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As the new tax year 2024/25 approaches, payroll and HR teams will once again play a crucial role in ensuring a smooth transition.
On the compliance side, you’ll be implementing recent tax and benefit changes in the Spring Budget. But it’s also a great time to take a step back and conduct a thorough review of data, policies, processes, and procedures. This ‘spring cleaning’ will set you up well to keep things running smoothly, efficiently, and compliantly. Here’s a comprehensive HR and payroll checklist to guide you through the key areas.
Key announcements in the Spring Budget
This year’s Budget contained a raft of announcements aimed at supporting businesses and encouraging investment. However, HR and payroll-related changes were relatively few. Let’s look at the major developments to include in your year-end payroll checklist for the new tax year 2024/25.
National insurance reduction
The NI rate for employees will be cut by 2p to 8% starting 6th April 2024. This will save the average employee £450 per year. This cut applies to National Insurance contributions (NICs) paid on earnings.
Higher child benefit charge threshold
The threshold for high-income child benefit charges will increase to £60,000 from £50,000 starting April 2024. This means that more families will be eligible to receive child benefit.
The charge applied will equal 1% of the benefit for every £200 of income above £60,000, and will match the payment for income that exceeds £80,000.
As previously announced, free childcare will also be expanded to 30 hours per week for all children under five years old, starting September 2025.
What’s on the HR and payroll checklist for the new tax year 2024/25?
Review policies and procedures
Having up-to-date and easily accessible policies and procedures is crucial for a healthy and productive work environment. Ensuring all expectations for employees and employer are clear and correct, to help prevent misunderstandings and legal issues.
Documents to review include:
- Workplace code of conduct
- Recruitment policy
- Remote and hybrid working policy (if applicable)
- Internet, email, and social media policies
- Software policies and procedures
- Anti-discrimination and harassment policy
- Grievance-handling procedures
- Discipline and termination policies
- Employee handbook
Review steps
Ensure each policy has a brief overview and description of how it works.
Consider providing examples and explanations of how the policy links to other internal policies and procedures.
Update employee records
Accurate and reliable employee records are more than just a hygiene factor enabling normal payroll processing and HR operations. High-quality, complete data powers automation, analysis, and insights that can boost strategic goals.
Review and update:
- Employee file management system
- Employee classifications (full-time, part-time, remote)
- Employee status changes (full-time, part-time, temporary)
- Addresses, phone numbers, and emergency contact information
- Payroll and holiday allocations
- Employee benefits and contributions
- Appraisals, promotions, disciplinary letters
Encourage employee self-service
A system such as MyView Self-Service allows employees to update their own records, lightening the load for HR and payroll teams.
Re-evaluate onboarding, training, and development procedures
Take another look at how well you’re setting up new hires up for success, and helping employees stay current in their roles and contribute more effectively to the organisation. More than just admin, these processes have a major impact on employee engagement and retention.
Onboarding process:
- Review the effectiveness of your onboarding process and identify areas for improvement.
- Consider how to optimise the onboarding of remote or hybrid employees.
- Ensure new recruits have the tools and resources they need to start successfully in their roles.
- Review regulatory and job-specific training requirements for new hires.
Ongoing training and development:
- Check whether employees are up-to-date on required training, including refresher sessions.
- Review training and development records and ensure you have effective tracking methods in place.
- Discuss employee skills development and career growth plans with them.
Learn more about how our talent management solutions enhance onboarding, training, and development.
Look at performance management
To enhance alignment of employee performance with organisational goals, here are some key steps to enhance your performance management system is functioning effectively.
- Ensure you have a performance management system in place and that it’s functioning effectively.
- Confirm that company goals are clear, attainable, and communicated effectively to staff.
- Conduct informal check-ins and performance reviews with employees throughout the year.
- Implement employee rewards and recognition programs to incentivise positive and lasting results.
Learn more about our empowering performance management system.
Other activities to consider as new tax year 2024/25 begins
Conduct a benefits audit
Conduct an internal audit to match benefit selections with carriers and payroll deductions. Prepare for upcoming health insurance renewals.
Financial wellbeing benefits can boost engagement, productivity, and retention. Find out more.
Recruitment-marketing check-in
Collaborate with marketing to ensure company profiles and job postings on recruiting platforms are current and accurately reflect your open positions.
Update job descriptions
Ask employees to review and update their job descriptions to ensure they accurately reflect their current roles and responsibilities.
Rewards and recognition check
Review upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations. Plan company events to boost employee morale.
Discover our flexible benefits marketplace for the modern world of work.
Temporary and seasonal employees review
Review documents for existing temporary and seasonal workers to avoid misclassifying them as employees, which can lead to legal and financial liabilities.
Holiday schedules
With summer vacations approaching, time-off requests are going to start rolling in. Be prepared and review your time-off scheduling systems and processes to manage absence and minimise disruption.
