Software expires in December 2006.

Based on the need to implement a new payroll system it was perceived as an opportune time to review the integration between HR and Payroll systems. 

WCC provides Bureau services to both Payroll and HR customers.  There is currently a mixture of predominantly Payroll only and HR only provision. A small number of organisations use the separately administered Payroll and HR Services.

The County Council and District Councils within Worcestershire are committed to explore ways of achieving greater efficiency of service provision through co-operative working. Under this “Shared Services” agenda, Payroll and HR Services are perceived to be prime areas where co-operative working will be beneficial.

For further information please contact hrpayroll@worcestershire.gov.uk