3 Ways To Pay Employees In A Small Business

Pay day is undoubtedly the one of the few days in the month, besides the weekends, that employees eagerly look forward to. However, when employees do not receive their pay on time or discover that they have been paid less than what they should be getting, it will certainly result in frustrated and angry employees.

As an employer, it is imperative to ensure that employees receive their pay on time and ensure that the correct amount of wages is disbursed to the employee. These are highly dependent on multiple factors, such as the HR professional who is processing the entire company’s payroll as well as the method of salary disbursement, Unfortunately, each companies may have various methods of salary disbursement – some might work in the favour of employers but at a disadvantage to employees.

Here are some common salary disbursement methods which may be more favourable for employers but not for employees, and vice versa.

1. Cash

An uncommon practice in Singapore but not entirely eliminated, cash payment is easily the most direct form of salary payment to employees. This works well for employers with freelance workers or manual labour workers, whereby cash payment is directly made to the employees without the hassle of having to do a bank transfer or issue cheques.

However, the downside about paying employees in cash is that it becomes difficult for employers to track and it not feasible for workers who work remotely. At the same time, cash salaries may risk being stolen as this means that both employers and employees will have a large sum of money on hand.

2. Cheques

Salary cheques are still fairly common particularly in smaller companies whereby they do not have a payroll system in place. At the same time, salary cheques are more secure than cash payments as it allows employers to pay employees large amounts without worrying about the risk of theft.

However, salary cheques can pose as a hassle for employees given that funds are typically not immediately available as banks require a minimum of one or two working days to process the cheques. At the same time, some employees may forget to bank in their cheques, delaying the time that they can access their wages.

3. Bank Transfer

Salary disbursement via bank transfer is easily the most secure and faster way for organisations to disburse wages to large numbers of employees, regardless of where they are based. At the same time, wages are directly credited into employees’ bank account, minimising the risk of loss of funds. Bank transfers also provide a convenient way for employers to track their payroll records as well. Some payroll software also provide the options to automate the salary disbursements which save the time of perform data entry on the banking platform.

The downside of salary disbursement via bank transfer is that payment records have to be prepared and validated before the due date for disbursement. For new companies that are switching to bank transfer from other modes of salary disbursement, such as cash or cheques, it may take a long time for the process to be implemented as well.

While there are numerous ways in which employers can disburse wages to employees, there is no one “perfect” method that works for both employers and employees. Instead, employers have to strike a balance between ensuring a reliable and secure way to disburse salary and for employees to receive their wages accurately and on time.