4 Payroll Data Security Measures That Employers Shouldn’t Ignore – Aspirock

If it seems at times that data security breaches are becoming a more frequent occurrence, this probably shouldn’t be a great surprise. It has been reported that during the fourth quarter of 2023, data breaches resulted in the exposure of over eight million records across the globe.

Company leaders continue to be worried about the scope for data breaches, and it is fair to say an organization’s payroll systems can be an area of particular vulnerability. Those systems are obviously of imperative importance for ensuring your staff are paid on time – but as an employer, you have a similarly critical responsibility to keep your employees’ sensitive data safe.

So, with all that in mind, what steps can you take to better secure your company’s payroll against the seemingly multiplying threats? Below, our experts at Aspirock have outlined four of the most proven and effective payroll data security measures.

Ensuring payroll software is kept up to date

In the 2020s, it is typical for the latest payroll software to come with a variety of in-built security features. However, in a rapidly evolving threat landscape like today’s, such systems can quickly become outdated. So, it is of the greatest importance that you regularly check for updates to your company’s payroll management software.

As soon as you become aware of a newly available update, you should be implementing it. Certain staff members of yours might have individual devices that require such updates – so you should also be informing them of any available updates immediately.

Fortunately, payroll software packages exist today that automatically apply all updates, which saves the employer from having to perform them manually. So, you might decide to shift to such a platform if your company hasn’t done so already.

Restricting access to the company payroll system

We referenced above that there might be members of your team whose individual devices provide access to the company payroll software. Every such device represents a potential point of vulnerability, which is a strong reason to ensure only those in your business’s payroll and human resources departments are able to directly access the payroll system.

Every staff member of yours who is given access to your firm’s payroll management system, should undergo a rigorous training program focused on security.

Achieving – and maintaining – adherence to recommended payroll security standards

Hopefully, the more basic security measures that could be implemented for a payroll system – such as firewalls and password protection – will be of a high standard in your organization’s case. However, you might not have considered going further with your company’s technical and operational measures.

You may have considered, for instance, embracing the use of cloud infrastructure. This can offer improved payroll data security compared to using email to exchange data and storing sensitive information on local hard drives.

Another possibility could be striving to achieve certification for ISO 27001, which is the international standard for information security management.

Outsourcing payroll management

There is inevitably a limit to the time and energy that any given business can directly invest into its payroll system – including the necessary security measures – unless steps are taken to maximize resources or reduce responsibilities across other aspects of its operations.

You might have considered recruiting a greater number of payroll or human resources staff, only to conclude that your budget doesn’t allow for this. In such circumstances, you might think about outsourcing your firm’s payroll management instead.

A potential downside of outsourcing payroll to a third-party company, of course, is the need to be absolutely confident in the given company’s payroll data security practices. So, if you are convinced of the merits of this pathway, you will need to carefully research and “shop around” possible outsourced service providers.

One possibility, if your company is also looking to draw upon talent from abroad, is placing your trust in a reputable Employer of Record (EOR) service provider, such as Aspirock. We can manage payroll and other administrative tasks for you, while serving as the legal employer of certain personnel whose tasks and job performance your company otherwise manages.

To find out more about the specifics of our EOR service and its potential relevance to your company, please feel free to enquire to the Aspirock team today.