What will 2025 have in store for the world of payroll? A lot can happen in 12 months, but Ciphr’s own experts, as well as payroll professionals across the UK, have gazed into their proverbial crystal balls to share their views on what 2025 might look like for the payroll profession.
Payroll trends 2025: the big picture impacting payroll
In October 2024, we surveyed Ciphr staff and external payroll professionals to find out forecasts for the year ahead. Among Ciphr respondents, 9% either hold or are pursuing a CIPP qualification, and 12% are CIPP members. For external participants, these figures were even higher: 24% hold or are studying for a CIPP qualification, and 22% are CIPP members.
Which trends are affecting UK organisations and their payroll teams the most?
Ciphr respondents said:
- Skills shortages
- Mental and physical wellbeing concerns
- Technology software
- Earned wage access
While external respondents said:
- Rising cost of living/wage expectations
- Rising cost of business
- Change in UK government
- Technology software
How will spending on payroll software change?
Do you think organisations who are looking for a new payroll software or outsourced payroll provider will increase their investment in payroll technology and services in 2025?
Ciphr respondents said:
- Yes, they will invest more in payroll outsourcing – 67%
- No, they will keep spending the same – 17%
- No, they will be looking to cut costs – 17%
- Yes, they will invest more in payroll software – 0%
While external respondents said:
- No, they will be looking to cut costs – 40%
- Yes, they will invest more in payroll software – 36%
- No, they will keep spending the same – 20%
- Yes, they will invest more in payroll outsourcing – 4%
Which areas of payroll technology functionality or services would you expect organisations to invest more in in 2025?
Ciphr respondents said:
- Benefits platforms
- Payroll software
- Expense management technology
- Payroll outsourcing
- Access to earned wages technology
- Will not invest more in any areas in 2025
While external respondents said:
- Payroll software
- Benefits platforms
- Access to earned wages technology
- Expense management technology
- Will not invest more in any areas in 2025
- Payroll outsourcing
What will be the major drivers behind payroll software or outsourcing investment in 2025?
All respondents said the following:
- Desire for greater efficiency/reduce manual processes
- Better user experience
- Better analytics and reporting
- Ensure payroll compliance
Facing similar challenges? Our payroll software might be just what you need. Contact us for a conversation to explore if we’re the right match, or download our brochure to discover more about our solutions.
What challenges does 2025 hold?
We asked our payroll experts Julie Lally (MD of payroll) and Claire Warner (regulatory analyst) what the biggest challenges for payroll in 2025 are set to be. Here’s what they said:
- Rising employer costs
- Increasing efficiency
- Compliance
- Better user experience
1. Rising employer costs
Specific challenges include:
- Increase in employers’ NIC contributions and reduction in threshold
- Increase in National Minimum Wage and Living Wage rates
- Potential cost increases due to other government reforms (zero-hour contracts, pensions, etc.)
- Potential increases coming from changes to SSP rules expected
- Day one sickness entitlement
- Paid to all, even those earning below the LEL (Lower Earnings Limit)
Solutions could be:
- Improve efficiency and lower costs where possible
- Labour cost stabilisation through workforce management (WFM) tools
- Reduce headcount
- Reprioritise internal projects
- Outsourcing vs in-house operations
2. Increasing efficiency
Specific challenges include:
- Inefficiencies due to legacy systems and processes
- High volume of manual calculations
- Lack of automation capabilities
- Poor integration options
- Access to analytics and reporting
Solutions could be:
- Analyse all manual processes to identify where improvements can be made
- Review end-to-end payroll cycle processing, and identify duplications and other inefficiencies
- Consider investing in automation and integration tools
- Remove the need for manual calculations through modern technology
3. Compliance
Specific challenges include:
- High volume of legislative changes expected from the Employment Rights Bill 2024
- Review of parental leave
- Update on SSP
- Preparations for payrolling of Benefits in Kind (BIK) from 2026
- Unknown forthcoming changes (like the Spring Budget)
Solutions could be:
- Be aware of potential changes coming and share knowledge with the wider business
- Join our webinars
- Sign up to our newsletter
- Follow us on LinkedIn
Useful sites:
4. Better user experience
Specific challenges include:
- Old, clunky software makes processing time-consuming
- Difficult to train new users, as it’s not intuitive
- Manual calculations outside of the payroll software risk human error and cost time
- Upgrades and updates take too long and are disruptive to the payroll team
- Payroll software takes too long to run processes
- Inflexible reporting that requires manual manipulation of data
- Time spent downloading and uploading data due to poor integration options with HR, finance and WFM systems
Solutions could be:
- Invest in a modern payroll solution (like ours!), with features that include:
- Intuitive user experience
- Cloud-based
- API by design
- Automation tools
- Feature-rich, to cater for all types of payroll calculations automatically
- AI assistance to help capture potential errors
- Flexible reporting
Want to see our payroll software in action? Request a free, no-strings-attached demo now.
Watch our 2025 payroll trends webinar:
Set your payroll department up for success in 2025
While challenges lie ahead, there are plenty of strategies payroll professionals can implement to help their departments thrive. With our payroll software, you can tackle these obstacles with confidence and get payroll peace of mind. Enjoy advanced reporting, seamless integrations and automation that will save you time and hassle – all with Ciphr’s support.
Want to learn more about empowering your payroll team in 2025? Download our brochure or book a demo today.